A Week in the H-Town: Two sisters in Hong Kong for a week of mad shopping, dining and sightseeing!
 

Just had a wonderful time in Hong Kong. Thank you so much to everyone for all the recommendations and answering all my questions about the weather, winter sales, etc. We LOVED Hong Kong and January was the perfect time to go. Some of our friends thought we were nuts for braving an 11 hour flight to Hong Kong just for 6 nights. But we are so glad we went.

Arrival into HK airport. HUGE lines at customs… but I had remembered that last time we discovered that there is another section that is to the right of where the crowds of people are heading. The section is just on the other side of the huge columns. And guess what? I was right (YAY for me!)… I’m pretty sure this saved us a fair bit of time, as when we got out, the luggage from our flight was JUST coming onto the carousel and no one from our flight had come out yet. (Gotta love that! No need to elbow anyone out of our way to grab our luggage) HK airport is extremely well organized, clean and easy to navigate. We bought tickets for a Hotelink bus that would take us directly to our hotel. 140HKD each.

This might be corny but I absolutely LOVED being on a bus coming into Hong Kong. Yes the Airport Express train is a lot faster but you miss the amazing views along the way. It is such an impressive ride from the airport. That bridge is amazing as well.

Check in into The Fleming Hotel (minus points for that name. PLEASE!) for the first weekend as my parents were meeting us there for the weekend. They were staying at the Grand Hyatt and The Fleming was the nicest budget hotel I could find in Wan Chai. If only we were 15 years younger and a lot smaller… we could have stayed in the room with my parents! But alas, both my sister wanted to spend our money on shopping and dining and at almost $400US a night at the Grand Hyatt, it was a pretty easy decision for us to say, Naaay!

The Fleming is a small boutique hotel but the location is not very nice, as you step outside the doors and you are literally greeted with an onramp to the freeway. My sister and I booked an executive room which came with a small kitchenette and generous square footage. The ladies-only floor is also a nice touch. The room somehow lacked the “homey touches” of a hotel. But then again it’s hard to be fair when we are literally comparing it to the Grand Hyatt. At night, the nearby area turns into a red-light district. On a Saturday night, we were amused by the sight of at least ten Boxsters in flashy colors and twice as many prostitutes in a matter of a few minutes.

That night, we went to JJ’s in the Grand Hyatt for drinks and a late dinner/snacks. The music was awful, the crowd was... umm, interesting and the drinks were a bit of a disappointment (don't order a mojito). But we were too tired and jet-lagged to really care.

Note on the Grand Hyatt: parents had a corner pool view room. The rooms were very nice as to be expected at any Hyatt. Because of their diamond status, they were on the Club floor which gave them access to the Club lounge (appetizers, desserts, and an open bar). Our parents could invite my sister and me as their guests for about 200 HKD each, but we all agreed that was good value (especially my sister and I… “yes mom and dad, 200 HKD is a good deal. Really!). The food at night was probably the best I have seen at any hotel club lounge and every night the selection was different. The Lounge has a beautiful view at night out of their floor to ceiling windows. Although, the Grand Hyatt is on the “wrong side” in terms of the view, we were still extremely impressed with the night view.

Location of the Hyatt is not really great unless you are attending an event at the nearby conference centre. It is a good 10-15 min walk to the Wan Chai subway station and slightly less to the Wan Chai ferry terminal coming from Kowloon. In terms of location, many of the other five star hotels on Hong Kong island side like the Four Seasons or the Mandarin Oriental would be better.

Sunday turned out to be great weather so we in the morning we went to the Peak. Definitely agree that the ride up on the tram was part of the excitement. The last time I was there they did not have that observation deck and the mall underneath. It was a bit of monstrosity unfortunately and way too crowded. Do you really need to go to the observation deck? Well, if you planning to walk around or do some hiking, I would say "no". Oh and please someone, who goes to The Peak to shop in a mall??? We did walk up the hill to be on the “actual Peak” and then had lunch at the Peak Lookout (121 Peak Road, 2849-1000). We had a great table outside where we could see the ocean peeking through the forest of trees beside us. Highly recommend sitting on the terrace when having a meal here. The food was quite good. Between the four of us, we ordered a bit of Indian, Thai, Chinese and a quite a bit of seafood. It went very well with the bottle of white (I'm sorry i do not remember... but their wine list was good) we ordered. It was a lovely way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Total bill came to about 950HKD for four including a bottle of wine we shared.

