Hong Kong is always a great place to visit when the mood for shopping in English strikes us, or eating international foods such as Mexican or Greek, two of our favourites. We just got back from a quick five day visit to the city after spending a couple of nights in Shanghai meeting up with my son, Pat, who was on a 21 hour layover on his way back to Canada from Bali.
It is interesting to note that if you are on a layover in Shanghai for less than 24 hours, you are permitted to leave the airport and go into the city without needing any special visa. This is a good opportunity to get a very small taste of China for those passing through. We met Pat and Ally at the airport, and hopped the MagLev for the first time to get back into the city. Although it is possible to now take the Metro from one end of the city to the other (Pudong Airport to Hongqiao Airport), the Maglev saves a lot of time in traveling to the centre of town. For 50RMB each, we were back into the city within five minutes, reaching speeds of 300km/h. We had dinner and breakfast together, and bade them farewell. It was a quick visit but a great chance to get together befores they headed home to Canada from Thailand. We all stayed at the Rock&Wood Hostel; a conveniently located and comfortable place to hang out for a day or a week.
Monday found us in Hong Kong, booking into the Homy Inn. We soon discovered that it was located about 10 minutes away from the Hongk Kong International Dragon Boat races which was pretty cool. It was an easy walk down to the water to catch some of the action. Most of the big-scale entertainment was booked to begin on the weekend, the day that we were leaving. Win some, lose some! But at least we got to check out a few of the races. Like most hostels in Hong Kong, our room at the Homy Inn was tiny. The small bed basically filled the room and the toilet pretty much filled the bathroom. It is located on the 6th and 7th floor of an apartment building in a very convenient area of the city. There is a British Pub across the street and a dozen more within a few minutes walking. It was only a five minute walk to the nearest metro station and most of the more popular stations were only a few stops away.
The only gripe we have about Hong Kong is that they keep the air-conditioning inside everything, metro, malls, restaurants, at subzero temperatures. Well, at least it felt that way. Outside was great, inside was like visiting the Arctic. Suffice it to say, if you ever visit the city, bring a sweater and/or a jacket, even in the middle of summer! Needless to say, I was sick as a dog by the time we left. My body didn’t do well jumping back and forth from 15 degrees to 35 degrees on an hourly basis. It is great being back in Wuhan where people don’t see the need to super air-condition every building.
Our main reason to visit HK was to do a little computer shopping. I needed a new laptop and really wanted to be able to check them out in an English language setting. There is a beautiful new two-storey Apple Store in Hong Kong with great support and displays. I made the big switch and purchased a Macbook Pro so am now officially a Mac person again, after a respite of almost twenty years! I think my last Mac had a 10 Mb hard drive, this one has 750 Gb! Times have changed!
