Hong Kong - a tale of two cities!
Our first hotel was the 5* Langham which is nicely placed in Kowloon, a short stroll from the Star Ferry and in an area surrounded by other 5* hotels. It is a lovely hotel with a suitable amount of wow factor but being opposite a tall office building meant the room had cotton blinds obstructing any natural daylight. It has a small roof top pool which we used, and several good restaurants which provided great food. The service was excellent all round. Our first day heralded a trip out to Disney which was expensive and also slightly disappointing because we hadn’t realised it was so small: only three lands and few rides but our little one loved it, especially the water play area. Our second day was extremely rainy so we used my back up plan and I took Lily to the nearby science museum which was fantastic and a must for families with children under 12. After our onward trip to Borneo, we returned to Hong Kong for a 3 night stay at the Mandarin Oriental. This is definitely 5* deluxe and has a very definite oriental feel. Our room was on the 19th floor and had a harbour view. Currently there is a land reclamation project in between the hotel and the star ferry terminal but this is for the creation of a Feng Shui park which I am sure will be super when it is finished.
So a different part of Hong Kong and a distinctly different feel: this is Central and the main financial district where you will find the glass and chrome tower blocks, alongside the designer shops. Not wanting to waste any time shopping, off we set on our first day for Ocean Park which at half the cost of Disney was about ten times better, and also has several rides for the thrill seekers too!
I wanted to see the Pandas here so badly, and they definitely didn’t disappoint. Other highlights included the goldfish exhibition (some are really ugly), the fun water area, and the awesome street dancing troupe. It is a split site park with an incredible cable car ride to the other part of the park. It’s a fantastic day out.
Our last day in Hong Kong saw us stroll from the Mandarin Oriental to the Star Ferry terminal and board a small traditional style boat for a two hour harbour cruise from where we also saw the noon day gun. We thought our hotel was very tall, as we were on the 19th floor (there are 25) but looking back at it from the boat, we realised it is only a quarter of the size of some of its neighbours! Two hours took us along Causeway Bay and past some of the older areas of Hong Kong with their old house boats and junks, so it was a nice experience to see the two side by side. We then took a taxi from the ferry terminal to the Peak tram station which is incredibly small and was incredibly packed. 10 minutes on, an old wooden tram saw us up at Victoria Peak which of course every tourist to Hong Kong must do. You can buy a slightly better combination ticket which takes you up to the highest viewing platform which we did. A slight haze meant we probably didn’t get the clearest view but it was awesome. There is a shopping village up there alongside many bars and cafes so it has a bit of a buzz. It was a nice afternoon out. And that marks the end of our stay here. The weather as expected was incredibly hot and humid, and we did experience some rain showers, prolonged at times, due to the close proximity of a couple of tropical storms. We certainly had a lovely time here and feel that we packed a fair bit in. The Mandarin Oriental gave us the 'wow' factor and was a brilliant end to our holiday in Asia. Top tip is to plan what you want to see before you arrive here!