Hong Kong Hotels
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Hong Kong
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Hong Kong is made up of four different areas, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, New Territories and the Outlying Islands. It was released from British control and given back to China in 1997. It still has its own currency, the Hong Kong dollar. 1 Canadian dollar equals about 7 HK dollars. The language spoken in Hong Kong is Cantonese. For the rest of China Mandarin is the official language. We found it surprisingly difficult to communicate on many occasions. Asking for directions or for a particular item was not very successful. For an international city like Hong Kong we thought English would be more widely spoken. Makes us wonder how much more difficult it will be in the rest of China.
The day of our flight to fly from Singapore, there was a typhoon passing by Hong Kong. Long story short, discount airlines are great until you need to contact them or something goes wrong. We tried for over 2 hours to get a hold of them from our hotel. We finally had to leave for the airport, not knowing if our flight was going or not.
At Jetstar Asia's check in counter, no one even knew about the typhoon. They said the flight was to leave as scheduled. Needless to say we were a bit worried. I contacted my brother in Hong Kong and he said the typhoon had been moved up to a level 3 warning. He couldn't believe our flight was still going.
Other flights on the board to Hong Kong had been canceled. We nervously boarded the plane. Shortly after take off the pilot announced that for those of us that had heard about the storm, it was now passing Hong Kong and it was safe to fly.
Despite this, our flight was diverting to Ho Chi Mihn City in Vietnam at one time, but then an announcement was made that it was again safe to go to Hong Kong. They said it would probably be a lot of turbulence and the landing could be quite windy. Shortly after this we did start to feel the turbulence. It remained very bumpy. The descent was pretty scary as we took on big gusts of wind and strong rain. We couldn't be happier when we finally landed safely on the ground!
After getting our bags we headed to an info counter. We needed to find out about different options for transportation. We decided to buy the Hong Kong 3 day Octopus card, it has been designed for tourists. If you are going to be doing site seeing around Hong Kong for a couple of days it saves you some money. We got onto the airport express MTR to take us into the city. It was brand new looking with nice seats and carpeting. It was really fast, we were sitting backwards from the direction it was traveling and you could really feel it move. We were to take it to the the end of the line which was Hong Kong station and then go across to Central station where my brother Carl and his girlfriend were going to meet us. Sounds easy, not!
We made a mistake when we got to Hong Kong station. We should have kept going through to Central Station, but scanned our MTR cards and essentially checked out of the station altogether. We couldn't figure out where to go now. A local girl saw that we looked a bit puzzled and asked if we needed help. We told her where we needed to go. She said the only way now was to scan the cards again and pay to go through to Central Station. In hind sight we should have just done this, it would have made everything a lot easier. We didn't want to pay anymore money at the time. We decided to go outside through an exit door and see if we could find our way to the station that way.
It took us out across a balcony, we looked down at the maze of streets and other walkways below. There was no way to figure out where we needed to go. Again someone saw a look of confusion on our faces, this time it was an expat who had been working and living in Hong Kong for a few years. We told him where we were trying to get to. He asked if we wanted to use his cell phone to call my brother.
We called Carl, but it was too difficult to explain where we were. It was like we were mice in a maze trap. The guy asked to speak to him and said he would take us to a spot where Carl could find us. How nice of him. He took us down a big escalator to a street. We phoned Carl again and he tried to explain where we were. He told Carl where to come meet us, but Carl was confused as well.
Finally he directed Carl to our street, he put us on the same side of the street on the sidewalk. It was like placing two lost puppies. He told Carl and us to walk straight ahead and we would bump into each other in a few minutes. It was all quite comical. We thanked him again. Sure enough after walking for a couple of minutes, Carl and Andrea were in front of us. We all greeted each other and had a good laugh. We headed back onto the MRT to go to their apartments about 20 minutes away.
It was nice to be staying with them and be in an actual home instead of a hotel or guest house for a change. They live in the area called Lam Tin. Their complex is made up of many apartment buildings. It includes a pool and a gym. We ended up staying with them for about 12 days.
For one of our first outings they took us to Victoria Peak. There is a tram that takes you up to the top of the peak. It is extremely steep. Before we got on the tram we rode on the worlds longest set of outdoor escalators, they run for 800 meters. They go in a series up the steep mountain. Along side the escalators are restaurants and shops as well as apartment residences. The escalators are broken up where cross streets intersect it. There are more shops and restaurants on these roads too.
My brother's apartment complex in Lam Tin and the funicular going up to Victoria Peak
 
It wasn't the best day for the view from the peak, but it was amazing nonetheless. We stayed up there until it got dark. Then the the view is really impressive. You look at all the lit up skyscrapers along both sides of the harbour. They are done in many neon colours. Every evening at 8:30pm there is a laser show on the harbour. Many buildings participate by having lasers from their rooftops. The lights on the buildings change colours and flash in all kinds of intricate patterns. We couldn't see the lasers that well from the peak, but got a good view of some of the changing lights on the buildings. On the way back we took the Star ferry across the harbour and got more impressive views of the city.
 
We spent a few days exploring on our own. It was fairly easy as long as we were sticking to places that were on the MTR route. We had a bunch of shopping we wanted to do. We needed to replace some of our clothes. Many of them were on their last legs after 6 months of traveling. Especially after getting washed with the detergent they used in Africa. We referred to it as a battery acid!
There is so much shopping in Hong Kong it can keep you busy for days. One area we went to is called Mong Kok. This is just one of the places you can go to find anything computer or electronic related. There are lots of shops that just have makeup and perfume as well. The streets here can become very crowded. At times you have to fight your way through the people. There are a myriad of shop signs and advertisings everywhere. There is also an area called the Ladies market. This has shoes and handbags galore! It was difficult for us to find particular items, since we didn't know where to look. We managed to slowly pick away at our list though.
 
