Hong Kong - Part 1

Okay – so Melissa's last post was epically long and she was only writing about two days. Given that Hong Kong was one of the most lively and activity packed cities I've ever seen, you'll have to forgive me if our 6 days in Hong Kong take up just as much space. Here we go...

Day 1 – Arrival

We got in to Hong Kong around 2 pm and ventured up to our super-sketchy hostel room. Deceptively named “The Mirador Mansions”, the building contains a vast array of 1 star Guest Houses. Though we were fortunate to get a private room for the three of us, it was roughly similar in size to a walk-in closet (with no windows...).

Given that our room wasn't exactly the Hilton, we ventured out straight away. With Tripple G in tow, we went for lunch at a fairly lousy Chinese fast-food restaurant. Following lunch, we parted ways with our Gaelic friend and headed off to explore. First stop was the Star Ferry, which takes passengers across the harbour from Kowloon to Hong Kong. It's actually the cheapest way to get across to HK, costing a total of about 25 cents per person...Good deal! From the ferry we went off to find the Bank of China building so that we could go up to the 45th floor and get some views of the city. Sadly, it was Sunday and the building is only open to the public on weekdays. Still in high spirits we wandered in to HK Park in search of the famed Aviary. However, we arrived at the gate at 5:25 only to find that it closes at 5. Blast! Batting 1 for 3 in terms of tourist sights, we headed back to the hostel to shower - it was around 28 Celcius out, and HK is by no means a linear city... Our last attempted tourist activity for the day was to witness the Hong Kong Symphony of Lights from the Kowloon waterfront. Success! We arrived just in time and managed to get some prime seats right along the pier. From there we had amazing views of the choreographed light and laser show as it played out across the harbour. For dinner, we rejoined Tripple G for Hong Kong's famous Indian food. Although Melissa found it a little too spicy, we were utterly amazed at how good everything tasted. After a few beers in a side street bar called “The Watering Hole” and a few games of Foosball (at which Melissa and Phil truly destroyed Tripple G and myself), we called it a night and went back to our broom closet to sleep.

-- To be continued --