This is the final part of our Asia trip series. It was time to get busy again after having some relaxing days with JJ's parents. We only had 3 nights to spent in Hong Kong, so any plans to see everything were doomed from the beginning.
Day 1
First suprise when we arrived at the hostel (which was inside a tower with apartments) a notice in the entrance of the building that the hostel was basically operating illigally and we could be barred from entrance. After talking to the reception the assured us all would be fine... we hoped it better would be!
If you didn't know yet, space is something that is hard to come by in HK. The city is surrounded by water and built within mountains, so there are not that much area to expand to. Many of the towers are build on steep hills. For example, you enter from ground floor on one side, take the elevator up to sixth floor and walk out from the other side on ground level again. Being in one of the most expensive real estate places on earth, we already had to pay a lot just for our tiny room. Our stay was only for a short time, so we tried to make the best out of it and take it with humor. Here a picture of the washroom to give you an idea:
It wasn't too late yet, so we continued exploring the city at night. After a stroll at Victoria Harbour we ended up at a small cafe, Lady M, for a late night snack. It turned out that this little cafe is considered one of the finest and most celebrated patisseries from New York City, and we had a bite of its Signature Mille-Crepes Cake.
Day 2
Our destination for the day was Lantau Island with it's iconic Buddah statue watching over the city. We got there by taking the train to Tung Chung, an area situated on the north-western coast of Lantau Island, first and then continued by cable car to get up the mountain, called Ngong Ping 360. To get up the mountain you can also hike up, but we didn't have the time for it (sadly, as it looked like a nice walk up).
The cable car stops in Ngong Ping Village, which is quite touristy, so we just walked straight through it and up to the Po Lin Monastery.
We explored the Monastry and then got the vegeterian menu for lunch (which was quite a nice surprise). After that we made our way up the stairs to the Big Buddah.
After we finished our visit to the island we headed back to town to get ready for our night ot Lan Kwai Fong district.
Lan Kwai Fong is a small square of streets in Central, Hong Kong. The area was dedicated to hawkers before the Second World War, but underwent a renaissance in the mid-1980s. It is now a popular expatriate haunt in Hong Kong for drinking, clubbing and dining. A long night of bar hopping, dancing, and partying started. We must had been drinking too much and forgot to take any pictures!!
Day 3
Today we started to explore the city in daylight. First we walked around in Downtown to get a feeling for the city.
First stop was the Hong Kong Park, which has an Aviary, basically a dome, which holds many birds and has free entrance.
Right next to it is a small botanical garden and a tea museum which we visited.
After lunch we headed to the Victoria Peak. We got up there by taking the tram, but it's also possible to walk up (if you think you're really fit). We enjoyed the view and JJ started to draw while I explored the surrounding area.
After spending some time at the peak we headed back down to central to explore SoHo and the Mid-Level Escalators. They connect as the the world's longest outdoor covered escalator system, stretching for over 800-metres and rising 135-metres.
Our last stop for the day was watching a movie in the cinema. But because we didn't just want to watch a movie that we also could see at home we opted for an action movie produced in Hong Kong.
Day 4
Time to leave the city! We took our flight from HK to Tokyo and from there back to Vancouver.
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