Victoria Peak (太平山頂) is famous for its bird view over Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s night scene from Victoria Peak
Our journey to The Peak didn’t start off pretty well. It was partly our fault; we planned to go up the mountain before evening to see the view both in day and night, but we failed to anticipate the time needed to take the tram and the time of the sunset (much earlier than we thought).
Tram station on the ground
The wait for the Peak Tram was quite a pain. It was a long queue, and Q-jumping was quite uncontrollable. I even had a quarrel with on of the staff for the Q-jumping matter, but I might have overreacted in this case… the staff were probably doing their best but unfortunately short handed in handling the mass in what could be the busiest weekend of the year because of China’s week long holiday.
We managed to get on the tram after more than an hour of waiting. I am not sure if I was having a bad mood, or that the tram ride is seriously overrated… I didn’t find anything enjoyable with the tram. It was nothing bad, but just a mean of transportation for me instead of tourist attraction.
The sky was already dark by the time we reached the Peak Tower. Luckily the night view of Hong Kong from The Peak was quite spectacular; it eased the unpleasant experience while waiting for the tram.
We had dinner and hanged around the area to wait for the Symphony of Light. As mentioned in earlier post, the show is something that you should see once in your life, but just once as it could be pretty boring for the second time.
We didn’t wait until the ending of the show to get down The Peak. The tram waiting queue was not as long and chaotic on our way back, thank goodness… at least we came in grudge but went home with a pleasant smile.
A photo taken in Central district…
Street, buses, trams in Central, Hong Kong
It’s a simple photo, but it really represents Hong Kong in some sense. Metropolitan, buses and double-decker trams… you can’t find the combination elsewhere in the world.
Trams have been a form of transport in Hong Kong for over 100 years and also a major tourist attraction. Hong Kong Tramways is one of the very few in the world that have regular operation of double-decker trams.
A tram in Central, Hong Kong
We had thought of taking a ride on one of those trams, but gave up our mind. I couldn’t remember the exact reason for our decision… we just didn’t feel like boarding one.
Ocean Park Hong Kong (香港海洋公園) was opened in 1977 and located at the south of Hong Kong Island. The park is easily accessible with public transportation… we went there by bus from the Star Ferry’s Central Pier on our 2nd day in Hong Kong.
It was a weekend, and mainland China was celebration their week long holiday to celebrate National Day… so the park was really crowded.
Main entrance of Ocean Park Hong Kong
Read the rest of this post »
The Star Ferry service has been in operation since 1888 and is one of Hong Kong’s icon.
A Star Ferry as seen from the waterfront promenade at Tsim Sha Tsui
Read the rest of this post »
Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower is a famous landmark in Hong Kong. There is nothing spectacular about the clock tower, it’s probably the historical value that made it into an important monument.
Read the rest of this post »
Saw this traffic policeman (and his colleague) on duty in the morning while on our way for breakfast… I guess they were giving a ticket to the taxi driver for illegal parking.
Traffic police on duty - bad luck for the taxi driver
Hong Kong policemen were quite plentiful; we saw them quite often in various places… Hong Kong streets should be quite safe and peaceful.
The taxis were quite a scene too… we saw it at every corner of the main streets. There were probably more taxis on the road then private cars (ok, I might be exaggerating… but there were really a lot of taxis on the street).
Btw, Hong Kong taxis are not as expensive as we thought. Hong Kong does have a cheap and effective public transport (mass transit and buses etc.) that makes taxi an expensive option… but if you are travelling in a group of 3 or 4, it is not a bad idea to grab a cab to save some time.
We stayed at B P International House （香港龍堡國際賓館） for the first 2 days in Hong Kong before transferring to Disney’s Hollywood Hotel later on.
Lobby with portrait of Baden Powell
B P is the acronym for Baden Powell, the founder of Scout Movement. The 25-storey hotel building is actually the Hong Kong Scout Centre; the Scout Headquarters only occupied a few floors though, the rest are hotel rooms and facilities.
We chose this hotel because of its reasonable pricing and its location. It took around 5-10 minutes walk to get to Jordan MTR station, it’s quite near to the famous Temple Street, and there are plenty of restaurants and shops around.
We booked a standard room with extra bed for 3 adults; my 2 year old niece stayed for FOC. It cost us HK$1200 + tax for a night… quite reasonable for Hong Kong standard.
The room was small, a bit smelly (cigarettes), but offered a nice view of Tsim Sha Tsui and a bit of Victoria Harbour. Besides, the staff was friendly and really helpful… so we were quite happy with the stay. [Hotel’s website]
Our room view - Victoria Harbour should be visible in good weather… but it was really hazy during our visit; it was nice enough though
