Last stop - Hong Kong

    Talk about doing everything you possibly can in the 2 days you're given. Or at least trying to!
    I arrived in the concrete jungle that is Hong Kong with immediate views of the city, various islands, beautiful blue water, and buildings like you've never seen before packed into the valleys created by the mountains, as my flight descended. I followed the directions given to me by my hostel and exited the airport on the lookout for bus A11. Found it with ease and shortly thereafter I was comfortably seated in my second-level seat with my hands and face plastered against the window as the sun was starting to set and the shipyard lights and glow from the city slowly started appearing over the horizon. First observation, everything here is double decker! Which, I suppose makes sense - more people, less space on the ground. The buses are all two floors high and even the streetcars look like something straight out of Harry Poter...! I was expecting the amount of people, in one of the most dense populations in the world, to overwhelm me at first, but when I stepped off the bus in Causeway Bay and walked the few blocks to my hostel, it didn't seem too intense. My first night was spent situating myself and getting my hands on a map to plan everything I wanted to get done in the 2 full days that I had. 

    Day 1 - Getting my hands on the city.
    I set off early in the morning towards the central station to purchase a ticket for and board The Rickshaw Bus. One of those typical tourist open-top, hop-on, hop-off bus tour type things, and a great way to cover a lot of ground while having the main sites blatantly pointed out.i tackled both the Heritage Route and the Metropolis Route, staying on for the ride at some points and hopping off at others to see a few museums, beautiful cathedrals, HKU, temples, fascinating outdoor escalators, incredible buildings and the Soho district.

    Before arriving in Hong Kong, I discovered they had a Disneyland, so naturally I made a point to at least go check out their version of the happiest place on earth. Getting out to the park requires a few stops on the MTR plus an interchange onto a special Disney subway train, fit with Mickey-shaped windows, blue crushed velvet seats, Disney character display cases and Mickey-shaped handles. As soon as I arrived, stepped off the train and heard the classic Disney tunes playing through hidden speakers, I felt happy. Crazy how good they are at that. There was plenty to do around the outside of the park without paying the hefty ticket price, so I enjoyed my time, picked up easily some of the best caramel corn I have ever had and was back on the train into the city. 

 

    Hong Kong turns into a symphony of lights at night, which is no surprise with the number of buildings here. I had heard the boardwalk over on Kowloon Island was the best place to look back at the city, so I made my way over there once nighttime had fallen. The boardwalk, or the Avenue of Stars, was my first encounter with total congestion and overcrowdedness but I eventually found a comfortable spot to take in the magnificent light display and it's mirrored reflection on Victoria Harbor. 

    Day 2 - Getting my hands on nature.
After playing tourist in the city for a day, and reading much about some of the incredible and somewhat secret hikes Hong Kong has to offer, I chose to tie up my laces and set off to Dragon's Back trail. It was a perfectly beautiful day for a 6km hike - the sun shining, not a cloud in the sky, one of the hottest temperatures I've felt and fresh (maybe?) air filling my lungs. The trail itself was not too tricky and offered a lot of shading, tiny glimpses of views in various spots, natural waterfalls and THE biggest spiders I have ever seen, chilling in their webs high enough up above my head to not have me totally freak out. The view from the highest point of the trail was absolutely breathtaking. And quite unexpected as I didn't know much about the hike except for it's name and how to get there, or that Hong Kong had such a beautiful landscape. 360-degree views for miles of mountains, bright blue water, white sand beaches, golf courses and green, green, green. I could have sat up there all day but continued the second-half of the trek, back down with the hopes of finding a bus. (Found one).
   

    

    I had been recommended to go to The Peak, which is HK's highest point and offers views of the city, so I made that my plan for the afternoon. I knew there was a hike that can be done but there is also the tram, and after my morning of hiking I decided I'd cheat and take the tram up and maybe walk the trail down. Well, at the sight of a line just to buy tickets that I guess was probably about an hour and a half wait, I concluded it was a sign to force my legs to keep going. I asked one of the tram representatives where the starting point of the trail was and she pointed in the direction of a road next to the tram and said 'walk straight and just keep going.' Easy enough.    

    Not exactly. After walking for roughly 45 minutes, completely out of breath and having sweat through every inch of my clothing, on a 'trail' that was taking me every which way, with no one on it, I decided there was no way this was the trail. Luckily, I was going to The Peak, so as long as I was going up, I was doing something right. After walking through rainforests, along roads and through what I think may have been the backyard of someone very wealthy (with a tennis court) I eventually made it to the infamous Peak, 7km later. I was greeted by hundreds of tourists and a mall, of course, fully equipped with Starbucks, McDonalds, restaurants, Coach, Chanel, Dior......
   
    From the top, it was very obvious where the actual Peak Trail begins/ends, so I ran the (only) 3.5km back down the paved trail, along with quite a few other people going in both directions,  which made a lot more sense. Spent the rest of the evening doing some window shopping, walking around downtown, along the water and then back to the hostel to pack up my backpack one last time.
   
    Even though I encountered a few bumps in the road on Day 2 (literally and figuratively), setting out without having done a lot of research into my plans and therefore holding no expectations is actually a lot of fun.