Hong Kong in a nutshell

Hong Kong is a great city. As a former English colony it has a lot of colonial buildings. But the skyscraper definitely is the most popular building over here. Besides the modern and colonial stuff there are also plenty Asian sites to visit. More fun than Hong Kong island is Kowloon. There is always something going on there.

Quick Tips:

On several places around the islands of Hong Kong you can have a boat trip. This can be very nice. I made a trip through the harbour of Aberdeen. This harbour is filled with wooden ships, you might know them from the movies.

The best place to see Hong Kong island is not from Hong Kong island but from the other side; Kowloon. At night the skyline of HK is breathtaking.

Best Way To Get Around:

Public transportation is very good in Hong Kong. The fastest way to get around is by metro; avoiding the traffic jams. But public busses are very well and drive very frequent.

There are two sites in Hong Kong where the view is breathtaking. The first site is from the Kowloon waterfront looking towards Hong Kong island with it's skyscrapers and Victoria Peak in the background. The other one is from Victoria Peak. You can reach the Peak with a tramway which starts in Downtown Hong Kong. The tram ride is extremely steep. Sometimes you wonder how the tram can still move forward in this angle. But this is also what makes the ride a lot of fun. As you get higher on the mountain you get a better view of the very lean skyscrapers with some very famous ones among them like the HKSBC-tower. From the top the view is the best. You can have a drink here while you enjoy the view.

From the downtown Hong Kong you can get to Aberdeen by bus. The bus service is very good and will lead you through the heart of the island (a tunnel) to the other side, were Aberdeen is. Aberdeen is a bit more quiet than downtown Hong Kong. The harbour is dominated by lean white skyscrapers and a lot of wooden fishing vessels (Sanpan). The harbour is very well known from several movies; if I'm not mistaken you'll see it in one of the James Bond movies. If you walk towards the harbour boulevard you'll soon find some people offering you a boattrip. I paid 40 HK$ for a 30 minutes boattrip for 3 persons. I probably paid too much but I think it was worth it.
Although the weather was not very good; cloudy and very windy; we enjoyed ourselves. The tour leads you along dozens of wooden vessels, some are permanent houses. A bit further you'll see a huge floating restaurant. We were very lucky with our captain, he could tell us a lot of information about the harbour.

Walking through the streets of Kowloon people try to get you into their shops all the time; a lot of them are tailors. After refusing several others, I wanted to find out what it was like. We followed a man into his shop (JAI tailors). It was owned by two Indian tailors. I got informed about the prices and the service they offered. It seemed to be a very good shop, and I promised the men that I would go back later that day; I wanted to compare JAI with some other tailors. But JAI seemed to be pretty good, so I kept my promise. I explained to the tailor that I had to leave the next day before 1300 hours, so I could only buy a suit if it was finished before noon (only 20 hours from then). The tailors started measuring and showing several fabrics. At 1100 the next morning, it was finished. I still wear the suit (one year later), and I still like it.