Small Space, Big Place

The famed Hong Kong harbour view
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Where Vietnam was a land of motorcycles, Hong Kong was a flood of people. Emma had been to Hong Kong 15 years ago and rattled off stories of excessive filth and unhygienic people. However 15 years is a long time and as we left the ultra hi-tech airport and headed into Kowloon we felt reasonably comfortable that Hong Kong was a clean and user friendly city.

The immediate visual impact of all the development was awesome. Hong Kong has a relatively small and mountainous environment but the way they pack in high rise after high rise was hard to fathom. Our first hotel was in one of the less exclusive tower blocks and we lugged our gear up to the 13th floor where we were shown the shoebox which would house us for the next two nights.

View from Victoria Peak
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The jewel of Hong Kong's crown is its cityscape from Victoria Harbour and also form the top of Victoria Peak. On the two nights we were there we alternated between these views and took in the famous light and laser show that happens nightly at 8pm. The tram that goes up to the peak was most interesting as it travels up the hill on a 45 degree incline. The gravity was immense and it was fair to say that I managed to introduce myself to a couple of locals numerous times as I lost my balance.

Hong Kong Disneyland
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With both of our birthday's impending we also shouted ourselves to the new Hong Kong DIsneyland. We braved the kiddies and the heat and trawled around the park like children ourselves. Not quite as big as the LA version which was good, as we could escape a bit earlier and utilise the rest of the day for other events.

Hongkers was also pencilled in for a bit of electronics retail therapy. Emma was in the market for a new mobile phone and we found the local area in Mong Kok that has shop after shop of anything gadgety. Being the savvy shoppers we are, we bounced our way up this street for a couple of hours on three consecutive days before retiring frustrated and bemused. Despite the buyer's market it was almost a overload of options. Trying to decode Chinese script and figure out what were plan deals and handset prices was too much for our little brains. This coupled with some ferocious pedestrian road rage led us spending more time hiding in Starbucks rather than sealing a deal.

Hong Kong by night
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On the final evening we met our tour group for our journey into China. A couple of us went out to look at the light show and stroll the Temple St market before retiring for the big day of travel the next day. Overall Hong Kong was like most busy cities. Full of energy and expensive. Three days was well and truly enough here and we are looking forward to hitting the Mainland.