Hong Kong dramas used to be a part of my weekly entertainment when I was younger - back in the days when K-drama and their k-pop soundtracks were just debuting. Depending on what I was currently watching, I would want to be that profession, which ranges from police officer to solicitor to being a sushi chef.
Just last week, I had the opportunity to fly to Hong Kong and experience the whole TVB drama "live" myself. For a start, there were a load of people wearing black shirts cough*protesting*cough greeting me upon coming out of the arrival hall. All in all, the whole floor of the arrival hall was filled with black-shirt people, most of them sitting on the floor and chanting together.
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| HK is pretty mountainous. |
The journey from the HK airport to my hotel was pretty simple. I was staying at North Point and lucky for me, my hotel was very close to both MTR (similar to London tube) and a bus stop. Taking the airport bus is definitely a cheaper option but if the bus have to go through central, you have to think twice. I made the wrong choice of taking the bus and ended up arriving the hotel almost 3 hours later. Why? Because I had to make a toilet stop in the middle of the traffic jam. This actually required me to take my luggage and leave the bus as the bus wasn't equipped with a built-in toilet *roll-eyes*
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| Make sure you board the bus with an empty bladder! |
One thing that I've noticed is that bus takers were queuing in a line at every bus stop. There are even markings on the ground to indicate which queue line is for which bus line. So you don't have to ask queuers every single time. Hint: most of the bus drivers do not speak english or knows the street name in english. So make sure you learn how to pronounce the street names in Cantonese.
HK has long being known as the "New York" of Asia: skyscrapers, finance hub, people hustling each other everywhere + loud restaurants. I was dining with some newly-made friends, shouting was the only way to converse in the restaurants. Was surprised that with all the beer and shouting, I still had my voice the next morning. Germany has trained me well.
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| Dinner at 金妹记 (Gold Mui Kee - the english name is pure gold) |
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| HK wouldn't be HK without Yuen Yeung - a tea-coffee combi drink |
Sadly I wasn't able to explore much HK due to the time constraint and the protest. But I managed to do was to hike the "dragon's back" trail - after I saw picturesque photos of the trail on google. Also, it is also said to be the easiest hike in HK and since I had half a day of free time, I figured why not.
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| To get to the start of the hike: take bus 9 from MTR station "Shau Kei Wan" and get down at "To Tei Wan" |
Boy, how unprepared I was thinking that it was just an easy hike. Despite an easy hike, I would urge anyone who will be attempting this hike to wear proper hiking shoes and a hat and most importantly if you're going there in july/august - bring plenty of water! This is not your average forest hike, this is an open trail with little/no shades. Also, though it's just a 2 hour hike: start your hike as early as possible to avoid the sun!
But the reward though, makes it worthwhile :)
Would definitely come back again to explore the rest of HK!
