rahulm

Hi Everyone,

I have 8 hours in Hong Kong on my way into Asia and 28 hours on the way back.

I was wondering if you can suggest a few things and comment on my itinerary:

8 hours in HK
---------------------
June 19, 2009
- Arrive 6:30 AM
- Depart 2:30 PM

This gives me exactly 8 hours. In my previous trips, I did the following in 8 hours (3 separate trips):
- Went to the peak
- Kowloon markets
- Po Lin Monastery

What do you suggest I can do in the eight hours I have this time? I plan to take the airport express into the city.

Factoring in immigration, travel to the city and back to the airport and airport security for my onward flight, I will have 3-4 hours max in the city. I am not a shopper but love culture stuff and something unique to the places we visit. As far as food, I'm vegetarian (eggs, dairy ok. No fish/meat).

28 hours
--------------
July 5, 2009 (Sunday)
Arrive: 11:30 AM
Depart: July 6, 2009: 4:30 PM

My wife will also be with me. She's never been to Hong Kong so I'm planning the following:
- Arrive, immigration etc.
- Take the airport express to Kowloon
- Checkin (Sheraton Hong Kong): Any reviews on this hotel? I'm using cash+points. It seems to be well located
- Rest/shower up.
- Take the star ferry to Central
- Funicular to the peak
- Stay there until the sun goes down (hopefully the weather will not be bad??)
- Funicular back down
- Take the ferry back to Kowloon
- Find a decent vegetarian place (or at least a place that has ample veggie food): Any suggestions? Dim sum?? We might have dinner with friends who live in HK - in which case they might pick, but not sure if they can make it, yet.
- Temple street night market (will it be open sunday night?)
- Sleep well
- Any suggestions what we can do in the morning??
- Take flight back to SF the next day.

Thanks a lot!

rahulm

One more question, I am getting a decent deal @ Le Meridian Hong Kong (Cyberport area). How far is that from all the stuff we plan to do in 1 day? I am guessing its far away. But the hotel sure looks cool

Cicerone

In no particular order:

1. It’s hard to find dim sum served after about 4-5 pm (it’s not a dinner food, it’s a breakfast/brunch/lunch meal), so I would actually suggest you go for dim sum on the day of your first layover, for lunch on Sunday (but can be crowded on Sundays) or on the Monday morning of your second layover. If you want veg in a nice setting, try the veg dim sum at Lock Cha Teashop in the Museum of Tea Ware in Hong Kong Park (right at Pacific Place and near the base of the Peak Tram). The little museum is worth a stop too, esp if it is rainy. See http://www.lockcha.com/

2. For vegetarian restaurants generally in Hong Kong you might want to see Happy Cow which lists vegetarian restaurants world-wide: http://www.happycow.net/browse.html. For lunches, try places like Mix (http://www.mix-world.com/default.asp) and Dressed (http://www.dressedsalads.com.hk) which have salads and wraps. Or try the organic vegetarian at Life Café in Soho in the Hollywood Road area of Hong Kong Island, see (http://www.lifecafe.com.hk/globe.swf . I have a list of restaurant reccos I can e-mail to you if you want to write to me a [email protected]. My list does not include too many veg options, but most Chinese places have numerous veg options (although these may be cooked in chicken stock or use animal fat).

3. If you are not a shopper, PLEASE AVOID THE NIGHT MARKETS. There is so much more to do and see here than shopping for tourist tat. For example, you could go to an evening musical or dance performance the Cultural Centre (which is literally across the street from the Sheraton), see http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalSe...CC/eindex.html) or any of the myriad of other cultural events on offer most evenings. The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts runs terrific programs all year, take a look at http://www.hkapa.edu. The Fringe Club in Central always has interesting exhibits or performances going on, often including musical evenings, take a look at http://www.hkfringe.com.hk/english/index_eng.asp. They have a nice casual rooftop restaurant as well. For a list of all activities, both free and paid, go to http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/cs_prog_week.php and for a list of paid programs, go to http://urbtix.cityline.com.hk/internet/action/index.do. The Sunbeam Theatre in North Point on Hong Kong island does a lot of Chinese Opera, they are listed on the cityline site above.

