Trip: HongKong – Kowloon and Hong Kong Island

Hong Kong- [Slideshow] – Last weekend we said: “Bye bye” to Singapore, and “Hello” to China…or rather: to the “Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China“. This is the correct name of Hong Kong since it was given back by the British to the Chinese 9 years ago in 1997. It is placed on numerous islands, with the 2 biggest ones: Hong kong Island and Kowloon.Hong Kong definitely does not have too much in common with the mainland China…it is a “light” version of this country, as we call it. Exactly as Singapore which is a “light” version of Asia in general But although the system, the mentality, the life standard (prices !!!) are so very distant from Chinese reality, we definitely felt like we are standing right at the entrance of China – this huge, mysterious country which offers so much of rich cultural variety!

But let me start from the beginning (always having problem with that part ) We planned 2 and half days in Hong Kong (Fr to Sun). Enough as it turned out, in order to see the city’s highlights and still enjoy relaxed sightseeing. JetStarAsia airlines had some advantages: cheap and punctual, but also some drawbacks: huge line to baggage check-in and very small planes with at most a couple millimeter space between your legs and the next seat. Since already during the flight we got used to tiny spaces, we did not mind the very small room that we booked at the Ibis North Point Hotel Actually we were already warned by some friends who visited the city earlier this year, that the accommodation in Hong Kong is both very costly and not too comfortable. For us, relaxed backpackers: not the slightest problem such meaningless details cannot prevent us from enjoying the Asian vivid financial center!

We did our touri-tours on all three days of our stay in Hong Kong. The first sight that overwhelmed us were the super tall apartment buildings, stretching trough the whole way form the modern Hong Kong airport (placed on Lantau Island) to the Hong Kong Island, where our hotel was. They did not quite make a nice impression: grey and cold, seemed to consist of millions of tiny “apartment” boxes. We couldn’t imagine that people have actually enough space to live there… It seemed like Hong Kong really has to cope with huge accommodation issues, where on the small area 8 million people need to make their living.(Actually most of those 8 million live on only 10% of Hong Kong’s area)
After taking a short nap on Friday afternoon (we had to wake up before 4am in order to catch the plane on Friday morning ), we set off to explore the most famous “Shopping Mall” part of the Hong Kong Island: the Causeway Bay district. Oh, haven’t I mentioned yet that Hong Kong is basically one huge shopping center? At least when you hear the recommendations of the Singaporeans, they will always say: “Oh, you are going to Hong Kong?? Great, you can do some great shopping there” … and then they list the whole bunch of famous malls that are simply a “must” to visit. But, we skipped that part, as easy to understand. Singapore is a big shopping mall too and somehow we didn’t feel like exploring another one, although it is said to be even cooler .

So we set off from the Causeway Bay MRT station. Leaving the malls behind we took a relaxing walk just enjoying the new views, new smells reaching us from the local fish and vegi markets, Chinese billboards and electronic commercials and much much more. Hong Kong at first sight seemed to be very modern and high tech, and well-off with its high prices and millions of shoppers; but on the other hand it had its shaggy poor nooks, with simple market stalls, ordinary people where some original Chinese culture and life style could be spotted. Right at the beginng of our Friday evening we had some very tasty Japanese food in a cozy Japanese restaurant – delicious! Then we proceeded to the harbor and next to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center we were for the first time confronted with the amazing skyline of the city. Although it was rather grey and cloudy on that evening, the view was very impressive! The status of HongKong as the financial and business center competing with Tokyo and Singapore has been confirmed at that moment!
[By the way, no wonder that businessmen choose the place to do business: On the contrary to China, Hong Kong has a democratic, free market system, offering the investors much freedom to establish their branches and most important: low- (or sometimes even no-) taxes. Hong Kong decides autonomously about its internal issues... it can not however avoid some political interference from the Chinese side... which obviously wants to limit the autonomy of this extremely rich and well prospering region.]

Later this evening, we took a ferry from the Star Ferry Piers and crossed the canal to enjoy the “light Show” on the Kowloon part of Hongkong. The harbor part of the district is called Tsim Sha Tsui. Out of that spot you can observe the famous music light show when some of the skyscrapers on the Hong Kong Island are lit up to the rhythms of music – certainly impressive and very unusual…you almost got the feeling the buildings were dancing right in front of you (daily at 8pm, be there at 7.30pm)

Saturday was hot and sunny. During the day we took a long walk on the Kowloon part of HongKong: Mong Kok. In Mong Kok you come across many interesting market places: The gold fish market, the bird market, the flower market, the ladies market (where actually both women and men can find some interesting – Gucci and Louis Vuitton fakes ) We passed on to the oldest Hong Kong streets: the Shanghai Street and the Hollywood street where many handcraft shops are still operating. We also visited a temple and a very interesting Jade market where characteristic green jade stone jewelry is sold.

