Hong Kong

[bxaxrxrxyx]

Hi
Anyone been to Hong Kong, what are the must do and see things. How long should I plan to stay so that I can see it all - 7 days? - 10 days? Any other tips. Is eating out cheap?
Thanks

Bazza

[spudqueen]

We went two years ago for 9 days and loved it. There's loads to do - any decent guide book will have all the major sites in. I wouldn't recommend going to Aberdeen though, we thought it was a disgusting smelly place, and a complete rip off. Jumbo just isn't worth visiting (and one of my guide books had it in it's top ten - I would put it in the top ten places to avoid. Some of our favourite things were - The Peak (both day and night), the Peak Tram is worth using once just for the experience, but we also got the bus (a double decker bus on that route is a thrill ride in its self!), and a taxi (which for four of us was cheaper than the Peak Tram); the trams, they run along one side of Hong Kong Island, are very cheap, and you can see loads from them, we enjoyed the experience of going along Dried Seafood Street (yes, that's what it's called!), where every shop sells, well, dried seafood!; we also enjoyed the escalators that take you high up, they run downwards in the morning and upwards from about 2pm!
We rented an apartment in Kennedy (the end of the tram at one end of the island), which is traditionally one of the Chinese areas (rather than ex-pats) of Hong Kong. I would highly recommend that you go to the market there, we've never experienced anything like it before. One of our favourite places was also in Kennedy - the public swimming pool. It is free (or was when we were there), very clean (you have to walk through a shower and foot bath before you can enter the pool), but what a place. The swimming pool is outdoors and on a roof top. There are actually four pools, a learners one, a childrens one with slides etc, an olympic size pool, and the general one. It's such an experience to be in a pool on a roof top surrounded by all these high rise flats, we loved it.

[spudqueen]

Yes, it is cheap to eat out. You can choose to eat at more expensive places (there are a couple of really good restaurants at the Peak that are dearer than some places, but we ate in two of them and really enjoyed our meals there), but if you choose to eat in local restaurants then it is cheap. The food is not quite the same as you get in a chinese restaurant over here, though you will recognise some of the dishes. There are also a lot of bbq restaurants (very popular there), and then there are McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut.
I would highly recommend Hong Kong. We went with our two sons (who were then 14 and 16) and we all had the time of our lives, in fact we're toying with the idea of going back next year. We flew from Manchester with Finnair, who again, I can highly recommend.

[bxaxrxrxyx]

Thanks SpudQueen,
Sounds like a fantastic place to visit and I can't wait.
Did you go to Waterworld or the Space Museum?
Bazza

[237SJ]

You could go to one of the islands for the day Lantau or Lamma. There`s Stanley Market or the Night Market (ladies market as it`s known). Just criss-crossing over to Kowloon from Hong Kong on the ferry is fun and cheap. There are quite a few cheap shops around although Hong Kong isn`t as cheap as it used to be.

[spudqueen]

No Bazza we didn't. I'm sure they are great places, but we were busy doing other things!

[jno]

we ate at an Outback Steak House, one of my weakensses but there aren't any in Britain that I know of. Not particularly Chinese, obviously.

It's still worth taking a Star Ferry acorss the harbour for the view even though they've reclaimed so much land the harbour's only about 6 feet wide these days.