Hong Kong

After our vacation to China, we came back to Korea for a week before heading out for a 2 week vacation to Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore...May seemed to be our travel month! Our trip began with spending a couple of days in Hong Kong. We opted to stay in a hostel considering Hong Kong is so expensive, plus our hostel was located in a building that housed local residents as well. More than 70% of HK residents live in buildings that are half commercial and half residential like the one we stayed in. We found it a lot different than the 1 story huton neighborhoods in mainland China.

USA Hostel:

Our room was so small we could practically touch both walls at the same time!

This is the narrow hallway leading to our room.

Right outside our room was the outdoor walkway which had apartments and small businesses centered around a courtyard on the lower level. Unfortunately, our building was under construction, so the courtyard was blocked with bamboo scaffolding.

This is the outside of our building, called "Mirador Mansion." It was in the perfect location, right on the famous shopping street, Nathan Road!

The bamboo scaffolding really fascinated us. We saw it all over the city, even on skyscrapers.
Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island:

Hong Kong is made up of several small islands, with Kowloon and Hong Kong Islands being the largest. We stayed on Kowloon Island and were only about a 5 minute walk to Victoria Harbor, which separates the two islands.

While we were enjoying the views of Hong Kong island in the distance, we ran into a class that was on a field trip...we were asked to pose for a few of their pics!

The huge clock tower on Kowloon Island.

It's really popular to take the Star Ferry from Kowloon to HK Island. The boat ride only took about 5 minutes, but it was fun. The alternative is to take a subway that runs under the harbor which we took for the way back.
Open-Top Shuttle Bus:

After arriving on HK Island, we rode on an open-top shuttle bus around the city for a while. We could really see a lot of British influence as we looked around, such as advertisements for Afternoon High Tea, trolleys, double-decker buses, cathedrals, etc. (Hong Kong was under British colonial rule for 156 years up until 1997, when it became ruled by China.) It was actually a nice change from the "Asian" scenery we've become so accustomed to.

A couple of the trolleys going through the city.
Victoria Peak

For a good view of the skyline and harbor, we went to Victoria Peak, which is a mountain on HK island. We took a tram up to the peak that has been running since 1888!


This is the view from Victoria Peak, you can see Kowloon Island in the distance.


We found a completely opposite view on the other side of the Peak.

We sat at a coffee shop for a while enjoying the great view.
Serenade Chinese Restaurant:

We read about this great dim sum restaurant before we came to Hong Kong, so we made sure to go there for lunch. It was located right on Victoria Harbor.

We ordered several different kinds of dumplings and some cute rabbit shaped marshmallows.

Shopping:

We spent the rest of the day walking around many of the outdoor markets that were selling fake designer purses, clothes, food, shoes, electronics, etc.

We ended up along a street that had all electronic stores and Frank got the camera he's been wanting for a while now...the Nikon D60. It was around the same price as in the States, but came with a camera bag, 3 batteries, a 4gig disc, and a tripod!

The Symphony of Lights Laser Show:

At 8pm, we went to a 20 minute laser light show on the water overlooking the buildings on HK island. It was set to music and narrated in English. It's actually in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the longest laser show performed nightly. Frank was able to get some great shots with his new camera!

Avenue of the Stars:

Along the Victoria Harbor waterfront is Avenue of the Stars, which is the HK version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We didn't recognize many of the actors, but we did find Jackie Chan and a statue of Bruce Lee!

Overall, we really enjoyed our visit to Hong Kong! Next stop: Malaysia...