Arriving into Hong Kong was very exciting, it was the first place I came to from the UK when I travelled at 18. At the time it was like a culture shock, but I remember loving the buzz of the place. I was excited to see if it was how I remembered it and glad to have longer to explore, having only had a 48 hour lay over there previously. It was also exciting to be somewhere I had been before and Dave hadn’t, most of our trip Dave had a bit of familiarity with some places due to travelling with his Dad when he was younger. Due to flight arrangements with booking our round the world ticket flights we ended up having about a week in Hong Kong before we had to make our way to China. This was lucky as Hong Kong was the only place on our trip that we were able to arrange a visa for China in without too much hassle or expense. We were also going to have a few days after our China tour back in Hong Kong. Hong Kong itself is not overly budget backpacker friendly. We had to pre-book hostels in advance to get a decent enough deal at some of the nicer rated budget places. Due to having a week before our China trip we decided we were going to split our time between the two main islands- Kowloon and Hong Kong Island in order to experience staying in both places.
We arrived into the international airport a few hours after leaving Japan, after a reasonably uncomfortable journey. The airport itself is based on its own island just off of Lantau Island, connected by roads to Kowloon. There are several options of buses and taxis to be able to take you to different places in Hong Kong, depending on where you are staying. We found the ticket office for Bus 21 just outside the arrivals hall to the right, purchased our tickets (33HKD) and then made our way to the bus terminal, finding the 21 bus. We watched the views along the road, before we headed into the hustle and bustle of the city itself. At stop 16 (Moody Road) we got off after a very straight forward and comfortable journey as this was the closest place to our hostel- the Hop Inn. We dropped off our bags before heading to Forever Bright Visa- a place to get our Chinese visas. Finding the office itself in a random shopping mall/office building in Hong Kong was stressful. Eventually we asked at an information desk and they showed us where to get the lift and took us to the right floor. The whole process was stressful and long just to be able to put the paperwork in. I ended up filling the forms out when we were eventually seen and then Dave had to go back to check in to the hostel as they needed to see our passports and the visa company required to keep our passports for the visa process. The chinese visa is reknowed for being difficult to get due to them often rejecting them for certain discrepencies in pictures, amount of pages or places you have been. Despite having taken a picture prior to arriving in Japan that met requirements they did not feel that mine met requirements so I had to take another there and they also stated that they didn’t think Dave’s would necessarily pass due to it having a bit of water damage. We left the office at 6.15pm, after a very stressful start to our time in Hong Kong. This also left us anxiously waiting for visas- hoping that they would come through in time for the start of our already paid for tour trip at the end of the week. But all we could do was wait and try to enjoy Hong Kong. Due to being hungry and stressed we found a strangely weird but fancy McDonalds Café in Mandarin Plaza and tucked into Mac and Cheese Toasties (28 HKD) and value cappuccinos (14 HKD). After this we returned to the hostel to relax for a while.
The Hop Inn is based in central Tsim Sha Tsui Which is great to get around the city close to metro terminals, the ferry crossing as well as just central Kowloon area. Like many hostels in Hong Kong, you find a small sign and then make your way into a building and a small lift. From there you will find the hostel on one of the floors. They tend to be quite small, like most building in Hong Kong due to having to fit so many people in such a small space. The Hop inn was pleasant though- well decorated and cosy with books, games and artwork. It had a small communal area, a few different dormitory rooms, a small area to make food and bathrooms. In the evening we made our way down to the front of the waterside and looked out over across the bay towards Hong Kong Island. We watched the famous Symphony of Lights, which still impressively light up the skyline across the bay each evening. We headed to wander along the avenue of stars, similar to that in Hollywood, which I remembered from my previous trip however during our time there it was closed for renovation. We spent the rest of the evening soaking in the diversity of Hong Kong in the Tsim Shu East area, with its modern signage, expensive cars and street stall sellers before heading back to the hostel for a cheap dinner.
