12:55 Sat.
2 Jan, 2016

500m Above the City

Last day

Tags: , ,
Hong Kong , China
20 °C
Partly Cloudy
7:03 am
5:51 pm

Friday was our last (full) day in Hong Kong. We woke up early (at around 9 AM :D), there was still thousands of things we wanted to see and do. When we arrived to the main island it was already around 11AM so we decided to go and try a Korean cuisine. We arrived to the restaurant just before lunch rush hour so we could actually get the seats without waiting.

Again in this restaurant we cooked our own food. I just love this concept, too bad we don’t have it in Slovenia! We were seated at the table with “hot stone” burner in the middle, got some vegetables to put on and then meat and seafood as we ate. The food was really really good (maybe because we made it? =) ). I especially liked the meats with good spices and side dishes.

Korean food
Korean food. One of my favourite parts of Hong Kong – the hot pot.

After we ate we had another check box to tick from our TODO list; ride in a tram. While this looked interesting at first we soon regretted it. The tram was really narrow, almost half the width of a normal bus and as this is Hong Kong – full of people, we were packed in it as sardines. After short ride with the tram we transferred to a bus and drove about half an hour to the edge of the Hong Kong (country/region) to visit a nice sandy beach.

The beach was quite big, with yellow sand, it looked nice, though no-one was swimming. I’m not sure how clean the water is. There were also a lot of walking paths further down the coastline that ended at a small altar.

Small altar near the seaside.
Small altar near the seaside.

Soon after we returned back to the city, we had one big thing left to do. And when I say big I mean high. We wanted to go to a restaurant at the top of the tallest building in Hong Kong – 480m high with a restaurant in the highest – 118th floor. The restaurant at the top was really fancy and we stood out but the view was worth it. We were so high up you could barely see cars below yet alone people. And the buildings that looked super high before (30+ floors) looked like normal houses from up there.

ICC - The tallest building in Hong Kong
ICC – The tallest building in Hong Kong

The building also has an observatory on 100th floor, but it’s not worth visiting. You have to pay around 15€ for a ticket to go there, or you can just go to a restaurant in 118th floor, buy a drink for 15€ and have an even better view.

At 7PM we descended the tower and went to a restaurant, where we met with Jean and Leff. The restaurant was really full of people and it was an interesting design. It was more like a market (indoor) surrounded by different “food stands”, but the waiters brought food to your table. The food was again more traditional Hong Kong’s food.

Last dinner in Hong Kong
Last dinner in Hong Kong

This was our last night in Hong Kong. Later that night we returned back to our island to prepare for departure on Saturday evening, but before we left Hong Kong we had one last thing to do. Again all of us met; Veronika, Jean, Maggie, Leff, Allen and I, for one last meal. We went with traditional Hong Kong theme again, with lots of steamed dumplings which are so good.

After the lunch the rain started to pour – the first time while we were visiting. We said goodbye to Leff and Allend and went to the airport, where we said or goodbyes too Jean and Maggie who were traveling to Korea.

But before we left we just had to have another scare. Our flight was delayed for about 2 hours, so we only had 30mins left for layover in Beijing. There were actually people waiting for us in the airport in Beijing and took us pass the security too speed up the boarding.

Leave a comment (0)
Thus says Jani Bizjak
18:48 Mon.
28 Dec, 2015

Getting lost in the city

Shopping time

Tags: , , , , ,
Hong Kong , China
17 °C
Partly Cloudy
7:01 am
5:49 pm

On Tuesday morning Veronika and I alone again embarked on the adventure of discovery the city. We started on the main island and went to look for some parks and shopping malls nearby. Despite city being so huge, you get a feeling there are parks around every corner. And no some small parks, but they are quite big, full of vegetation a lot of them have mini zoos in them as well.

And in these parks you see all kind of people, from children (well it was school day so not that many children) to adults playing with their toys. As I later learned its normal to see adults playing with RC toys etc. since they didn’t have time/money when they were young they do it now.

Adult driving RC boat.
Adult driving RC boat.

Another thing I really liked was tons of walkways, lifted from the main road, going through the buildings and bringing you anywhere you want. There is even the longest escalator in Hong Kong going over 800m in distance and 140m in elevation – and all this on the street beside sidewalk. Hehe seems like some people there really don’t want to walk.

I have never seen so many people at one place before.
I have never seen so many people at one place before.

After walking whole morning and failing to buy anything from expensive malls we met with Maggie in the afternoon who took us again to Bang Kok – the largest stall market in the city. There were stalls everywhere and really a lot of people wherever you looked, it was quite hard to move actually.

