Hong Kong in a word- EXCITING!
David and I went to Hong Kong this past September 2010 as part of our honeymoon (aaww)! Our final destination was to Bali, Indonesia but our flight took us through Hong Kong so we decided to take a 3 day layover and man was it worth it!
To start, we have to share with you that my parents, Debbie & Gene, hooked us up with a seriously amazing wedding gift. They gifted to us a ton of their frequent flyer miles which allowed us to fly roundtrip to Bali on Cathay Pacific in business class. OMG- what an amazing and unforgettable experience. This airline has those beds that lie down…and all the bells and whistles that comes along with it. Plus we were on the top deck of the 747 so it was so quiet and personable. Our flight attendant even presented us with a congrats card- too cute!
David has been to Hong Kong a couple times previously but I had never been. After a (very) long 14 hour flight from San Francisco, we arrived late in the evening and promptly went directly to our hotel to sleep. Hong Kong is divided into 2 main areas and separated by Victoria Harbour. There is the “Hong Kong” side and the “Kowloon” side. For this trip we decided to stay at hotels as opposed to B&B’s and while in Hong Kong & we used our points to stay for free the 3 nights that we were there. The first night we stayed on the Hong Kong side at the Renaissance Hong Kong Harbour. What a beautiful hotel and right on the harbour! We had a great view and watched the ships come and go that night. The next 2 nights we stayed on the Kowloon side at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers. A fabulously modern hotel right in the thick of everything yet also right on the harbour.
The first day we ventured out took us straight to William Cheng & Son, a custom tailor shop that David had been to previously. We wanted to take advantage of getting some custom-made suits & shirt for our jobs. What a cool experience! They measured us in the morning as we picked out our colors and fabrics, then we went back later that afternoon for a fitting, and 2 days later our clothes were delivered to us at our hotel- awesome experience and I highly recommend William Cheng & Son over the others tailors that we “ran” into on the streets of Kowloon.
The rest of the first day took us winding through the streets of Kowloon- mainly along Nathan Road and to Mongkok, where the shopping is aplenty and you never run out of new sights, nasty smells, loud sounds, and people watching. Some hilarious moments, some disgusting moments, but all-in-all an adventure nonetheless! We took our time just soaking in the city life and trying to blend in as best we could. Hong Kong has so much going on- its seriously SENSORY OVERLOAD :-)!!! Imagine the skyline of NYC (times 100) and the lights of the Vegas Strip (times 100)…way too cool. We encountered some FRESH chicken being brought into a local restaurant, tried to translate all the crazy business signs, and generally just enjoyed being a part of this new and different culture.
Every night at 8pm there is a laser light show on the Kong Hong side of the Harbour that lasts about 20 minutes called the “Symphony of Lights“. You can view it from the Kowloon side both along the harbour at the Avenue of the Stars as well as from the top floors of several different high-rise buildings. We choose to get dressed up and head up to the top of a building close by our hotel and have a drink. Such coordination and so futuristic!! There are about 40 sky-rises in total that “participates”.
After our cocktail hour of fruity Hong Kong martinis, we took the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbour to have dinner in SoHo. Soho is a very trendy and fun neighborhood of Hong Kong. It is on the Hong Kong side of the harbour but still relatively easy to get to both by ferry as well as by cab (through the underwater tunnel).
Soho is such a fun area and really I would have to say my favorite part of Hong Kong!! Its a neighborhood nestled in the hills of the island so all the streets are very vertical. To help combat this, the city built these amazingly long walking escalators that help to transport people throughout the area- awesome. In fact, I believe these walking escalators are amongst the longest in the world, if not the longest!
Anyway, you can find just about an kind of cuisine you would want to eat….literally; plus a plethora of bars & shops to find “trouble” in. We ate at this adorable little Thai restaurant called Lil’ Siam. Delicious!! After stuffing ourselves we walked it off around Soho and found a fun bar to enjoy a beer at and people watch. One word of caution- the chinese LOVE 80’s music so be prepared!!
One thing I have yet to mention (except in the title of this blog entry) is that David and I LOVE Dim Sum…it literally makes my mouth water just writing about it now! We ate dim sum every day we were in Hong Kong but without a doubt we would have to say that our favorite was actually in our hotel at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers– the Celestial Court Chinese Restaurant!! Delicious and we highly recommend it! Besides that, the other dim sum restaurant we really enjoyed was also on the Kowloon side called the Jade Garden.
Our final day in Hong Kong we decided to head back over to the Hong Kong side to check out more shopping at the famous Stanley Market! We took the Star Ferry once again (pictured below). It is a great way to see the skyline of Hong Kong but a little scary getting on THAT “ferry” :-). On our way to the docks, we also stopped off at the Avenue of the Stars to take some pics with the skyline behind us!
The Stanley Market was such a fun way to spend the day. It takes a while to get there because it’s a small town on the other side of Hong Kong island, but so worth the extra time it takes to get there. You leave the bright lights & loud sounds of Hong Kong behind and drive into the beautiful countryside where it is so serene and lush. There are plenty of great deals to be made and there is a wide range of both cheap as well as pricy items to barter on. Truly a fun day of shopping and lunch on their boardwalk!
Our final night we decided to go back to Soho for dinner- we loved it so much!! On our way we stopped off at this Fire Dragon Dance we heard about in Causeway Bay. It is all a part of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival held every year. We unfortunately were not impressed. It was so hot & humid, there were tons of people, and the “Dragon” was a bunch of incenses that burned our eyes- boohoo.
Anyway, in Soho, we had dinner at a quaint little Itlian restaurant (believe it or not!) and from there, decided to check out yet another trendy spot to get drinks at in Hong Kong. The area was called Lan Kwai Fong and it is THE place to be! Its truly just a few blocks of bars, bars, and more bars! A fun thing to experience though- we were unfortunately too pooped to do much but have a drink to say we did, then go to the hotel to sleep!
Hong Kong was truly a incredible experience and one I will never forget anytime soon. There is so much culture, so much shopping (!!!), so much great food, amazing people watching….you really get your bang for your buck! But word of caution, like Vegas, you truly only need a few days there- it wipes you out!!
On that note, we head out to relax in Bali for the remainder of our time- 9 days and we could not wait! Just had to share this picture to end our blog post: at the airport in Hong Kong they had Burger King (of course), and you could upgrade your meal to include a can of beer- hilarious!!
Happy Travels!
Kimbra & David
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[…] was on our way to Bali for our honeymoon back in September 2010. You can check out our last post here. This time around we came here en route to our new home in Kuala Lumpur. David had some business […]