Welcome to Hong Kong. The place where your never more then 10 feet away from a Starbucks, McDonald’s or a 7-Eleven, and everyone loves a selfie – really loves a selfie!

I haven’t had much time to write a blog as I was so busy trying to fit everything in whilst in HK! Now I’m back at home feeling super jet lagged and suffering the post holiday blues. I have to say that HK is my favorite city so far. It has the perfect blend of traditional Chinese culture whilst still being a modern city with a beautiful skyline, never ending skyscrapers and amazing shopping (Ahhh the shopping – I think Hong Kong has turned me into a shopping addict). We stayed in an apartment through Airbnb, on the top floor with a private rooftop garden overlooking the harbour. The view was out of this world, especially watching the sun set and seeing the skyscrapers light up as it slowly turned to night.

Our first day we had to go shopping as I hadn’t packed anything warm enough and Rob seemed to have lost half of his clothes during our trip… First we ventured to Central and then to Causeway Bay (which feels like the Oxford Street of HK), any shop you need – it’s here, they have so many shopping malls and they are all insanely big! (Maybe a little too big??). Next we ventured to the famous Ladies Market which goes on and on and on and on, it has so much stuff – after getting only half way through we were shopped out (Rob is a great bargainer though, somehow he can get something down from 160 hkd (£16) to 40 hkd (£4) so thanks to him we had a lot of bargains!). 

For New Years we decided to head out for some Dim Sum. We were sat at a table with a little old Hong Kongese man who kept shooing and waving us away the whole time, for some reason I got the impression he didn’t want us there… Anyway, the food was good and we had a nice time! Later we headed back to our apartment for some drinks whilst watching the fireworks over Victoria Harbour, before heading out to Lan Kwai Fang for more drinks (one of HK’s most popular area’s to go out with over 90 bars). This was a complete fail; when we arrived the roads were closed and we had to queue for half an hour among hundreds of people to get into the area. When we were in we walked up the main street to see what was going on and when we got to the end we weren’t allowed back down. The area was being strictly controlled by the police and we were expected to queue up again to get back in. Forget that! I still wasn’t feeling great so we decided to head back home instead. We later found out that in 1993, 20 people were killed among the crowds as thousands of people headed to the area just after the New Year fireworks – so that’s why it’s now controlled.

Being hang over free on New Years day (that’s a first) we decided to head over to Lantau Island to visit the Tian Tan Buddha statue. To get there you have to get on a cable cart that has the most amazing views of the forests and coast as it glides over the steepest mountains. The Buddha itself is the largest in the world and positioned at the top of a loooot of steps which we were too lazy to walk up,  so we just admired it from below. Later in the evening we went for some more Dim Sum at the cheapest Michelin Star restaurant in the world, One Dim Sum. We had to wait for an hour to get a table (which we expected, so it was fine) but being completely honest, I was a little disappointed… Or maybe just a little Dim Sum’d out? I’d heard great things about it and with a Michelin Star I had high hopes, but I just felt it was a little.. Bland. Failing this we then decided to venture over to the Temple Street night market. It’s pretty similar to the Ladies market with the hustle and bustle but with a slightly different variety of stuff on offer. Again, we did more shopping and Rob did more bargaining; The King of Bargaining.