On my last day in the city, I decided to treat myself to the famous Asian foot reflexology. And I wasn’t disappointed when I chose Gao’s Foot Massage Co. The place was listed as one of the best places to get a foot reflexology in a travel article that I read while searching online. What makes the foot reflexology in this part of the world unique is that the massage is done all the way up to your knee. The pressure and rubbing techniques were perfect. They also serve complimentary tea with rose petals!
At Gao’s Foot Massage Co., you can choose how long you want your reflexology treatment to last. I think I went for the 50 minutes foot massage which costs 198 Hong Kong dollars. I only say this because I have that in my notes, so I’m guessing that that’s what I went for. Well it has already been five months since I got back from that trip, so you can’t blame me for not remembering every single detail!
For more information about Gao’s Foot Massage Co, check out their web site:
After my wonderfully relaxing and soothing foot massage, I went to meet my friend who lives in Hong Kong and who I met while I was taking a course at London College of Fashion! My friend Tanya lives in Sai Kung, which is a town located by the sea, an hour away from central Hong Kong. That’s mainly why I couldn’t see my friend as often as I would like, but I guess we made up for it on the last day 🙂 We had steamed fish balls in a noodle soup for lunch. The traditional dish was recommended by Tanya’s mom after I had explained to her my stomach issues from experimenting the local cuisine! The food was light, healthy and tasty.
Me and my friend’s Mom
Me and Tanya eating Fish Balls!
Afternoon Tea with my Local Friends!
Final Words on my Trip
At first glance, Hong Kong reminded me of London in so many ways. With its highly populated and busy streets, the layout of the city’s streets and shops, the high walkability of those streets, and the liveliness and hustle and bustle the city emits. I even told that to my local friend, who agreed and said that Hong Kong is a lot like London, only it’s an Asian city. So, that’s how I saw Hong Kong from the 8 days that I spent there.
Would I go back to visit? definitely. But I would prefer to stay at my friend’s place in Sai Kung for two reasons:
Because I felt lonely staying in a hotel alone in Hong Kong.
To experience the relaxed life by the sea. Away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
What bothered me most about this trip was that I wanted to escape from busy and fast-paced Dubai to a more quiet and relaxed place. Only to find myself in an even more populated and overly crowded city! with no space for a single person at any coffee shop on the weekends! At least in Dubai, that is never the case. So I was greatly disappointed that I went on vacation to a busy and populated city. Especially that it was the holiday season too.
Another thing that I would change if I plan to visit Hong Kong again would be to go there during the Chinese New Year instead of the busy holiday season as I did. And I might stay for at least two weeks to have enough time to relax by the sea and explore the rest of the city.
I hope that you enjoyed reading my review of my 8-day Hong Kong trip. If you have any questions about anything, feel free to comment on the relevant post.
I didn’t intend to delay writing the posts on my last two days in Hong Kong for this long. It just happened that I was trying to keep up with other events that were taking place in Dubai, and trying my best not to miss out on any important happenings. So I was busy covering those events and later writing reviews on them. Another thing that caused this delay was a technical issue with my laptop and other things that led to a severely stressed version of myself not capable if getting any work done, let alone write a blog post about a trip that I made last Christmas!
Now that you know the reason, let me give you a review of my seventh day in Hong Kong’s main attractions. Being a believer in most Buddhist principles and theories and being a big fan of the Dalai Lama, I couldn’t visit Hong Kong without making a trip to the Giant Buddha. However, my online research warned me of the extremely long queues at the Giant Buddha and mentioned that the best time to visit was early morning on weekdays. To my luck, when I went to ask about the best way to get to the island where the giant Buddha is, the lady at the hotel’s guest relations counter told me about a tour trip that includes a visit to the Giant Buddha. And the best part is that there is no waiting in line with the tour group. I immediately accepted her offer, especially since it would save me the hassle of finding out how to get to Lantau Island (where the Giant Buddha is) and the stress that comes with having to find your way around and exploring things on your own.
Our trip started by taking the “Ngong Ping” cable car to the peak where the powerful Big Buddha bronze statue stands firmly and strongly.
