October 20, 2012

Hong Kong high life

Chiara Di ASIA, TRAVEL Disneyland, Hong Kong, Kowloon Park, Macau, Mid Autumn Festival, Tian Tan Buddha, Travel, Wanderlust 0 Comments

I’d been wanting to visit Hong Kong for a few years now and I finally had a trip booked to Asia’s Manhattan with my godmother. And what a fascinating city it was full of life, colour and excitement!

Over 10 days we covered a lot of ground and even had some locals to show us around. We were there for the Mid Autumn Festival – the ancient Chinese harvest festival at Victoria Gardens where lanterns merge and moon cakes are eaten. It was nice to experience a cultural holiday with traditional song and dance

We stayed in the precinct of Kowloon and visited Kowloon Park, Avenue of Stars, Mong Kok Ladies Market, the Temple Street Night Market, and all the shops along Nathan Road and Canton Road. Hong Kong was literally designer paradise with every high end brand you could think of! I got into the Hong Kong spirit and bought some Jimmy Choo sunglasses and a Marc Jacobs bag. I thoroughly enjoyed the market shopping also but all the clothing was one size and you couldn’t try anything on so a few of the clothes I bought had to be passed down as they didn’t fit.

We also explored Hong Kong Island where the main corporate area is with high rise buildings that light up the skyline at night. We visited Man Mo Temple, walked up the Mid Level escalators (longest escalator sequence in the world), and went on the Peak Tram to the Peak – the highest point on Hong Kong Island – to get amazing views over Hong Kong.

We went on a day trip to Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island. Accessible by a half hour cable car over the mountains, once we were there we walked 240 steps to the top to see the buddha. When we returned from the buddha, we took advantage of all the summer sales at Citygate Outlets shopping centre before getting back on the MTR.

Other highlights included being a kid again at Disneyland, taking the ferry first class to Macau for the day and visiting the Venetian and Galaxy casinos, having afternoon tea at The Ritz Carlton, watching Symphony of Lights on Hong Kong’s harbour, enjoying a Chinese degustation at Yat Tung Heen by a Michelin star chef, visiting Sky 100 observation deck at the tallest building in Hong Kong and enjoying the view over Hong Kong, trekking through the New Territories to Hong Kong’s main water reservoir and visiting China’s Shenzhen.

And with such a jam packed adventured filled trip, what better way to finish the trip than with a nice long foot massage!