Hello Hong Kong!

On 23 February 2016 we embarked upon our much anticipated holiday in Asia. To while away the hours of flight I watched two wonderful movies: Jurassic World and The Martian, both of which kept me glued to my seat. And I saw the most fabulous documentary entitled Stone Age Cinema about the drawings in prehistoric caves in France and Spain, and how the actions portrayed in those drawings are the very first examples of moving pictures.

We arrived in Hong Kong around midnight and cabbed it to our hotel, the luxurious Marco Polo Prince in Canton Road. The next few days were full: walking kilometres each day to experience iconic Hong Kong sights like the Star Ferry, Temple Street Night Markets, Nathan Road and the Ladies’ Market. We took the Hop-on Hop-off Bus for two of those days and explored Hong Kong Island including the coastal town of Stanley where we visited the market and lunched on local Chinese food at the beach.

On our last day we walked from the Island wharf into the city and caught the Mid-levels Escalator, a series of travellators and escalators, up almost 800 metres over the bustling city beneath, and then walked back down through narrow laneways overflowing with fresh vegetables and kerbside cafes and bars - to the wharf. There we spent an enjoyable hour or so touring the state-of-the-art Hong Kong Maritime Museum and shouting ourselves to an exorbitant morning tea – two scones with coffee cost $19!

Hong Kong is not the bargain city it was back in the 1990s and the plush multi-storey shopping complexes are lined with hundreds of expensive designer label shops. Breakfast was interesting and varied between McCafe, Starbucks and the local Café de Coral. We ate fabulous Chinese food at Relax for a While Chinese Restaurant in the back blocks of Nathan Road, and enjoyed healthy salads at a very American steakhouse called Dan Ryan's. There we sat beneath a taxidermy Jackalope – a rabbit with antlers. Upon checking it out on Wikipedia we discovered the so-called cross between a Jack Rabbit and Antelope is in fact an urban legend. Pity.

We so enjoyed the vibrancy of this colourful cosmopolitan city which comes alive after 11am and stays that way until well into the night!

Colourful arcades on Nathan Road

 

Sculpture donated by a local Rotary International Club

 

Historic 1880 hotel in Canton Road

 

 

Tamar - couldn't resist it!

The start of the 800 metre long Mid-levels Escalator

 

On the Mid-levels Escalator

 

Room with a view from the Mid-levels Escalator

 

Fruit and veggie markets on Hong Kong Island

 

Some of the many colourful exhibits throughout the city

 

 

Hong Kong Maritime Museum

 

Jackalope

  

 

At Starbucks

 

Lunch at Stanley

A model train shop, of course!