Other statues are in the vicinity, where you can take touristy pictures and reminisce on your Buddha experience 🙂
And the famous Tian Tan Buddha:
As part of our guided tour, we made a trip to a local fishing village located at a far end of the island. All I remember is that we were all very exhausted by the time we got there. And our guide explained that the village is one of the oldest fishing spots on the island and that he personally used to live there for some time. Honestly speaking, our local tour guide spoke very good English and had an extensive amount of knowledge about all of our tourist attractions. I was highly surprised by his level of English and good accent, I couldn’t help but wonder if he used to live in the US for some time in his life or something! I thought that he was too good for his role as a tour bus guide, with a bunch of tired and not so enthusiastic tourists! Yes, that includes me as well 🙂
At the fishing village, we also visited a legendary temple and I hopelessly failed at lighting an incense stick when everyone else was able to do it. Seriously, how tough could that be?! But I couldn’t stay and keep trying from fear of loosing my tour group and being stranded on a fishing village in a far end of a Hong Kong Island! Yikes! Here are some images that I took while following our magical American-accent tour guide at the Tai O fishing village:
The legendary temple where I failed to light my incense stick!
After the tour, we were guided to take the water ferry back to Central. I must say that the ferry ride made for a very authentic and truly original Asian traditional experience. At some point, I felt that I was starring in a documentary movie set in the 1950’s about a bunch of immigrants taking a ferry ride to relocate from one country to another, in search of freedom or better life conditions! And I wasn’t the only star of that movie; the lovely Indian couple who I met at the hotel and joined me at the Buddha day tour were also part of the whole ferry ride experience. Actually, I came to know that me and the friendly couple had a lot in common. Upon asking them for the reason behind their choice for Hong Kong as a destination for their holiday, I found out that they too decided to visit this country mainly because of its flexible visa requirements for our passports! The husband explained to me how both him and his wife were caught up in work and have decided in the last minute to travel abroad. So, after doing an online search for countries that didn’t require an advanced visit visa, Hong Hong seemed to fit that criteria perfectly!
My story was very much similar. I decided last minute that I didn’t want to spend my New Year’s Eve in Dubai for that year. And that I needed a break and a change after having stayed in Dubai for so long without traveling anywhere….mainly because I was trying to make it career wise. And since I haven’t previously applied for a visit visa in the UAE and didn’t feel like going through a visa application process, I thought Hong Kong would be a great option for my last minute planned journey. Of course not forgetting to mention that my local friend had also asked me to visit since she was in Dubai for some time before I made that trip.
I will tell you more about the area where my local friend lives in my next and last post about my Hong Kong trip. But as a final note, I would like to share with you a post that my close friend and blogger Pinay Flying High wrote about the restrictions faced by certain countries’ passport holders. I believe that anyone from the list of the unfortunate “ones” can strongly relate to The passport post.
Do let me know if you have visited Hong Kong or any of the tourist attractions I mentioned in this post. And how would you rate your experience?
While I was still in Dubai and was telling my friends that I would be visiting Hong Kong, they all recommended that I check out the Peak. So naturally, The Peak was on my list of top attractions and I made sure that I would see it before heading back home. Thinking that it would be a smart decision, I decided to visit the Peak on a Monday morning to avoid the crowds as the trip web site reviews suggested. What I didn’t take into consideration though, was the fact that the Monday that I chose for my “Peak” visit, happened to be the last day of the year. Yes, it was the 31st of December 2012. And just like me, almost every tourist in Hong Kong had decided to check out the Peak on that very special day 🙂
I arrived to the Peak Tram Station at around 10:30 in the morning. To my surprise, the queue for the ticket window extended all the way to the street. So you had to walk for some time to figure out where the line ends so you could join it. As we all waited and slowly advanced in line, some of us were getting coffee from the nearby café or waiting in a shaded area until their family members or friends got closer to the ticket counter. It was a sunny yet windy day. Luckily, I was wearing a winter hat that day and was able to get some shade from the cap attached to my hat.
When I finally reached the beginning of the tram line, it was already 1 o’clock! There was some sort of fight to get on the train, and there was no one organizing the order by which people boarded the cable car. This led to a lot of chaos and rude looks and comments from other tourists.
To be honest, I was greatly disappointed by what I saw when I made my way up to the sky terrace. Which is the highest level that you can reach to see the Victoria Peak. Let me make it more clear; I personally didn’t think that the view was worth the two and a half hour wait to take the train! What you would see basically was the Hong Kong city sky line that includes the sky scrapers and modern high-rise buildings. In addition to the green natural surroundings of the area. To me, it wasn’t a view to die for. Maybe I had seen more beautiful natural and artificial views in my life. Having lived in Leysin, Switzerland at an extremely high altitude where I could literally see the clouds beneath me from my dorm room terrace, I wasn’t the slightest bit amused by the Victoria Peak view.