Atmosphere: A / Food: A / Service: A

After taking the tram back down, we walked down to Admiralty subway station (all downhill and easy, cannot say the same for the walk up. It’s really quite steep). My parents went back to the hotel to rest and my sister and I took the subway to Causeway Bay station. Times Square was absolutely chaotic; it looked like the entire teenage population of Hong Kong had converged onto Russell Street.

Went into Lane Crawford and went through the racks of shoes of sale on the first floor beside the cosmetic counters. I bought a few things at Paul & Joe, Bliss (the Snow Wonder body cream is simply amazing!) and a candle at Aveda (because I didn’t like the smell of our hotel room… worked like a charm, who doesn’t love the smell of anything by Aveda?).

My sister and I both love shopping but I have to admit that my sister beats me in terms of patience and stamina when it comes to extreme shopping. She literally does not get tired when shopping. After a few hours of fighting the crowds, I was exhausted and had a “D-stress smoothie” at MIX on the 5th floor while my sister did some more damage on her now battered credit card.

I insisted on going to the CitySuper grocery store in the basement level before heading out. Every time we travel, I just adore going into a grocery store and wandering aimlessly through the aisles. By the way, they have Royce chocolate counter and I definitely picked up some chocolates to take back. There was a huge crowd gathering at the Cold Stone Creamery counter…. looked more like a highly sensationalized Dairy Queen Blizzard to me.

How can you spot a tourist in Hong Kong? We’re the ones not wearing winter coats, gloves, wool hats in January. Honestly all of the local people were bundled up and we tourists were out in our summer clothes. It was very sunny and warm which was such a treat considering we had left rain, snow and sleet on the West Coast.

Decided we had way too much to carry over to the Hyatt where were meeting my parents and lugging it to wherever we ended up tonight. So took a cab to The Fleming. (Taxi stand in front of Times Square)

Walked over the Grand Hyatt to meet our parents for some drinks and appies in their lounge before heading out.

That night we went to Scirocco (above Staunton’s Wine Bar) on Staunton Street, Soho (10-12 Staunton Street). Initially we wanted to go to Boca’s on Peel Street but they were fully booked for the night. We sat on the terrace which was great for people watching. I had a Pinot Gris and the ahi tuna salad which was just so-so. My bill: two glasses of wine and the ahi tuna salad $200 HKD.
Atmosphere: A- / Food: B / Wine list A.

Next: Stanley our new friend. A little side of Hong Kong we never knew. And.. we were so glad to meet him!

Monday – we took Cicerone’s advice and went to the Central Exchange to board the #6 bus to Stanley, riding the first row on the top deck. The one hour ride was alternately exhilarating and horrifying. We were not sure where to get off but when everyone on the bus got off, we were quite sure that we had arrived at our destination. I’m so glad we went to Stanley as it gave us an interesting perspective of the island as a whole. Stanley is a cutie!

We walked through Stanley market… strolled to the Murray House… wandered over to the Pak Tai temple. We had lunch at the Boathouse @ 86-88 Stanley Main Street (another great recommendation by Cicerone). The bucket of assorted seafood was amazing and I would go back to Stanley just for that!

Atmosphere: A / Food: A / Service: A
My bill: seafood bucket for 2 (shared with my sister) plus a pint of Carlsberg beer $150 HKD.

After lunch we took the bus back into Central and went into the ifc Mall for a bit of retail therapy. This mall is kind of sterile but we went to the Blue Bar at the Four Seasons for a late afternoon cosmopolitan which was awesome. We also picked a few item from the snack menu. The mini burgers were awesome and the satays were quite good as well. Total bill: one cosmopolitan (me), one bloody mary (my sister, I hate bloody marys), mini burgers and satays $450 HKD.

