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Introduction
The pictures in this gallery were taken during a three night stopover in late March on our way to New Zealand.
Kowloon
We stayed in a hotel off Nathan Road close by to the bustling Temple Street markets. The area is full of shops, seemingly vibrant for most of the waking hours and very colourful at night with hundreds of neon and display lighting.
Maybe we didn't visit the right shops, but in general I found electronic equipment of interest to me was not that much different in price to what I would expect to pay in the UK.
Kowloon Park towards the southern end of Nathan Road was a pleasure to walk round and in some parts gave a surprising degree of traffic noise isolation. The flower beds were well attended and full of springtime colour.
For the twenty minute Hong Kong Island evening light show starting at 8pm, we joined hordes of other people on a raised area by the Clock Tower near to the Kowloon Star Ferry Terminal. Good views of the colourful lighting up the side of the buildings, as well as high power white lights and green laser beams were seen. We had thought that the display would be more colourful, but it was good whilst it lasted.
Hong Kong Island
We managed to visit a number places around HK Central, including the excellent Hong Kong Park, Botanical Gardens, The Peak Tram, Central-Mid-Levels Escalator, Ride on the Star Ferry and to trek round some of the street markets and shopping malls.
Like Kowloon we found most parts to be very clean and a pleasure to walk round.
Public Transport
The three day travel pass enabling one return journey on the Airport Express and unlimited journeys on the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) was good value at HK$300 each. It would have been better had we remembered to claim back the HK$60 at the end! The 25 minute journey from the Airport to Kowloon Station was excellent, with trains every 12 minutes.
Checking in luggage at Kowloon Station during the morning for our late night onward flight to New Zealand was a real boon, as was the ability to leave cabin baggage at the left luggage desk for HK$100 (around £6) for a 24 hour period.
I would certainly agree with others that the MTR is a pleasure to use, offering frequent service with spacious and very clean stations. A lesson for those involved in building and maintaining British train and underground stations....
Negotiating check-in, security and the use of airport facilities was all matter of fact, with not too much baggage collection wait-time and staff who were by and large friendly - unlike some of the surly people one encounters when travelling to other destinations.
Overall
We liked the city and look forward to returning again soon on our way to other far off destinations.
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