We bought quite a lot of things this day, from souvenirs to counterfeit bag that was around 200€ cheaper than original, but looks surprisingly same as original. The bottom nominator for all purchases was haggling. I personally didn’t like it but at each thing you bought be it few € to 50€+ you haggled to get your price down. I managed to get the chopsticks from 30€ to 10€ and Veronika lowered the price of the handbag for more than 70%.

Highest building in HK
Highest building in HK

Next day – Wednesday morning we again went alone to the city. Near the pier on the main island we found a double decker bus tours that drove you around the city. We took it and it was really fun to ride on the upper deck, where wind breezed around our heads. Well it was fun until we went through the tunnel below the sea – at that point we thought we are going to suffocate.

Central pier where we usually landed with our ferry.
Central pier where we usually landed with our ferry.

Using bamboo for construction on tall skyscrapers.

Using bamboo as building skeleton.
Using bamboo as building skeleton.

After about an hour of riding we disembarked near the Avenue of Stars.

Because the air is usually so polluted, you can’t see the city on the other bank, they have this big billboards so you can take a picture as it were clear weather. And for some reason they have a picture of Paris as well.

Paris in Hong Kong?
Paris in Hong Kong?

After taking some pictures we decided to find something to eat. This ended up in us walking for 3 hours through the city, and finally giving up in finding something local that looked safe to eat and going into a first McDonalds we could find.

At this point we were already quite lost, I think we were somewhere in the middle of Bang Kok area, having no internet meant no GPS from Google maps, so yea, we were lost. On our way of aimlessly walking to find subway we went through some really big markets again full of fresh fish. How do I know they were fresh? They were still alive in the aquariums.

Fresh sea food
Fresh sea food

This area was exactly as I imagined Hong Kong before coming here. Thousands of people, stalls everywhere and stalls were selling anything you could imagine. A lot of exotic fruits, minerals, precious stones, flowers, trees, meat… There was one area where they were selling thousands of exotic fishes for aquariums (like pets – not for eating). And oh boy were they expensive, some fishes had price tags at over 400€.

After walking for another 2-3 hours we must have looked really lost because someone actually asked us if we are lost and if we need help. He quickly gave us some directions to get to the metro and voila, we were saved. 🙂

Veronika
Veronika
Leave a comment (0)
Thus says Jani Bizjak
10:53 Sun.
27 Dec, 2015

Penguins in Hong Kong?

Panda time

Tags: , , , , ,
Hong Kong , China
18 °C
Partly Cloudy
7:01 am
5:47 pm

Next day – Monday morning, Veronika and I embarked on our first adventure in Hong Kong alone, without Maggie or Jean. We decided to go to the amusement park called Ocean Park. Well it’s not exactly amusement park (alone) it’s a mixture of rides and a zoo. The idea is that they attract people with attractions and with the money they can take better care of the animals there.

After a bit of searching we took a bus to the park. The park is enormous it’s almost like 2 parks combined into one, and the location is quite good. Half of the park is situated near a sea level the other half is on a hill and you can take a lift or an underground tunnel ride to get to the top.

Well what is the first animal you think of when you say China? Panda!! Yea the first animal we saw were pandas. It looked almost unreal, they look so cuddly and nice. I later learned I had an honour of seeing the oldest panda in the world – around 43 years old.

Eating some bamboo.
Eating some bamboo.
Veronika trying to pose with panda.
Veronika trying to pose with panda.

Alongside “normal” pandas they also had red panda, which looks even cuter. I can definitely see myself having one as a pet. Would look so cool walking it around like a dog here in Slovenia :D.

Red panda
Red panda

The park was really nicely decorated and landscaped, sometimes you even got a feeling you are in the middle of the jungle. After pandas we went to see a sea lion show. After it we took underground ride to get to the upper plateau, where more of the amusement rides were located.

When you think of Hong Kong, you think of hot tropical weather, so what we saw next was a really surprise to us – Penguins. We entered one of the largest aquariums in the world, spanning multiple storeys, containing hundreds of aquariums with thousands of fishes – from sharks to small tropical fishes and of course some big sea mammals like seals, sea cows etc. It was also quite cold at least in the area of the penguins where they actually had snow / ice on the ground. You could actually borrow a jacket, but we as true Europeans used to cold didn’t bother.  😉

Penguins in Hong Kong
Penguins in Hong Kong

It was fun watching penguins as they were playing around jumping on the ice and swimming in water. The floor were made from glass so you could see them swimming beneath. We soon left the penguins to see some artic foxes and then shivering with cold left the building.

After that we went to see a show with dolphins in an arena nearby. As Europeans we really stood out in the crowd in the city and especially here. We quickly got used to people looking at us but here it actually paid off to be different. They chose us to be part of the show with the seals, we got a special seats in the front row and then when seals came we “made” them do some tricks and took photos with them. After the seals they did some tricks with dolphins. I think this was the first time I saw dolphins, they were quite big and jumped what must have been 3-4m high out of the water.

