Hong Kong

Our flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong had a short stop-over in Bejing, and we arrived there right on time. We were all very casual and relaxed as we made our way to the transfer area, but we were forced to pass through immigration.

I assumed Hong Kong would be an Internal Transfer, but in fact it's still regarded as an International Transfer (Hong Kong will remain a special region until 2050 I think). That confusion caused us to be delayed quite a bit, and we had to get manually written boarding cards for our connecting flight to Hong Kong, which caused further delay, by which time I was getting quite anxious about catching our flight. As it turned out the airline staff simply moved us onto a later flight, leaving us with about 1.5 hours to kill in the airport (as it turned out we could just have caught the original flight, but the staff were right to play it cautiously I suppose). The huge Bejing airport (or the section we were in anyway) was almost completely deserted, which was all a bit eery really.

This was my 3rd time in Hong Kong, and it still captivates me every time. Again our cheap flights meant we arrived very late at night, but Hong Kong's public transport system must be one of the best in the world. It was easy-peasy (and cheap) to catch a bus directly to the city, and we arrived at 2am on a normal Tuesday morning to streets flooded with crowds of people.

It was a bit of a job to find the correct entrance to our hostel (Ah Shan Hostel in Mongkok), as it was on the 14th floor of a skyscraper and had no signage on street level. But once we'd woken the owner (by simply banging loudly on the door of her tiny little room), we were checked-in and relaxing in a great little room.

So the next 5 days were spent doing all the usual Hong Kong things, and using the brilliantly helpful free walking-tour guidebook provided in the airport. So it was great just strolling around refamiliarising myself with all my favorite places, like the huge avary, the escalators, the Green Star ferry, etc. This time I also popped into my favorite building in the world (the IFC Tower 2) to pop up to the observation deck to see the city views, and also an interesting presentation on world currencys.

Of course we strolled around the Peak trail, and of course we didn't pay the pointless extra charge to climb up the new SkyTower (the views from the free trail are much better). I had a relaxing coffee reading the paper and using the free internet at the brilliantly positioned Pacific Coast Coffee house at the base of the SkyTower that looks down on the city (definitely the best value view on the Peak, as you can just pay for a coffee and have the same view as all the rip-off touristy restaurants).

We had a great meal at the Peking Restaurant, which specialises in Peking Duck. Although I thought the food was no better than a good Chinese back home, the atmosphere in this restaurant was brilliant, as we were the only non-Chinese people there, and everyone eats at shared big round tables (and Sarah got an impromptu chopsticks lesson from one of the really friendly 'auld lads beside us).

I tried to go back to one of the best restaurants in Hong Kong at the Langham Hotel (which apparently recently received 2 Michellin stars), where we'd had a fantastic dinner the last time here, but unfortunately when we arrived it was fully booked. We did get to eat twice at another of my favorite Hong Kong instituions though, the chaotic but delicious Kau Kee on Gough Street (mentioned in this interesting looking web page, which I'll need to consult for my next trip).

We also popped into the famous Felix bar in the Peninsula Hotel, but didn't stay long this time, strolled about the convention centre and the new walkway of famous Hong Kong celebrities (cool bronze statue of Bruce Lee), and saw the very underwhelming nighttime laser show across the city. I was thinking of maybe getting to Macau this time, but again we just didn't have time.

So after another hectic 5-day tour of Hong Kong it still just seemed to whet my appetite for this amazing city, and strengthened my ideal of one day living here for a bit. But all too soon we were catching the bus back to the airport and hopping on another flight, this time bound for Bangkok.