4. The Cyberport area is on Hong Kong Island, to the far west and around and behind the last hill to the right as you look at Hong Kong Island from Kowloon. It is not on a subway line, but is well served by some major bus lines, you are looking at about 30 minutes or so into Central by bus. The hotel also offers hourly shuttle bus service to Central for about US$4 which is a nice feature and would probably be a useful option. All in all, however for one night it probably is not terribly convenient for you IMO, based on your itin. But if you wanted to see Aberdeen and Southside areas like Stanley market and Repulse Bay, Shek O or Big Wave Bay beaches or go to Lamma Island, it would make more sense. (It appears you have not been to those places, although I agree that for your wife the Peak is a logical and good choice to include). If you were so inclined, you could <i>walk</i> up to or down from the Peak from the hotel area (but only during the day, paths are not lit at night), which would be a pretty walk, there are several ways to do it, including a very easy way along a paved pedestrian-only road (going uphill from Cyberport is some uphill walking don’t let me mislead you; downhill is quite easy). The Meridien Cypberport is part of a largish mall and the mall has an interesting restaurant, Green T House, which usually includes veg options (see http://www.green-t-house.com/hong.html). Of course, the Sheraton would offer nice harbour views, and while the Cyberport would offer some lovely water views too, they are not the classic harbour/city/mountain views you are thinking of. And for the Star Ferry the Sheraton is more convenient too. The Cyberport area has lovely sunsets however.

5. Please search this board for my very long list of reccos called “Cicerone’s Reccos for What the Locals Do for Fun in Hong Kong (Hint: We DON’T Go to those Awful Night Markets....)” this should give you some ideas for what to do, including a list of walks and some sources for more walks. For a description of another of my favourite very easy walks on Hong Kong Island, see my posting called “Cicerone’s Favourite Hong Kong Walks II: Paradise Found! From Happy Valley to Stanley in High Heels! (Almost) The Tsz Lo Lan Shan Path” and “Cicerone's Favourite Hong Kong Walks III: The Dragon's Back”. Also check the Hong Kong Tourism Board website at discoverhongkong.com for other ideas. The Dragon’s Back walk would be quite nice for the Monday morning as well if you get good weather.

6. You have allocated what looks like a good chunk of time to the Peak. If weather cooperates, you have time to do the Severn Road walk when you are up on the Peak, which is a great, easy walk which will afford you some quite different views than just the traditional view from the Peak Tram area which most tourists see. If I knew what the weather was going to be like in July, I would be charging for the advice… July is a crapshoot, can be monsoonal rain or sunny and brilliantly clear. Will surely be hot either way and on the humid side. The plus is that in summer the air quality is generally much better than winter so if it is not overcast/rainy, you should have good distance views from the Peak.

7. If you are on the Peak on the Sunday evening and the lines down for the Peak Tram appear to be long (i.e., they snake around the outside sidewalk of the Peak Tower), remember that you can take the #15 bus down as well. Sundays are very popular on the Peak and you could encounter longish lines. The bus station is located on the ground level of the Peak Galleria, which is the brown building opposite the Peak Tram building (there is a McDonalds and Starbucks in this building). The #15 bus is double-decker, and sitting upstairs will give you some nice views going down. Left side would be slightly better for city views, but does not make a huge difference, front seat is probably best. Cost is like US$1.50 or so, a great deal over the tram actually. The #15 ends at the Exchange Square Bus Station from which you can walk to the Star Ferry in about 5 minutes.

You might also consider having dinner on the Peak, try the Peak Lookout, their back terrace is very nice.

rahulm

Cicerone: That is some excellent advice and a lot of information. Let me chew and digest it before I come back with more questions and an updated itinerary.

Thanks, again!

rkkwan

For 6/19, what markets in Kowloon have you been to before? Since you'll be there early this time, you can wander through the flower and bird markets, if you haven't done those before. Or ride the HK Tramway along the northern coast of HK Island.

