He Says;
So our time in Hong Kong has come to an end… and even though it only lasted 3 days, the whole experience was far beyond what I expected.
Over the course of our time here we got guided tours amounting to around 10 hours in total, which were both informative and very friendly. One day had us going around the island of Hong Kong, showing us the more central, richer part of the city, with looming modern sky scrapers and multiple Ferrari’s and McLaren’s driving past our rickety old tour bus.
The other day of tours had us going around the more ‘common’ part of Hong Kong, called Kowloon. This area was made of much more lower standard housing complexes, and spaced around were also the much older buildings, with many temples and green spaces also occupying these areas.
One of the more delightful experiences during our time here though was the down time, as this allowed to explore Hong Kong on our own terms. Me and Vicky made an effort to get a bus to one side of the city, and then walk the ‘1 hour‘ journey back to the hotel, while attempting to explore as many side streets as possible on the way back. It took 4 hours. Although it was longer than anticipated, we feel like we saw more of the real HK this way, even stopping to eat at a small cafe on some random side street that had barely any English on the menu (very proud of Vicky for managing to actually eat something here!).
So all in all its been a great few days, exploring an incredibly cultural city, seeing some incredible sites, and making some great friends along the way. Sadly this also means that now is the time we must say goodbye to 12 of our new friends as they venture on to Sydney, and the remaining 15 go on with us to Auckland.
It’s finally time for the main adventure to begin.
So long Hong Kong. New Zealand, here we come!
She Says;
So it is time to say goodbye to Hong Kong. It has been a fantastic experience, as the tour guide was very knowledgeable. What I have learnt from my experience:
- Do not let Ryan guide you back without expecting him to want to explore.
- That there are lots of green places in Hong Kong (70% rural) and that they are filled with wildlife. We saw several different birds and even a few wild pigs 🙂
- There is a McDonald’s, every 100m it seems like, but not all are 24 hours (unfortunately: leading to us walking over 30 minutes from one to another on one night)
- Alcohol is expensive : over £10 a pint
- There are more than two parts to Hong Kong: Hong Kong city, Kowloon, and the New Territories.
- They really like the English Education System, sending their kids over from as young as 11.
- They go to Uni for four years (from 17) and are expected to study one year abroad.
- They buy fresh, so there is lots of fish with eyes or even still alive in shop windows, as well as whole bodies of pigs :s
- There very religious so if you visit Hong Kong visiting a Temple is must
- There are no Casinos in Hong Kong, they only bet on horse racing.
- The symphony of lights is worth a watch
- Friday Nights are for Friends, Saturdays are for Family and Sundays are for relaxing.
- Food wise: All of the animal is cooked. Chicken is regularly boiled, still tastes the same but texture is not as nice. They serve you heads of birds as a treat. The Chinese I have at home is completely different from Hong Kong Chinese. Try everything with your eyes closed. ( I am very glad I haven’t had to try out my charcoal tablets).
So that is a quick summary of some of the discoveries we made. I’m quite glad to be getting on an 11 hour flight as it will give my feet time to recover from all our exploring. So long! Until next time 🙂
He says, She Says 