Hong Kong - First Stop around the world

The flight to Hong Kong from Israel took us about 11 tiering hours.
Just before we board the plane, we spent our spare time in the Dan lounge. This was Izick's first time getting a VIP treatment before a flight, and not walking endlessly in the duty free. Don't think we started saving before we even left, It's just that you can't leave things for a period longer than 6 month, and I'm not about to add even one gram to my very heavy bag (20 kilo!!! And it's growing...).

well, back to Hong Kong...

We got here early in the afternoon, the orientation here is very easy and the people are very helpful.
On the first day we didn't see much, since we were very tired after all the preparation for the trip and the long flight. However, on the second day we got to see some part of Hong Kong.

For those who doesn't know much about Hong Kong, like me, I'll tell you a little bit, so you will follow my story.

Hong Kong is divided to 4 major parts:
1. Hong Kong island.
2. Kowloon
3. The new Territories
4. The outlying islands.

Hong Kong island and the outlying islands are separated from the 2 other parts and to get around you can use a ferry or the MTR (subway).

We stayed in the new territories at the Panda Hotel (great hotel for 70USD), Along with the rest of the colony population (ok, just half of them, but it's still a lot).

"Tourists miss out on the best that Hong Kong has to offer in this area" (quoted from the book), and for the mean time so am I.
according to the book, there is a lot of excellent hiking here and in some part you can see some authentic villages.

Till now (and we have only 2 days left) all we saw in this area is massive housing estaes rising to heights we can't even imagine.

From here we left every day by a free shuttle from the hotel to kowloon area. This area is much more accustomed to tourists. Just like in almost every place in the world we have been, there is Indian people offering you a new suite (I really don't understand why they think every tourist want to saw a new suite on his trip?!, maybe Liad ;) can answer this question).



The street are filled with electronics stores and a lot of malls.
We spent our first day here. I didn't get impressed much of hong Kong just by hanging out in this area, so the next day we went to explore Hong Kong island.


We got there by the star ferry (Must attraction in Hong Kong according to the book , especially at night when all the city covers with lights).


Hong Kong island is very different from Kowloon, The island is filled with tall business buildings connected with bridges, for people to walks. In the lower floors of the buildings there is endless malls.
Walking in the streets (more accurate, on the bridges) you can see that the population that lives on this side are rich healthy people or westerners business people.



















Hong Kong island also offers some great hiking, but you need to look for them behind the tall buildings.
This is what we did on our fourth day here. We went to Victoria Peak, this is the tallest peak in Hong Kong (552 meter above sea level).

To get there we used the Peak Tram - actually a binocular railway railway took us on a 1.4 Km ride that climbs up to around 400 meter above sea level. It's an extraodinary sensation, the 27 degree gradient provides an odd perspective of the tall buildings of central and mid-level.
From the peak, we went on a hike surrounding the peak and then down to central (it took us about 3 hours).
This was a good exercise before getting to New Zealand.

















Yesterday we went to Hong Kong Disneyland (It located in the outlying islands). It was nice experience, but if you already been in Disneyland somewhere in the world, then believe me, they all the same.
But it was good practice for the next time I'll be in one of the many Disneyland with my children, since this time I felt like I'm with my big child, especially at the end, when he wanted a suvinere, and not just a simple suvinere, a one with Hong Kong written on it so the whole world will know he is been here (I think all you parents know what I'm talkig about).