For 7/6, you can visit one of the museums in HK, especially the Museum of History in Tsimshatsui, which usually opens at 9:30a. Or visit Wong Tai Sin Temple and Chi Lin Nunnery in northern Kowloon.

As for the Meridien, it's not THAT far, just not convenient. But if it's significantly cheaper than the Sheraton (like US$50-60 cheaper), then just use the money saved to spend on taxis.

Cicerone

Although the “guide” for which the link is posted above was purportedly written in March and April 2009, I would note that more than a few of the places recommended in the "guide" are no longer in business. Bar 1/5th closed almost a year ago, and the excellent Veda restaurant has been closed for more than a year. As of February 2009, Tribute restaurant also closed. Thai Basil moved locations within Pacific Place about 6 months ago, yet the guide written just in March contains the old address. The above “blog” directs you to Metroplasia, which I have commented before contains somewhate dated and inaccurate information. This may just be an attempt to get people to go to the Metroplasia site.

rahulm

We got back from our trip last week.

As mentioned earlier, I had 8 hours in Hong Kong on my way to India and ~28 hours on the way back.

8 hours: I had initially planned to go in the city, but as it turned out, I had to work so had to stay at the airport. More than anything, I needed a relatively quiet place with a decent internet connection. There is an airport lounge where I paid $500 HKD (approximately $64 USD) for 6 hours of lounge access, including: shower, unlimited breakfast and lunch buffet, free wifi, newspapers etc. The lounge was clean, there was good coffee and breakfast and lunch buffet was very good: lots of vegetarian items and the food was all fresh, hot and tasty. I spent most of the time working. I did take a shower before I jumped on my flight to Mumbai and that was totally worth it. The showers were clean.

28 hours: Initially we had planned to fly in to Hong Kong around 11:30 AM and leave at 4:30 PM the following day. However, due to the rains in Bombay, our flight was delayed by 3 hours and we did not get in to Hong Kong until 3:00 PM. By the time we got out of customs and checked in to our hotel (Sheraton Hotel, Kowloon) it was 4:30 PM.

Our flight was originally scheduled to leave at 3 AM but left at 6:30 AM. This means we had not slept all night long and a 6 hour flight means we got little sleep on the plane. We were dead tired. We took a shower and left the hotel at 5:45 PM. Since my wife had never been to Hong Kong and we had such little time, we decided to go to the peak, get dinner and figure out 1 activity the next morning.

We took the Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island and then took bus # 15C all the way up to the peak. The ride took almost 45 minutes, but the views were absolutely fabulous. So worth it! It was a double decker bus and having grown up in Bombay, I simply love them. It was pretty foggy up at the peak so we did not have such a great view but still loved it. At the ferry pier, we got a sandwich and some almond biscuits. We got some fries and coke at the burger king up there and made it into a little snack. We stood at the observation deck (not the skywalk, but the free one below), just looking at the view. We really love being in Asia... I have no idea what it is.

We took the peak tram down and then a bus back to the ferry pier. A ferry back to Kowloon and then we slowly made our way to the restaurant. For dinner, the concierge at our hotel had suggested an all vegetarian restaurant called Kung Tak Lam. It was on the 7th floor and had fabulous views of Hong Kong Island - All vegetarian!

We had 2 types of dim sum for appetizers, mock meat pork chops, mock fish, fried rice and a mock chicken and mushroom dish that was really really good. Overall the food was not that expensive by American standards (< $40).

After dinner we walked around a bit and head back to our room - 11 PM. We were so tired we slept and woke up at 10 AM the next morning. No time to do anything at all! We packed, hailed a cab and headed to the airport.

I love Hong Kong every time I go there ( this was the 4th time). My wife liked it too and definitely wants to go back and see more.

Thank you for your suggestions. Appreciate it!

rhkkmk

i think you have more like 4-5 hours when you take into consideration that you need to be back at the airport 3 hours before your flight and the time you spend in transit