I've scheduled the departing flight on United leaving DFW at 7:50 AM on July 6th with a stop over in San Francisco before heading on to Hong Kong. We have 33 days to get ready for this trip should we decide to make it reality. We're going to do a two city trip this time. We'll spend the first half of the trip in Hong Kong before flying on to Tokyo for the balance of the trip. After lunch in the San Francisco airport, we'll hop on our next flight which will land in Hong Kong at 6:15 PM the next day. Once in Hong Kong we'll be staying at the Harbor Plaza North Point which is a 4 star hotel on Hong Kong island. After that exhausting trip and since we are arriving in the evening, we'll just have dinner in the hotel and then make it an early night so that we will be bright and fresh for a long day of sight seeing tomorrow. The Greens Cafe in the hotel offers a small menu of varying dishes. I've decided on Green Curry with Prawns for $21 US. After dinner, I'll be turning in early to recover from that trip.
On the first full day in Hong Kong there are many things to do. We'll spend this entire visit in Hong Kong since going over to Mainland China requires a visa which we didn't have time to get before leaving home. Since the day dawned bright and clear we have decided to visit Victoria Peak this morning. It is one of the top attractions of the city but only worth the trip on a clear day. We'll take the Metro from our hotel to Central and then walk to the Tram Station from there. After making our way to the top on the tram we are rewarded with spectacular views of the city from the highest peak on the island.
Our mode of transportation to the top was a tram which you can see in the photo to the right. At the top there is a shopping center where several restaurants are located. Or you can choose to have a meal at the Peak Lookout Restaurant which is housed in an old building from 1901 which originally housed workers working on the tram. Since 1947 it has been a restaurant. We won't be eating up here today since we are just starting our day and had breakfast in our hotel.
After spending a few hours on The Peak, we'll make our way back down the mountain on the tram and head straight to Aberdeen Harbor where we'll board a Sampan boat to see the harbor. There is a free ferry that you can take to the Jumbo which is a floating restaurant and the main attraction these days. According to many reviewers on Trip Advisor, the boats are fewer and fewer each year as the younger generation doesn't want to work so hard fishing as previous generations did. If you don't have lunch at the Jumbo you only need an hour or two for this part of our day. We'll hop off the sampan and have lunch on dry land after the tour.
So, after traveling all the way to China, why not have lunch at McDonald's, right? Well, it's a little more upscale. We'll be eating at McCafe. But it is truly McDonald's. The thing is that it is convenient to our next stop which is the Star Ferry. It is cheap and we'll have plenty of opportunities to dine at nice Chinese restaurants for dinner. Plus they take the Octopus Card which we got first thing this morning. The Octopus Card is sort of like a TollTag for those of you from Texas. It pays for your transportation around the city and can be used at numerous restaurants and you can reload it at 1000's of locations around the city. After our Big Mac, we'll hop on the Star Ferry for a harbor tour which we'll pay for using the Octopus Card. We've decided to buy a day pass for the Star Ferry so that we can hop on and off and see city from the water at night. A day pass costs about $28 USD and will allow us to go anywhere the ferry goes. The harbor tour which we are starting out with will take us near the Kowloon peninsula, it will stop at Tsim Sha Tsui it stops at Central and again at Wan Chai giving us terrific views of the city along the way.
Since we got the day pass, we can disembark at any of these stops and see the sights in the area then get back on to go to the next stop. It's sort of like a Hop On Hop Off bus on water and with locals. National Geographic has named it one of the 50 places to visit during a lifetime. With a recommendation like that, you can't go wrong with the Star Ferry. We'll spend the rest of our day stopping at each of the locations and visiting markets in those areas. At the Tsim Sha Tsui stop we'll dine at the Jade Garden Chinese Restaurant for some authentic Chinese food. It is frequented by locals and gets some pretty good reviews. Plus the views of the harbor are fabulous.
After disembarking the Star Ferry following our night time trip to see the skyline after dark, we'll head back to the hotel for the evening. It's been a long busy day and tomorrow will be just as busy. So we'll make it an early night. Have a nice Monday afternoon and we'll see some more sights around Hong Kong tomorrow.
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