Atmosphere: A- / Food: A / Cocktails: A+ / Service: B- (only because our server obviously had a cold --sniffling and the occasional coughing, thankfully not anywhere near our food -- and it was all I could do not to cringe every time he came over)

Ok, Hong Kong cocktail prices are about 100HKD and at most places we went to. Oh and most places will add a 10% service charge on everything. So no need to tip (I think… I hope because… I didn’t).

That was my parents’ last night in HK so we had another great relaxing evening, thank you very much Grand Hyatt Lounge. This would also be our last night staying at The Fleming as we would be moving to The Park Lane in Causeway Bay beside Victoria Park for the last four nights. Why, you may ask? Well, as much as my sister and I absolutely love staying in hotels, we also love using that as an opportunity to stay in different areas. We decided that if we absolutely loved The Fleming we would cancel the Park Lane within one day of check in and not have to worry about the cancellation fee. But we didn’t absolutely love The Fleming. Mostly because of the location. And since I am a runner, I also wanted to be close to a nice park if possible. The Park Lane appealed for that reason. Victoria Park has a great, albeit small, soft clay running track. The weather was perfect for my morning runs and I loved the whole morning scene at the park with the old people doing tai chi. As for the Park Lane as a hotel I will review that later but we were generally pleased with it because of the great location and our room had a nice view of the park and the harbor.

Of course the only problem with this brilliant plan is that you do need to pack and unpack everything not just once but twice. But things went really smoothly. When we arrived at The Park Lane, they allowed us to check into our rooms a bit earlier. We were on one of the lower floors (9th) but in exchange they gave us a room facing the park and harbor. Lovely!

Next: Will we like staying in Causeway Bay?

I'm really enjoying your report. I'm heading to HK for the first time in March - only 5 nights/4 days. Your report is giving me lots of good ideas - and the prices/ratings are a big help . . . .

I'm also enjoying this report. I love it when people describe what they ate and having the prices really helps!

We will be in Hong Kong for the first time during the first week of April and will certainly return the favor when we get back.

Thanks for taking the time and trouble to write a trip report.

Having a delightful time following you and your sister on your mad week in HK!

LOve your story!
I am taking my husband there at Easter time and want to gather as much info as possible about where to go , eat, and shop .
Look forward to hearing the rest!

Park Lane Hotel
310 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay
The hotel is getting on in years but I do believe they are slowly renovating all of the rooms. For location it could not be beat. The close proximity to Victoria park, a Starbucks, a grocery store (called “Wellcome” open 24 hours a day), the Causeway Bay subway station and within a 5-10 min to Times Square. It was everything we needed to be happy!

So after checking into the Park Lane on Tuesday, we jumped on the metro to Central station for a walk around Queen’s Road Central and Hollywood Road. We liked walking along Hollywood Road. Neat little antique shops and galleries. Hotel LKF in the LKF Tower looked amazing. I did homage to my temple… the Christian LaBoutain store on Lan Street. The storefront itself is dressed up like a gorgeous work of art. Think glossy black, the famous LaBoutain red with an appropriate amount of gold. My sister and I were literally jumping up and down when we caught sight of it. We went in and literally gawked at the beauties inside. The very stern-looking security man standing by the door, guarding the LaBoutain treasures even cracked a little smile when he saw how excited we were. I just love saying it, LaBoutain LaBoutain LaBoutain. Anyways, the heels in there are HOT HOT HOT!

Stopped in at Mak’s Noodles at 77 Wellington Street for a late lunch. My sister and I each ordered a bowl of wonton soup with noodles as well as an order of steamed green vegetables (gai lan, is that right?) with oyster sauce. Total bill for 2 bowls of wonton soup, 2 plates of steamed vegetables and one diet coke was 96 HKD. All the dishes were very good. But I might try another one of the wonton restaurants on another visit. This street is full of them.
Atmosphere: B / Food: A- / Service: B

Walked some more. There’s a huge H&M on 68 Queen’s Road but it was completely mobbed. Oh well, don’t really care for their items this season anyways. Too flowy, just not a good look for me.

