Asia: Hong Kong 1

Wednesday 9.1.

I woke up at the same time with Laura. We had also met with Tina from Sweden and Elmo from Philippines at the reception on Thursday, and we had decided to do some sightseeing together. First we had to take Laura´s luggage to this storage place, so we took the train there and had coffee at a nearby Starbucks. From there we took the train to Hong Kong Island to go see this lookout called Peak. We took an old stylish tramp uphill and it was really steep! Then we go to this tower building and took elevators up to the roof top viewing place. The view over Hong Kong was amazing! It was hard to take any good pictures since it was high skyscrapers where ever I looked at. Hong Kong definitely is a big and modern city and in a way reminds me of Singapore.

Hong Kong

Me, Tina and Laura

After the others had had beer at a bar at the tower to took a cab to Soho, which is an area of a couple of blocks. It´s mainly trendy, international restaurants and some antique & art shopping. We spent some time checking out the restaurants and decided to eat at this French place. It ended up being good value for our money: For 88HKD we got a three course meal and excellent service. For appetizers I had a salmon salad, for main course fish and potatoes and for dessert chocolate brownie with strawberry sorbet.

Soho

Our next destination was Hong Kong Park. There´re quire many buildings and stairs there, and it didn´t really seem like a proper park to me. There´s a caged area, which is home to many different kinds of colourful birds. We also checked out this Olympic Park. Hong Kong is obviously getting excited about the 2008 Olympics in China, according to all the Olympic billboards and stuff they´ve got around. We also would´ve wanted to go to a tea museum, but it was closed already.

Hong Kong Park

Olympic spirit :)

We took the train back to the hostel, where my stuff had been moved to a nice single room. The room was new and clean, and I had my own shower and TV. Laura and Elmo left for their next destinations that night already, so it was Tina and I left to go to Victoria Harbour to see Symphony of Lights – show. The show was by the river, and it was spotlights from the tops of some skyscrapers, as well as other lights at them, with music. It was dark and the view of all the lighted skyscrapers was impressive. It was a rather cool night, though, and I had to wear a sweater and a scarf to keep warm. After the show we went inside to look for some restaurants. We found this pretty posh Chinese place and had seafood soup with rice. For some reason they always serve hot water at restaurants, and you gotta ask for cold water.

Symphony of Lights - show

Some impressions of Hong Kong: It´s easy to see it used to be a British colonial, and that it´s a growing business centre. Compared to Bangkok it´s cleaner and less chaotic, and people speak better English and dress more fashionable. (In Sydney it was easy to point out any Honkies; They dress kinda in a more funky and creative way. That´s why I shopped mostly international brands since my dressing style is more simple than theirs.) In addition, Hong Kong seems wealthier and most things are more expensive. All in all, I liked Hong Kong better than Bangkok.
Thursday 10.10.

It was a shopping day :) Tina and I met in the morning, and headed to Harbour City, which is a big shopping mall close to our hostel. They´ve got all the international brands there; from the posh ones like Gucci and Boss to the more affordable ones like Zara and Mango. We didn´t notice huge price differences compared to those brands in Europe/Australia/US, so we decided to go to discover some outlets for samples and second hand items. We headed to Granville Road in Kowloon, where we found this good stores selling samples and faulty stuff. I bought a pair of Miss Sixty jeans for 500HKD and there´s nothing wrong with them. I also got a spring jacket and a business style skirt from Petite. We had lunch at a Japanese fast food place. It was pretty much like McDonalds but with Asian food. It was alright but not as delicious as at real restaurants.

Granville Road

Next we took the train and bus to Stanley Markets in Kong Kong Island. The bus trip was nice indeed and we saw some beaches on the way. In Stanley we went to see Murray House and Maritime Museum inside. The museum wasn´t quite as cool as the one in Sydney, but we spent some time playing these funny simulator games there. We also saw this pier that is stated as a point of interest in the city guide. Then we walked around the markets. They had pretty much fixed prices but we managed to do some bargaining, as well. They sold mostly handicrafts and I found some souvenirs. We decided to continue exploring markets, so we took the train to Mong Kok. First we had dinner at this Chinese fast food place, and the food was too fattning to taste any good. After eating we went to wander around at Ladies Markets. There were so many stalls selling fake clothes, bags & belts, handicrafts, jewellery, candles etc… I bought quite a lot of stuff, including a fake Gucci belt. From there Tina went still to check out other markets, but my back was hurting too much to do any more walking. So I headed back to the hostel, checked cell phone prices online at an internet café downstairs, and went to bed.

Pier in Stanley

Stanley markets