Company: Jana & Martin

Planned route: Tallinn-Helsinki-Bangkok-Hong Kong-Guangzhou-Hong Kong-Helsinki-Tallinn

This trip also started from the Tallinn Airport where we took a Finncomm flight to Helsinki at 9.30 pm. The following flight to Bangkok started already at 11.50 pm with Finnair. We did not have any problems during the flight and at 2 pm the next day we landed in Bangkok airport. We had to wait for few hours for our next flight and at 4.30 pm we were already on Cathay Pacific flight towards Hong Kong. It was our first try with Cathay Pacific airlines and we were satisfied with the service and the rest of the quality also. At about 8 pm we landed in Hong Kong and took the Airport Express straight to Hong Kong Island. There after few metro stops we found our hotel called Bentley. It was in Kowloon just next to the famous Nathan Road. The room was small, but nice and after we had changed our clothes we decided to go and look around. We walked from Nathan Road straight to the bay and the view was magical- we could see the Hong Kong Island with its hundreds of light up skyscrapers. We also went to the local celebrity street where local Asian movie stars have stored their hand prints in cement. As it was almost midnight we decided to go to bed after a quick meal in McDonald’s as already next morning we were supposed to take of for the mainland China.

In the morning we packed our things and took the metro to Hung Hong station and after going through the customs we were successful and got on the train. As it is known, Estonians do not need a visa to be in Hong Kong, but they need one to enter mainland China.

Read our trip to Guangzhou from here.

So after our stay in mainland China Guangzhou, in the morning after packing our things we took a taxi to East Station where Simon was already waiting for us and we said our goodbyes. After long procedures in the customs we were finally let on a train to Hong Kong. For this time we had booked a hotel in Kowloon close to Prince Edward metro stop. So when we got off the metro we eagerly started walking. When after a small the surrounding looked stranger and stranger than Jana figured out that maybe we were walking in the wrong direction. And she was right as I had read the map the wrong side up. So we took our bags and started walking in the other direction until we finally found our hotel. It was a 5 star hotel (with prices lower than the previous 3 star Benktley Hotel) and it was called Royal Plaza Hotel. It was a really large hotel and it took us about 30 minutes until it was our turn to check- in. Our room was on the 16^th floor where we had an amazing view to the downtown Hong Kong. That night we decided to celebrate our successful business trip and first of all booked a ship cruise on the bay. We went to the harbor at Hong Kong Island’s North Point Ferry Pier by 7.30 pm where the cruise was about to begin. We got our own table and during the whole 2 hour cruise we could eat as much as we wanted from the buffee. We ordered some Cuba Libres and started enjoying our magnificent dinner. At 8 pm we were all asked to go to the outer deck as then a huge laser show began that involved all of the city and most of the skyscrapers where also involved. It is called Symphony of Lights and it is played in Hong Kong every night. I cannot describe the view, already the panoramic view of the city is regarded as one of the most beautiful ones in the world and all of the lights playing with laser beams added a lot of magic to the whole sight. After a 10 minute show it was time to go back inside. A local female band started performing on the stage and the more active local elderly people just could not wait until they could run to the dance floor. We had some coffee and tried dozens of local delicious deserts and enjoyed our Cuba Libres. At 9.30 pm we landed in the harbor and took the metro to Central Station. Only a few steps from that is located the most popular nightlife area called Lan Kwan Fong in Hong Kong. Hundreds and hundreds of pubs, bars and restaurants are located there. We sat down in a pub and treated ourselves with Margaritas and Daiquries. After sitting there for a while we moved on and found a place that you might called an open- door discothèque. We stayed there for a rather long time and met a bunch of very interesting people from India, Mauritius, Finland and even a group of people from USA. Then we moved on to another place at 2 am with a group of other people and after dancing for few hours we took a taxi and went home.

We allowed ourselves to sleep in the next morning, I enjoyed a nice aromatic massage and after lunch we decided to go on the town and go to The Peak. It is a large mountain in the middle of the island from where you have an amazing view to all of the skyscrapers of Hong Kong. We got up there with Peak Tram which is a tram cart with very old design that climber up the hill. On top there was a half-moon shaped house from which roof we had an indescribable view to the rest of the island. After enjoying the view and taking the compulsory pictures we took the tram back down and went back to the hotel and cooked dinner in our room (we actually had a kitchen in our room).  

We started the next day very early and took the metro to the furthest point on Lantau Island that we could and we wanted to go up the Ngong Ping Mountain and to the temple by the hanging railroad. Already the railroad ride was amazing as it was parallel with the airport. Then the railroad went above the mountains until we could see a huge statue of Buddha from the far. Went we got there we found a cute mountain village with restaurants, shops and other places to spend our time. But we decided to move on as we wanted to climb up the mountain to the Buddha statue. The statue is one of the biggest sitting Buddha statues in the world and the stair case up to it was simply magical. We also went in but as all of the history was written in hieroglyphs than we did not find any new information from that. Then we walked down and went to see Po Lin monastery that was really beautiful with all of its statues and wood- carvings. As we had purchased the tickets to see the Buddha already beforehand then a local meal was waiting for us in a restaurant next to the temple. Although we could not figure out what were the ingredients of all of those foods, but it was still rather delicious. We decided to move on with our day and took the railroad back down. As the Hong Kong Disneyland is also located on the Lastau Island we decided to bring the inner child in us to life and soon we were on a special metro with sofas and windows of Miki Mouse that was taking us to the Disneyland. As I have never been to any other Disneylands I do not have anything to compare it with and although I have heard that the one in Hong Kong is much smaller it still felt magical to us. We had fun in the House of Tarzan, on a boat ride on the jungle river, by shooting aliens in a space shuttle and so on. We also enjoyed a nice meal in a cute Disney stile restaurant. As it was getting darker we decided to go to the Temple Street Night Market that opened its displays at 6 pm. The market is actually the most popular night market in the Kowloon district in Hong Kong where you could find absolutely everything that you could wish for. We also bargained a lot to get the best price for many products and after buying an extra suitcase dragged all that stuff back to the hotel where we started backing. As we had bought large amounts of cheap stuff than now we had to pack everything so that we would not have any overweight on the plane. Through some kind of miracle we were even successful in that.

Early next morning we had a taxi take us to the Kowloon stop where we took the Airport Express speed train once again to get back to the hotel. Finnair flight towards Helsinki took off at 9.45 am. It was a very huge and impressive plane where everybody had a personal TV and game console in front of them. The flight was fast and at 2 pm we landed happily in Helsinki. After waiting for few hours we finally took off towards Tallinn with Finncomm Airline’s propeller airplane and at 5.30 pm we already landed.

To sum up, I can say that Hong Kong is a fascinating place where I am always happy to go back to. It is Asia, but then again it is not. Hong Kong is highly developed and you cannot spot poverty anywhere. Guangzhou is like a separate world where you cannot do anything with only English, the food is 90% local, prices about 2 times cheaper and so on. But Guangzhou also has its upsides and that is if there happens to be something that you want to buy than it is certain that you will find it there and with the cheapest prices in the world. People in Guangzhou can produce everything and that they also do with the cheapest prices. Guangzhou is not fulfilling in a cultural sense, but there is still something that makes you want to go back there again and again.