Hong Kong, July 3-5, 2008

Trip Start Jun 05, 2008
1
9
18
Trip End Ongoing


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow
Where I stayed
Mirador Mansion
(Hong Kong hotels)

Flag of China  ,
Sunday, July 27, 2008

Our time in Hong Kong was relatively brief, which was both sad, because we really liked the city, and merciful, because it was so much more expensive than where we had been traveling!  We walked across the border from Shenzhen, got our passports stamped, and took the train into the city.  We stayed in Mirador Mansions, a huge building that has been converted into shops on the lower level and guesthouses/apartments on the 15-odd other floors. Although prices weren't the same as in America, it was a shock to our wallets to start paying $25 a night for our room, since we had gotten used to paying $3-8. But we loved the food options in Hong Kong, which were worth the extra cost.  We were surprised by how international Hong Kong was--after a month in China, where almost everyone is Chinese or a Caucasian tourist, it seemed unusual to see so many Indian, African, and Middle Eastern people.  As a result there is a huge diversity in food and shopping options, of which we tried to take full advantage during our limited time there.  Also, the lingua franca there is English, and pretty much everyone speaks it.  After a month in China--where practically no one speaks English--it was a welcome change!
 
We only had one full day in Hong Kong, so we went straight to get some dim sum at a well-known place in City Hall.  We are both obsessed with dim sum, but surprisingly there was very little in China since we weren't in the Cantonese areas (outside of very expensive restaurants in places like Beijing and Shanghai).  It was also expensive in Hong Kong but worth every penny--dim sum is native to southern China and there they do it best.  After lunch we headed to the IFC Tower 2, one of the biggest skyscrapers in the city, where they have an exhibition/viewing room on the 55th floor.  From there we looked out onto the urban sprawl and the sparkling South China Sea, getting a great view of the entire city.  We puttered around the shopping area for a while before meeting up with Andi, a German guy we had met in Yangshuo who goes to college in Hong Kong.  He took us to a really awesome bar area, full of people and lots of cool restaurants and cozy bars, where he introduced us to a bunch of his friends.  We had a good time talking about living in Hong Kong with them, since we both felt that out of all the places we had visited so far, Hong Kong was the place we would most like to stop for some time.
 
We left early in the morning on a ferry to Macau, a former Portuguese colony with a similar independent city-state set-up as Hong Kong.  It's full of casinos and little else, so we didn't get to see much since we went straight to the airport.  It had been a great run in northern Asia, but we were more than ready to move south to Thailand!
Print this entry