Three Days in Hong Kong

On Friday morning, Courtney and I got up nice and early in order to start the Asian leg of our trip. We had a 6AM flight out of the Vancouver airport and got there around 4AM to find a long line and no one actually checking in. We thought that maybe they would wait until closer in to start checking people in, but when that time about rolled around, we were all still in line. Around 5:30AM, rumor soon spread that the airport server was down and the staff was unable to check anyone in or check luggage. Soon after, a staff member half-heartedly made an announcement to line up why whichever city we were all connecting to, so we lined up in the San Francisco one. Around 6AM, we finally got checked in via phone. We were both surprised it took so long to come up with a back up plan, but we were just glad they had something figured out. It took quite awhile to check people in over the phone with passport numbers and ID information, so our plane didn't take off until around 8AM. We got to San Francisco with a few hours to spare, so there were no complaints--especially because it gave us a chance to get a delicious Boudin sandwich at the airport (yum).

Flying in over the islands

Pretty water

City view

 

Our flight to Hong Kong was about 13 hours which passed a lot faster than we initially thought it would upon seeing the lack of individual TV screens (#firstworldproblems). There was a small moment of panic when we first sat down, but I ended up sleeping about half the flight (personal record) due to the early morning wake up in Vancouver and (thankfully) for the second half of the flight, the movies on the main screen were pretty entertaining. Once we read the news in Hong Kong, we also felt pretty lucky about our flight since this happened about 12 hours after we flew out. After leaving our hotel in Vancouver at 4AM on Friday, we arrived at our hostel in Hong Kong at 8PM on Saturday. A long day (and then some) but it made for some solid sleep that night.

Not really, but we were hot on his heels

 

Breakfast congee and sesame bun

Summer in Hong Kong is hot and humid (much like many places) and we were jet lagged, so we enjoyed a lazy few days in the city, taking in one big site a day with a spot of shopping and food in between. Hong Kong is comprised of many small islands and three big islands: Hong Kong, Kowloon, and Lantau. We headed out to Lantau island (where the airport is also located) on our first morning to see the big Buddha at Ngong Ping 360 which requires a cable car up to see the Buddha. It was a cool way to start the Asian leg of the trip, even after we found out it was only built in 1996 (LOOK UP). It reminded me a lot of the one I saw in Nah Trang, Vietnam (LINK). We followed this visit up with a trip to "Times Square" aka. a huge shopping mall where it took forever to find the restaurant we were after.

Court on the cable car

Cable car up the hill

Planes taking off on Lantau

BIG BUDDHA!

 

Hehe

Close up

Conch Shell!

The clouds here were awesome

A woman praying

Ni hao!

 

On our second day in Hong Kong, we were up bright and early again (thanks, jet lag!) and off to take a ride on the Star Ferry over to Kowloon island for the day. We ended up walking through what seemed like the world's largest shopping mall as we tried to find a metro station. We took the metro up to the markets area and perused the fish and flower markets before heading to the Nan Lian Garden and Chi Lin Nunnery which ended up being my favorite part of Hong Kong. It was a gorgeous park and nunnery smack dab in the middle of the city.

 

City view to the right

 

City view to the left

 

View across to Kowloon Island

Star Ferry entry

Waiting room

Just missed this ferry

 

 

View of Hong Kong Island

Fish market street

Construction bamboo

Statues near the fish market

Spotted in the flower market

 

Wai Lan Gardens

In the middle of the city

Chi Lin Nunnery

 

On our third and final day, we headed up to Victoria Peak to get the famous view of the city. When my mom was in Vietnam, her and her friends used to take breaks in Hong Kong where they'd get clothes made and then go up and have tea at the top of Victoria Peak. Unfortunately, it's a lot more touristy now and there's a big complex with lots of trinket shops and expensive food (plus a Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurant?!). The coolest part of the visit was definitely the funicular which goes up nearly vertical at a few points.

 

View of Hong Kong (front) and Kowloon (back)

 

View of the backside of the island

 

Funicular

Headed back down

Just a reminder -- HK is on the British system

Pretty park near the funicular

 

This was both of our first times in Hong Kong and I had heard so much about it that I had wanted to visit. In my opinion, it was definitely China Lite and seemed to be a lot like Dubai is to the Middle East. English and order and acclimation to foreigners was the norm. It was, however, a nice way to ease into the food and getting prepared to enter China. As a friend summarized very well, Hong Kong is like one big shopping mall. However, there is actually a lot of hiking and small towns that we didn't get to do on this trip. I'd definitely come back and visit again and do more of these hikes and small town explorations in the spring and fall when the weather isn't as humid.

 

Tips/Recommendations: We stayed at the Check Inn Hostel for three nights for about $35 per person. The location of the hostel was its strong suit, although it was the size of a postage stamp (as were the bathrooms). We were in 8 person dorms, and in the future, I'd try to find reasonable accommodation on Kowloon island instead of Hong Kong island where prices are highest.

 

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