Néih hóu (knee-how) from Hong Kong!

After our 10 hour flight we arrived in Hong Kong, grabbed ourself an Octopus Card and jumped on the bus to Kowloon. Our hotel for the first 2 nights was based on Nathan Road, a road lined with skyscrapers and bright Chinese signs. Hong Kong is incredible, built upwards into the sky. For example, our hotel was only based in parts of the seventh and eighth flours of a building and flats are priced per square meter.

By the time we settled into our hotel it was early evening, so we headed around the corner to Temple Street Night Market where you can buy pretty much anything. We got sucked into having some dinner on a corner restaurant on little stools but decided to play it safe with fried rice and noodles. As English is taught in Hong Kong, it's been surprisingly easy to communicate with the locals - a nice way to ease into our China adventure.

Our first full day in Hong Kong was jam-packed. We got the MTR (underground) to see the Avenue of Stars, and quickly found the only 3 celebs we knew: Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

We wondered down the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade and enjoyed the fantastic views of the Hong Kong Island skyline across Victoria Harbour. The skyline truly is incredible, the skyscrapers go on and on into the distance. The Star Ferry took us across Victoria Harbour from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island where our first stop was the Mid-Level Escalators. Here, the escalators stretch for over 800 meters going uphill - they feel never ending! As you get steeper you can see the shops and salons on third, fourth, fifth floors and beyond of tall buildings all around.

As we walked back down we found ourselves in SoHo, a place that felt surprisingly a lot like London. So we found all the English people! Drinking pints of beer from back home surrounding popular pubs. We decided to head to somewhere a bit more friendly to our backpacker budget - Beer Bay, overlooking Victoria Harbour. A can of Tsingtao was HK$10 (less than a pound). It was cool to watch the sky grow dark and city light up.

We got the Star Ferry back across to Kowloon in time to watch Hong Kong's famous light show, a Symphony of Lights, at 8pm. Prior to the show, we were approached by a Hong Kong local called Kelvin. He is 18 years old, and was fascinated about English culture. He asked us about English food, education, our traditions, living, etc. and shared lots of information with us about China in return.

After the show we needed to fill our bellies and so asked Kelvin if he recommended any good restaurants or food. After writing some down in Chinese for us, he offered to take us for some local cuisine even though he had already eaten. The whole time he was so keen to learn more about all aspects of England. As with many other places in Asia, we found ourselves in a little restaurant on the second floor through a little alleyway that we would never have found on our own. Kelvin ordered 3 popular dishes for us from the menu: Chinese pork curry with rice, fried baby pigeon, and Macanese crispy buns with condensed milk (which we later found out are a dessert after we started eating them with our curry). The food was delicious, and it was interesting to talk to Kelvin about traditions in Hong Kong and the lifestyle here. It was particularly fascinating to hear first hand about the distinction between Hong Kong to China, the dislike between them and the Umbrella Movement. We felt very privileged to be able to learn so much about the culture in Hong Kong from someone who was also keen to learn about England.

Our second full day in Hong Kong was a bit more relaxed. After moving to our second hotel, we got the MTR to the Ladies Market in search of a new watch for Max (his having broken) and new sunglasses for Steph (hers having drowned in Sydney Harbour). We were slightly disappointed with the market and didn't make any purchases.

Next, the MTR took us across to Hong Kong Island once again to visit Hong Kong Park. It was nice to spend some time relaxing in the botanical gardens amidst the skyscrapers.

Before travelling we booked a tour of China for 18 days, and this evening it was time to meet our guide and group. With the experiences we've gained, in hindsight we believe we could have travelled China on our own. However, for the first time in 5 months it's quite luxurious to have someone organise things like accommodation and transportation for us, especially squeezing so many places to see and things to do in such a short time frame.

So, our group. There's 18 of us, the majority being British! We weren't expecting this so it's been nice to speak to a lot of people from back home, many of which only left London a day or so ago. It seems like a great bunch so we're looking forward to beginning our trip to Mainland China tomorrow.

Hong Kong is a breathtaking city with amazing people, food and traditional Chinese culture mixed in with modern day skyscrapers and a young, fashionable scene. It's easy to fall in love with this place.

Steph and Max x