The best flights for our trip to Taiwan had us stopover in Hong Kong on the way to Taipei so I used that as an excuse to call in and catch up with a friend and have a look around a place I haven't had much to do with.
Rowie, of course, had her eye on the shopping and eating side of the stopover - and was not disappointed. I wasn't all that keen to even get out of bed and was just looking to have a break, do nothing and enjoy it.
We went in amongst a night market close to our hotel when we got in the first night to find the usual market trinkets. One I hadn't seen before was the Chinglish signs. Entertaining! In amongst all that was the t-shirts, jade, iPhone cases, etc. We sat and had a meal in one place, walked around a bit more and found a BBQ restaurant and had another meal. Complete with a few beers, soft drinks and a dozen squid, mushroom and beef on skewers, we were only down a hundred Hong Kong dollars (AUD15)
Sunday was a MRT (train) trip - not allowed to catch ferries anymore, P&O have a lot to answer for! - to Hong Kong Island for a look around. Seeing as we're only here for a day really I didn't do any research to make plans on any must see places, and it showed. We found Times Square - a shopping centre - a heap of people (shopping), busy streets (full of people shopping) and not much else. This is why I don't do major cities!
We got back on the MRT after the obligatory photos and came back to Kowloon for a bit more of a walk around the area close to our hotel. We found Kowloon Park and their aviary (half the birds are Australian), water bird park, and two and a half thousand filipinas all sitting on a towel or blanket having their lunch. There are plenty of them working in Hong Kong and they all get together for lunch in the park. So much so that the signs warning of a fine for littering - were in Tagalog!
After catching up with a good friend, doing a bit more shopping in the markets (Rowie managed to talk a stall holder out of seven t-shirts for HK$100) eating out and drinking too much we wotheir on Monday with only a few hours before our flight was due to leave.
Hong Kong is impressively efficient, and we were lucky they are.
The free Airport Express shuttle bus, which runs every twelve minutes, picked us up at the hotel door and dropped us off at Kowloon MRT where we able to check in our bags for the flight to Taipei. Checking in for a flight at a train station was new to me. Then we got the Airport Express train for the twenty minute ride to the airport. The train pulls up at the terminal and doors on both sides open up. Terminal 1 to your left and Terminal 2 to your right. None of those shuttle bus rides or long walks when you get to the wrong terminal here.
We woke up to rushing to get to the airport, and ended up walking around the airport taking happy snaps with plenty of time to spare.
Overall, the weather wasn't all that good, there were too many people around to make sightseeing even close to enjoyable (we were here on a Sunday - apparently always busy) and we weren't here long enough.
Next time! Maybe make a few more plans, come in during the week, but definitely come back for another look.
Off to Taiwan now!