After a short refreshment in our the hotel room (and a short afternoon nap ) we were ready to explore the famous Hong Kong Peak with its tram! In order to reach the train station get off at the Central MRT station and simply walk up the hill…the signs will lead you straight to the tram station. Generally the Hong Kong people seem to be very good at navigation systems. We already were positively surprised at the airport!

I believe the tram that we took up the hill has been used for more than 100 years now. A return ticket cost us about 3 EUR and was definitely worth its price. The hill is very very steep, so the train is pulled on a line placed at the bottom, between the tracks. The ride takes only couple minutes and soon everybody can enjoy the breathtaking view of the city! We also had a very nice dinner at the Cafe Deco restaurant there (Make a reservation at least 2 days in advance and ask for a window table) ! A great experience you cannot miss while visiting Hong Kong!

On Sunday we had a dilemma whether to go to the outskirts (New Territories or Lantau Island) or to stay on the Hong Kong Island and explore another city district. We chose the last option, in order not to risk missing our plane in the evening. We got off on the Sheung Won MRT station and took a very interesting tour trough the Western Market, the Antique Street, the Man Mo Temple, the Soho district and ended up at the Central MRT Station again. On the way we had a nice relaxing stop in one of the very stylish cafes at Soho and also dropped by to a huge book and DVD store – HMV (a paradise for me – I was thrilled to find the Brazilian movie: “The city of God”!). And to close properly our escapade to one of the biggest shopping centers in the world, we took a closer look at Sogo – a huge shopping mall close to the Causeway MRT station. Patric finally got to buy his white 30 GB Ipod !!!!! and I chose 2 pairs of lovely Chinese wooden chopsticks for us which we will take back home and use them to enjoy the Chinese cuisine “made in” the old good Europe

Hong Kong recommendations:

Ferry trip from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon – very cheap!
Light show at Hong Kong Island at 8pm – watched from the harbor at Kowloon
Mong Kok with all its different markets – plan at least 3-4 hours.
The Hong Kong Peak – take the traditional tram up to the peak (queue is up to 30 minutes)
Dinner at the Peak at Cafe Deco (book 2 days in advance and ask for window table)
Soho and the worlds longest moving staircase
Sogo shopping mall near Causeway Bay MRT – 13 storeys of pure shopping

Hong Kong- [Slideshow]

Trip: Thailand – Bangkok – One City A Million Faces

Bangkok – [Slideshow] – Bangkok City was our second trip with Verena, our friend from Germany, paying us a 10 day visit. We planned this trip some weeks ahead and bought thailand flight tickets from Tigerairways (they often have promotions for thailand flights) for about 220 SGD (108€). Joana and her boyfriend Micha joined us for the trip to Bangkok.
Day 1 – Friday:

The tigerairways flight was scheduled for 1pm. Since we took a whole day off, Agusia came up with a brilliant idea – Why not go to the German bakery “Werners Oven” to have breakfast before leaving for Bangkok? So we packed our stuff and took a taxi to the Upper East Coast Road to enjoy the famous Brezel at Werners Oven (They taste good, but no comparison to the Tübinger Brezels from Bäcker Walker )

Unlike our previous flight to Hanoi, we flew from the new Budget Terminal at Changi Airport that recently opened and where TigerAirways is operating. The flight was relaxing and nothing special, everybody was excited to see Bangkok.
As we deboarded we could immediately feel the overwhelming heat! Bangkok is definitely hotter than Singapore. After Aga got her Visa (1000THB for all new EU members), we took a taxi (surprisingly they drive with meter!) and headed for our hotel using the expressway (2 toll stations 20 + 40THB). Our hotel – The Twin Towers Hotel – made a nice and clean impression at the first glance. It was pretty luxurious even though it wasn’t really expensive. In our package the price for a double-room was 1650THB++ (Don’t forget the ++ 1650*1,17=1930,50THB – 40€).

We changed quickly and left the hotel very soon again, curious to explore Bangkok: There were two really memorable things we experienced during our first evening in Thailand’s capital. We had a very very local dinner, some fried noodles prepared on the street! Delicious, simple and very cheap! (15THB-0,30 EUR).
And the second thing I obviously need to mention and highly recommend is the Sirocco Bar (Thanks Thomas for this perfect hint). It offers a truly breathtaking view of Bangkok, from an open terrace on the 64th floor of the State Tower! We had to admit that the Bagkok Scirocco Bar rates much much higher comparing to the famous New Asia Bar at the top of Swiss Hotel in Singapore.

This is a quick overview of what we did in Bangkok that day.
(Our rating: [+++]= must see | [++]= ok-lah | [+]= if you have enough time)

[+] Rehearsal 60th anniversary of the king on the river
[+] Chinatown flower market
[+++] Wat Po – The temple of the reclining Buddah at night
[++] Fried noodles prepared on the street
[+++] Sirocco Bar 64th floor of the State Tower
[+++] PatPong night market – the local “red light district”, nice Thai ladies tempt …and seem to be pretty convincing if you look inside any of the loud bars apart from THIS kind of pleasures, there is a market, a real bargaining paradise selling all possible fakes you can imagine!