Nevertheless, having waited all that time to get up here, I had to snap as many pictures as I could. And of course ask random people to take my picture as well! But the drama doesn’t end here. I was surprised to find another queue greeting me at the station to take the tram back to the ground level. Thankfully, it was only a twenty minute wait this time.
I was delighted to exit the Peak madness and go back to Kowloon for my next attraction for that day: Kowloon Park.
Kowloon Park is more like a community park where the locals and residents of the area go to relax, have their lunch or practice tai chi. The park is considered a hidden gem as its location requires you to make a slight turn from Nathan Road. So if you didn’t know about it, you wouldn’t guess that there would be a park in the area. I think what makes this park listed as one of the top attractions in the city is its wide range of things to do and see. You wouldn’t see a flamingo pond in your local park, would you? And I don’t mean one or two birds swimming in a pond. This one had a flock of birds flapping their wings and posing for pictures 😉
There’s a beautiful bird sanctuary with colorful and pretty birds, a statue garden, a small maze and an observation deck.
Crossing to the other end of the park takes you to the Harbour City area. Where a large shopping mall with the same name would be a good place to spend a few hours. More so if you happen to visit during the holiday season, when all the sales are on. Since shopping wasn’t a concern for me at this particular trip, I opted for a soup dinner. Finding non-authentic Chinese food in Kowloon is like finding water in the desert! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a salad and sandwich place. But my greed and curiosity made me decide to look around the mall for something better. Before returning to that shop an hour or so later only to find out that they are closing early because it was the 31st of December. So all I could have was what was left of the soup of the day. It was a soup with shredded chicken. And let me tell you this: I have never had soup with such a huge appetite in my life! It had been a few days since my stomach ache and I had to go on a strict diet of bananas and yogurt. So for me to actually find a place that serves healthy western-type food and to be able to taste some real food after my days of starvation, was a real revelation.
It was almost time for the year to end. I was a few hours away from the new year. I was in Hong Kong; the city of lights. And my hotel was within walking distance from Victoria Harbour. So you would think that I wouldn’t think twice about going to the harbour to see the fire works that night? Well you are absolutely wrong! I can’t recall how many times I have changed my mind back and forth about going alone to the harbour to see the New Year fire works! Mainly because my local friend had warned me about the extraordinary crowds and the long hours it would take me to get back to my hotel if I decided to go to the harbour. As much as I didn’t like the idea of being stuck in the NYE crowd and the abnormally busy streets of Kowloon, I knew that I didn’t fly all the way from Dubai to Hong Kong during the holiday season to spend my New Year’s Eve at the hotel. So I gathered all the courage in the world (or Hong Kong for that matter would be enough since it’s such a busy city) and headed out of the hotel – after asking the reception staff if it would be a great risk for me to go out to the streets on NYE – and made my way to the legendary Victoria Harbour. The streets were closed off so that people could walk in them and take pictures. No cars were allowed to go through the streets for the night. We had to take different routes to get to the harbour. When I finally got there, I found out that the area where the fire works would be taking place was closed with barriers, and police officers were standing on the spot. It was around 10:30 pm and the area was already packed with the New Year celebratory crowd so they weren’t letting in any more people. Looking at the time and thinking if I really wanted to hang around for a couple of hours and possibly get stuck in the crowd when it was time to go back to my hotel, I decided to make a wise decision and call it a night and walk back safely to my hotel. On my way to the harbour, I did get to witness an Indian community group parade, local teenagers in New Year costumes and accessories, a young band performance, and almost everyone having their picture taken in the middle of the closed down light-filled streets.
While I didn’t get to celebrate or ring in the new year in Hong Kong style, or attend the hotel’s NYE dinner party which I found out about the next day, or watch the world-famous fire works at Victoria Harbour (or even on TV!), I am grateful for the many privileges that I have in my life. One of them being the opportunity to visit a far-eastern country for the first time, and experience the thrills associated with exploring a new destination and culture.
Although I am almost two months late, but I would still like to wish all of you: A very happy and adventurous new year!
