Hong Kong

 

We flew straight from Phuket to Hong Kong and arrived in the late afternoon. The subway was easy to use, but our apartment was not! Luckily someone had put a picture on Google Maps of the entrance to a small shopping mall, so we headed in, passing small independent spice shops and minimarts. From there, the only directions we had was 2F/11F, so we tried the second floor. Nothing looked like a guesthouse, so we were wandering around a little lost when someone who must live in the building took a look at the address and sent us towards an elevator which I hadn't seen before. 

We went up to the 11th floor and found the right door. We called the buzzer and after a while, a guy came down from the floor above to let us in and grab our key. He then took us down to the 8th floor and let us into a guesthouse with a completely different name out front. But he was very nice and once we were in it, our room was very pleasant with a private bathroom and a kettle and microwave in the communal lobby area. We also had a better idea of how to navigate some Hong Kong addresses. 

That evening we went out to the more commercial shopping mall across the street in the hopes of finding a food court for dinner. We found some options and had a bowl of noodles for dinner. 

In the morning, we met my friend Vanessa for breakfast. She lives in Hong Kong so knows how to navigate and where the best spots are. She also speaks Chinese which was very helpful. She took us to a popular café where the line was out the door. It moved fast though, and once we were inside we could see why. The three of us were seated on a large table opposite three other diners and there were three set menu items to choose from. We got the eggs and toast which came with milk, and it arrived quickly. It was packed and noisy, but we still had a good chance to catch up over food. 

We then all set off to Kowloon Park in search of flamingos. It looked like they'd been moved, but it was a nice park none-the-less. Vanessa then took us toward the docks where saw Hong Kong's avenue of the stars (with hand prints of famous Hong Kong actors/singers on the railings) and the Hong Kong skyline. 

We then caught the ferry across the water to Hong Kong island. We were now into central, which was a busy business district. It hosts the world's longest escalator at 800m and we rode from bottom to top to arrive at our next destination. 

Tai Kwun, or the former Victoria prison is now a museum where you can go and look around and see what it was like in the early 1900s. It also has a café and extra exhibits like the Ikea in Hong Kong room which was fun and unexpected. 

Vanessa had found a café on this site that did exclusively vegetarian dim sum (steamed dishes) so we got to try some dumplings and other small bites. 

We then went for dessert at a popular bakery. I got a matcha cream tart which was huge but delicious and Mitchell got a honey baked pastry. Vanessa went around the corner to another bakery for an egg custard tart. Both shops had lines out the door and people posing outside with their purchases. 

After we had eaten and were full of sugar, we went to visit a park. The zoological half was closing soon, but we visited the regular side and got to go into the aviary where there were some very inquisitive parrots flying about, with no fear of people. 

We also climbed to the top of the viewpoint tower, which gave us 360 views of Hong Kong. We visited some of the other sites in the park and went to the tea museum which had some very old tea pots and other wares dating back to the 17th century. 

After the museum, it was getting dark and most things were closing, so we went down to the docks again and looked for some dinner. We found a place that did noodle soup and you ordered on your phone so we could use the English menu. We both ordered the golden vegetable soup as many were labelled as spicy and this seemed safe. As we ate though, it was irritating both of our lips and mouths. It was like spicy, but not quite, for me it was like when I eat too much citrus and my tongue tingles unpleasantly. Maybe we were allergic? But it would be weird for us both to be. Vanessa took a look at the Chinese menu and saw that they had missed off a very important word in the translation. Numbing. It was a soup that had a special pepper in it that makes your mouth numb as you eat it. We ate as much as we could, but it wasn't for us!

After eating, we went back down to the waterfront and saw the 8pm light show Hong Kong puts on every night across the bay. It was a little underwhelming, but we decided to try again on the other side of the water. 

That was it for the day, and we said goodbye to Vanessa after a great day out in Hong Kong. 

The next morning we went for breakfast and then set off on the subway to visit Mei Ho heritage house. This was an emergency build after fires in the 1950s and housed many many families, often up to ten people in a single room. We got to learn a bit about the history of Hong Kong and see some of these rooms made up and what it was like later in the 1970s. 

We then went to visit the market just outside which was bustling and selling almost anything you could need, and Mitchell got some headphones. After this market, we hopped on the metro and went to the bigger, more famous market. It was selling similar items, but a lot more souvenirs and had a lot more tourists. It was a hot day, so we grabbed some iced tea and sat in a small park for a bit. 

After this little rest, we got the metro back to the park we'd been to the day before, but went to the zoological side. It was open to the public, so we weren't expecting much, but they had a lot of monkeys, big birds, otters and even orangutans! 

We enjoyed looking around, and then went back to the city for dinner. We tried one place (now knowing that 6F meant you go into a non-descript hallway with no advertising and get into the very residential looking elevator to the sixth floor) but they were fully booked. So we made a reservation for the next day and moved on to plan B. 

We ended up at a very cute vegetarian restaurant (on the 7th floor) that served some really good vegetarian Chinese dishes for pretty cheap. 

Our next day, we had a big day out planned. We got on the metro to the base of the mountain on one of Lantau island and got in the queue for the cable car. It took 25 minutes to take us all the way up to Ngong Ping village. This was very touristy, the streets even had theme music playing. But it was pretty, and at the end of the village, we turned to go up to the Big Buddha. It was a lot of steps, but we did it and were rewarded with more views all over the bay. 

Big Buddha on the right

At the base, there were arches and a monastery to explore too. 

We also took the trail to the trail of wisdom, which was an area lined with tall logs with sayings carved in. We grabbed a small late lunch and some dessert of mango, glutinous balls of rice and vanilla sauce over ice, and after a small trail to a lookout point of the whole area, it was time to head all the way back down again and to our dinner reservation. 

The next day we went on another day trip, but this one included more boats. We got the ferry over to central again, and then a second ferry to Lamma Island. As we disembarked, we passed a few cafes and small side streets, and then we were on the trail. We walked for about 20 minutes past houses and forest, until we reached the beach. It was very nice, with a few cafes at the back and plenty of sand. There was a section roped off for swimming, but the water wasn't as warm as it was in Thailand. 

After sitting on the beach for a little bit, we carried on the trail. We went uphill for a while passing pavilions and lookouts, through trees and grass. It was all paved though, so other than the hill it was pretty easy going. 

We got back after our day out and just got some noodles for dinner from the grocery store. We were done with fun things in Hong Kong, and the next day we had to do our laundry. We managed to find the shop without too much issue, but it only took payment through the octopus app which we didn't have. We found another shop which looked like it had coin operated machines, but it must have been an old picture as this took the same app payment. So Mitchell had to go on a little fetch quest above and below ground to acquire an octopus card from the metro station. 

While our clothes were drying, we passed by an Indian place, so we got a pile of food from there for lunch which was very tasty. We ordered too much though and had to take our samosas to go. They went very nicely with the riceballs and leftover toblerone we got to supplement our triangle shaped dinner. We spent most of the afternoon planning the next stage of our trip and preparing everything we thought we might need for China. 

Hong Kong is pretty expensive for most things, but all the parks and museums we visited were completely free. The only thing we had to pay for while there was the transportation which, aside from the cable car, was actually very cheap. Almost everything is in Chinese though, although a lot (but definitely not all) of the places in the tourist areas will have an English menu and someone who can speak English to help you. 

It also prepared us in many ways for the next leg of our journey, but more of that next time!

Lots of love,

Emily and Mitchell

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