Starting with Hong Kong, here is a brief account of my recent 13 day trip to Hong Kong, Beijing, Guilin, Yangshou and Macau. Check out all the pictures on my blog https://spaces.msn.com/volatilevortex and enjoy!
GENERAL INFO:
Hong Kong essentially consists of four areas: Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, New Territories and the Outlying Islands. Most of the tourist attractions and accommodations are in HK Island and Kowloon; with the latter being the relatively cheaper side of HK. Hong Kong was a British colony till 1997, when it was handed over back to China, and it is now a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, but having its own flag, currency and visa requirements and headed by a CEO. The language spoken is Cantonese which is different from Mandarin (spoken more in Northern China generally). Mandarin is the official Chinese language. I found the language barrier to be a big problem during my trip, even in cosmopolitan Hong Kong. The street and road signs were in Cantonese and English, but generally communicating with anyone on the street in English or asking directions mostly led me nowhere or made me feel like a dumb fool. On the bright side, it was a great learning experience! Point to note, I did not visit the numerous museums or the famous Ocean Park, Disney World or other such “sites” simply because my interests and budget did not permit it. I visited Hong Kong for experiencing the city, its life and the people, and yes, I was not disappointed!
DAY ONE:
After a hopeless, boring 9 hour flight from Doha to Hong Kong (Yes, Qatar Airways flies to all its destinations via Doha), I landed at 1600 hours at Chep Lap Kok, also known as Hong Kong International Airport. Many of us probably have heard of the Kai Tak airport, HK’s earlier airport which was in the middle of the city amidst all the skyscrapers, making take-offs and landing very spectacular. This new airport though, lacks all that and is in a remote location of HK in an island called Lantau. It was a HUGE airport! After exchanging some US$ for HK$ and purchasing the extremely useful Octopus card (pre-paid bus/metro/tram card to use for tickets), I boarded the A21 bus from HKIA to Tsim Shat Sui (situated in Kowloon) for HK$ 33. The 45 minute ride was peaceful and sight filled, the most spectacular point was traveling over the 2.2 km long Tsing Ma Bridge -the longest suspension bridge in the world!
I checked in at Garden Hostel (no website, sorry!), which was on the 3rd floor of an old, massive and famous building called Mirador Mansions in the heart of the Tsim Shat Sui (TST) area. The Sri Lankan hostel manager was very friendly, and we hit it off immediately! He gave me a comparatively spacious, clean 4-bed room for HK$ 60 which I would share with two Turkish gentlemen and the manager himself!
The rest of my first evening in HK was spent taking in my first sights and sounds of Hong Kong. The excitement and buzz that HK is famous for has to be experienced first hand on the streets, the place is so full of energy always! I had an MTR metro station right next to my hostel, so I took the metro from TST station to Prince Edward station which is the stop for the Flower Market and the Bird Market. A short walk to the metro stop of Mongkok gave me access to the excellent Temple Street Market with its famous food street, where I took many pictures of strange sea food! This street is also highly recommended for some cheap shopping but it’s full of tourists! All around of course, you get to see the numerous neon signs and billboards, which is something Hong Kong has always been famous for!
DAY TWO:
At 8.30am, I set off on foot to the nearby Star Ferry pier, where I would board the legendary Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island, which was a 7 minute ride away. Costing between HK$ 1.7 to HK$ 2.2 on this route (depending on which deck you chose to travel), this was a very economical and smart way to travel between Kowloon and HK Island. What’s more, it provided stunning views of the tall skyscrapers across Victoria Harbor and the skyline as well, and I ended up using this mode of travel several times during my stay in HK! There are several other routes for the Star Ferry, visit https://starferry.com.hk for more info!
HK Island has a very efficient tram system running between Kennedy Town and Shau Kei Wan and sharing space with buses and other road traffic, with several interesting stops along the way ( https://hktramways.com). The fare is HK$ 2 each time you board the tram, regardless of which route or place you travel to. I took the tram towards Western Market and walked along the Bird’s Nest Street. Yes, in this intriguing street, you had the nests of birds being sold (dried and packaged well) and apparently people ate this delicacy!! I also came across a big shop selling everything related to sharks, from its fins (for soup!) to its meat. Western Market has nothing much to boast about, but I had an excellent, unusually tasty (for me!) vegetarian lunch from a restaurant called Harvester’s just outside it. Walks around Cat Street, Hollywood Street and a few other adjoining areas were pleasant, just to take in the life of the place slowly!
Taking the tram to Central, I walked between numerous skyscrapers to the worlds longest set of escalators, which connects the area called Central with the area called Mid-Levels (situated a little above sea level!) in Hong Kong. This 800 meter, covered escalator (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central-Mid-Levels_escalator) takes a total of 20 minutes to transport you to the top, but you can always break your journey in between and explore the numerous pretty streets below it! I wandered around SoHo (south of Hollywood Road, as the area is known) and also spent some time in one of the few mosques I found in Hong Kong, called Jamia Mosque in the Mid-Levels. The tram to Causeway Bay was slow but the journey sitting on the tram top seats was very nice, the rush and buzz on HK streets is just difficult to explain! As the sun set, I found myself in Victoria Park, the largest in Hong Kong situated bang in the middle of tall buildings! It was really nice to spend time munching on crisps and watching life go by amidst all the greenery, as residents chilled out after a hard day at work. I reached the TST Star Ferry pier at 8pm, just before the 13 minute daily light and laser show began over the HK Island skyline and from the tall buildings. It was beautiful and of course, free!
DAY THREE & FOUR: in the comments section...