I have been off blogging for quite some time as been pretty busy with some of my work projects. Finally my wife and I are taking a vacation to India, with a brief stop-over in Hong Kong. I have decided to put in some information about our trip.
We took Cathay Pacific from Vancouver to Hong Kong. It was a 14 hour flight, but must say very comfortable. Cathay Pacific definitely has very good service and food. Highly recommend it for a long flight.
My first impression of Hong Kong was that it is very clean and very organized (streamlined process). Starting from the airport, the Immigration was smooth, and right after was a help desk for tourists with the ticket counter for transportation next to it. Walk out of the airport, and the train station to the city is right there. Everything in the city is well planned out. The public transportation is great, and very easy to figure out how to get around. We mainly used busses and trains, and a few taxis that were also pretty cheap.
We stayed at the ‘Lan Kwai Fong Hotel @ Kau U Fong’. It was definitely a very comfortable stay, however must add that it was quite a shock to see the size of the room. The room was very “compact” 
. The bed nearly took the whole room, there was a small seating area by the window, small writing table and chair, and a very tightly packed bathroom. I must add that it was not a very less price for the room as well. However despite the size, the views from the room were good, the staff was very helpful and courteous (asked permission to take photocopies), and the breakfast was very good.
We reached our hotel pretty late at night (around 11:00 PM), so were not in high spirits to go out. However did venture out to the bars and club district of Hong Kong – ‘Lan Kwai Fong’ district. There were mainly foreign tourists in the area, with a few locals. There were tons of bars on both sides of the road with various different themes and music, and folks carrying bottles of beer spilling onto the road. Seemed like it is ok in that particular area to walk with beer on the road and go pub hopping. We were too tired and jet lagged to grab a drink, however did grab a late night quick snack at one of the joints in the area (were not too impressed with the food though).
Link to Hong Kong attractions
The next morning we got an early start, thanks to the jet lag, and kicked off our single day of Hong Kong adventure with a trip to The Peak. 
This is a tram ride up an incredibly steep hill with gorgeous views of the city. This tram ride reminded us of the tram ride in Bergen, Norway. At the end of the tram ride is the ‘Peak Tower’ where one can go to the top and see spectacular 360 degree views of the city. You can really start seeing the majestic buildings donning the city while coming up the steep ride. My strong recommendation is while coming up the hill, try to have the seat at the very back of the tram. This enables you to see the views from the back side on the way up.
From the top of the Peak, one thing everyone notices is that Hong Kong is really a city of SKYSCRAPERS. Wow!!! Looking at the skyline of Hong Kong, you can see rows and rows of skyscrapers in every direction you move your head. Seems like the number of huge and tall buildings in this city really seems to put the number of skyscrapers in cities like New York and London to shame.
Link to Hong Kong attractions map – was very useful to us
Next we went to the Kowloon district to see the Bird market, Flower market and the Fish market. To go from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon, we took a cab to the Admiralty station (close to the Peak), and a train to the ‘Price Edward’ station. Our first stop was the bird market. Word of caution – there is a significantly long walk from the ‘Price Edward’ station to the Bird market. It might seem like you are lost or heading the wrong direction, but walk on the road by the station and you will get to the bird market. The road signs in Kowloon were not very helpful to us, however the people around were very helpful with directions. Kowloon is an area where most of the locals hang out. So you get to experience some of the Hong Kong local culture.
The Bird market was really unique. There were tons of different varieties of birds in cages. There were numerous birds of vibrant 
colors. The place was also loud with the birds chirping and making many different sounds. There were quite a few folks carrying birds around in different cages. Both my wife and I were very fascinated by this market.
Apart from the birds themselves, the vendors sold various different cages and bird food (both insects and grains).
After the bird market, we walked through the flower market to the fish market. The flower market by itself was not very captivating, however must say that we did see quite a few varieties plants being sold that we would have loved to bring back home to Seattle.
The Fish market was also pretty interesting. There were tons of stores with fishes tied in little plastic bags. There were many different varieties of fishes of various colors. Majority of the fishes were smaller in plastic bags, however there were some of the bigger fishes in fish tanks. The vendors were also selling small turtles.
Then we walked through the Ladies market. This was a row of shops with clothes, bags, accessories, watches etc. of many different famous brands, like Gucci. Of course we would question the authenticity of the items. There were so many items for display in the small stores that it was pretty over-whelming for us, and we did not like to shop there too much. We decided to make the best out of the rest of the day and quit looking in the ladies market. We started to head back to Hong Kong island to the Stanley market (shopping is definitely a must-do in Hong Kong). The markets in Kowloon were great for site seeing, and seeing more of the locals, however I would recommend it for shopping only if you have a longer time (at least 2 days). If you are restricted to a single day, just go directly to Stanley market for shopping purposes.
Link to MTR (rail) system map
We took the train from ‘Mong Kok’ station to Central station, then took bus number 6, from Central Bus Terminal (right in front of the station), to Stanley market. All the bus and train information is given under the attraction description in the tourist guides. The free 
tourist guides are handed out in the airport or the hotels. We sat in the top of the double-decker bus, and had an enjoyable view of the city. We noticed that many people in Hong Kong hang clothes outside their windows. We also noticed there were many of the high end cars such as BMW’s, Mercedes’, Ferrari’s on the road.
After a long bus ride, around an hour (the cab back was half the time, and around $20 USD), we reached the Stanley market. This place has about 3-4 US city blocks of shops selling everything from clothes to art work to different kinds of teas. This market is specifically for foreign tourists, and as expected you do not see many locals here except the vendors. There is definitely a lot of bargaining in Stanley market, and since I completely lack the skill of bargaining, my wife did most of the discussions with the vendors. We did end up getting some good art work, clothes etc. from the market. The market also has a few waterfront restaurants where we had our late lunch.
Then we headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags and get ready to leave to the airport. Before heading back to the airport, we did stop by a massage parlor, recommended by the hotel staff, for getting a 30 min foot massage. After walking around from place to place all day, must say this was one of the most divine 30 minutes of our time in Hong Kong. The masseuse gave us some good tea, got warm water to soak and relax our feet, cleaned it, and gave an amazing massage.
After this we had to rush back to the airport in a cab (around $35 USD from Hong Kong Island), and got our flight continuing our journey to India. All in all it was an enjoyable day, and we wish had had more time to see more of Hong Kong – such as the ‘Symphony of Lights’, Jumbo Kingdom, Giant Buddha, Macau Island etc. I would say that one would need at least 3 days to comfortably see most of the places in Hong Kong. Because I loved Hong Kong much and wanted to see more of the city and surroundings, I have pre-poned my trip and am coming back to Hong Kong for 3 days (from 11th December till the 14th). Looking forward to seeing more of the city.
I highly recommend folks to visit Hong Kong. More about the rest of our trip in India coming soon…
Cheers and Happy Journeys.