There’s a Fortress electronics store across the street. My wonderful husband told me I should get the new iPod Touch while in Hong Kong which I have been absolutely dying for one. Alas, SOLD OUT! As well as all of the new third generation iPod Nanos as well. What the heck???

On the way back to the hotel, we grabbed organic lattes and I had a piece of banana bread (my secret obsession) at “Life” on 10 Shelley Street which we could see from the terrace of Scirocco the night we were there. Not sure about the upstairs but this seems more like a “take-out” kind of place. Our lattes were excellent and my banana bread was great. They also had salads, quiches, etc. And a tiny little grocery store with organic rice, Yogi tea (love their licorice flavor!), granola bars, etc. My kind of place!!!

For dinner we decided to go low-key and somewhere close-by. I found a Vietnamese restaurant in my Timeout Guide that I wanted to check out. It was a quick 5-10 min walk from our hotel. Perfect.
Perfume River, 89 Percival Street
We had beef pho (of course!), fried spring rolls, deboned stuffed chicken wings. All items we ordered were good, we were not disappointed. The service is quite abrupt and they like to turn their tables rather quickly. The décor is non-existent but the dishes were very good. We would return. Total bill with 2 diet cokes was about 140 HKD.

Atmosphere: C+ / Food: A / Service: B

We contemplated going back to the hotel, getting dolled up and going out for drinks but my sister thought she was coming down with a cold so we stopped in at “Wellcome” bought a bottle of Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cab (a good choice for slugging back on your hotel bed in your pajamas) and headed back to the hotel for our HBO-fix for the night.

Next: Should we go check out Kowloon and what should have been a trip to Macau...

Thank for the continuation! Looking forward to the next installment!

I'm enjoying your report. More please!

Thoroughly enjoying your report. Looking forward to the rest!

Apologies for taking so long to write this. I have actually been away for so long I forgot my password! hehe!

Wed – Lane Crawford outlet and Kowloon, Star Ferry

After my morning run and then our lattes from Starbucks. (my sister stays in bed waiting for me to deliver the latte… she’s younger, definitely more spoiled) But this morning as I am balancing 2 hot cups (stacked on top of each other) PLUS trying to unlock the door with the card key… BAM! I dropped the top cup and splashed the entire latte onto our door. ARGH!!! At this point, my sister opens the door hearing the commotion outside (two maids cleaning the room beside us came to the rescue).

My sister: what happened?

Me: that WAS your latte! (pointing to the mess on the door)

My sister is in a great mood this morning so she doesn’t care. She says she’ll grab one on our way out. Meanwhile, I am still grumpy.

Today the weather is fantastic so I suggest maybe we should do the Dragon’s Back walk? But my sister informs me that she hasn’t brought anything even close to a pair of walking shoes? BTW, her suitcase is enormous and she has packed at least 3 times more than me on this trip and I am not a light packer. Unfortunately we also have different shoe sizes so I wouldn’t be able to lend her a pair. Solution: we’ll shop in the morning and go hiking in the afternoon.

Today we thought we would check out the Lane Crawford outlet in Aberdeen and hopefully find some shoes for my sister.

We phoned down to the concierge and they tell us there is a bus that we can take to Aberdeen but honestly I am still in a bad mood and don’t want the fuss so we take a cab. Cost was about 150 HKD I believe. The building itself is a grey almost depressing-looking warehouse, the area is in the middle-of-nowhere.
Horizon Plaza / 2 Lee Wing St / Ap Lei Chau (closed Mondays)

So the Lane Crawford outlet is pretty great. The place was empty, the racks were jam packed with stuff and they do have change rooms. Shoe selection was just so-so (saw some Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, etc but when we went they were mostly all sandals so just didn’t bother. I saw up to size 41 – which is equivalent to a size 10/11 -- so that might be good news for people who think they might not find their size in Asia). No cosmetics but a very small selection of housewares. A few purses/bags the day we went. So I ended up with a couple of Rebecca Taylor skirts; Club Monaco tops (yes I know I can get these at home but they were still a great deal); and some other stuff. They had a pretty huge denim section but since I swear by my faves and can usually get them for really good prices online, I didn’t actually look too much.

