I had always wanted to go to Hong Kong for as long as I could remember. Having watched so many Hong Kong-produced movies since I was a kid, Hong Kong had entwined in my head as something of a fairy tale city, and a trip to it would definitely be a dream come true.
My trip to Hong Kong was very much a last-minute plan. I was sitting in front of my PC while sipping over a hot self-brewed coffee and browsing through Youtube when video blogs on Hong Kong started to come up on the screen. And before I knew, I was already browsing through Air Asia looking for an affordable return flight ticket and found myself flying straight towards Hong Kong a few weeks later.
The best thing about traveling to Hong Kong of course is the unnecessity of a Visa for Malaysians so a return flight ticket and a valid passport were pretty much all that I needed to go there – and of course the budget. Heh.
Getting to the city from the airport was easy, thanks to the ever-famous Actopus pre-paid card, but to hop from one train to another was quite mind-boggling. It requires long walks and everything is underground we tend to lose our sense of direction. I know some people who are so bad at directions so Hong Kong is definitely not for them LOL.
After quite much of a struggle, I finally found my hotel which was located at the 13th floor of an old shopping mall off Nathan Road. Apparently, most of these budget hotels are located amongst residential flats so you’ll walk past hung clothes and take a glimpse of typical Hong Kong flats with children playing around or an elderly couple sitting on the veranda, looking out at nothingness but concrete walls etc.
After skirting around on the veranda, I finally found the receptionist room. A young lady was there to welcome me even though she was quite struggling with her English. I was quite taken aback when her first question to me was ‘are you gay?’ which would have been offensive if it was asked back in my own country Malaysia. Thinking that I was in Hong Kong where the question was probably considered normal, I tried not to react too surprised. ‘You look like famous actor’ she said again as she led me to the room. I just shrugged it off. Heh.
The room that I was put into was quite small – which I knew was normal at most budget hotels in Hong Kong. But it was convenient enough for me – the single bed was comfortable to lie on and there was a small table with an open drawer for me to put my stuff in. The shower room was just as small, but it was bigger than the shower room at the hotel that I stayed in Paris where I had to summon up all my acrobatic skills to do my business in it because it was too tiny.
This one here in Hong Kong was much bigger in comparison. There was a glass window although it was more like a deco stuff since it could not be opened anyway. I could see light from the other side even at night so it was probably another room. Most importantly of course was the air-conditioning which made the tiny room less suffocating. All in all, the room was OK for me.
When I first browsed for a hotel through Agoda, I was actually quite in a dilemma whether to stay on the mainland or on the island side. Budget hotels on the island side seem to be quite limited in number and most of the budget hotels are concentrated on the mainland side – which is known as Kowloon. After much consideration, I finally decided to stay in Kowloon and I guess that was a wise decision. Commuting from Kowloon to the island is very easy, all you have to do is to go underground and hop into the train and you’ll go out on the other side of Victoria Harbour in no time at all.
So I spent most of my time walking around on the busy streets of Hong Kong. The crowds can be quite overwhelming but having been to some of the busiest streets in the world, namely the Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, the Chandni Chowkin New Delhi, and Maliboro Street in Yogjakarta which was crazily crowded for me, I had no problem walking among the crowds in Hong Kong at all. In fact, I even found myself enjoying watching people of all characters and fashions on the streets.
I think I covered quite much of Hong Kong, but the highlight was of course my hike up to the Victoria Peak. Starting off from the Central station quiet early in the morning, then walking on the streets when the shops were just opening up, then on to one of the more popular trails, the one that begins at the Old Town Road which were designated for hikers and dog walkers, it was such an enjoyable hike. Every now and then I’d bump into a dog walker, which were mostly Filipinos, but there were not many hikers on the trail.
The more I hiked up the more of Hong Kong that I could see and of course the climax of it all was the Victoria Peak itself. I arrived when the gate to the viewing platform was not open yet, so I had to get on the queue to buy the entrance fee before the queue got too long. I was among the first to get on the platform that day and holla – it was another big tick-off for me when I was finally there, taking a full view of what was probably one of the most famous views in the world. I could see almost the whole of Hong Kong from there, even as far as the Kowloon which is separated from the island by the ever busy Victoria Harbour.
After spending a couple of hours or so up there, I took the famous Peak Tram ride back to the city centre and hop on a Ting Ting – the famous almost-ancient tram system which started its operation back in the early years of British occupation in Hong Kong. Dashing slowly across the city of Hong Kong on a Ting Ting felt like looking through a moving museum that shows the everyday life activities of Hong Kongers, from folks events to sports to open markets – you can see it all from the window of a Ting Ting. It was definitely somewhere at the top of a must-do list if I had to recommend people to come to Hong Kong.
The food in Hong Kong is quiet a variety, but the price can be quiet overwhelming if you come from a country like Malaysia where the currency value was not that strong in comparison to that of Hong Kong’s. In fact, the price of a proper meal is more than double when compared to those in Malaysia, which is still OK compared to those in Japan of course. But if you come to Hong Kong to enjoy the variety of food that it offers, you may need a thick wallet to do just that. A little bit of tip on food in Hong Kong – is that – it’s always worth to go underground when it comes to food in Hong Kong because you’ll probably find more of them down there than up there.
Then going to Hong Kong wouldn’t be complete if you didn’t cross the harbor on one of its famous Star ferries – another mode of transport that was founded back during the British occupation and still very much in operation even after more than 100 years. That mode of transport is very much convenient, even though it doesn’t seem to be a popular choice judging from the lack of passengers that I could see when I was on one.
Speaking of British occupation, Hong Kong was actually under the occupation of British for more than 400 years. It was only returned to China back in 1997 although most Hong Kongers consider Hong Kong as a different entity from China. Being under the British empire for so long, I would expect the people of Hong Kong to speak fluent English but I had come to find out that that was not quiet the case. In fact, I found the people of Hong Kong quite a struggle to communicate with, especially when I speak zero Cantonese which is the main language in Hong Kong. Even ordering a food was quiet a struggle although I found the people of Hong Kong are mostly hospitable and welcoming.
Hong Kong for me is a city with souls and I really enjoyed my solo trip there. It is a beautiful city with admirable infrastructures and facilities. It is so modern and yet so green which makes it so visually captivating. I’d love to come back to see other parts of Hong Kong that I did not get to cover. I did hear about a 100-km hiking trail that stretches across the bigger island of Hong Kong which sounds so appealing to me but of course I can only put it in the long list of travel destinations that’s been building up under my belt for years now.