AH, Hong Kong… The last time I was here, it was on my way to Europe, and I only had three and a half days. Didn’t realise there was so much more to this city, so I knew I had to come back sometime soon. This time, I gave myself six full days, whilst on my way to Japan, (where I’m writing this post from) which of course was still not enough time to explore such a large and vibrant city! (because I’m behind, this’ll be a bit of a photodump of things I found significant during my visit…)
My comrade for this trip is seen on the right of the above photo. A good high-school buddy and has watched a lot more anime and manga than I have, but much less expressive than I am I think. My friend on the left has lived in HK for most of his life, but did his high-school education in Sydney, and he’s my de-facto Uni-buddy. Caught up with him on one of our days here, where he laughed at our failed attempts at reading the pingyin of a Mandarin phrasebook I bought in preparation for a visit to Shanghai.
Last time I was here, I didn’t get to experience the crowds of people on the weekend in the district of Mong Kok. Never had either of us encountered so many people in one spot. I should travel to Mumbai one day, and catch a train there… I hear it’s worse?
The street markets here are incredibly different to those we get down in Sydney. These open-air meat markets would be incredibly questionable in most western-developed countries… I wonder how many food poisoning cases there are here as a result of foods bought from vendors like this…
You know, just casually blow-torching some meat on the street…
Big inflatable pink pig with wings with a sign “LOVE ME!” near Tsim Sha Tsui…
Stumbled upon near Shim Shui Po… Shame I’m not an AKB48 fan… Or am I lucky…?
One of the biggest things I love about Hong Kong is how they have large areas of parkland and recreation areas smacked right in the middle of the glass and concrete jungles here. (and the free Wi-Fi provided in these parks!)
Hong Kong Park on Hong Kong Island has an impressive public-aviary.
The worlds largest species of pigeon looks so badass! (I WANT ONE!)
Seems to be a big push for the iPod here… This is a tram stop near Admiralty, whilst Central Station had floor-to-ceiling walls plastered with iPod advertisements…
Did a little research, and found a hipster-coffee place to get myself a good coffee fix. The Coffee Academics is a boutique roaster in Causeway Bay and offers enthusiast brewing methods such as cold-drips and aeropresses.
They also do some whacky “cocktail” mixes with coffee. This was the “factory” consisting of Espresso, Lemon Juice, Orange Juice and Whipped Cream. It was weird…
They also do good food here too. This was their “Brioche” with Boston Lobster, Celery Spanish Onions AND CURLY FRIES!!! It was good, and the only thing I’d question is the use of bread… It was a standard asian-kind-of-sweet bread. Would have preferred an artisan variety of sourdough or something, but that’d make me hipster. =P
Also stumbled upon the IKEA in Causeway Bay. Thought we’d check it out.
Much more smaller and compact than the ones in Australia. Low ceilings, but the prices here for some items are way cheaper than what we pay in Australia… We always get ripped-off…
Last time I went to The Peak, it was just by bus. This time I’d thought we’d try the tram. 400m up in five minutes… Impressive!
The view from up there is always impressive!
Didn’t get to see the Big Buddha in Ngong Ping, Lantau Island last time. Cable car rides are always good fun! Offers excellent views of the Aiport, if weren’t for the smog…
The 260-something stairway up.
There are more stray dogs here than there were in Pompeii! They all seem to be looked after and groomed here too it seems…
Took a trip down to see the fishing village of Tai O as well. I think it’s pretty cool how these houses are built on stilts in the water.
Apparently a fire tore through here a few years ago?
It’s hard to imagine how this village sustains itself simply on the sale of dried-fish and salted egg-yolks…
Though it does seem like there are unique qualities to this place that make tourism a viable industry… We did buy a dried starfish after all…
The Po Lin Monastery. Lots of incense outside the place, no meat allowed in the vicinity, and lots of bees around the flowers outside… Which was surprising considering it was winter…
Went down to Kowloon to visit the only super-tall building with a decent, and dedicated floor as an observation deck. The Sky 100 in the International Commerce Centre is 393m above sea-level. It offers a nice view, but interior lighting at night makes the smog-clouded skyline even harder to see with the reflective properties of the glass.
On the last day, of Hong Kong, went to visit Macau, where the legal gambling age turns out to be 21, so we couldn’t really gamble in any of the fancy casinos…
The Macau Tower has an observation deck at 229m above sea-level, and I think also offers the highest bungee-jump in the world.
Being a formerly Portuguese owned territory, there’s Portuguese signage all over the place, bur I’m sure no-one here speaks it… Apart from the European style piazzas, the place really felt more like a city in Mainland China to me…
Ruins of St Pauls is the only other landmark I was aware of in this city.
The view from the top of the Fortress behind the ruins offers quite a nice view of the city, I’d say even more so than in the Macau Tower which you must pay for too.
I’ve never seen a Metro Train so empty!
Despite all the things I still haven’t yet seen in this city, Hong Kong is a city that I’d very much consider living in if I ever got the opportunity. It’s such a fast-paced, vibrant and efficient city! When all my relatives asked me what there is in Hong Kong, the first thing that comes to their mind is Disneyland and Ocean Park, (I still haven’t been to either XD) but there’s so much more to this place than just those two theme parks! It’s a shame I don’t really drink alcohol, because there are a number of interesting and cool looking bars here, especially around the Soho area in Central… There seems to be a lot more still yet to do here, as well as all the Michelin star restaurants I’d love to visit here someday.
Until next time Hong Kong!
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