Family, Fog, and Food

We spent 15 days in Hong Kong, March 14th to March 28th. The best part of our two weeks was that we got to spend ten days sightseeing with Pat’s mom, Judith. We’ve been in Asia for five months, so it was fun to see it through her eyes. Despite the fog and occasional rain, we were surprised and charmed by Hong Kong. There was plenty to see and do… and eat, so much eating. Hong Kong offers a wide array of foods from around the world at all price points and we definitely took advantage of it. Hong Kong was easy to get around using public transportation, but navigating Hong Kong Island was beyond tricky. Thankfully, there are lots of tourist signs in English, so we just followed those and gave up on our maps. Since Judith was with us, we got to partake in a classic tourist activity that we have avoided for our travels: shopping. It was glorious. Judith bartered for the first time in her life and turned out to be pretty good at it! And best of all, we walked away with some great souvenirs at prices we were happy to pay.

1. Go

The wonders of the Octopus card are endless. How do more places not have this? Similar to our Pasmo cards in Japan and our EasyCard in Taiwan, the Octopus card covers pretty much every mode of transportation in the city. You can even use it shopping or at restaurants. It makes riding the extensive metro, bus, and tram system even easier.

Hong Kong – Tram Jam

Hong Kong – The Peak Tram is steep

Hong Kong – View from the Star Ferry

Total traveling distances:

Plane – 2479 km
Bus – 152 km
Metro – 73 km
Tram – 18 km
Car – 28 km
Boat – 1 km
Foot – 152,000 steps

2. See

Hong Kong has plenty to see and do regardless of ones interests. We had more than enough to see during our two weeks.

Favorite Museums:

Hong Kong Museum of History – The Story of Hong Kong is a must see for any visitor to understand the city. They claimed 2-4 hours would suffice, but we spent over 5 and only left because it was closing.

Hong Kong – Museum of History – Pat and the kids reading comics

Favorite Sights:

Big Buddha – This is one of those things that everyone does when they come to Hong Kong. We were skeptical, but ended up really liking our visit.
Hong Kong at Night – The view from The Peak is spectacular (as long as there is no fog), but its especially beautiful at night.
Markets – Hong Kong has tons of markets and they are specialized for nearly anything you want. Want a fish, go to the Goldfish Market. Want flowers, go to the Flower Market. Want a bird that you can feed grasshoppers to with chopsticks, go to the Bird Market. Want ladies stuff (?), go to the Ladies Market. Ok, that last one didn’t work out as well.

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – The Big Buddha

Hong Kong – View from The Peak

Hong Kong – Ladies Market selection

Hong Kong – Goldfish Market

Hong Kong – Flower Market

Hong Kong – Bird Garden

Favorite Monastery:

Ten Thousand Buddhas – This place was odd, to say the least. There were over 10,000 gold Buddha statues covering the grounds. Each was different from the last… some even had live monkeys adorning them.

Hong Kong – Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery – Monkey sitting on the head of a statue

Favorite Outdoors:

Lantau Island – This island is home to the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery which are both huge tourist attractions. It’s easily reached by metro and offers some great walking trails.

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Tree Walk

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Wisdom Path

3. Eat

Food in Hong Kong is much more international than we anticipated. In addition to the expected Chinese food, we also ate Japanese, Korean, American, French, and Southeast Asian.

Favorite Foods:

Dim Sum – Dim Sum is the best. We ate dim sum three times and just loved it. We prefer the traditional carts so that you can see what you are ordering right away.
Bubble Waffles, aka Egg Waffles – This street food is so fun to eat and perfect for a snack any time of day.
Korean BBQ – This was a big surprise for us in Hong Kong, but we loved it.
Claypot Cooked Rice – Ok, so this wasn’t the most exciting thing we ate but it was pretty darn fun. The rice was really tasty and the topping were decent. It was wonderfully cheap and filled with locals.

Hong Kong – Judith eating Dim Sum at Maxim’s Palace in City Hall

Hong Kong – Din Tai Fun

Hong Kong – Judith excited about bubble waffles

Hong Kong – Korean BBQ

Hong Kong – Claypot cooked rice

4. Drink

We didn’t really go out for drinks in Hong Kong, but we drank lots and lots of tea. Judith loves tea, so we did a tea tasting and ended up buying a fair amount to enjoy at the apartment.

Favorite Drinks:

Tea – We learned tons about how tea is grow, harvested, and served at our tea tasting.

Hong Kong – Mingcha Tea Tasting

Hong Kong – Mingcha Tea Tasting – Our tea choices

Hong Kong – Mingcha Tea Tasting – Learning the proper way to make tea

5. Sleep

We only stayed in one place during our time in Hong Kong. We rented a tiny apartment that sleeps three people.

Favorite Sleeps:

Rented Apartment – This place had everything we needed during our stay. It was tiny, but it was just enough with a kitchen, couch, bathroom, and the comfiest beds ever. It was also surprisingly quiet despite being on the same street as lots of bars and restaurants.

Hong Kong – Rented Apartment – kitchen, bathroom, bedroom doors

Hong Kong – Rented Apartment – Living/Dining

Hong Kong – Rented Apartment – View

6. Move

Hong Kong has excellent sidewalks, but even more impressive was the ability to get out to nature quickly. Lantau Island is only a short metro ride away.

Favorite walking spots:

Lantau Island – After visiting the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery, we wandering some of the nearby trails and were pleasantly surprised.

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Wisdom Path

Hong Kong – Lantau Island – Tree Walk

7. Etcetera

As we’ve mentioned before, our rough budget for this trip is $100 a day (for two people). Our daily average in Hong Kong was $87.26. Although accommodation is expensive, there are deals to be found. Food and transportation were so cheap that spending more on accommodation was totally worth it. There were only a few places to see that cost money, so it ended up being pretty affordable. Having two weeks allowed us to take it slow and walk a bit more. We also cooked in a fair amount, although groceries were nearly as expensive as getting take-out.

Check out all our photos from Hong Kong on Flickr and our post, Colors of Hong Kong.

Also, check out our weekly posts from Hong Kong: