Diary of a Holiday Obsessive: Hong Kong heaven

Some random observations and tips for Hong Kong...

Transport

Transport was amazingly straightforward, mainly down to the wonderful Octopus card. This is much like an Oyster card (for UK readers), but with added benefits. We bought ours at an MTR station - adult cards cost HK$150 and children's cards cost $70. The price includes a $50 returnable deposit (although I think a small bit of this is forfeited if you return it within 3 months), and the rest counts towards your travel. You can then top this up at little machines in the MTR stations. Given that the child fares seemed to be half the price of the adult fares, I'm not sure why they only get $20 to spend when adults have $100 - it meant we had to top up the children's cards, even though the adult cards still had plenty of credit. Once you have your Octopus card, travel is really easy. On the MTR (the underground system), you simply swipe the cards at the beginning and end of the journey. On the bus, you just swipe it as you get on - there seems to be one price for a route rather than a destination. You can also use the card on the Star Ferry, the trams (including the Peak Tram) and to buy various non-transport-related things (McDonalds and the 7-11s both take them as payment, for example). The only downside of the Octopus card is that you need to use cash to top it up. Public transport is very cheap - other than the Peak Tram, the most expensive journey was around £1 (to Ocean Park), and the average MTR journey cost 20-40p! We also found the transport system remarkably easy to navigate - everything was signposted, and we had no trouble getting wherever we needed to go.

Weather

I was warned that it would be humid, but I don't think I really understood the meaning of the word until I went to Hong Kong. Ten metres from the hotel doors and I was wanting to go back for my inhaler. The temperature is hot, but I've been in hotter places; it really is the humidity that gets you. The air is oppressive, and all my plans for hikes went out of the window - how anybody exercises in HK, I don't know. The sweat was soon running down my back and dripping off my face just from walking - I would seriously recommend taking a small towel around with you, just to wipe yourself off! This could also come in handy for the other weather extreme we experienced - rain. The forecast said 'occasional showers' - what it failed to mention was that these showers were downright torrential. When the rain first started, it was quite pleasant in the heat - thirty seconds later and, if you weren't standing in the right place, you were completely drenched. One of the advantages of Hong Kong is that the buildings are all so tall that it is relatively easy to walk along under their shelter and stay dry. Obviously, if you're in the centre, it's easy to pop into a shop or mall to keep dry, and there are plenty of undercover walkways too. That said, we saw an awful lot of Chinese people carrying umbrellas, which doubled as parasols when the rain stopped - something else I'd recommend to take around with you. One more thing I'd recommend is a light cardi or jacket for when you go inside the air-conditioned shops and restaurants, as they get really cold. Oh, and an inhaler.

Scaffolding

It's made of bamboo. There is bamboo scaffolding hundreds of feet up skyscrapers. It doesn't look safe.

Prices

Once you've got your head around the currency (HK$100 is around £8), you have to get your head around the weird differences in price. Clothes and 'stuff' in general, as far as I could see, tended to be the same sort of price as the UK. The meals in restaurants that we had were also similar prices, if not a little more expensive. McDonalds, however, cost around 2/3 of the prices in the UK (yes, we had a McDonalds!). We had an ice cream at the top of The Peak - it cost around £3.50 (we decided to stick with one scoop...). In Kowloon park, there was a McDonalds kiosk (yes, again - it was the only one there!), and the cones only cost around 50p! Public transport is pretty cheap (see above) - best value award goes to the Star Ferry, which cost around 20p (or just 16p if you travel below deck, but we decided to splash out). Taxis were decent value - not cheap like the MTR but still cheaper than the UK. Even the attractions were good value - an adult ticket to Ocean Park costs around £25, while the child price is half of this and a family ticket costs even less (for comparison, a family ticket to Alton Towers is £170...). Even the Hong Kong Disneyland (which we didn't go to) is much cheaper than its Paris or US counterparts. The bottom line is, far from finding Hong Kong expensive (as we kept hearing), we generally found it pretty cheap. Just eat in McDonalds and don't buy ice creams at The Peak.

Diet Coke

It doesn't seem to exist. Coke Zero all the way. What is the actual difference anyway? One calorie?!

Airport transfer

If there are three or four of you, a taxi is definitely your best option. Our hotel provided an airport transfer, but it wasn't cheap. The Airport Express Line is good value (HK$100 or £8 for an adult ticket), but you still have to get from the station to your hotel. There may be a convenient bus or MTR stop, or the hotel may have a free shuttle bus (ours did). Alternatively, you could get a taxi - but we decided it was easier to get a taxi straight from the airport. It cost around HK$350 including luggage and tolls - for the sake of a few pounds, it was well worth the convenience and not having to wait around and lug our cases. I didn't see any taxis that would take more than 4 people and cases, though.

Overhead walkways

Not only were shopping centres good for air-con but they were also good for getting from place to place avoiding the roads (and the heat). Overhead walkways link lots of the shopping centres with MTRs and office buildings, so it's often possible to walk a fair part of your journey under cover and without having to cross some of the busy roads. My tip is to avoid going down(!) unless you have to!

Public toilets

There were lots. They were clean. They had toilet paper, soap and lockable doors. And they were free (take note, London).

People and language

Everyone we came across was friendly and polite (with the exception of a certain old man). We did find ourselves being stared at a lot, particularly the children. I expected the people of Hong Kong to be very used to white people - I was forgetting that many of those people were actually visiting Hong Kong themselves from China, and had perhaps not seen white people (especially children!) in 'real life'. We also found that everyone spoke English, at least well enough to understand us and make themselves understood. I normally attempt to learn some useful phrases before I go (thank you, if nothing else), but I read that the intonation makes all the difference. So I asked a waitress how to say thank you in Cantonese - turned out she was Thai and didn't know, so I gave up.

Wildlife

Keep your eyes peeled for unusual birds and some really beautiful butterflies. Oh, and mosquitoes - I didn't see any, but they sure saw me.