excited_to_be

We're going to Hong Kong in about 2 weeks, and I'm wanting to spend most of my money on gifts/shopping/tours. so, question number 1) does anyone have any experience with the Pearl of the Orient dinner cruise? or with the Dolphin Watching offered through grayline.com?<BR>2) Is food pretty readily available and cheap there? a friend of mine said she got a bowl of noodles on the star ferry for somehting like 10 cents<BR>3) Is seafood as safe as/safer than American seafood; and is the poultry completely rid of the virus that it had a few years ago?<BR>I can't wait to go!

Marilyn

I can answer #2. Food is as readily available as in any major US city. It can be cheap or expensive depending on whether you eat in a fine restaurant or on the street. There is every type of cuisine imaginable, from British pub food to Thai to American-style steak house to Korean barbecue to US fast food chains to sushi to yes, Chinese! I guess I wouldn't be eating on the Star Ferry, with so many other choices.

fiona

which tours were you thinking about apart from dolphin watching?

Joey

Restaurants are everywhere in HK with a huge variety from cheap to expensive and from Chinese to French cuisine. So just eat what you can afford and feel like. For seafood and meat, it should be fine in most restaurants, haven't heard of anything bad these days.

Michael From New York

Uh, there is no food service on the Star Ferry. Kowloon Side there is a small stand in the terminal building selling some soups/noodles, but I doubt it cost only 10 cents. The Ferry Service itself is incredibly inexpensive, last year when I was there it was 2.2 HK$ for the Upper Deck and 1.7 $HK for the lower deck. There's no point in taking the upper deck as it is enclosed with windows, where as the lower deck is open air. The price differential is neglible.<BR><BR>As for dining out - as the above poster said, you can have the world's finest cuisine, or you can have inexpensive food courts. THere's really no problem in figuring where to eat, other than your pocketbook.<BR><BR>Michael

excited_to_be

fiona,<BR>i was also thinking of taking a tour to Lantau to see the Buddha.

Marilyn

The Buddha is cool. Check out the monastery also, and walk out on the hill if the weather is good.

Kris

Just got back from Hong Kong.<BR><BR>As Michael stated there is no food service on the Star Ferry, the ride is less than 10 minutes.<BR><BR>Lots of range with the food prices, we were spending about $20US for dinner for 2 at mid price restaurants. Do try Dim Sum for breakfast or lunch. We tried Yung Kee on the Central side (32-40 Wellington St.) and Jade Garden on the Kowloon side. Both were good, Yung Kee had an English menu to order from, Jade Garden had the women with carts that go around.<BR><BR>If you get a taste for Italian, Fat Angelo's was good but they give you huge portions so you may want to split one. There are locations on both the Central side and on the Kowloon side (Ashley St.). The Spaghetti House was cheaper but had mediocre food so I wouldn't recommend it.<BR><BR>Although you could take a tour to Lantau, you can also easily get there on your own. There are ferries that go from near the Star Ferry station on the Central side to Lantau (I believe it was pier 7). The slow ferries are about 10HK and the fast ferries are 21HK (less than $3US) and take about 25 minutes. From the ferry, you can take a bus to Po Lin monastery, which took about 45 minutes. The bus was 16HK, exact change only, and was very easy to find.<BR><BR>We got a late start and our bus broke down so we didn't see anything besides the Buddha and monastery but there are other spots on Lantau that are also worth a visit which are also serviced by the bus. There is a vegetarian restaurant at the monastery that a lot of people eat at, we ate at the tea garden which is a short 5 minute walk from the Buddha.<BR><BR>Lots and lots of shopping in Hong Kong. If you are looking for trinkets/souvenirs, check out the Temple Street night market, it was much cheaper than Stanley which gets the cruise boat shoppers.<BR><BR>And make your first stop the Hong Kong tourist board (or check out their website). They have sevral brochures that outline self guided walking tours, cuisine, etc. that are quite useful.