HONG KONG: What to See!

There is so much to see in Hong Kong – too much for ONE blog post (or our 5 days there), so I decided for my last post on Hong Kong to be somewhat of a pictorial of our sightseeing.  Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have about the places and pictures!

HARBOR SIDE LASER LIGHT SHOW: We were lucky to stay at a hotel overlooking the harbor side.  Every night at 8 PM, you can watch a laser light show synchronized to music. It was really beautiful!

MACAU: We took a TurboJet boat to Macau, which was about an hour long.  Once we docked in Macau, we looked for the bicycle/rickshaw tour guides and found this nice, older gentleman who agreed to ride us into town.  This was no ordinary ride.  I figured that once we merged into the main thoroughfare, we would ride in a bicycle lane.  Yeah, that was not the case!  We merged into normal traffic, huge buses and all!

It was a great way to see the streetscape – so many apartment buildings and hotels!

Once we arrived at our destination, we walked around St. Dominic’s Church and followed the beautiful black and white cobblestone to the Ruins of St. Paul.  We were able to walk around and see the tombs beneath the ground and some of the artifacts that were saved as well.

From there, we walked upwards toward the Fortaleza de Monte (Monte Fort).  We were able to catch some beautiful views of the island.

Deciding against taking a bicycle rickshaw across a major bridge, we opted for a taxi to take us to the Venetian Hotel.  Macau is a gambling mecca…I couldn’t believe how many casinos were on this island – with more and more being built everyday!  When we entered the Venetian, we were quick to realize that this was like the smaller relative of the one in Vegas – gondolas, mall and all!  We walked around for a bit, but since we aren’t gamblers (and go to Vegas at least once a year for business), we decided to check out the Galaxy hotel.  This is the newest of the casinos.  It offered the same amenities as any other casino, but one thing caught our eye.  It was a sign that read “Foot Hub”.  We both looked at each other and said, “Could that be a foot massage place?”.  It was!  My husband and I shared our first experience of a one hour foot massage.  It was heavenly.  Considering in one day alone, I had walked over 39,000 steps!

Picture a large room with pedicure-like chairs on either side.  Probably 10 chairs per side.  One gentleman joined the room shortly after we started and within 5 seconds was snoring – and I mean hardcore snoring.  I couldn’t help but laugh – the snoring broke the language barrier for sure, as the masseuses started cracking up as well.

MORNING TRAIL: My husband always spoke about this one trail that he would walk a few times on his trips to HK, and I was finally able to experience it!  We took the MTR and then a taxi up the winding mountain so that we could walk the Morning Trail.  The views were phenomenal!  I didn’t step too close to the edge as I have a fear of heights, but as long as I looked straight ahead I was totally fine.  And there was so much to see!!

LADIES MARKET: The Ladies Marketing is located in Mong Kok, and is known to have the most foot traffic of all of the areas of Hong Kong.  When we emerged from the MTR, I totally understood why it was dubbed so.  Crazy amounts of people!  Once you work your way through the crowds, you come across what reminded me of a flea market-like set up with booths on either side of the street.  Here you can find anything from little trinkets to faux bags and watches.  As we would walk along, we’d hear, “Copy watch, copy bag” about every few steps.

BIG BUDDHA: This was a HUGE part of my trip.  There are few ways that you can get to the Tian Tam Big Buddha, a bronze statue completed in 1993.  You could:

1. Take the gondola, or cable car soaring high above the neighboring mountains, waterways and trails.
2. Take a “blue” cab, but they were few and far between.
3. Take a double decker bus, which we had previously read as being a rough ride up Mount Muk Yue.

I am afraid of heights (I unfortunately found out about this fear when I was in 5th grade and atop the Statue of Liberty’s crown – and looked down).  I was really nervous to try this, but knew I would be kicking myself if I didn’t.  Finally, the morning of the trip I “sucked it up” and agreed to the cable car.

We did not opt for the glass bottom cable car, which I am sure was super beautiful for those not like me.  I was FINE!  It was BEAUTIFUL!  I have to admit that I began to sweat a bit when we “took off”, but as long as I looked straight ahead (and then even peeked downward to look at the mountains and trails), I was good.  The scenery was breathtaking.  We saw the airport, neighboring islands, the many trails that you can trek to get to the buddha.  I loved it!

After eating ramen, we headed toward the Big Buddha, the largest outdoor sitting buddha statue .  We strolled past the 12 warriors guarding him.  Then up 248 steps (much harder than the Rocky steps at the Philly Museum of Art – I thought I could just prance right up these…NO), and there he sat.  It was amazing.

We walked around a bit afterward, past the Po Lin monastery and over to the Wisdom Path.  Serenity and beauty.

So what I thought would be a pictorial post has somewhat morphed into a lengthy tour!  There is so much more to see and do in Hong Kong – I don’t think I’ve chipped the surface.

Have you been to Hong Kong?  If so, what was your favorite part of your trip?