I wish my visit to Hong Kong had been longer, 36 hours fly by quickly. In September 2017, I spent a month visiting a lifelong friend in Taipei. One of my goals while in Taiwan was to visit another country or large city. Hong Kong was close and the tickets were relatively cheap. So three of us decided to embark on a whirlwind tour.
We caught the last flight out of Taipei on a Thursday and arrived in Hong Kong just before midnight. There is a certain thrill to navigating a new city. Figuring out the currency and transportation system is like working out a giant puzzle. If you ever decide to fly to Hong Kong, I would suggest picking a flight with an earlier arrival time. The MTR Airport Express train which takes you all the way to the Central Station on Hong Kong Island stops running shortly after midnight. We had to take the double-decker night bus which stops at every imaginable stop. I tracked our location on my phone and watched as we made circles on the island where the Hong Kong International Airport is located. After at least 30 minutes, we finally made it off the island.
Our Airbnb was located in Tsim Sha Tsui, a few blocks off of Nathan Road. At 3am, we walked down our street which was littered with trash, and had people lurking in dark doorways, and suspected that we were staying in a sketchy neighborhood. Our host graciously had someone at the building to let us into our room in the middle of the night.
To best enjoy our time in Hong Kong, we slept until 9am and then started our day refreshed. Stop number one was caffeine. At home, I don’t frequent Starbucks, but on the road, I love the iconic brand. The closest Starbucks was a few blocks away and sipping on a hot black tea latte and people watching as they made their way to the MTR was the perfect start to the day. I think I even spotted two off duty models dressed in all black.
I had planned a rough itinerary for our day and we took the crowded MTR to Central Station. After gawking at the massive buildings in the financial district and watching people rush about in their well-cut business attire, we made our way to the Peak Tram. The Peak is on the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island and boasts numerous shops, restaurants, and walkways. It is a great spot to spend a few hours and get a fantastic view of Hong Kong and Victoria Harbour.
When traveling, I like to think about what I would do on my next visit. For there is so much information about a place that can only be gathered in person. And it is this first-hand experience that is the basis for planning the perfect excursion. Next time I visit Hong Kong and go to the Peak, I want to hike back down into the city. We walked down a section of trail and it was absolutely gorgeous.
It was a gently slopping paved walkway, lined with trees and a stunning vista of the city and harbor. The entire trail would have taken several hours and we had not budgeted the time in our schedule.
Instead of hiking back to the city, we caught a bus. I am glad we did. As we made our way down the mountain, we saw parts of the island that we would have otherwise missed. The ocean, a brilliant blue for as far as the key could see, lay to the south. Tucked between switchbacks, were skyscrapers impossibly perched on mountainsides. Gradually the mountain gave way to skyscrapers and we found ourselves back in the financial district.
One of the activities I enjoy while traveling is visiting parks. So we spent time in Hong Kong Park and Tamar Park on the banks of Victoria Harbor. The memory that is the clearest from our wanderings in Hong Kong Park is the fountain. It was shaped like a giant mushroom with a circular bench around the stem. There was room underneath the dome to stand without getting wet.
But where is the fun in that? I ran around the circumference of the fountain multiple times with my hand outstretched and running through the water. It was quite refreshing after the tropical heat.
On the way to Tamar Park, we got lost multiple times. On the map, it looked like it was only a few blocks away. Three blocks on surface-level streets are easy enough, but when you have to navigate multilevel underground malls, an MTR station, catwalks over busy roads, and sidewalks wrapped around governmental buildings, it gets confusing. But we finally made it to the harbor where we had a great view of Tsim Sha Tsui across the water, Hong Kong behind us, and boats ferrying people between the two places.
As evening approached we made our way back to Tsim Sha Tsui so that we could get a better view of the Hong Kong skyline as the sunset and the city became a dazzling display of lights.
On the way back to our Airbnb, we stopped for a Korean BBQ at a restaurant located on the 5th floor of a building that had a different restaurant on each floor. While looking for a place to eat, I was only looking at establishments on the ground floor. It didn’t occur to me to look up, even though there were giant signs on buildings advertising the restaurants located inside. Fortunately, my friend who lives in Taiwan knew how to spot the restaurants and found us a place before we expired from hunger.
After dinner, the Temple Street Night Market was in full swing on our street. This explained why the street was littered with trash at 3am the night of our arrival. The night market was different than the Taiwanese night markets I was accustomed to. There were more knockoff goods of brands that I actually recognized. I decided to purchase a pair of TOMS shoes and found a pair I liked. The lady had to run back to a store somewhere to get my size. But then I was the proud owner of a pair of navy, sized 42 TOMS, for the low price of $15 USD. The next day, on the way to the airport, the insoles of my new shoes kept on slipping around. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that there was a second pair of insoles in the shoes. When I took them out, it became evident that my size 42 shoes were actually 43. I had a good laugh and continued to walk through the airport in my too-big shoes.
maryghawley 