Hong Kong Phewy

We got out of Vietnam, all of our limbs just about intact and flew to Hong Kong on 4th March for five days.

We had planned to explore the city and also some trekking for the best views of the legendary skyline.

We hadn't planned on the weather.

Grey skies, fog and rain.

We could have been in Glasgow (although it seemed like there were less Chinese restaurants in HK than there are in Glasgow).

So we did our best and managed to soak up the atmosphere of this incredible place. We stayed on Hong Kong Island, in the Wan Chai district, a bustling area of high rise apartment blocks, shopping and restaurants.  Noisy but relaxing at the same time.  This was actually something we felt throughout our stay in HK - despite the incredible energy and crazy population density (in the top 5 in the world) - the place has a strange serenity which we really liked.

Everything works so well and is unbelievably clean.  So much so, than one day we were eating sandwiches in the main railway station and we actually cleaned up our crumbs off the floor as we didn't feel right making a mess! Hong Kong, a city so clean that you can literally eat your food of the floor.

So our our first morning, we caught the Star Ferry over to Kowloon Island.

11am, this was the view.  Dark and moody and rapidly disappearing.  David Copperfield would have been impressed.

But by the evening, the weather had improved and we were lucky enough to see the iconic skyline and Light Show.  Amazing experience.

The following day, we spent on Hong Kong Island, first on the HK equivalent of the London Eye, then going up to the HK Central Bank Museum which has amazing views from its 46th Floor.  The rest of the day was spent on the Central–Mid-Levels escalator and walkway system which is the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. The system covers over 800 metres  in distance with an elevation of over 135 metres from bottom to top.  It's quite amazing, it is a commuter system for the city and helps hundreds of thousands of people get to and from the Financial district each day.

The weather on the 3rd day was supposed to be slightly better so we got up early and started hiking to the top of Victoria Peak, the famous viewpoint which gives stunning views of the bay and skyline.

This is what it usually looks like:

This is what we saw.

A 4 hour hike with a damp ending, but at least we saw some views on the great walk up...

We consoled ourselves with some great DimSum for dinner and a walk the city.

When the rain got too heavy, we also  hit a couple of great museums, The Science Museum and The Space Museum, both of which the kids really enjoyed and are definitely recommended for rainy HK days.

To summarise Hong Kong, we certainly didn't see the best of it, it was a real shame about the weather but as we have learnt on our travels, there really isn't anything that we can do when nature conspires against us.  It's impossible to be in the right place at the right time, all of the time, and sometimes we just have to make the best of things.  We still had a great time but left with the feeling that it could have been a whole lot better.

Hong Kong marked the end of our the South-East Asia leg of our travels.  We spent over 4.5 months which had taken us to Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and finally Hong Kong.  So many amazing experiences, some tough moments and countless memories.

On 9th March, we boarded a Qantas plane bound for New Zealand, pretty much as far away as we could get, excited about what the next 2 months are going to bring.