A 4:15 am wake up call is never any fun, especially when it entails a 30 min walk, a metro, a bus and then a plane! However, ending up in Hong Kong at the end of that isn’t too bad! My friend, Anna, moved to Hong Kong a few months ago, so we were looking forward to our first friendly face from home! We headed over to Soho for dinner with Anna, and two of her friends. Soho was buzzing and gave me a good snapshot of the busy social life that Hong Kong has to offer. After some yummy Vietnamese food, we hit the hay, exhausted after our early start!
The next day we headed for Central to have a look at the shops. Hong Kong is a little overwhelming when you’re trying to find your way around, and certainly very different from the organised, well laid out Japanese cities we had been in. I think a shopping trip to HK may be required in the future…you could fill suitcases!! That evening we headed for Kowloon to see the famous Symphony of Lights. The skyscraper skyline is impressive enough when it’s not lit up, and spectacular when it is.
One of the must do activities in Hong Kong is to see the view of the city from Victoria Peak. Now normally we would walk up to the top of any park, but the Peak Team is an excellent way to get to the top. Despite queuing for what felt like eternity, we hopped on the tram and were hauled all the way to the top. It’s an impressive feat of engineering considering how steep it is! The views are more stunning than I expected and the sun came out just as we got to the top. Lucky us! 🙂 After another tram trip down we headed for the ferry to take us to Lantau Island, which has a 5.7 km long cable car that brings you to Tian Tan ‘Big Buddha’ and the Po Lin Monastery. The Buddha is, as promised, big! We had just enough time to get in the queue for the last cable car down, but had to queue for a second eternity of the day!!
That evening we met Anna and her housemate Tanja again and went to Temple Street Night Market to check out the stalls. It’s a shame we didn’t need any socks, silk bags or phone cases, because they were plentiful. On our way to sample some local hotpot, we passed by the open air karaoke stalls and fortune tellers, but were too sober to partake in either!
The weather was a bit rubbish on Saturday, so we headed to the outlet shopping centre at Tung Chung, but before that, we decided to get some brunch at The Flying Pan. This American style diner does the most obscenely large breakfasts, which left us slightly comatose and very full 🙂 Maybe high on the sugar we may have gone mad and purchased some running gear! It was so tempting to just kit ourselves out with all new stuff, but I showed great restraint, and just picked a new pair of shorts. The shopping centre was heaving with folks trying to pick up a bargain, most of them with empty suitcases ready to fill with their new purchases.
Since we now had new gear, we got the ferry the next day to Lamma island for a run. Graham has been cycling there before, and failed to mention that it’s basically just full of mountains! We came across some steps up to a peak and couldn’t resist a run to the top (may have required some walking). Despite nearly throwing up, the view from the top was worth the effort. We rewarded ourselves with lunch and a cold beer in Sok Kwu Wan village.
That evening it was time to pack for our trip to Vietnam. Hanoi here we come!!
-F xx
Travel in Trainers 