Later in the afternoon we spent more time on the rides, it was quite fun a lot of rides and because they were high on the plateau, they used the height to enhance the rides, which then took you few hundred meters above sea and over the cliffs.

All in all the park was really great and worth the time and money. We returned home to the island late in the evening where we had lunch in a local restaurant on the island and where I yet again ordered something extremely spicy that I couldn’t eat at all.

Jelly fish
Jelly fish

 

Leave a comment (0)
Thus says Jani Bizjak
16:03 Sat.
26 Dec, 2015

Hong Kong from above

Victoria Peak - The Peak

Tags: , , , ,
Hong Kong , China
17 °C
Partly Cloudy
7:01 am
5:47 pm

We landed in Hong Kong at around 9AM and it took us another 2 hours to find our way back to Jean and Maggie’s island. After a quick bite to eat, we decided to go to the main island to take a look at the iconic market stalls on the streets. This was more what I expected Hong Kong will be like, full of people on the streets with stalls where you can cheaply buy almost anything.

We bought some souvenirs and decided to go to the museum nearby, about history of Hong Kong. It was really interesting to learn about history of Hong Kong area, spanning from thousands of years ago till the Second World War. The museum was large, with tons of exhibits, we spent in it more than 4 hours, while looking at everything carefully at the beginning and almost running through the later exhibits.

Market stalls on the street.
Market stalls on the street.

After the museum we decided to go taste Japanese cuisine in a sushi restaurant in Mang Kok – the most crowded area of Hong Kong, but more about this later. So sushi … we sat around a long conveyer belt which was loaded with numerous dishes ranging from 7 – 40€ per plate (that is 1 or 2 bites per plate). After trying some dishes that we (me and Veronika) didn’t like, among them sea urchin, and spending a fortune on them, we decided we should go somewhere else to have a dessert. At that point Maggie joined us and found us a great little desert place nearby where we had some really good cakes.

Some restaurants had realistic food sculptures infront of restaurants. If you don't speak the language it helps a lot to see the food and just point to it instead of reading it in the menu.
Some restaurants had realistic food sculptures infront of restaurants. If you don’t speak the language it helps a lot to see the food and just point to it instead of reading it in the menu.

After we slowly returned to the island, we had to prepare for the next day, when we would go to the highest hill above Hong Kong – The peak.

Sunday morning (it was more toward noon actually) we departed toward main island from where we would start our ascend. But first we decided to have a traditional Hong Kong lunch in a restaurant nearby. Food was surprisingly good with our favourite dish (of the whole trip) being traditional steamed dumplings with sweet filling.

After big lunch we started our ascend. Because area is so crowded the buildings go as far as possible up the steep terrain, because of this it seems like they are build leaning at the hills behind them. At one point we actually took an elevator in a building and could exit at the top and just continue further up the hill. On our way we also went through a university, again spanning multiple storeys with lots of parks, atriums and open areas inside. Soon after we finally reached the end of high urban area and continued on a wide pathway toward the top.

The path was really steep so we were quickly gaining height and despite lush tropical vegetation around us shading the sun it was the hottest I ever felt. The sweat just poured from us, after few minutes we were as wet as we would be swimming. I think it was around 37 degrees C with what felt like 95% relative humidity.

The efforts were soon to be repaid by incredible views of the city. After about half an hour of walking we were already near the top with incline subsiding to almost horizontal path around the hill. After another half an hour of gorgeous views of the city we finally reached the top, or at least as far as we could go – the Peak.

I don't remember when was the last time I sweated so much. Very high moisture and above 30C is horrible.
I don’t remember when was the last time I sweated so much. Very high moisture and above 30C is horrible.

On the top there were again one million people, big building providing nice vantage point over the city, shops, restaurant, tram that you can take to drive you up/down the hill – with 2h wait line of course.

For our descend we choose more direct path near the tram line and through some of the richest area of Hong Kong. While walking down we went past houses and apartments that cost few million $ per year just to rent but strangely don’t look that expensive. What is expensive is the location. On the road though, we saw a lot of Ferraris, Porches, Lamborghinis and other expensive cars. After about half an hour we left the tropical jungle for the concrete jungle.

Even after a week in Hong Kong I still couldn’t get used to these extremely high (and narrow in my opinion) buildings.

Enormous skyscraper
Enormous skyscraper
Leave a comment (0)
Thus says Jani Bizjak
20:41 Mon.
1 Jun, 2015

Hong Kong

First Impressions

Tags: , , , , , ,
Hong Kong , China
29 °C
Light Rain Shower
5:38 am
7:04 pm

Ok, let’s finally do this. After long, long flight(s) we have finally arrived to Hong Kong airport, at around 2pm on Saturday. After getting through immigration, Jean and Maggie were already waiting for us at the entrance of the airport. It was good, surreal to see them after so long.

