A Quick Jaunt to Hong Kong

Well the new year, Chinese New Year that is, is upon us. Now that means I actually got a bit of time off work. With this time Bora and I decided to head down to the balmy (relative to Seoul) metropolis of Hong Kong. Most of the flights were completely booked, but we were able to get a package deal through Cathay Pacific and a Korean travel agent. It's not my preferred method of travel, but it was the only option this time.

I started walking to the bus stop around 5:15am Wednesday morning, and after meeting Bora there, we were off to Incheon and our great metal bird to Hong Kong. The flight was uneventful... except for the food poisoning I got from breakfast. Therefore I was saddled with a stomach bug for most of the trip, but that's enough about that. We had found out at the airport that our hotel had been changed, from one in a reasonably central place in Kowloon to an out of the way (if there is such a thing) part of Hong Kong Island. This rendered a lot of my research useless, but we made the best of it. We arrived at the hotel around 3pm, and didn't really do a whole lot for the rest of the day. We did a bit of shopping and wandering around the streets of Hong Kong as the locals prepared for New Year's Day on Thursday.

The next morning we got up and headed out into the city. The streets seemed unusually quiet, but it was New Year's Day after all. Our first stop was Victoria Peak, which was quite nice with a great view of the harbour. It would have been spectacular on a clear day, but was definitely a nice place to wander around for a couple hours. After that we headed to one of the architectural marvels of Hong Kong: the Bank of China Tower, which may be the coolest looking building in the world. It was closed, but I took some pictures and was harassed by some very capitalist Buddhist monks. This hard-selling monks seem to be a good symbol of Hong Kong. A mix of Eastern traditions in the temple to capitalism that is Hong Kong.

After this we headed into the subway and over to Kowloon for some shopping in the Mong Kok area. This was a part of town that reminded me a lot of the markets of Seoul; so the crowds weren't too overwhelming. After a little money spending we went to the restaurant area of Kowloon known as Knutsford Terrace where we dined on Chinese food and Irish beer; truly a world melting pot. Next we made our way down to the water and tried to intercept the big parade for the holiday. We did manage to find the parade, but also found it quite disappointing and quickly made our way back to the hotel for a well deserved rest.

We (mainly me due to stomach bug) were quite lazy, but did get moving in the early afternoon. We took one of the world's great ferry rides: the Star Ferry from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon. After this we walked around Tsim Sha Tsui and did some more shopping. After some of this it was time to grab some food, and an unspectacular Chinese dinner was on the menu. That was the end of the night, and the end of our last full day in Hong Kong.

The next day we had a little bit of time in the morning and went in search of dim sum. Unfortunately we couldn't find a single place within a five block radius of the hotel. By this time we had to head to the airport for our return to frigid Korea.

Hong Kong definitely ranks as one of my favourite cities in the world. I really wish we'd had more time, and that my stomach was behaving for the trip. However there is one easy way to quash these feelings: go back. Bora and I have already started making preliminary plans to go back for Christmas '08.

On another note one of, if not the, most historically and culturally important buildings in Korea was destroyed by arson last weekend. Here's a link to the latest BBC story in case you missed it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7240220.stm