After a slightly later start to the day we headed out in search of breakfast. We wandered around for a while before picking up bakery items and coffee at a Break Talk before taking them to eat in Kowloon Park. Kowloon park was a lovely hide away of greenery and tall trees in the busy city. It was peaceful but also busy with people doing exercises, Muslim women reading and reciting religious texts and school children on a trip. One of the school children approached us asking for a picture with us and also gave us a small origami star which made her day. We also found Hong Kong’s Avenue of Comic Stars there, full of bright, colourful life size statues of comic and anime characters which was fun. From here we continued moseying along Nathan Road, the main road on Kowloon, popping in and out of shops and just taking everything in. We spent time looking in Uniqlo and a Japanese shop in Mira Place 2 before making our way up to Mong Kok area. Here we found Sini City, which was Dave’s idea of heaven filled to the brim with different camera stalls and products. Requiring a bit of a rest and a refuel we stopped in JCO Donuts and Coffee, for exactly that as they looking delicious. (Donuts and cappuccino 15HKD each). Whilst in Mong Kok we explored the Ladies Market, which is filled with lots of fashion accessories and clothing, as well as randomly pet shops! We snuck behind the market stalls to find some food at a local chinese restaurant with tempting smells and pictures. We had some mouth watering lo mien which had noodles in soup with shrimp and pork wontons on top. To walk off lunch we went to explore the flower market, which was a little disappointing as it tended to be more shops so instead headed to try to find the electronics market on Abuk street which just wasn’t there. Instead we made our way back to the hostel to catch up on notes before taking some washing to Ching King Mansions to do at the machines. This place is a hive for anything and everything, as well as being where I had my room when I stayed at 18.
Once back at the hostel we got chatting to some fellow European guys (a German, an Italian and a Czech guy) as well as an Argentinian and a Canadian (Jan, Marco, Juan, Pablo and Brett). We went out and grabbed slices of pizza at palisanos which were incredible before heading out to a local bar with them for some drinks. Due to our budget we had just 1 drink (7HKD), and they had many but we still all ended up back at the hostel at 2am after having a fun evening.
The next morning we chatted to the guys in the hostel for a bit before heading out to get some breakfast. We attempted to go to Australia Dairy, which is well known for its breakfast but the line was ridiculous so we ended up back in the McDonalds café for a good and cheap breakfast. Filled up we took the subway from Jordon to Admiralty on Hong Kong Island (10.50HKD). There we found great views of the harbour but it was incredibly hot. As we were wandering around we stumbled on the outdoor Wine and Dine festival, which was free entry. We purchase some tokens which we could use to buy drinks and food and walked using our tokens to sample some wines and a tequila called Padre from Georgia which was amazing. Very unexpected but enjoyable and all the food smelt delicious. Due to being hungry, but not able to afford anything at the festival we food a local Yoshinoya for lunch. As we wandered around central we saw a lot of Filipino woman around in large groups, particularly at the parks, apparently it is was the standard day off for them. There are also a lot of them living on the streets too. We made our way up some of the steeper streets to the Botanic Gardens and Zoo which are free and filled with monkeys, birds and also some sad looking orang-utans. Eventually we headed back to Kowloon, this time taking the Star Ferry back over (3.70 HKD as it was a Sunday). We had pot noodle dinner, whilst applying for jobs for home before heading out to watch the evening light show again along the waterfront.
Starbucks ended up providing breakfast the next morning with an egg cup and apricot breakfast croissant. We then walked in the sun along the peer, front a decent way towards Hung Hom area looking at the different commercial boats. We looked around the Wampao shopping area which outside is decorated like a boat before we took the MRT back to Tsim Sha Tsui. We hid away from the afternoon sun at the hostel, having a pot noodle and tea before collecting our bags and making our way to Yes Inn Hostel at Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island for the second part of our week. This was the hostel we would be meeting the rest of our Dragon Trip tour group for China at the end of our week. It was definitely more of a traditional hostel than our previous one, taking up and entire part of a building, multiple floors, a communal lounge, communal rooftop and large dorms. After an easy trip there we checked in and explored the area. We found a lovely coffee shop for a flat white- Coffee Academics (45 HKD) and treated ourselves before heading back to the hostel. We chilled out in the communal area and got talking to a guy named Sergio for a while before heading to a local restaurant close to the hostel for dumplings. We ordered some soup dumpings and stumbled our way around eating dumplings filled with boiling hot soup. Logistical nightmare but delicious! On returning to the hotel we checked out the rooftop communal area, where we found a few people, including Sergio, chatting and drinking beers, so we joined them. We had a fun evening drinking beer, chatting about inappropriate topics and playing Cheers to the Governor. One of the guys got quite drunk, decided to try to start on Dave mildly before wandering around the stairwells half asleep.
The following morning, the hangover hurt so we slept until about 10 before getting a Mcdonald's breakfast. We got the MRT back over to Tsim Sha Shui as our visas had thankfully come through and we had to pick them up. That definitely helped the hangover as well as a celebratory pizza slice lunch. We had a very quiet rest of the day back at the hostel. We met a few people that were going to be joining us at the rooftop area before napping. We found some steamed buns before packing our bags ready to head on our tour the next day. The evening was very quiet watching Louis Theroux and getting some McNuggets with some interesting different sauces.
The next morning we were joining our Dragon Trip tour and heading off to China, which was daunting!
Alex
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