Hong Kong Phooey

After eight days of relaxing and roughin' it in the Philippines we were all looking forward to our trip to Hong Kong. We were anxious to see another major city and compare it to Seoul, which we have all finally grown complacent with, and we were definitely looking forward to electricity and hot water.

We arrived in Hong Kong at 5:30 in the afternoon and the first thing I did was buy a new camera (mine finally died while we were in the Philippines). Then we unsuccessfully tried to get money out of the ATM before giving up and deciding to head to the hotel to throw our stuff down first. Before we left Korea I found the best/cheapest/most popular places backpackers usual stay and how to get there from the airport. We easily found the bus and headed toward the city. This is the first picture we saw of the buildings of Hong Kong and honestly at first I was little disappointed because it looked so much like Seoul. Little did I know we weren't even close to downtown and the spectacular skyline that was awaiting us.

This is where we stayed, well entrance to where we stayed. This mansion is really just a big building with guest houses all individually owned by different people on each floor. We all stayed in a room smaller than my side of the dorm room with a fridge and a sketchy looking bathroom in the corner. I was less than thrilled but there was air conditioning, a tv, and the lady said they had hot water so we said okay (again, there was no hot water). We tried looking at another place the next day, but it was way more expensive than this place, and we were already a step up from where we stayed in the Philippines so we decided to stick it out and rough it for four more days.

This was our first view of the city from the Star Ferry. When we arrived at the "mansion" we hadn't seen the big skyline yet. So when we got a taxi to take us to the ferry terminal and saw this, it literally took my breath away. The big tall building with the white lights on top is the IFC building, or what we called "the Batman." It's where they filmed the Hong Kong scenes in The Dark Knight.

On the ferry crossing from Kowloon Island to Hong Kong Island. The ferry was cheaper than the buses and the subway with a much better view!

This is the style of the public transit buses for Hong Kong. Since Hong Kong was a British territory for so long they had the double-decker buses and drive on the left side of the road. It was such a strange feeling, I seriously felt like we were going to have a head-on collision a couple of times.

This is the Lan Kwai Fong district. We went because it apparently has some of the best bars and night life in Hong Kong, but turns out it was also the foreigners' district.

The Stanley Street Market could give you souvenir overload but the places seemed more authentic than the stores and stands in the city. We walked the streets for several hours despite the heat. Everything was just so cheap, and we had to stop ourselves from buying everything. We did get a couple of good souvenirs to send home though!

This is on the other side of the Stanley Street Market. The waterfront was lined with cute little shops, bars and restaurants. We stopped and had a beer after battling the heat all afternoon and enjoyed the waterfront. It was such a different vibe from the city of Hong Kong and you almost forgot you were in Asia for a second. Don't know if that is a good or bad thing, but it's just how it seemed.

Next we went to Victoria's Peak. We wanted to make sure to go before dark so we could see the skyline in both the day and night. Too bad it was a cloudy day, but it's still an amazing view. While we waited for it to turn dark, we went inside the shopping center at the peak to eat dinner (there is a mall/shopping center everywhere in Hong Kong). While we were eating, a huge thunderstorm rolled in and we had a front row seat. The storm got so bad we couldn't even see out the windows. I prayed it would stop so I could get some pictures of the skyline at night, after all that was the main reason to come to The Peak.

Luckily it finally stopped raining and we went to the top viewing deck of the shopping center to take some pictures. However it did not stop lightning and thundering. But it was worth it for this view...

...And this was the view with lightning striking behind me and illuminating the whole city.

Loved this picture of us in front of the city. I mean, look at that view, if it wasn't lightning I would have stayed up there all night.

WAR EAGLE, HEY! This was at a bar in the Lan Kwai Fong district. I was so excited I started singing Weagle, Weagle, really loud. Can't believe football season starts next week, everyone better keep us posted!

The view of Hong Kong Island from Kowloon Island. The skyline is so big, I still didn't get everything in.

Looking towards Hong Kong Island on the Avenue of the Stars.

Derek and the Bruce Lee monument on the Avenue of the Stars. They also had celebrity hand prints and names on the river walk kinda like the Walk Of Fame in Hollywood.

This is Hong Kong Park. And, although it was a pain to get to (no thanks to the Lonely Planet) it was a really cool park with ponds, waterfalls, fountains, conservatory, aviary, museum and several restaurants. It was definitely worth the hassle.

At the top of some big tall tower thing they had in the park. It was exactly 105 steps up a giant spiral staircase (it had a sign telling us that, although I had to count to make sure it was correct).

The IFC Building (aka The Batman) at night. We had drinks at happy hour and enjoyed the sunset from the rooftop restaurant they had there.

On Lantau Island in the cable car heading up to see the Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha.

At the entrance to the shopping village before you get to the monastery and Buddha (seriously malls everywhere).

View of the monastery and the Buddha. The monastery is fairly new, founded in 1906. Luckily the monastery and Buddha were a nice distance from the entrance and the shopping village.

The Tian Tan Buddha, the largest seated, bronze Buddha in the world.

Very nice! ...High five!!

This was at the Temple Street Night Market. It was very similar to the Stanley Street Market but much bigger. These people loved to haggle too. Derek talked a woman down $150 Hong Kong Dollars for this really cool mask. We ended up paying about $20 US dollars for it in the end. This is at a restaurant we ate at both nights we came to the market. They had great food and as you can see in the picture, PBR! This was my favorite place we ate while in Hong Kong and it was a great way to spend our last night in the city.

We had to get up really early the next day to catch our 9:00 flight back to Seoul. We weren't looking forward to going back to Seoul after the amazing trip in Hong Kong. It was just so easy in Hong Kong, everyone spoke English, they had all kinds of international foods and beers, great shopping and we knew we would be back to struggling to communicate with everyone and rice & kimchi. We arrived in Seoul safely and luckily all our luggage arrived. By this point Derek and I were exhausted so we bit the bullet and paid for a cab back to the island so we could get home as quick as possible. We immediately crashed for the night. Unfortunately that was all the time we got to recuperate because we both started week long summer camps the next day. But more about that in the next post.