Hong Kong

To get to Hong Kong we had to come back to KL for a few days and fly from here. It was weird coming back to somewhere familiar again, but we didn't mind as KL was a easy, pleasant city to be in. the day of our flight we decided to walk to city centre for some last minute shopping in the mega sized malls. We got a bit carried away and next thing we knew we had about 2 hours to get walk to hotel, get to airport and check in. We knew we would be pushing it by getting the airport coach so got a taxi which cost us a bomb! The bloody taxi took us to the wrong terminal and to cut a long story short we missed our flight for the first time!!! Booooo

Back in KL, the only thing that cheered us up was a plate full of Malaysian curry from our favorite little cafe. We managed to book the flight the next day to HK.

Arriving in HK we thought we had finished our run of bad luck, but things got worse! We flew through customs and hopped onto the MTR system headed for Kowloon, directly across the harbour from the main downtown center on Hong Kong Island (the financial district). Hong Kong has an impressive subway system that can take you just about anywhere in the city at an amazing pace. It took us just over 20 minutes to reach Kowloon, in an area called Tsim Sha Tsui.

We didn'ttt prebook anywhere for that night as the day before we checked and there were hundreds of rooms available, plus we were so proccupieded with our flight situation. We walked around for a few hours and checked almost every hostel but had no luck so moved up a notch and checked out hotels but there was nothing! Apparently there was a big exhibition going on. How crazy not being able to find a bed in a city the size of HK. By 3am we had given up and got bus to airport and slept in the terminal. In was actually quite comfy, we had free wifi, en suite with a Mc Donalds on site!! hihihi

In the morning we booked somewhere and headed back to Kowloon.

Our hostel was in the famous Chung King Mansions. What, a Mansion you say? No

It was a 14 story apartment complex, housing numerous guesthouses, travel agencies, seamstress shops and many other random businesses including several Indian cafes.

Compared to what we had been used to, we paid quite a lot for our room and it was the size of my wardrobe and a bathroom the size of my shoes closet. We did have a window, which I think was a luxury. We were also really lucky with weather being so hot as there were warnings of typhoon coming in few days after we leave.

We settled into our cozy little home away from home, before taking on the big city and going for a wander and finding ourselves smack dab across the harbour from the financial center, just in time for the Symphony of Lights show. Some of the bigger buildings in downtown Hong Kong have set up a show using synchronized lights and lasers which blast out across the harbour and all

around every night at 8pm. We showed up about half an hour before the show and sat in complete awe at the skyline created by the looming buildings across the water. While the Symphony of Lights wasn't as amazing show as it was hyped to be, it was nothing compared to what I felt just gazing out at the city beyond. Neither of us had ever seen anything like it before, it wasn't that it was beautiful, it was utterly impressive.

We headed for the The Peak tower the next day, one of HK must see, we made our way up to the viewing platform of the oddly shaped building where we were offered one of the most amazing views of Hong Kong.

We then wandered around the shopping mall which the city has obsession with putting them in just about every conceivable location, before finding a similar, and much more free, viewing platform where we caught some night time views of Hong Kong and did some window peeping on some typical Hong Kongers' living rooms from the binocular viewers.

That evening we also met Al's Chinese friend from Uni lovely Phoenix. We had a really amazing Hong Kong Hot Pot in one of her suggested restaurants. The meal lasted about 3 hours as all ingredients are brought raw for you to cook in a hot pot. We had a great time eating and chatting before going to another bar for few drinks.

Next day we explored the ladies market and went to space museum before heading for Lantau island, to see the great views of mountains and the giant Buddha of Hong Kong. To get to the peak we got on a 30 mins cable car ride and views where stunning. After spending few hours strolling around Lantau we headed back on the cable car for the sunset views.