We spent several hours in here.
By this time it’s past noon and I’m feeling the need to eat. So head back to the hotel (taxis lined up outside the warehouse/building). Drop off our stuff and go in search for food...

Next: "maybe we should go to Kowloon while we are here"

Fun report! thanks for sharing!

Certainly hope we don't have to wait another month for the next segment! :)

Yes - hurry please :) I leave for HK 2 weeks from Wed! :D

Funny story about taking the taxi to the Lane Crawford outlet. The hotel concierge assures us that any taxi driver will know where it is. “It’s faaaa-mous! Everyone in Hong Kong knows the place.”

Fine. So we get in the cab and I say, “To Ap Lei Chau please. The Lane Crawford outlet”.
Total and complete blank stare. OMG he has no idea what I am talking about. Try to stay calm. Give the piece of paper to my sister, “You say it. Obviously my pronunciation sucks!”

So she tries, “Ap Lei Chau”. Nothing and I mean, NOTHING. No response just this total blank stare. We are getting desperate. “Lane Crawford outlet… Joyce warehouse… near Aberdeen… No. 2 Lee Wing Street”. Then my sister says, “Horizon Plaza”. AAAH… finally some sort of recognition. He understands. “Horizon Plaza? Ok, no problem!” “YES!”

So clearly we were saying “Ap Lei Chau” very very wrong. And the driver obviously is not a shopper otherwise he would know where the Lane Crawford outlet is.

It’s only about a 15 minute taxi ride away. Not far at all.

So someone I work with (she’s from Hong Kong) told me that her favorite place for dim-sum is on the 11th floor of Times Square. We are walking distance from Times Square… perfect! So we are on our way in search for dim sum.

11floor / food forum / times square, causeway bay

Unfortunately she failed to tell me the name of the place and there were TWO dim sum places on the 11th floor. The choice was easy however, as one of them looked like a scene from a 80’s wedding… lots of silk flowers in tacky colors, weird lace and floaty white chiffon everywhere, you get the picture I’m sure. The other place is called “Cheung’s Cuisine” and it looked really cool inside. There was also a HUGE lineup so we figured this must be the place. So we go to the hostess, get a number and wait in line. This is a Wednesday afternoon and this place is packed! “How long is the wait?” I ask, “20 mins”. Okay, no problem. 20 mins is nothing. It turned to being closer to 45 minutes. The thing is this, their menu is half price from 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm and they don’t take reservations during this time. We didn’t know this at the time, however. (only when we looked at our bill later did we realize this) So we were waiting, waiting, waiting.

My sister and I would take turns giving up. I would say, “ok this sucks, let’s just go and eat somewhere else”. My sister then would persuade me to stay. Then 5 minutes later, my sister would say, “ok that’s it, we’re leaving” and it would be my turn to convince her to stay. Anyways… very frustrating, our blood sugar level was getting lower and lower. Finally… no. 97! “Yay, that’s us. That’s us! We’re no. 97”

We go in and sit down, pretty much order 2 baskets of everything that we like… shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, BBQ pork buns, sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, an order of green vegetables, egg tarts, mango pudding. We ate, and ate and ate. Everything tasted amazing!

