Our family holiday started with the direct flight with Qantas to Hong Kong. Landing at night in Hong Kong (with all those tall building and bright lights) was exciting!
Our meet and greet transfer went off without a hitch and we arrived at The Kowloon Hotel for a six night stay. We were booked into a Superior room and were upgraded to a Harbour View Room. Nice! Our stay also included daily Buffet Breakfast. There was an incredible range of food to satisfy the palate with choices of Asian or Western food. The hotel is in a great location just around the corner from the Star Ferry. It takes only a matter of minutes to cross the harbour from the Kowloon side and we arrived on Hong Kong Island. Off we headed to the bus terminal and jumped on the bus taking us to Stanley Markets where we had some great “retail therapy”. It was a 20 minute bus ride which gave us amazing views of Repulse Bay.
We became quite confident in using the Star Ferry and the MTR. It was so cheap, so easy to use and so clean. We went on the tram ride up to Victoria Peak for a panoramic view of Hong Kong. Our other must do on Hong Kong Island was to visit Ocean Park via a breath-taking cable-car-ride to see the Giant Pandas.
Next on our list was to visit Hong Kong Disneyland which was easy to get to on the MTR. We got off at Sunny Bay station and boarded the Disney themed train with its Mickey Mouse window and pull on Mickey faces. Having been to Disneyland in both Anaheim and Florida, I found this to be a much smaller park. The positive was little to no delays in getting on the rides. It was a fun day trip.
We booked a full day tour to Shenzhen which took in some sight-seeing but the highlight of the tour was stopping at the Lo Wu Shopping Mall. There were hundreds of shops housed in a five storey building, all competing for the tourist dollar. Our visit to Shenzen left me quite surprised by how developed the region is. Our tour in Shenzen ended with us boarding a first class train back to Hong Kong.
In the evening in Hong Kong we headed to the harbour to watch the Symphony of Lights, dancing lights set to music around Victoria Harbour and it was a nice way to end the day. There was still much to do in Hong Kong as we headed up to the area of Mongkok where the Ladies Market and the Jade Market is located. We took a second trip to Stanley Markets on our last day. It was worth it!. Disappointingly, we didn't fit in the ferry trip to the old (ex) Portuguese Colony of Macau. We were keen to see for ourselves the part which is nicknamed the "Las Vegas of the East". We plan to visit again.
For more information on Hong Kong or to book your trip, please contact me.