Stepping on China's soil
Stepping on China’s soil

After quick chat we went to grab something to eat, to the Japanese restaurant at the airport, which happened to be one of the best meals I had there, I had ramen.

Boarding ferry - it's the only way to get to Jean's island.
Boarding ferry – it’s the only way to get to Jean’s island.

After lunch we took a bus (and another bus and a boat) to get to their island. On the road there we could already see tall buildings, around 30 floors, steep hills, just beside them, tropical vegetation everywhere, but no sight of Hong Kong. As I learned later, the area of the city is much larger than I thought, it’s around as big as “primorska” region in Slovenia.

View of the city - from the monkeys area.
View of the city – from the monkeys area.

After about an hour and half, we have arrived to the island Peng Chau where Jean and Maggie live. Somehow we still weren’t tired (that much) so we decided to go for a walk around the island. And there, at the top of the island we finally saw our first glimpses of the main city.

After good night sleep, we slept for probably 14hours, we decided to go and see the local wildlife (i.e. monkeys) in the suburbs of the city. After taking ferry, subway and a bus we have finally arrived to the location of the monkeys. The first thing we noticed after getting of the bus was heat, and really high humidity … subtropical climate. 10m from the bus stop we already saw first monkeys and a lot of signs that said you mustn’t feed them, look them in the eyes and much more. Despite them being small and not looking to dangerous, we ran on quite few occasions, when they tried to attack us or steal something from us. One even blocked our path and didn’t allow us to go further, always running angrily toward us when we tried to go by, I’m not sure what provoked it, maybe it was my shirt colour.

Monkeys are roaming one area harassing visitors and stealing food from their backpacks.
Monkeys are roaming one area harassing visitors and stealing food from their backpacks.
He wasn't to happy seeing us walking over the bridge. :)
He wasn’t to happy seeing us walking over the bridge. 🙂

We decided to go for a walk around park, the path led us through some dense forest areas, around water reservoirs. It was a nice walk, all vegetation looked much different then what we are used to see in Europe, and the noises from the birds and animals were more tropical. =) After about an hour of walking we arrived to a big dam, where we saw monkeys again. They tend to live close to humans, because they are used to get food from them (even though it is forbidden to feed them), sometimes they even steals food from your bags. They are really smart, strong and nimble, it should be fun to have one as a pet.

After the monkeys we went to the city, to the area where they sell a lot of electronics. It was really weird sight, it was something between big store, lots of smaller stores and a market, everything inside another building, if you can imagine that. After a lot of searching, and figuring out that Hong Kong is really expensive (more on that later), I have finally bough a SD card for my camera, which was 5€ (20%) cheaper than in Slovenia (if you know, that there are no taxes in Hong Kong, you realise that they cost exactly the same).

Remember where all those electronic devices come from on eBay? This is almost like offline eBay for electronic stuff. There is whole quarter of city full of shops like this.
Remember where all those electronic devices come from on eBay? This is almost like offline eBay for electronic stuff. There is whole quarter of city full of shops like this.

In the evening we went to the avenue of stars, where Leff and Allen were waiting for us. Finally after almost 2 years we were together again. It was great seeing them and it actually felt like we never were apart.

This is one of my favourite things in Hong Kong. Hot pot - a restaurant where you cook the food yourself.
This is one of my favourite things in Hong Kong. Hot pot – a restaurant where you cook the food yourself.
Allen, Leff, Veronika, Jean and Maggie
Allen, Leff, Veronika, Jean and Maggie

After, we went to have a big dinner, in a nearby mall, but not before waiting for table for 2 hours (a normal thing in Hong Kong, or so they say =)). I think we went to a traditional Hong Kong (maybe Chinese?) restaurant. I actually haven’t been in anything similar before. At the beginning we choose what kind of meet we want (for the table), then they brought 2 big pots with heaters beneath them, and we actually put whatever we wanted in ourselves. Besides meat, we could choose from variety of sauces and vegetables that were located in something similar to salad bar in Europe. The food was good, at least what I ate, I tried to avoid spicy things. =) At the end, you could say that we paid to cook dinner for ourselves.

After the dinner we were really full and slowly walked outside to the pier again to take some photos. It was a great yet tiresome day.

On Monday we went to the city center to exchange money for Philippines. You would think that we would go to a local bank, but no, Maggie took us to … not sure what, but exchange rate was like 20% better than at the airport, and it was in some building almost like apartment building. After quick lunch and few photos we took a bus to the airport and soon after we were already flying toward Philippines.

Old plane at the airport
Old plane at the airport
Leave a comment (0)
Thus says Jani Bizjak