Total bill for everything was about 200 HKD (after the ½ price discount) but we ordered A LOT!!! So we got greedy but we were SO hungry! Dim sum prices were between 20 HKD to 35 HKD per basket. They give you a list of all their dim sum items and you mark off the ones you want and how many. I think we ordered around 10 dishes between the two of us and then tried one of their “deluxe teas”. So very good value and of course the bill was half price because we were there after 1:30 pm. Not sure if we would go again during that time, just because we had to wait for so long to get a table. So later when I got home I told the girl at work we tried the restaurant she recommended and it turned out that it was 80’s wedding theme restaurant that she meant. Well, that is just too bad as I lost a bit of respect for her after that… haha!

Food: A / Atmosphere: A / Service: B

So now the problem is we ate too much and cannot even imagine going for a hike. (btw… my sister said she could hike in her UGGS … don’t ask me why she didn’t mention this earlier? I was shocked that she had brought her UGGS with her considering we knew that Hong Kong would be very, very warm)

What to do? Then my sister said, “we leave in 2 days maybe we should go check out Kowloon and see the harbor from that side.” Brilliant!

Next: Kowloon - our impressions

Ap Lei Chau is pronounced "Arp Lei Jau".

Lane Crawford is "Leen Kar Fut".

;)

rkkwan - Thanks! Sounds NOTHING like what we were attempting to say.

I should add.. if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask. I hope to finish this report by the end of this week.

So we decided to catch the subway to Central station and then take the Star Ferry. We cut through the IFC mall (which is also attached to the Four Seasons hotel) and I decided I wanted to see if any of the stores here had the iPod Touch (since all of the Fortress stores were totally sold out). Score! On the 2nd floor there was a shop selling Apple products and they had a few iPod Touches left. Bought one and immediately fell in love with it.

Just across from the shop a new restaurant had opened called “LIAN”. It’s a thai/vietnam/bar/bistro. The menu looked great so we made reservations for 9:30 that night for dinner while we were there.
(At home, I usually scorn restaurants in malls or hotels but in Asia some of our best food experiences have been at these places. )

The ride on the Star Ferry is always fun. Although I guess crossing the harbor from Kowloon to Hong Kong island is nicer. So we are in Kowloon, now what? I knew that Nathan Road is ultra touristy and even a bit dodgy but my sister had never been so we walked up that. We weren’t dressed up so we decided against having tea at the Peninsula or Intercontinental although later we realized we probably wouldn’t have gotten in anyways because most people do reserve. Then I remembered on our last visit my husband and I had found a cute little lane called Knutsford Terrace off of Kimberly Road so we set out to find that. We found it. It’s a nice break from the noise, hawkers and crowds on Nathan Road.

BB’s Bistro
13 Knutsford Terrace
Sat outside and had a glass of white wine. Total bill was around 150 HKD.

Dinner that night at LIAN
Shop 2004 / podium level 2 / ifc mall / central
Tel: 2521 1117
My sister and I love SE Asian food! We once again ordered too much but loved everything. And they had Stella Artois and Hoegaarden (two of my favorite beers) on tap. Excellent! My husband and I were invited to “Beer School” several years ago, through his work. It was hosted by the company that owns Stella Artois among many other brands. Now anytime we go somewhere that has Stella Artois on tap, I just have to order it as I know that the bartenders had to be specially trained on how to pour it properly and it will always be served in the unique, “Stella Artois” beer glasses. Anyways, sorry to digress.

We ordered deep fried squid (cut into rings similar to calamari), red curry with beef, vegetarian pad thai and stir-fried morning glory. Everything was very well done. The restaurant was packed and we were glad to have made reservations. This restaurant is owned by the Maxim Group.

Total for dinner was about 500 HKD.
Food: A / Atmosphere: A / Service: B+

Although it is in a mall, we would highly recommend this place. Although the only complaint we have is that it closes at 11pm which we thought was pretty early considering this is Hong Kong. Since we had reserved for 9:30pm, we thought it would have been nice for them to tell us that they closed at 11pm when we booked.

