Hong Kong #1

Hong Kong is a magnificent, modern city, perfect place for all the gourmets. It is full of fine restaurants and posh bars, entertainment places and luxurious boutiques. In the evening it is a city of moving billboards and colorful eye-catchers. A city that separated from China to move forward and grow fast without any limits. Today it is home to a variety of cultures and nationalities, even though Chinese one still dominates…

About a year ago, when I stopped in Hong Kong for a few days, I remember dinner at one of Michelin’s restaurants, where food looked like a piece of art (I ate edible gold!) and wine we had drunk was older than my mom. This time, however, I expect a much more modest trip, but with bigger room for real exploring…

We arrive to Hong Kong in morning hours, after a tiring night flight, so first hours of my layover I just want to spend sleeping in my bed. But in the evening I meet with the complete cockpit crew, my colleague from Russia and another from England. Later on we are sitting in a bus on the way to the city center. We get off at the huge IFC shopping mall. We are surrounded by the skyscrapers and thousands of buildings which are connected by passages, underpasses and overpasses, so man does not even have to go out to breathe smog. The first common goal is a nice traditional and uncrowded restaurant where we can fill up are hungry stomachs, so we are slowly getting lost in narrow and busy streets. You can find everything here, just not what you are looking for. 🙂 Finally, we find some comfy looking place. Although I like to try new dishes, Chinese cuisine is a bit scary for me, so I’m picking from menu very carefully. Finally I end up with fried rice and a duck. After dinner, we walk towards Victoria Harbor – Tsim Tsa Shui, where the laser show should start soon. Skyscrapers are blinking, while on the river are sailing ships with dragons… An amazing view! My attention is also drawn by the fountain, which is decorated in the theme of the new year of the monkey, which according to the Chinese calendar starts these days…

I’m frozen, tired and cold, the weather in Hong Kong is way colder than I expected, but still I manage to get up from my bed on our second day. Together with my girls from flight we want to go to the famous Big Buddha. To get up there we need to take a cable car. The view beneath us is quite scary. A thick fog falls on the city, we barely see the toes of our own shoes. But as we slowly climb up, the fog melts and the sun rises on the sky. As soon as we get off the cable car, Hello Kitty welcomes us together with alley full of souvenir shops. At the end of the alley there is a temple and after hundreds of stairs the majestic Buddha is waving at us. Thanks to the fog, the whole place gets a magical atmosphere. Before the gates we meet two cute dogs. One rolls on his back and plays a dead body, attracting the attention of tourists. As the trick works, the other dog immediately copies, does not want to remain unnoticed. When we are leaving this magical place, it’s already pretty nice outside. I’m glad for getting here so early because the lines for the cable cars look endless now… Thanks to the good timing, we still have a little time to relax before heading back to Abu Dhabi…