We mistakenly thought we would be well rested after spending the previous day leisurely taking in the sights (sounds and smells) that Hong Kong had to offer. However, we unfortunately hadn’t factored in the unofficial ‘Symphony of Car Horns’ that lasts for the entire duration of the night…EVERY night.
However, we unfortunately hadn’t factored in the unofficial ‘Symphony of Car Horns’ that lasts for the entire duration of the night…EVERY night. And with our ‘cupboard of doom’ room directly overlooking the main road in Hong Kong we soon gave up on any hope of having a lie in and decided we’d just go exploring instead.
The day began early with a trip over to Lantau Island – home of the biggest sitting Bronze Buddha in the world. It was magical heading up here, the train takes you out around the harbor with fantastic views of the big Buddha in the distance. At the top of a mountain of steps you are met, not just by the big man himself, but the most fantastic view that he resides over, day after day and night after night. If you explore enough at the top you might even be lucky enough to stumble uppon the Buddhist monestary and witness Hong Kong residents burning ‘Hell Money’ and incense for their dead loved ones.
After spending a significant portion of the day here we made our way back down, amusing ourselves at the ludicrously overpriced shops and restaurants in the swanky part of town, finally found another amazing chocolate shop (that was open). Vero Chocolate Lounge on Fenwick Pier, a short walk from the tram to Victoria Peak is magic. Featuring some of the most innovative chocolate I have ever come across, including shimmer on the chocolate painted on or sprayed on by hand in a cocoa butter mix – this is like art, only it’s edible, so really it’s better than art! After marvelling at and eating some of these creations, promising ourselves we would return, we stocked up on these edible chocolate gems and made our way to the Avenue of Stars down Hollywood Road.
Snacking, and failing in our attempts to savour our amazing chocolate treats, we set off for yet another must-do in Hong Kong HAS to be taking the Tram up to Victoria Peak, it’s a perfect spot to amble around admire the spectacular views and day dream about purchasing some of the ludicrous real-estate! The ‘Wow Factor’ really kicks in when the sun begins to set and all the little lights on the toy-like town (that is Hong Kong from a birds eye perspective from The Peak) begin to twinkle into life showering the city in electric glitter!
After an exciting day and magic sunset it was time to head to KFC, but not for reasons most Westeners would go there for…we were on a mission…an Egg Tart-related mission! Clutching our hot, fragrant boxes of golden and delicious booty we headed back to our hostel, deciding to take the side entrance to the building and watch the bizarre comings and goings of the other ‘residents’ of the building.
The last day in Hong Kong was spent trying in vain to locate the infamous Stanley Market – a place mum frequented while living in Hong Kong, and somewhere that both she and the (very out of date) Lonely Planet guide to China had waxed lyrical about. Unfortunately it was nowhere to be found! We did however, come across some suitably cheap markets to practice our haggling in, one of which was open til some ludicrous time in the morning and having explored every knock and cranny of it we decided it was time to turn in – it was practically getting light and we had a 5am flight to catch!
After a couple hours shut eye, lulled to a fitful sleep by the ‘Symphony of Car Horns’ we were almost quite sorry to leave the cupboard-of-doom room with the shoebox-shower, even the funny pink Gucci-bespectacled lady behind the desk and her equally funny-looking googly eyed goldfish. We took one last journey down to the ground floor in the lift that had contained the fight between Predator and Blade Runner! We were homeward bound, we had a flight to catch, and so it was time to hit the road!
This sure had been an adventure, three months on the road covering the north to the south of China’s East Coast. I only hope I can find some time in China Town, London to practice my Chinese!
The Adventures of Elle Coco 