Welcome to my first blog post! I’m super excited to share my experiences everyone, please let me know what you think. I am always looking to improve or tell you more about what you actually want to know :)
..So after the busiest time of our lives it was time to head off on the Honeymoon! We were so indecisive between a beach holiday and a full on sightseeing trip so naturally we decided to incorporate both. We saved up some money for our special trip and after weeks of chopping and changing destinations; we finally found the perfect flight to Hong Kong to start our adventure! Stop 1 on our very scenic route to Hawaii.
Hong Kong - Leg 1/4 – 30th Dec – 2nd Jan
Travel Information:
Airline: Finnair - Manchester - Helsinki - Hong Kong
Couldn’t fault the flight! Very roomy with attentive staff and the food was great. We had a changeover in Helsinki and it was so smooth! For the price of the flight compared to the other alternatives it was a no brainer!
Hotel – Harbor View Hotel, Booking.com – Claireztravels Rating – 5/10 - Good Breakfast but too smokey for me.
30th/31st Dec 2019
So after 14 hours of travelling we arrived in Hong Kong Airport at about 8am. We had already decided to get a group taxi to the hotel. It was a slightly strange experience as they tagged us all with a sticker depending on which area of Hong Kong we were going. Nevertheless, it was an easy ride and took us right to the door of the hotel.
We dropped off our bags and decided to have a wander about whilst it was still early. The streets were very interesting, different to anything we had seen before.
It wasn’t as busy as I expected but this may have been due to the situation in Hong Kong at the time. We found a McDonalds to get some food and a coffee, but mostly to utilise the free Wi-Fi and to do a bit of people watching whilst we found a bit more energy.
Hong Kong itself was very humid with a lot of cloud cover and a bit of rain, we decided to stay close to the hotel so we headed over to Victoria Park. The park itself was lovely and had a lot of funky architecture!
Both shattered shattered at this point, fancying a good wander,we headed back into the main area of the city near the hotel. Everyone was so helpful, a few times we got out our map and before we could even begin to read where to go someone would come over and ask if we needed help :) We stumbled upon Hong Kong’s own Times Square, and then fell into my own dream world..
Around the corner there just happened to be a Pokémon figure and I just had to go and investigate. I LOVE Pokémon, always have, always will, so naturally I just had to get pictures with all of them, gotta catch them all right?
The shopping centre where this was set up was huge and the theme carried on inside, can’t beat a good Pokémon Christmas! After much excitement it was finally time to head back to the hotel and get some well-deserved sleep!
The hotel itself seemed nice, the lobby was kinda fancy and the staff were really pleasant; little did we know we might be in for a shock. As we opened the door to the room there was a distinct smell of smoke, like walking into a pub in the 90’s. Not my favourite smell. We were so tired at this point we really didn’t care and had what we thought would be a 2 hour nap, excited to get up and hunt for some food before we brought in the new year... 5 hours later (oops) I distinctly remember waking up to Sydney working up to their fireworks on the TV, where we were the previous year!
Originally we had booked the hotel to get a good view of the fireworks from the harbour but
these had already been cancelled and replaced with a light-show which we could watch instead. We did want to get out early to eat and get back to the hotel due to the tension in the City and the risk that we could get caught up with something, although very small, this was not something we wanted to risk on the first day of the trip! We had a great alternative though, we sat in the room ate our leftover wedding cake, watching the show from our window with highlights of fireworks around the world on the TV. It wasn’t what we imagined to bring in our first New Year as a married couple but I loved it and was very thankful to re-charge in all honestly.
Jan 1st
WE WERE FIRST AT BREAKFAST, super keen or jet lagged, you decide.
The buffet breakfast was really good! I obviously had the very well heard of breakfast consisting of a steamed bun, noodles and broccoli, washed down with about 6 cups of coffee. Don’t you just love a good buffet!
Today’s plan consisted of leaving Hong Kong Island and getting a ferry over to Kowloon, head back through Hong Kong park, up to Victoria Peak and back through the Zoological and Botanical Gardens. We almost did it all!
The morning was fantastic, the views from the ferry were amazing and you saw the city from a different light. From here we walked down the avenue of the stars which was a really cool concept consisting of having famous hands along the bridge.
A long walk up to Kowloon Walled City Park taking in the city on the way. The park itself was really fascinating with a lot of history, I would definitely recommend a visit.
We had just missed the Ferry back and with a busy afternoon planned we wanted to get back quickly so took the subway. The subway itself was simple and easy to follow but as we were coming out, riot police were coming in. Found this a little strange but as we came up on the street, riot van after riot van pulled up. Although there was nothing happening at this time where we were it was still very daunting. We quickly headed back to hotel and checked the news to find a large protest had begun in the main street. We scrapped our afternoon plans and opted for a nap :)
After watching the news closely we headed back out and there was a very different atmosphere around. Plenty of riot police about in the shadows with face masks and rubber pellets on the floor. It was only a short walk to the tram to visit Victoria Peak and it was worth the wait. The silver lining to postponing our plans was the view at night, it was spectacular with a great atmosphere.
It was time to find somewhere to eat so we opted for the Hard Rock Café as it was away from the initial protests and a lot of places remained closed. Was as good as ever, I love a good Hard Rock Café as Matthew isn’t too adventurous with his food so it’s an easy choice without having to look through 70 menus. We were probably 1 of 5 people in the cafe with the waiter wondering how we even managed to get there with everything else going on.
Night time was defiantly more bearable humidity wise and it was quite pleasant walking about, everything had completely died down now so we decided to have a walk down the harbour and enjoy our last few hours in Hong Kong!
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