We also shopped around an area called Times Square. It had a huge multi level shopping mall. It had a clock tower and huge advertising on a corner that sort of resembled the Times Square in New York. We couldn't get over the huge advertising signs here. They don't mess around when they want to promote something. Some of the pictures are stories tall, taking up entire buildings.
Wandering around the streets can be quite fun. You have many different areas. New, modern and chic, as well as the older part of Hong Kong with street vendors and historical buildings. All kinds of restaurants are available and at all price levels. If you are looking for western type food, then central is a great place to head. Especially the area around the big escalator.
There are also places like Pizza Hut with Asian styled menus. We went into an upscale grocery store called City Super. You could have your bill add up quite quickly in this place. It was obviously catering to the expats in the area. You could get almost anything you wanted from back home. There were even some items in the store that were made in Canada. We decided to make a splurge purchase, which I think Carl and Andrea appreciated as well. Good old Canadian Maple syrup. The next morning our hosts made up some delicious fluffy pancakes. Yummy!
Delicious fresh fruit juices we had at a mall. The price of this cantelope works out to about $64 Canadian!!! It is imported from Japan. We were told it might be a special gift you would give someone if they were getting over an illness. As a gift to represent wellness.
 
We went to what used to be Kowloon Walled City. It has now been turned into a park. There were surprisingly very few people. It made for a quiet escape from the city. You can see the old wall that surrounded the area. There are many nice places to walk around. It was originally a Chinese fort, it was set aside as an administrative post for the Chinese when the British took over the Island in 1842. When the rest of Hong Kong was handed over in 1899, the walled city was left out of the agreement. So it was sort of unofficially the only remaining part of "China" within Hong Kong.
 
 
The British and Chinese did nothing with the city, so it was sort of left to develop on its own. For a while, it was a tourist attraction for the British to get a taste of "Old China" within their very own conquered territory, without the hassle of entering the actual country.
Then Japan came. During WWII, they occupied Hong Kong. They tore down most of the city, including the walls. When the Japanese left is when the interesting stuff began. Basically there were no rules, the HK Police had no right to enter the city, since it was technically a part of China, and the British wanted nothing to do with it (out of sight, out of mind?). It began to amass the poorest refugees from China, along with Hong Kong's nastiest criminals and gangs. It became a small self-governed city.
In the 70's, police raided the city to get rid of the gangs. It eventually became a slum town - the place to go for hookers, drugs, gambling, and restaurants serving banned animal products (woof). The population of this tiny city grew to around 50,000. With no collective planning, buildings would essentially be built wherever there was room, turning the city into a maze of convoluted streets and alleys (filled with trash, since it did not fall under the jurisdiction of the HK government).
 
 
Eventually, the British and Chinese decided that enough was enough - something had to be done with this mess. In 1984, they came to an agreement - the city and all the buildings in it would be torn down, and its inhabitants relocated. $3 Billion HKD was spent relocating everyone into new homes and places of work. The city was completely torn down and was turned into the park it is today.
We also went to Victoria Park. A large green area with many walk ways and trees. Apparently Sunday is not the best day to come to the park. It is the only day that the many maids that work in Hong Kong have off. The park is a favorite spot for them to come and relax. You can hardly see the ground through everyone laying out in the grass enjoying themselves. It was surprising to us to learn how many people have a maid here. Even my brothers apartment of 600 square feet had a tiny room off the kitchen for a maids quarters. It was big enough for a bed and nightstand only. They had it taken out to create more room. I can't imagine needing a maid for that small of a place.
 
We were quite impressed overall with the politeness of most people in Hong Kong. For such a big city and for how busy it is, people are quite courteous. Of course like anywhere with so many people you do have to move along with the crowd and push along a bit to get onto the MTR , but people usually say sorry if they bump into you. It was comical sometimes to see a little old lady be one of the pushiest people when getting onto the MTR, almost knocking people over in their path to make sure they get a seat.
There were somethings we found hard to get used to. The tables in the food courts of malls for instance. At times it would be so busy you would have one or several people stand right beside you waiting for your table. Sometimes for your entire meal. We found it hard to be able to relax and enjoy our food. You definitely didn't linger, you got up as soon as you finished your last bite. Apparently it happens in some restaurants too, instead of waiting at the door you might find people have come inside to stand next to your table.
The first picture, believe it or not is inside a mall! The rest are of more congested shopping areas around Hong Kong.
 
 
We kept seeing these cartoon pigs on things all over the place. We finally had to ask what they were. They were very cute, you would see them dressed in all kinds of outfits and doing different activities. They were created mostly for marketing, but have children's books and a TV show. They are called Muk Muk and Muk Dow, those are the names translated into English. There is also Hello Kitty everything in Hong Kong. We even saw Hello Kitty Kotex!
It was really hard to say goodbye to Carl and Andrea. It may be a long time before we see them again. I'm sure they, and especially their cat are glad to have the place back to themselves. Poor kitty was all out of sorts, not used to having other people in her place. She is not too fond of strangers, but Jack did manage to pet her briefly a few times.
A big thanks to my brother Carl and Andrea for letting us stay with them, hope to see you again soon.
Now look out China, here we come!
Latest Comments (1)
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HK post (reply)
Jun 14, 2006 13:51 EST by 6793026
great post, i missed hk. I'm glad you enjoyed your stay there. The MTR is by far, the cleanest it has ever been and it has maintained to be the cleanest compared to a lot of other cities. It's high tech and great with instructions and warnings and new MTR is replaced every couple of years.
Ladies street is a great place to go and shopping malls are always around the corner. Victoria peak... show all
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