Hong Kong Madness

After reading this post's title, please don't be too judgmental. I know I had just came back from Thailand and Vietnam the Sunday before, but I'm not as addicted to travelling as you might think haha :D

So how I ended up going to Hong Kong was quite an interesting story. Right before leaving for Vietnam, I got a text from friends with whom I also did Kuala Lumpur back in August. I booked my flights right in a heart beat, and kaboom! That's where I spent the past weekend; a New York City of the Eastern world, 4 hours away from Singapore. Such a crowded city that even our hostel was located at a residential flat building along with a couple other hostels, and a room for 6 was only about 36 feet-square.

We started off the first night in Hong Kong with a dim sum dinner at a humble stall downstairs from our hostel at Nathan Road. With happy stomach, we were able to plan for the next days. After getting some rough ideas of what we were going to do, it was time for some exploration. Kowloon park and Avenue of the Stars were so gorgeous at night.

The next day was a very packed one. We started the day off busing to Shek-O to hike the Dragon's Back trail. I still can't get over how helpful and friendly the bus driver was. He actually made another passenger go up to the deck where we were sitting to tell us that we've arrived at our stop.

The hike itself was quite easy and quick. In about 1 hour we were able to reach the peak and enjoy this gorgeous view.

Since the day was still early, we walked around the Central area for the Sun Yat Sen memorial and various markets along the waterfront.

 

And somehow also made it to the Victoria's peak as well as picnicking on the rooftop garden of IFC mall.

The group split on Sunday since some wanted to go to Macau and some wanted to explore the Hong Kong Arts Centre and the Mongkok markets. I went with the second since I wanted to get some souvenirs. I headed back early to the hostel to repack before I flew back only to find that nobody was at the reception desk and our the key to our new room were nowhere to be found. The thing is that they also moved our stuffs to the new rooms. Huge thanks to Heather; we finally found a stack of card keys from the unattended reception desk and tried breaking into each room to look for my backpack. It's Hong Kong after all, gotta do it action-movie style.


By the way, I still owe 80 cents on my Octopus card due to my purchase of gums at the airport. Anyone heading to Hong Kong can use it, just remember it will deduct my debt right away once you top-up