Afternoon Tea in Hong Kong

I have only once before had afternoon tea and that was last year in Dublin, it was delicious! So I just had to have afternoon tea again while I was in Hong Kong, lots of the big hotels offer it so it was a matter of picking the right hotel.

In the end we decided on the Grand Hyatt in Wan Chai, we sat in the lounge listening to piano music. The food arrived and it looked amazing, then we were also told that there was a dessert buffet. It consisted of ice cream and ice cream cakes, to be honest I was full after finishing the sandwiches and pastries, but went and got some yummy ice cream.

The afternoon tea at the Grand Hyatt cost just over 500HK which is around 65ch for the both of us. Afterwards a long walked was needed after consuming all those calories, and no more eating for the whole evening.

I am a big fan of afternoon tea now and hopefully will go with my sister when we are in Edinburgh in April for the weekend.

W is for Water

The next letter is W and water seemed like a good word to choose, I have lots of photos with water in them, from lakes, rivers, waterfalls, streams to seas.

The first photo is from Zurich, then we are off to the Isle of Skye, then it is the famous water jet in Geneva, then Lake Brienz and finally Lake Lugano.

Photo of the Week - Andy Warhol

On my last day in Hong Kong I went to the Andy Warhol 15 Minutes Eternal exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, which is right on the waterfront on Kowloon.

It was wonderful to see his paintings and drawings, it was busy with lots of children as well as of course adults. I guess he catered to all ages and tastes!

It showed the Marilyn Monroe paintings,  campbell soup, Elizabeth Taylor and lots of self portraits too. I learnt a lot about him that I did not know and found it really interesting, I would have liked to bought the poster but sadly it was not available to buy, which I found unusual.

In and around Hong Kong

Traveling around Hong Kong is very easy and simple, the best way is to buy an Octopus card which costs 50HK as a deposit. It is very similar to the Oyster card used in London, I found it a great way to travel around. You can use it on most types of transport even on, The Peak tram which takes you up to the highest point in Hong Kong, Victoria Peak.

The double decker trams looked very cool, we never actually used then, the metro system is good and easy to understand. The Star Ferry which goes back and forth between HK island and Kowloon is one of the best ways to go as you have the best views of Victoria harbour, and of course the night views are amazing.

The main thing is that all the transport is quite cheap, especially if you come from Switzerland! Even the taxis were good value and using the card saves you with fumbling around trying to get small change.

Hong Kong Signs

One of the things I liked about walking around Hong Kong was seeing lots of different shop, restaurant, bars and goodness knows what else signs. Also seeing them at night to my mind, made a big different they just looked more exciting than during the day.

It was also a shock at first when we walked up and down streets seeing people, traffic, noise, markets and bright lights everywhere, but we got used to it a little bit.

Happy Weekend folks!

Photo of the Week - Shadows on the Wall

The Sunday before I went off to Hong Kong, Alessio and I went to Zug for the afternoon. It was a wonderful sunny and cold day, the ones you have to take advantage of, as there are so few of them! We walked around for a while, then I saw the shadows on the wall of the castle and thought they looked nice. The castle was closed, so we just wandered on trying to find a cafe, there are some but they all seemed busy.

Giant Buddha and Po Lin Monastery

Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car

Giant Buddha in the distance

Hong Kong has been an amazing trip, it is a vibrant, busy, bustling, hectic, bright lights city and I loved it. I was left to make the itinerary for the week so on the first day we headed to Lantau Island. The weather was overcast but still unusually warm for this time of year.

The main attraction on this island is the Giant Buddha and Po Lin Monastery and the best way to get there is with the Ngong Ping 360 cable care. The views of the South China Seas are great and you also see the airport too.

The cable car ride in its self was fun, the path is almost like a zig-zag and then finally you get a view of the big fellow himself!

Once there you walk through Ngong Ping village which is essentially just shops and restaurants until you walk up the path with the 12 Divine Generals on either side (7th photo) and see the 260 steps you have to climb to get to the Big Buddha or Tian Tan as it is offically known.

It is the largest outdoor seated Buddha statue and is 34m high, very impressive, once up the steps having had a few stops to get our breaths back, the views are lovely.

Then down we came and went to see the monastery which was founded in 1906 by three visiting monks. All the temples we visited were busy with people buying incense sticks, burning them and offering them to various Gods.

The best way to get to Lantau Island is with MTR to Tung Chung then you follow the signs for the Ngong Ping cable car. You may want to buy then online as there was a long queue, we waited for 1 hour to actually get into the cable car. It cost us 135HK return which is only 16ch, if you fancy a cable car with a glass bottom then it is more.

It is well worth a day trip and also to village the fishing village of Tai O which we also did and will post that later.