Hong Kong

A month ago I got to hop on this beaut of an airplane.  

Ethiopia, I barely knew the country, let alone the airline.  

They recently offered a new route to Seoul, and no I didn't fly to Ethiopia... 

I was headed to Hong Kong.

Jobs (the movie)

In-flight beef dinner

The in-flight movie and meal were nothing to write home about, but overall the flight was alright. 

Executive suite

When we got to the hotel, the Ramada Inn, we were pleasantly surprised with a free upgrade to the executive suite.  Like a boss.  

We had two nights to enjoy here.  

But with only one day to tour the city, we had to get busy.

First order of business was a night cap.  

We would need to be well hydrated for the mornings activities. 

So many activities.

Trolley car

We could easily hop on and off these trolley cars near the hotel.  

These double deckers were a fairly smooth ride around the city.

SOHO

Our first stop was the SOHO district.  This is more of an international area in HK, and you can still see some of the British influence from their colonization.

The Flying Pan for brunch

English breakfast

Seongeun had read reviews about The Flying Pan as a popular place to get breakfast. 

It's located near some pubs in SOHO, hence it being open 24 hours.  

The food did not disappoint. 

Big Bus Tour

Our next plan of action was to take a tour of the city on one of their double-decker buses.  

The weather was a bit chilly, but we were determined to sit on the upper deck.

A little windy up here

As you can see, maybe the upper deck was a poor choice.  

The cold soon mixed with some light sprinkles, but we toughed it out.

Stanley Market restaurants

We exited the bus at Stanley Market.  

It's a touristy shopping area, with an international selection of restaurants.

Mini burgers

We tried a restaurant serving these mini burgers, and washed them down with some beer.  

They were a bit over priced and under sized for my liking, but that's expected at a touristy area.

Ladies Market

As night fell, we headed to another famous market in the city, the Ladies Market.  

The name might lead you (by you I mean me) to believe this was a different kind of market.  

But this market had stalls full of designer-ish purses, wallets, etc.  

Though it did have some knock-off electronics and menswear I didn't buy anything.  

Seongeun on the other hand enjoyed this market.

Action!

To get a break from shopping we headed to the Avenue of Stars.  

It's HK's version of the Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.  

Only less famous.

Tsim Sha Tsui light show

Avenue of Stars is located in Tsim Sha Tsui, and this is also a good area to view the light show. 

Across the bay the skyscrapers light up every night for a 20 minute display of lights.  

It's pretty impressive, but I thought it'd be set to music and better orchestrated.  

I was a little let down due to my high expectations.

Nightlife area

We ended our night, and trip in HK at Lan Kwai Fong.  

It's a popular nightlife area, especially for the foreign population living in HK.  

Thai food & cocktails

Pizza & beer

After a long day of touring we worked up quite a thirst, and appetite.  Our first stop was a Thai restaurant & bar.  There we enjoyed some food and cocktails.  We were hungrier (and thirstier) than we thought though.  After touring the area, we ended the night with some pizza and beer.  We even made some new friends.  However, they happened to be thirstier than us, and probably don't remember.

Hard to believe we went to all these areas in one day, but we did everything on the itinerary.  

Our next stop (my next post) is Macau.