BootsnAll Travel Network



Big City, Small Girl

I’m in Hong Kong! It was a one hour bus ride from the airport to the city. The route included crossing over a massive bridge (Tsing Ma) and a lovely view of Hong Kongs oh so many skyscrapers. We got to the city around rush hour so the city was swarming with people. Big city – tons of double decker buses, taxis, high-end shops, restaurants, skycrapers….I felt so small just walking around. My cousin Sheena would love it here – being a fashionable city girl herself. Anyway, I checked in at one of the many hostels in Chungking Mansions (Kowloon). Got myself a cell-like room which included a/c, my own bathroom, a tv for HKD 150 a night ($20 USD). It’s freakin’ expensive here – definitely a huge change coming from Cambodia and paying only $2 USD a night. In addition to Cantonese, English is also spoken widely here, which makes things a lot easier for me 🙂

   

Had a full day of site seeing:

Victoria Peak – Took a tram to the top – the city view from here could of been better without all the gloom.

Ten Thousand Buddha Monastery – They weren’t kidding, tons of buddhas statues displayed. Even as you go up the gazillion steps to get to the top – very nice.

Hong Kong Space Museum – Watched the sky show “Odyssey to Space”

and ended the day with an awesome view of Hong Kong Island at night from the Star Ferry Pier. The city lights were stunning! I’ve never seen anything like it.

So here in Hong Kong they have what’s called an “Octopus Pass”. The metro, the ferry, cable cars, buses can all be paid with this one transit card. In addition, you can use it at convenient stores – pretty cool eh? I’m guessing that’s why they call it the Octopus Pass – ya? Traveling today I’ve already been on a bus, a tram, and the metro. I found it pretty easy – which is surprising for a non-city girl. The public transit system back home can sure use a system like this.

By the end of the day I was in search for some Chinese food. I found a restaurant a few blocks from my hostel. I came in with an empty stomach and sadly left with an empty stomach because the service sucked that bad! I sat down at a table and it took 20 minutes (i timed it) for a waitress to come over – and the only reason why she came over was because I flagged her down. The waitress gets to my table, I open the menu to show her what I want and before I could even order she steps away to clean up a table across from me. I really didn’t get it. I figured I’d give her a few minutes – but 5 minutes went by and I just couldn’t sit there anymore so I left. Good thing though – because down one block was a little restaurant packed with locals. The waiters shouted “Welcome, come in come in, sit sit” as I stood at the door. I had some roasted geese with bakchoy and rice. It was scrumptious! Good food, Good service and cheap! (HKD 37).

Tomorrow, will be my last full day in Hong Kong – not sure what I plan on doing….I might go to Lantau Island to see the Giant Buddha and then take the ferry back to Hong Kong Island for a stroll in the city.



Tags:

One response to “Big City, Small Girl”

  1. sheena says:

    I would love to go to HK someday (and all the other places you visited). You know me girl, I love cities! Enjoy the noise, it’s unique to every city around the world. 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *