I <3 Hong Kong.

Yes I liked it. Actually I loved it. A lot. There’s lots of reasons why (apart from the humidity. Let’s skip over that bit).

#1. It’s so pretty. During the day but especially at night. All the buildings, the parks, the mountains and that harbour view. Especially from the top of the Peak. Awesome.

#2. Awesome food. There are so many places to eat. Like most big cities, there is pretty much every kind of food you can imagine.

#3. It has beaches. Just over the hill from the main part of Hong Kong island or on the islands.

#4. The running scene. I saw a glimpse of the Hong Kong running scene and I liked what I saw. There are running groups, lots of people out and about running. It has trails, and pavements and running tracks to run round.

#5. There are islands. 263 of them to be precise. All of them different, all of them easy to get to and explore. Some have trails, some have buddhas, some have beaches, some have fishing villages but all have their own character.

#6. The people are lovely. Well, the ones I met are anyway. And, generally people seem to be very polite; they wait at pedestrian crossings if it’s read, even if there isn’t anything coming. No jaywalking here.

#7. There’s so much to do. Again, like any big city there’s always something going on, something to see, places to do, things to keep you occupied. And a lot of them are free! Top tip: Hong Kong History Museum is free on Wednesdays, and is really interesting. If you’re there, you should go.

#8. It’s a fairly clean city. My hostel was kept super clean, there were bins everywhere and public toilets I used were nice and decent. I even saw a dog walker pick up their dog’s crap, go and put it in the bin, then wipe the dogs bottom. Now that’s clean.

#9. Everything else. I’ve probably missed loads of things. The vibe. The atmosphere. The things you can’t describe but you know they are there. The things you can’t put your finger on but make you happy.

It’s the first place I’ve been so far that I could see myself living. Apart from the humidity. I’m not sure I could cope with that.

I was there for a week. That seemed like a long time, and was longer than I’d planned on staying there; it’s just the way the dates with the China trip had worked out. And there’s no getting away from it, Hong Kong is expensive. Especially for a backpacker on a round the world trip with a limited budget. But, I managed to find a really good hostel that was fairly cheap (just under £20 a night), in a great location and nice and clean with brilliant wifi. However, I didn’t end up staying here for the whole week. Nope, for two nights I lived it up in a 5 star hotel suite with harbour view. No, I hadn’t won the lottery or blown my budget. The Stride family who were on my China tour found out they had a spare bed in their suite and kindly invited me to stay. They treated me like one of the family and I had a wonderful couple of days with them before they went back to the UK and I stayed in Hong Kong. And a week wasn’t too long in HK. In fact, it probably wasn’t long enough. There was still so much more I could have done.

A quick recap on my Hong Kong adventures (by no means an exhaustive list, just some things I remembered to note down – there are more):

Going for dim sum breakfast with pensioners. It was a strange experience: 7am, a full-to-the-rafters restaurant and we were the only westerners, and the youngest by miles. The order book was like a bingo card (perhaps we had stumbled into a breakfast bingo hall by mistake?) and some of the things we ended up eating were not what I’d class as breakfast. I’m not sure I’d eat some of them at lunch or dinner either (slimy slug-type roll thing anyone?). An experience; but one not to be repeated.
Seeing the light show on the harbour. At 8pm, some of the skyscrapers have a synchronised light show to music. So, not only do you get to gaze at that fabulous harbour view, but there’s some pretty lights. It’s all free, and on every night, so worth a look.
Running down The Peak with a headtorch. One of my favourite runs to date, with the lovely Nic and Rachel. Read more about it here.
Strolling around Stanley. I had a lovely day with the Stride visiting Stanley beach on Hong Kong island. We had a very British day; we took sandwiches which we ate on the pier, paddled in the sea and had a beer on the promenade.
Running the wrong way up an escalator. I’d never done this, but always wanted to. ~~Forced to~~ Egged on by Robin, I gave it a go, and pretty much got to the top. It’s harder than you think. A travelling achievement.
Visiting Cheung Chau. Reached only by ferry, we had a nice little walk around this little higgledy-piggledy island that is quite up and down with lots of buildings seemingly perched on top of one another, all in the same place.
Staring out at that view from The Peak. This was my favourite place in HK. I loved it up there. From getting the little #1 green minibus bus up (I never got the tram in the end), to looking out at that view, to walking the Peak Circle walk (more of those views), to walking down to Pok Fu Lam Reservoir and back up (to then walk back down to Central – I did a lot of walking that day), to walking up to a deserted Victoria Peak Garden, to running down the Hong Kong trail, to going back up there at night with Mike the friendly NZ guy (and meeting the odd posing Korean girl) to look at that view just one last time, I loved every single minute I spent there.
Getting my Thai tourist visa. I’m going to stay in Thailand longer than the 30 days you get with a standard visa-on-arrival visa, so I had to go and get a visa from the Thai Consulate in Central. It was fairly easy to figure out the address; however, it was smack bang in the middle of skyscraper city. No big deal, apart from the fact that all the buildings seem to be connected by walkways, shops, bridges and you can’t cross any of the roads on the pavements. Yep, I got a bit lost, walking through the maze that is Corporate Hong Kong. Even though they’re pretty good at signposting there, it still took me a while to figure out which walkways I needed to take to get to the right building.
Exploring Lantau Island. Ok, so I didn’t run up to the 85 foot high Tian Tan Buddha like The Marine suggested I did (it’s very steep; he’s a machine) but I did walk the 240 steps after getting the bus to Ngong Ping, which, in that humidity, was a challenge in itself. Photos taken and view absorbed, I hopped on another bus to a little historic fishing town called Tai O which has been there more than three centuries. This was a little gem of a place. Really teeny tiny houses, houses on stilts, lots of fish hanging up to dry and a general smell of seafood. Despite it being a busy little place, it was actually very peaceful and I walked up to a view point where you have the chance of seeing Chinese white dolphins (which can be pink or white). And see them I did; beautiful sight! Really pleased I did, and it made the trek up there (up yet more steps) worth it. Sat at the top, in the shade of the pagoda with no sounds apart from the odd bird chirping, I had a bit of a giggle out loud to myself, as I had a bit of a realisation that I’m really travelling. I’m really doing it. And that the world, Hong Kong, and everywhere is actually pretty amazing, isn’t it? How lucky I am to be seeing all these places, to be experiencing all these things. Not quite sure what I thought I’d been doing for the last 3 months but I finally got it.
Hanging around Hong Kong park. This little oasis, in the heart of Central Hong Kong, isn’t a big, open park, rather it’s quite small, on different levels with lots of paths, trees, plants and a small lake. It’s somewhere to go to walk or sit. There’s an aviary, vantage point and a tai chi garden. In the tai chi garden there was a memorial to healthcare workers that had died helping others in the 2003 SARS outbreak. I vaguely remembered hearing something about this in the news back then, but didn’t realise it was as epidemic and devastating as it was. And of course, it’s one of those things that is happening in another country so it’s easy to disregard. I found I was actually quite moved by the memorial. The park seemed to be the place where office workers in corporate HK go at lunchtime. I was strolling around half listening to conversations about breakdowns, spreadsheets, contacts and networking. Bleurgh. Dull. At this point I decided it was time to leave.
Making my own sandwiches. I got to the point of being fed up of going out to eat all the time. I know, it sounds amazing to do that but in reality it gets a bit wearing. Sometimes it’s nice to get your own food. So, as the hostel had a fridge I bought bread, ham, cucumber, museli, milk and fruit and so could make my own breakfast and sandwiches. Oh, lovely multi grain ham and cucumber sandwiches. I swear, they were the best sandwiches I had ever made. For sure.
Visiting the Hong Kong museum. I have to admit, this wasn’t on my itinerary. Museums aren’t usually my kind of thing. But, on my last day, a Wednesday, it was raining, I didn’t want to go too far and Mike asked me if I’d like to go along with him. Oh, and it was also free on Wednesdays. So, I did. And I’m actually really pleased I did. I learnt all about Hong Kong’s history, from the very beginning to the present day, including the 3 year Japanese occupation which I had no idea about. Always something new to learn in life.
Swishing about with my Octopus card. Like the oyster card in London, this is a travel card for Hong Kong which you load up with cash and can then use at on the metro, buses and trams. But, here, you can also use the card in some shops and other places. Which is very handy if you go to a supermarket and buy food and find you don’t have enough money to pay for everything. Not that that happened to me, though, oh no…
Not feeling so much like a tourist. This was a working city. Yes of course there were tourists, of which I was one, but there weren’t hoards of people trying to sell you shit. There were swathes of British ex-pats living here. I could have been one of them. I did live a bit of a Hong Kong life for a little bit. And I liked it.

I saw everything I wanted to see and experienced everything I wanted to. I met some great people and eventually, when it was time to move on, I found I was sad to leave. I completely underestimated Hong Kong. It’s beauty, it’s diversity, the vibe, the differences, the people. I was blown away and it’s left a imprint. A permanent one.

I only wish now I’d bought the I ❤ HK t-shirt. Because I do.