Hong Kong

Fanny

During the long weekend of the Buddha day, I had the chance to go to Hong Kong and meet up with my friend from Canada.  Hong Kong exceeded my expectations by its mix of oriental and occidental culture, clearly influenced by the British. The exotic city is a metropolitan area full of high brands and luxury hotels that still retains its traditions and culture with the local food and markets.

Tsim Tsa  Tsui

This neighbourhood in Hong Kong city, northern island, is where is located the local night market of temple street. It has lots of stands with little souvenirs, jewellery, shirts and more

that you can for a pretty cheap price if you know how to bargain well. We did bargain a little bit but we could have had some jewellery for way lower. The thing is to show how interested you are but pretend to hesitate and do as if you were leaving after awhile. The merchants usually start lowering the price and at that time you can ask for way lower (try aiming really low so they compromise to a middle price – price you actually desire). Next to the stands are multiple local food restaurants where you can enjoy all kinds of noodle dishes, rice, skewers, etc.  Near is Knowloon park, where you can enjoy a stroll through different themed gardens (comic/anime, birds, princess, oriental, etc.).  You can also go to Victoria Harbour and enjoy the promenade next to the water.

Central

Central is where the action is at: lots of bars, business buildings and tourists. On the island where central is located are also lots of beaches where you can enjoy the view and sun. There are multiple statues and some traditional architecture that is mixed with the newer, more modern, skyscrapers and buildings.

One really famous thing in Central is the mid-level escalator. This escalator goes up and up crossing multiple streets and you can go on the street at each level visit all the bars and restaurants there are. Personally, we went to a small Vietnamese restaurant called “Beh” that was the best we had while we stayed in Hong Kong. Then going down by the stairs next to the escalator, we basically did a pub-crawl by stopping an every few bars and terraces on our way down and tried some cocktails and beers. This and Lan Kwai Fong  (small neighbourhood in central) is the place to go out at night with bars and clubs. This was one of my favourite places of the whole trip.

At night, we took a tram to Victoria peak and enjoyed the night view of Hong Kong in all its glory. At the top are professional photographs that can take pictures of you with the view for a certain price (a bit expensive), and there are restaurants, cafés and entertainment zones.

Disneyland

 Finally, as both my friend and I had never had a Disney experience, we decided to go and fulfill our childhood dreams of going to Disneyland in Hong Kong. A ticket for a day (including a 50 Hong Kong dollar voucher) is approximately 86,000won. We spent the day there from 11am to around 6 pm and could have stayed until closing time (8pm) if we had more time. Disneyland has multiple themed parks, in each you can enjoy rides and shops and restaurants. The whole experience was as expected, magical! I was thinking it would be more aimed towards families and kids but the themed park is totally for people of all ages!