To end my holiday month that has been February I decided that a little trip to Hong Kong was in order.
I was only there for a night but I definitely managed to fill it with all the things you can't do in China.
By the time we have traveled by bus and negotiated border control, which was absolutely heaving (no other way to sufficiently describe it) because of the new year holiday, it was lunchtime before I arrived in central Hong Kong and was reunited with friends. First on the agenda was Michelin starred dim sum. It was nice but the setting lets the experience down slightly (its in the bottom floor of a shopping centre, that was a complete mission to find!) but I'm not a Michelin critic so what do I know. I can now though claim I've eaten the cheapest Michelin starred food in the world! The chances are it will also maintain the only personally awarded title of 'Michelin starred restaurants I've been to' for a while...
After lunch we headed to the Mong Kok street market for a spot of tourist shopping. I can now tick 'buy a Chinese silk gown' off my China shopping list. This market is definitely a good place to hone your bartering skills.
Early evening was spent in the 'classiest' of ways possible by drinking some beer on top of the IFC mall building, which has a lovely - and surprisingly quiet - rooftop garden, while watching the sun set and the famous lights of Hong Kong come alive.
Hong Kong Harbour
John and I then decided it was time for dinner and preceded to Soho for some pizza and chips. Really we should have walked up the hill to Soho in order to earn our meal but instead we took the hillside escalator. When in Hong Kong!
Our day was completed in the most lavish of ways. We headed for the Ritz-Carlton hotel to the Ozone bar, which is the highest bar in the world! Another personal title can be awarded here for 'the most expensive gin and tonic I have ever bought' but it was most definitely worth it for the experience and the spectacular view of the harbour. I can't say we dressed the part, I was wearing trainers, John was carrying a backpack and we were both of bit sweaty from the humidity but as long as we didn't look at our reflections we felt like we belonged! If only our bank balances could agree...
Us lowering the tone in the Ozone bar. I'm quite proud of this picture with both the view from 118 floors up and us inside - I couldn't have planned it if I tried.
Day two of the flying visit to Hong Kong was spent doing some much needed shopping. That was after a full English breakfast and a pot of tea though. Whilst my shopping didn't quite tick off the whole list (I'll head to another part of the city) I am now the proud owner of some new clothes. This is quite a big deal after wearing about the same 5 outfits on rotation for the last 7 months. My pupils have commented on the fact that I wore the same skirt two weeks in a row to their class. I haven't made that mistake again!
After running round in circles, I think I inadvertently did about 5 circuits of the same block, during the morning shopping trip, we were verging on the peckish side, so headed for a late lunch before getting the bus home. I opted for the cultural fusion of fish balls and a strawberry milkshake - surprisingly they don't pair too badly.
This trip has definitely turned into fulfilling all my food cravings. I couldn't sleep on Wednesday night and inadvertently found myself thinking about all the things I wanted to eat that I haven't eaten since I left the UK.
The ultimate list was as follows:
- bacon
- sausages
- fried egg, with a runny yolk
- bacon roll
- hp sauce
- mature orange cheddar
- cheese toastie
- toast (ideally brown bread) with butter
- homemade soup
- salsa
Hong Kong has definitely ticked off most of this list. The soup will have to wait until July. The pizza also curbed the apparent need for cheese; the number of times I talked about and mentioned cheese on Thursday was beginning to alarm me! The desire for toast was the also almost alarming. Sadly toast is about the one thing you can't make in a microwave, but all is now well in my world again!
After writing this it seems that my two days were mainly spent eating!
I definitely enjoyed this trip to Hong Kong more than my last because I didn't get reverse culture shock this time, I was more prepared for everything being so different. This meant I managed to appreciate the uniqueness of Hong Kong and all the things it has to offer this time...phew!
G x
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