The first week of my summer holidays were spent in Hong Kong
with a couple of amazing friends I have met in Singapore. Now, this was not our
first choice. Hell, it wasn’t even our fifth! However, upon landing, it became
crystal clear that we made the RIGHT choice.
As soon as we landed and managed to get our luggage into a
cab and take off, we were in absolute awe of the sheer size of the city. We
were unprepared for this – and were like kids catching flies with our gaping
mouths as we travelled for 45 minutes across several islands to our hotel. In
Singapore, you can cross the entire island in less than 40 minutes.
After getting settled in to our hotel, we had a couple of
drinks and set out to check out the night life. WoW! Such fun, crazy, wild
night life! Packed out dance floors, drinks half the price of Singapore,
underground bars hidden away, jelly shots…. It didn’t take us long to fall in
love with Hong Kong!
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| The start of the Dragon's Back trail. |
The next day we checked out the shopping….. Boutique after
boutique lined the mid levels which have an elevator system that allows much
easier access through the district and SoHo –using the escalators, it takes a
cool 20 minutes to travel from the bottom to the top. **HK is a ridiculously hilly city. Hence, escaltors on the street are required.
Our wallets somewhat empty….. The next day we decided to
check out the greener side of HK. We hiked the Dragon’s Back Trail and saw some
amazing views over some of Hk’s beaches.
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| Just one of Hong Kong's beaches - we could here the screams of delight from all the beach frolickers! Sounded like lots of fun!! |
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| Checking out the wilderness |
Two of us decided to take the ferry to Macau the next day
and had a whirlwind tour of the city. We caught the Red Sightseeing Bus and got
off at one temple then did our own walking tour following the map of places to
see. We were overwhelmed by how beautiful the city was with the best of Asia
and Europe side-by-side. Unfortunately,
I didn’t get to blow all my money on red on the roulette table as we ran out of
time, however, considering we were only half way through our trip, this is
possibly a blessing in disguise.
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| Lamps in Macau |
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| Asia + Europe |
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| Too many tourists! |
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| Me Squinting, Buddha saying Hi. Just a little foggy up there. |
The following day we checked out the tourist areas and hung
out with a MASSIVE Buddha!
On our second last day, we attempted a second hike…… We had
perfect instruction of how to get where the trail started….. We knew the name
of the track we wanted….. So, we spent 5 hours wandering
through the greener part of the city and
finally got onto the track….. then somehow managed to wander past an insane asylum,
complete with freaky lady staring us down….. Finally, after following a variety
of different tracks in both directions, we saw our destination. And it appeared
to be another hundred miles away. So, we got back to the road, jumped in a cab
and finally made it to Stanley Beach.
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| Loved viewing the city from the greenery. |
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| See the town, far off in the distance past the dam, that is Stanley Beach our destination....... |
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| Right..... SO THAT explains where we went wrong. |
I would definitely recommend Hong Kong as a place to go. It
has an amazing vibe, feels very cosmopolitan and there is so much to see and
do: Shopping, food, bar hopping, markets, sightseeing, beaches, hiking…… The
list goes on. Hong Kong makes Singapore look like the goody two shoes little
sister with no soul.
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| Lan Kwai Fong: We will be back! |
