4 nights and 3 days

So, how do you spend three days in Hong Kong?

Did I hear someone say Shopping? Actually, I am pretty sure that had we been going back to Sweden tomorrow the bags would be slightly heavier. Sure we did think about shopping and shipping, but then by the time we get back, prices on all the gadgets (now, did anyone think we'd be buying other things than gadgets, seriously?) would have dropped to the level we're finding here. So shopping, apart from for souveniers we can bring is a memory is, unfortunately out.

But surely there must be a lot of other things on offer...

Kowloon walk
On tuesday we decided to go for a leisurely stroll through the area we are staying in, Mong Kok, in Kowloon - which is a very busy shopping area for camera, computer and various other electronics, and it was very tempting to start shopping. I must confess, just to get it out of my system, I did start haggling for some camera equipment, which was fun. But I digress.

Mong Kok reminded us a bit of Osaka, there are plenty of neon lights , though not even close to the Osaka Scenes of Bladerunner. Nevertheless there is plenty to explore for both neon and gadget junkies, but we pressed on southwards towards Tsim Sha Tsui, via Kowloon park.

Kowloon park is a rather odd little story, its a park on the second floor from street level, yes you have top walk up stairs to get to it and it sits on top of a row of shops. The park itself has no grass, apart from in the flamingo sanctuary but there were a lot of trees, pools and flowers, so it was a nice little break from the busy street one floor down. At the end of it you get to Tsim Sha Tsui proper which is another shopping area, this one teeming with people trying to sell you tailored shirts, suits and fake watches (they really did not do this false advertising thing - they actually were advertised as fake).
All in all walking through this part of Hong Kong is quite interesting, you pass through some shopping areas but also some smapper parks and squares where people are sitting playing chinese chess, reading the newspapers or playing with their kids. This is a quite different area from the financial centre that is Hong Kong island.

We continued our walk south to the Ferry terminal and took a boat acros, from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island, which is a really good and cheap (HKD 4.80) way to see the Hong Kong Skyline . We then decided that due to the mistiness of the day we wouldn't go to Victoria Peak as planned but we'd have dinner and take the ferry back after sunset to catch the night skyline. Even though it was a rather rough ride and limited visibility the view was quite stunning.

The happiest place on earth!!

The next day, wednesday, we took it quite easy, woke up late and had a leisurely breakfast and planned to go and see the great Buddha, after all we'd seen the largest Buddha in our previous countries so we had to see this one too, right? Well, in an uncharacteristic way Vaniah decided when we were one stop away from the place that we needed to change plans. Normally, this is my job and it is normally not that appreciated. The reason for this is that the station we were at was the interchange station for the Hong Kong Disneyland line.

So we got off and spent the rest of the day at the park which fully geared up for halloween so it was quite different. We watched the parades, one of which was a halloween inspired one with most of our friends dressed up in skeleton costumes, the cast of "A nightmare before Christmas" and various other monsters. In between those we were walking around looking at all the children run around with eyes wide open trying to decide which of all the fantastic things was the most fantastic and thereby worty of their precious time. The priorities were changing rather frequently and quite quickly.

We moved quite slowly and steadily and visited Tarzans treehouse, went for an aventure cruise, a trip to the small world, and into space mountain- twice and the haunted hotel among other things. All in all it was a very good day full of fun and truly different from the normal temple and statue diet we've been on, maybe aided by the fact that the Hong Kong park is a lot smaller and less busy than some of the major parks around the world (or so I am told). Once the final firework had popped in the quite amazing closing ceremony we joined the throng and headed back to the city and got ready for our final day.

Onwards and Upwards

The last real day in Hong Kong brought three missions

1. Dim sum - you can't really go to Hong Kong and Not have Dim sum
2. The escalator - Hong Kong has a famous long escalator that you get underground discounts if you go up, that had to be seen
3. Go up to Victoria Peak and see the fabulous view
   

The first mission was easily satisfied, with help from Lee on the other side of the world we found this great Dim Sum place in the city hall buildings. We got there just gone 11.30 and had a leisurly brunch lasting about an hour but when we left there was a queue outside that must have kept people waiting for at least an hour. Even if you get caught out, it is worth the wait.

After successfully completing mission #1 we started on #2.
This escalator is really a set of escalators and travelators that wind up the side of the mountain through residential, restaurant and bar areas on teh outskirts of the financial district. This area is probably best enjoyed at night, but we had made plans for the evening so it had to be during the day. We reached the top, a bit underwhelmed though this is not really a tourist attraction. But the walk down to the victoria peak tram, through the botanical gardens was very nice.



Then it was on to the top of Victoria Peak. The weather conditions were a bit better, though not perfect but still the views of Hong Kong island and Kowloon were just stunning. The trip up though is worth a mentioning of its own.... The tram was built in the late 1800's and kitted with a huge steam engine, though thankfully it has been modernised periodically, but the route is still the same. At its steepest parts it is an incline of about 45 degrees judging by buildings that we passed, and to think they built this over 100 years ago is quite amazing.

Once down we headed over to a bar where we'd arranged to meet Kyle, one of Vaniahs friends from her MBA that have scattered around the globe and settled in various interesting places. This bar, Red bar at IFC Mall, had a nice little terrace with a view of the Kowloon skyline and, of course, a well stocked bar. So we sat down for a good while, had a drink a good long chat and generally enjoyed the evening.

And with that, we are packing up and getting ready to leave Hong Kong and head out to our next stop, Singapore. Looking forward to it!