Waiting Time Sign Board at the Peak Tram QueueA View from The Peak TerracePost A Letter to your Loved Ones at The PeakFlamingo Birds at Kowloon ParkBird Sanctuary at Kowloon ParkShredded Chicken Soup!View from Harbour City Mall’s TerraceThe Peninsula Hotel Christmas LightsLocal Band Performance on NYEPedestrian-only NYE Streets
While discussing my Hong Kong holiday package with the very professional, friendly and helpful Emirates Holidays agent, I was advised not to go to one particular area of Hong Kong: Mongkok. When I asked her about the reason that she didn’t think it would be a good idea for me to go there, she explained that Mongkok was the equivalent to the Red Light District area in Amsterdam, and that I should avoid it since I’m travelling alone.
I took my lovely agent’s note into consideration and was strolling down the different streets of Hong Kong when I got there, without paying much attention to where I was really! No, I’m joking. I was relatively aware of the names of the areas and streets that I walked in. I was basically my own tour guide!
On most evenings (and sometimes mornings or afternoons!), you could see me sitting in front of one of the computers at the lobby doing my research on the top tourist attractions and things to do in the bustling city of Hong Kong. My search on the best street markets in Hong Kong resulted in a good number of options. Some of them were in the Kowloon side, and others in the Hong Kong Island side. I ended up with a list of three markets that I would like to visit. And since I had already been to the not so easy to find “Jardine’s Crescent Market” (see here if you still haven’t read that post), I was down to two markets: Jade Market and the Ladies’ Market.
I asked my local friend – who lives an hour away from the city in the harbor-side town of Sai Kung – which street market we should check out, and she suggested that we go to the Ladies’ Market upon telling her that I wasn’t interested in buying any jade ring or other jade jewelry. So off we went to Tung Choi street in Mongkok which is home to the famous Ladies’ Market. On our way to Mongkok, I explained to my friend the words of advise that my Emirates Holidays agent had given me about the area…and we had a small chat about it but we didn’t have anything to worry about especially since we were visiting the area in the afternoon time and are going to a particular place there.
Little did I know that what I would experience at the Ladies’ Market that afternoon would have nothing to do with the agent’s warnings, who was herself surprised when I told her my unbelievable story. We had just started our journey through the busy market and were having a look at some colorful beaded bracelets at one of the stalls. Since we were in a street market, I decided to practice my not so great bargaining skills with the sales lady…I was asking her to lower the price as I wanted to get a couple of bracelets. But deep inside, I just wanted to have an idea of the price range in the market before I continued my stroll down the market stalls. Mainly because I wasn’t that fond of the bracelets that she was selling and I wanted to have a look at other stalls before I made up my mind on anything. To my surprise, she did lower the price by a good amount…but I still didn’t like the bracelets that much and didn’t want to rush into buying from the first place that I had a look at. When I was about to leave, the middle-aged woman held on to my hand so strongly and wouldn’t let go! I explained to her that I will just have a look and come back, but she still wouldn’t let me go! After a few attempts to convince her that I will be back and her not letting go of my hand, I pulled myself away only to receive the strongest pinch on my arm that I have ever experienced in my entire life! That pinch caused me strong pain on the spot and a bruise that left a dark mark on my skin. The pain and bruise associated with that lady’s aggressive pinch lasted until a while after I was back in Dubai! Yes, it was that strong!
After our purely abusive encounter at the accessories stall, we continued our walk through the market, and I came across another stall selling similar beaded bracelets. The patterns and colors were nicer and the lady gave me an even lower price…and she didn’t need to use her aggressive powers in convincing me to make a purchase! I was glad that I didn’t buy anything from the previous lady and that I waited till I found something that I actually liked.
Walking down the notoriously busy streets of Mongkok on a Sunday evening meant that we would be witnessing all sorts of street activities…from political protests to Chinese dance performances and juggling acts. And even an old Chinese guy who was writing a message to the passers by in white chalk, asking for financial help in sympathy for his sick daughter.
I wasn’t surprised to read on Wikipedia that “According to the Guinness World Records, Mongkok has the highest population density in the world.”
Honestly, after my personal bad-mannered experience at the Ladies’ Market, I suggest that they change its name to the Brutal Market and have a sign that reads: Beware of Pinching Lady at the First Beaded Bracelets Stall 🙂