Since we were already at the IFC, I wanted to take my sister to:

Red Bar
4 floor / 2 ifc / 8 Finance Street

It's a bit of a journey getting there. And if anyone knows a good short-cut from the main mall, please do share. Anyways, we did eventually make it there. I just love the deck/terrace with the gorgeous panoramic view of the city. You go and order, grab your drink and find a table. The servers won’t come to you. I had one of the best drinks here. It’s a cosmopolitan but mixed with tequila instead of vodka. Amazing! My sister ordered the same and declared it a “perfect 10”.

Our last two days in Hong Kong were as follows:

So we had planned a day trip to Macau. I had done a fair bit of research and found out that the ferries go almost every 15 minutes back and forth, so if we miss one, we can catch the next one. No problem! So we had agreed the night before to aim for being out the door by 9 am or 10 am by the latest. We set the alarm clock for 8 am. We didn’t have any huge itinerary once we were in Macau, maybe eat an egg tart or two and try to head to Coloane.

The problem was that when we woke up the next morning, the day looked pretty grey and neither of us were really motivated to go at all (combination of jet lag, sleep deprivation, too much eating/drinking, etc). So being the non-type-A personalities that we are, we just decided to nix the Macau plan for today. The egg tarts will have to wait. We figured, maybe we can try for tomorrow if the weather is better since our flight didn’t leave until late that night and Macau is only a one hour ferry ride away.

(As it turns out, it was a good day to cancel our Macau plans as an extremely thick fog came through and that night we saw on the news that two ferries on the Macau-Hong Kong route had collided and 17 people were injured. We were just a little bit freaked out by that news report so we didn’t go to Macau on this trip.)

Anyways… So all of the sudden we had a totally free day. The morning we spent just lazing around, reading some new magazines we had bought and drinking our grande lattes (this time my sister went out and did the starbucks-run).

We had lunch at this great place:
The Press Room
108 Hollywood Road / Central
Tel: 2525 3444
I had the club sandwich (with avocado and lobster… great combo!) and my sister had their hamburger which she said was wonderful. We each ordered fizzy water and the total was around 250 HKD.

Food: A / Atmosphere: A / Service: B+

Next door is a little deli / sandwich shop called “Classifed” which also looked really nice.

Did some more wandering (read: shopping) and ended up near Pacific Place in Admiralty. Then took the metro back to Causeway Bay and to our hotel. But before heading to the hotel, we stopped in Times Square (which became our “mother ship” during this trip) food court for a quick early dinner.

My sister had been obsessing with an Indian place she had seen called “Curry in a Hurry”. She kept telling me, “It looks authentic!” Personally I think she just enjoyed saying it, "curry in a hurry"

Curry in a Hurry
Times Square basement food court (beside City Super)

We thought it was great. I thought the naam bread was delicious and my chicken curry was good! It was a very filling meal.

Our last day:
Spent our morning packing, repacking and packing again. Did some last minute shopping nearby.
We also had time to see a movie at the ifc cinema.

ifc Palace cinema / central
(I'm sorry I forgot what floor this is was on, I believe it was the 1F though)

We watched the “Darjeeling Unlimited” (Wes Anderson’s latest work) which had just come out. Fantastic! We loved going to the cinema in Hong Kong. When you buy your ticket, you get to pick your seats, just like you would when you would go to a concert.

We took the Airport Express back. I love how you can check in at the station downtown. Brilliant! Saved us from lining up at the airport for our boarding passes and thus, more time at the duty free shops.

Last thoughts:
January in Hong Kong was wonderful. The weather (except for the last couple of days when there was the freak-fog) was amazing.

We, as two girls, never ever felt unsafe even the nights we were out quite late. I felt that people wouldn't go out of their way to help you but they wouldn't go out of their way to harm you either. That was cool with us.

As for the language, we found most people spoke English and most of the signs were in English which were such a big help.

Transportation is a dream. Taxis are cheap, the metro is well organized and easy to use.

Everything we ate was delicious and we loved being able to have a wonderful variety of things... we loved the dim sum and wonton noodles but we loved the great Thai, Vietnamese, Indian we had as well.

We could easily have stayed another couple of days. A week was not too long at all.

Any questions, please do feel free ask. Thanks for reading!