Day 2 – Saturday:

On Saturday morning we got up early, since we were told to go to the Chatuchuk market in the morning because of the heat. We took the Skytrain from the MBK Center to the last very northern station Mo Chit. From there it was just a couple minutes walk to the Chatuchuk market: we just followed the crowd, as everybody was heading there. The weekend market is supposed to be Thailands largest market and consists of almost 15.000 stalls. It is really crowded and very hot! But most important- very interesting! You can find everything there from jewelry over jeans to dogs and cats. Actually the pets they sell there do not have an easy life – most of the times, the poor poppies are packed into tiny cages, squeezed together, sweating and whining. Amazing, if you compare to it the European attitude to animals, treated like humans almost or even making up for babies in some families… (sad but true). Anyways, you should plan about 2h for the market tour, and if you are a “shop-aholic” 3-4 should be enough
Our plan was to visit the temples after the Chatuchuk market, but after we got more and more into shopping mood we changed our minds and postponed the temple tour to Sunday. Verena and Aga decided, they still need to train bargaining… and in order to do that they needed some more shops to visit So the next stop was the MBK or Mahbunkrong shopping center. You can buy a lot of clothes there ! If I remember right it was on the 4th of the 8 floor high building. We bought some jeans (Diesel) and t-shirts. After another 2 hours of shopping, in order to polish the almost perfect bargaining skills, we headed for the Paragon shopping center at Siam Square. In the basement, we discovered a brand new Aquarium. We didn’t go in (cover charge was 450THB) but it looked pretty impressive on the leaflets we saw.
Back at the hotel after a nice chill out in the hotel swimming pool we decided to continue the shopping marathon an went to the Suan Lom Night Bazaar.

[+++] The Chatuchak market – only on Saturday and Sunday
[+++] Mabunkrong MBK shopping center – a must if you want to buy jeans
[++] The Paragon, Siam Paragon, Aqaurium – nice but ,compared to the markets, expensive shopping center, Aqaurium looked nice
[+++] Suan Lom Night Bazar – a government financed market with nice local food and a lot of art pieces and handcraft, a heaven for poeple that love to shop for interior decoration, next to the market there is a – oktober fest like- huge open air pub serving German beer (Erdinger & Paulaner) and playing live music.

Day 3 – Sunday:

We started this very exciting day with a boat tour on the small canals of Thonburi, the oldest part of town, even a former capital during the reign of King Taksin. Thonburi is also called “Venice of Asia” because of this small canals. We started our boat tour at a pier near the Grand Palace. It was about 1500 THB for 1,5 hours. This is something you definitely should not miss in Bangkok. Pictures enclosed speak for themselves!
After the boat tour we visited the Grand Palace and Wat Po Temple – the huge temple site. It was all in all very impressive, but the heat was almost impossible to stand! In order to close the Bangkok visit in a perfect way, you should choose the very original Thai massage at the Wat Po Massage School. The atmosphere there was really amazing! And the massage felt really good after 3 days of exhausting sightseeing! The place is not easy to find but you will get a half an hour massage for 220THB and an hour for 330THB. Value for money!!

[+++] Boat tour on Chao Phraya River and the small canals of Thonburi - Experience it and you will know why they name Bangkok the Venice of Asia
[++] TucTuc tour – Actually the rating is [+++] but once you got stuck in traffic you would wish to sit in a taxi
[+++] Grand Palace - mandatory
[+++] Wat Poo - mandatory
[+++] Thai Massage at Wat Po - very relaxing and very unique, almost spiritual experience, do not miss !
[++] Starbucks – finally the price meets the quality of the coffee, enjoy

Bangkok prejudices:

Bangkok is a dirty city – Hmm yes and no! The air is polluted due to the heavy traffic and the TucTucs, but there are also very nice and clean areas in Bangkok
Bangkok taxidrivers want to scam you all the time – Yes they try, but once you understand how to bargain, 80% of them will drive with meter.
Bangkok is only for sex-tourists – NO, definitely not!
The Chatuchuk market is HOT and it is HOT there – Yes and Yes indeed! better go there in the early morning
Bangkok is cheap – Yes, almost everything is cheap there

What else is there to say, actually nothing more except – Thank you all (Joana, Micha, Verena, Aga & Patric) for this great trip to one of the most exciting cities we have visited in Asia so far.
Photos are to follow soon ….

Bangkok – [Slideshow]

You can find other pictures on Joanas website –> click here

It's SingTime

Trip: HongKong – Kowloon and Hong Kong Island

Trip: Thailand – Bangkok – One City A Million Faces

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