Three day layover in Hong Kong

After a short flight from Ho Chi Minh City, we took a bus from the Hong Kong Airport to the area where our pre-booked hotel was located. Our maps pinpointed the hotel in the middle of a city block. We got off the bus, looked around, and only saw rows of shops. Nothing resembled a hotel or guesthouse and meanwhile many Indians were asking us if we needed a guesthouse, a watch or even a SIM card for our phone. Will suggested looking down a narrow alley and see if we could find anything. Down the walkway filled with shops, we found an elevator bank and noticed some of the words matched the address from our listing. We got in the elevator trying to get to a floor we thought might match the address but only even floors were listed. After going back down, we realized there was another elevator with odd floors listed and it even had the name of our guesthouse on the floor listing. We went up to the 13th floor and found the guesthouse name over one of the six doors. We later realized this building has 6 different wings with elevator banks and several dozen guesthouses on the 20 something floors. With the first floor only being a flea market type shopping center, I’m actually not sure how we found it so quick! We were just having a bit of luck traveling that day (it did give me the sense that we would win the Amazing Race!)

Our first night in Hong Kong happened to be St. Patrick’s Day and there just happened to be an Irish Pub across the street. We enjoyed Guinness, back & tans, fish & chips and a ruben. It was a nice change from the Asian cuisine we’d become accustomed to in the previous months. That night we met a group of head hunters that were in town for their company conference. We made sure to get their business cards to aid in our job search next year!

After sleeping in the following day, we enjoyed some Hong Kong comfort food at the Australia Dairy Company before setting out to explore the city (it was e perfect meal after a night of drinking!) We took the train over to the island of Hong Kong, walked the busy streets, rode the longest covered escalator system in the world, found a great craft beer tap house, and took the ferry back to Kowloon (the cheaper side of town). That night, we sat at the waterfront to watch the Symphony of Lights. It’s the “World’s Largest Permanent Light and Sound Show” which coordinates 40 building lights to a 13 minute long soundtrack. I guess we had high expectations because we concluded it was a bit like a elementary school show. But because every view of the skyline is so impressive, it really can’t disappoint.

The next day, we had another wonderful meal at Tim Ho Wan. This place was a little intimidating when we first arrived and found zero signs in English. Thankfully, they handed us a mostly translated menu and we selected several small dishes to try. We had baked bbq pork dumplings, steamed greens, fried shrimp spring rolls, fried pork dumplings, steamed spare rib with black beans, and glutinous pork. The dumplings were the best.

After our HK feast, we headed across to the island to hike up a hill for views of the city. The hike started at the end of the escalator system but because we wanted to actually hike the whole way up, we used the stairs instead. We were not sure what to expect but after the escalators, we walked along two roads and ended up on a nicely paved path to the top. The path was quite busy with people exercising and taking their dogs for a walk. When we arrived at the top, we found a nice spot to watch sunset as the walkway filled with photographers. We learned that they were all setting up to capture the Symphony of Lights from this amazing view (and opposite from where we watched it the night prior). We did not end up staying long enough for the show and hiked back down shortly after dusk.

Our last day was spent walking the water front and visiting the Science Museum. We had a great time at the museum playing with the interactive exhibits. They had a transportation section complete with a DC3. Apparently the aircraft was the first owned by Cathay Pacific starting the HK based airline. (Cathay Pacific found it flying in NZ and had it restored then donated it to the museum). I was especially excited to see the museum had an Occupational Safety section – why doesn’t every science museum have a safety section?

We loved our short layover in Hong Kong much more than we anticipated! It is a great mesh of Asian and English culture, which meant exotic but familiar at the same time!!

Next: one month campervan expedition in New Zealand