Hong Kong

So after Beijing, we had one day in Hong Kong and I personally loved it. I didn’t even go to the one place I said I would go to in HK (Lantau Island, where the big Buddha is) but I still had an awesome time and really thought Hong Kong was a great city. Hong Kong has a great set-up naturally with the many islands it has, and the city is just really cool overall.

We got to HK at midnight on the one day we were there, but then we had to wait in the airport for 40 minutes for our buses to arrive to take us to the boat. In the end, we didn’t even get to the boat until 1:30 AM, so me and Eric just went to get some food and then went to bed. When we went to get food though, we went to McDonalds (all I wanted were fries, and its 24 hour and right next to where the boat was docked) and I ordered some fries. When he asked me to pay for it, I just gave the guy some of my leftover Yuan instead of HK dollars just to see what would happen. The guy actually took it! I was hoping this would work the rest of the time there since I had leftover Yuan, but sadly it was the only time it worked.

As for the city itself, the view of the city from the boat was absolutely amazing. The boat was docked on Kowloon Island, which is right across from Hong Kong island (the city of Hong Kong is actually a bunch of islands, but Hong Kong island is the main island with most of the city’s skyscrapers.) The boat had a great location, because the view was so good and because it was only a 5 minute ferry ride to Hong Kong island, and the ferry terminal was a 2 minute walk from where the boat was.

In our one full day in HK, we went out as a group of 8 to Monkook which is the shopping area. I just wanted to explore the city and didn’t have a one place in mind I really needed to see (except I wanted to go to the top of Victoria Peak, I figured if I only have one day that I shouldn’t go to Lantau Island because its far and then I wouldn’t get a chance to check out the main part of Hong Kong if I went there.) We spent a few hours just roaming around Monkook and checking out the city, then we went to eat and then went to the central part of downtown Hong Kong. This part is just a business district, but its still pretty cool. After walking around there, four of us decided to go to the top of Victoria Peak, so we did that. I had heard the best view of Hong Kong is from there, so I really wanted to see it. Anyway, the four of us took the tram to the top (which you get right in downtown HK) so we went to the top and the view was absolutely incredible. We were unlucky because the weather was crappy all day and rained for parts of it, but the view was still really good. I have pictures of it, but they don’t do the view justice (same goes for the pictures of the city from the boat, it looked way better in person.) After that, it was already 6:30, and on ship time was 9, so we just got dinner and then went back to the boat. We got on the boat at 8, which was perfect because we made it right on time for the light show, which happens every night. During this, the buildings in HK start to beam lasers all over the place for 10 minutes or so, it was pretty cool.

As for some details of HK, the city clearly still has lots of obvious UK influence, even though its now a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China (that’s the exact term.) HK controls everything about their area except for defense and foreign affairs, or at least that’s what I think the rule is. It’s very, very different from the rest of China. There is much less smog than in Beijing and Qingdao, it’s very clean (although I didn’t think Beijing or Qingdao were dirty), and it’s obviously much wealthier.

In HK, most of the buses are double decker, clearly an example of UK influence. Lots of people, though not everyone, speaks English, and lots of the places have names with blatant UK influence (like Victoria Peak, for example.) The city is also cheaper than I expected. It’s definitely more expensive than Beijing, but public transportation is real cheap (the ferry from Kowloon to HK island is 2.20 HK Dollars, which is around 30 cents, food was cheaper than it is in the states or Japan, etc.) and everything is really clean, modern, and nice. Overall, HK was awesome and I would go back in a second. I really wish we had more time there, because everything in the city seemed awesome and I did want to go to Lantau Island, although I was still really happy with what I did on my day there (because if I only have a day, I want to see the actual city, so that’s what I did.)

Next up, I have Vietnam/Cambodia starting today right after I get off the boat in a few hours. I am leaving for Cambodia right when I get off the boat in an hour and a half, spending 3 days/2 nights there and going to Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat. The three things I have been looking forward to most on this trip since it started have been Cambodia, Thailand, and India, so I’m really excited for Cambodia, especially for Angkor Wat which looks incredible. I haven’t 100% figured out what I’m going to do in Vietnam for the last 2 days, but I’m thinking that I’ll probably spend one day going to the Mekong Delta and the other day at the Cu Chi tunnels and checking out Ho Chi Minh City.

And here are some pics of HK (again, the skyline looks MUCH better in person):