Hong Kong

Here's what we got up to in Hong Kong!

We got the metro from the Shenzhen North Railway Station to the border with Hong Kong.

From there you can walk through the station to immigration into Hong Kong - it didn't take us long at all. 

We will always be 外国人 no matter where we are.

We got to the hostel around 9-9:30pm and waited to meet Lisa before heading out to explore the city a bit. We were staying in Yau Ma Tei, which is a pretty cool area. 

I love the neon lights in Hong Kong - it was one of my favorite things about the city.

The next morning we found an 85C to get some coffee and we got our first look at Hong Kong in the daylight. 

We found some breakfast across the street - this place had pictures of famous people that had eaten there all over the walls. Seemed like a local establishment. Despite the name, I don't think dog meat was actually involved.

That day was actually Louisa's birthday, so we put candles in her dumplings!

After that, we were wandering around in central Hong Kong and we found an M&S, and it was funny to see Chinese characters on the meal deal section. 

Then we headed to the Hong Kong Arts Centre, but unfortunately it seems more like a place for studying than viewing exhibitions, but there was an exhibition of wildlife photography. 

And the building had a cool view of the mainland part of HK.

After that we wandered around. I didn't like this part of the island that much - it was posh and expensive.

The aesthetic was still really cool. I really liked the tall, skinny trolleys. 

Louisa and Lisa went back to the hostel to rest and the rest of us went up to Victoria Peak. We were going to walk until we realized how long it would take us. It was so hot and humid, we we decided to take the train up to the top. It's not actually that expensive and was definitely worth it. It's a pretty steep ride and actually feels like a roller coaster.

The view at the top was amazing! We got lucky that we could see anything. 

Just a couple minutes after we got there, we saw a storm roll in and then you couldn't see anything. Then it started pouring rain!

We went back to the bottom of the mountain and somehow managed to get back to our hostel without a map or internet.

That evening, I had a bit of an upset stomach, so I skipped dinner, but then we went out exploring. More lights!

We walked down to the water and got a great view of the island!

We then took the ferry across just because we could.

As soon as we made it across the water, we took the subway back because we were tired.

Louisa and Catriona left the next morning, so Lisa, Ruby and I explored together.

We then went to the Jade Market, which was SO COOL. There are so many vendors. You can really negotiate with them and I was surprised that they all spoke really good English. We walked away a few times and then were promptly offered much better prices.

I found two pieces of turquoise and the vendor made them into earrings. I gave them to Louisa for her birthday.

We then went to check out some famous apartment buildings. The first one is called the Rainbow Estate. The local subway stop is just called "Rainbow" in Cantonese, so the station is decorated with rainbows, which is amazing.

It was raining pretty heavily, but it's still such a cool apartment block!

I liked this warning on the escalator for people wearing crocs. 

We then went to an apartment block called "Monster Building." This one was really cool.

We then went to Causeway Bay to the Eslite Bookstore, which is four floors in this fancy mall. It was really high up so you also got good views of the city. It was a really nice bookstore and I enjoyed looking at the Cantonese books as well as their stationery. I included it in a recent blog post about my favorite bookstores in China. 

We then headed to the hostel to rest for a while. 

On the way back I got one of the famous HK egg puff waffles. I just got a plain one and I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't overly sweet like a lot of Chinese sweets can be. If I had stayed any longer, I would have eaten one of those every day. 

That night we went to a place called Dim Dim Sum/Dian Dian Xin/ 点点心. It's a famous place to get dim sum. My favorite things were these rolls whose name has something to do with sausages. 

There was also this great soup that had a fried egg on top. 

I also liked this fishy ones with crab roe on top.

The next morning the sun finally came out!

We met Lisa's college friend at the Australia Dairy Company for brunch. It's famous so the line was all the way down the street. They do encourage you to eat and leave quickly so the line does go quickly. 

I was really put off the pudding and the drinks - they are too sweet and creamy for me. Even the black iced coffee was the sweetest thing I've ever had. Ruby said it seemed bitter in comparison to the pudding. I got the club sandwich. I was so, so impressed. It's honestly one of the best sandwiches I've ever had. It has some sort of ground meat, scrambled eggs, ham, tomatoes, pickles, cheese, and mayo. It's so, so good.

We then walked around Temple Street. It definitely would have been better at night. It still seemed pretty cool.

After brunch, we picked up our bags and got the train back to the mainland!

I'm glad we went to Hong Kong, but I was really put off by how expensive it was. I would love to go back when I could afford to stay in a nice hotel, go to the amazing restaurants on offer, etc.