Hong Kong, China
A short trip to Hong Kong, by Clare and Rob in 2002
Old Boat in Hong Kong
It was a whirlwind trip to Hong Kong. We arrived on Thursday night after a very long day of flying from Darwin via Gove and Cairns. Our first adventure was to find a local restaurant and decipher the menu. It was very successful and we had a great meal. Over the fours days we had some excellent meals. Twice we ate banquets with some locals, who were needed to explain the contents of many of the dishes.
On Saturday we had a whole day to ourselves to do some touristy things. We caught a ferry to one of the outlying islands, Cheung Chau, for a feed and visit to the beach (yes there are several there). We did plenty of window shopping, and then at dusk caught the tram to the peak of Mt Victoria with a spectacular view of all of Hong Kong. The lights of the hundreds of skyscrapers make an amazing view. The first thing you imagine when you think of Hong Kong is the masses of skyscrapers, and this would be because there are so many photos taken from up here. It is unbelievable the amount of people that they can fit into this small space. It would be rare to find a single story building anywhere in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Lights
On other occasions we enjoyed some excellent samples of local food. This was a highlight of Hong Kong for us. We love Asian food, and we were fortunate enough to go out to eat with a few locals who ordered for us and were able to describe what we were eating. We got to try a lot of things that we didn't even know existed. That gave us more confidence to try other meals when we were exploring the town on our own. After several times trying to order a plate of vegetables with with our meal, we discovered that a plate of vegetables means a plate of a single green vegetable. Maybe there is not much variety of fresh vegetables grown in Hong Kong
Around Hong Kong we also experienced the double-decker trams and MTR train system along with the other 7-8 million locals, and walked around the markets.
The flight back was long and draining, arriving back in Darwin at 4am in the morning, and back to work that afternoon.
related pages
- our short stay in Hong Kong in 2005
- more about our travels to China
- other Rob and Clare travel diaries