Hongkong – Amazing Asia

     Hong Kong is the fashion capital of Asia, financial hub with sky-scrapers to gel with it. It's a well organized city and a SAR (Special Administrative Region) of China. You don’t need a visa to enter Kong Kong if you wish to stay for less than 14 days. At the customs only you will be given a temporary visa. All they will check apart from the usual security check is the return ticket and whether you have enough money to sustain for those many days. The British rule HK for many years and there is a definite impact of that in HK. Most of the street names are European names. The street names and signboards have got both English and Chinese, which is very convenient and I would have to say most of the people here know English but I am sure it’s a different story if you go to main-land China. So for a foreigner in HK, it’s easy to explore without getting lost

     In the must see places in HK, you got to visit “The Peak”, “Victoria Harbour’s Avenue of Stars”. Again, if you are fan of Mickey Mouse then don’t leave out Disneyland and last but not least Big Buddha. Also if you have got time and money try to make it to Macau. Macau is the mecca of Gambling where the stakes are high and adrenaline keeps pumping. You can take a ferry to Macau. You don’t require visa for Macau either if you are going for less then 14 days. Apart from that there are endless shopping malls, food joints and techno lights all over. You will always feel like a festive season because of the lights. Also don’t miss Causeway Bay, Central, Tai Koo and Tsim Sha Tsui. In Tsim Sha Tsui you will get all the big brands where you can shop till you drop. There are also some really good parks like Victoria Park if you fancy jogging, which is definitely not in my agenda. You can also take the Ferry and take a trip. You can get ferry from many different places as HK is an island

     I stayed at the “Park Lane”, lovely hotel and awesome place with great view. It’s in Causeway Bay area. Hotels like the Inter Continental, The Peninsular, Sheraton etc are in Tsim Sha Tsui area and gives you a panoramic view overlooking the Victoria Harbor

If you wish to go to the peak, then go to central tube station. Ask some one, which exit should be taken for the Peak Trum, never the less it’s also mentioned in the information board. You have to cross the street and walk uphill, maybe 4-5 min and you will reach the Peak Trum station. The return fare charge is 33 HKD (when I was last there).

     En-route to Avenue of Star: take MTR to East Tsim Sha Tsui tube station and follow Exit-J sign and from there you can walk to Avenue of Stars via business center mall. From Avenue of Star you can see the other side of the HK with all the sky-scrapers. The best time to go there is evening as the view is simply amazing. It’s somewhat like Westminster Bay of London.

     The metro (MTR) here is very efficient and if you are new in HK then metro is the answer for you. Very easy to commute and it connects almost every place of HK. I found very few differences between UK metro and HK metro. The only difference is that in UK metro the compartments are separated but in HK metro you can literally walk from the first compartment to the last one. One good thing about UK metro is that you can take an Octopus card top up for month validity (for a specific zone) and then you don’t have to worry about topping it up until that time. In HK also you have octopus card but every time you travel equivalent fare till that destination station will be deducted but you can use that octopus card in many shops across HK as well. It acts more like a debit card. Again in Europe you will find couple kissing passionately while travelling but in HK almost everybody is hooked on to their mobile or walkman or some super gizmo stuff :-) speaking of which, pirated Windows 7 OS is already out here in Chinese market even before the official launch of the software. I wonder how!!!!!!

     If you are Chinese food lover it’s a paradise for you. But if you are vegetarian then you are in the wrong part of the world. I also tried out some authentic Japanese food at Ichikawa, which is there in Citiplaza (Tai koo). I ate raw fish like prawns, salmon etc and to be honest it wasn’t too bad, I liked it. It was a totally different experience. Japanese and Chinese food are less spicy than Indian or Vietnamese etc. I liked food republic at Citiplaza because you get different cuisines to try out like Thia, Hongkong, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese etc at one place.

     Here you have got 2 different words for thank you in Chinese. If some one has gifted you something then you say “Toa Chie” and if someone has helped you or for service, you say “Goi”.

     All in all I really enjoyed my stay in Hong Kong but it’s good to be back in India. As the saying goes “No place like home”.