Day 1 of my Hong Kong Adventure

Some of you may know that last week myself and my colleague Nicola were lucky to have been chosen to have 4 nights in Hong Kong to do some sightseeing and testing out tours for us as a company to be then able to recommend and sell for our pre and post cruise stays in Hong Kong and also on stop overs. This was my first trip to the Far East and Hong Kong was a place on my Bucket List which I can now cross off.

We flew via Abu Dhabi to Hong Kong with Etihad Airways and as me and Nicola live opposite ends of the UK – we made sure we were on the same connecting flight in Abu Dhabi together. Each flight over was 7 hours so broke the journey nicely and as I flew from Heathrow I got to fly on the A380 aircraft to Abu Dhabi.

We arrived into Hong Kong on the 5th November at 09:30am and after collecting our bags and clearing customs we found the company which was organising our shuttle bus transfer and we then had to wait until 11am for our transfer, we were also handed an itinerary for our few days in Hong Kong and a sim card whch would give us free wi-fi and data package. Our bus when it finally arrived at 11:20 had seen better days and was a bit like going on one of the old Maltese buses in Malta where you wonder if the bus will get you there without breaking down. The transfer to our hotel Dorsett Wanchai (formly known as the Cosmopolitian) took an hour as we were staying on Hong Kong Island, and upon arrival we were able to check straight in. We had been ugraded to a Grand Deluxe room which over looked the Happy Valley Racecourse (which has race meetings on Wednesdays) Bellboys were on hand to bring our luggage straight up. Our room was a really good size with complimentary water bar which was topped up each day, a smartphone we could use as a WI-FI hot spot out and about in the city and also to call UK numbers free of charge, there was also bathrobe and slippers and amenity pack within the bathroom.

After freshing up we decided to just explore our local vicinity and go into Causeway bay – we had been told it would take us about 30 mins to walk but was actually only a 10 minute walk. Certain times of the day our hotel did run complimentary shuttle buses to parts of Hong Kong. Causeway Bay is really one big shopping area with many different shopping centres and designer label shops such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors etc.  On Sunday the area was busy – similar to a Saturday in London and was easy to get round as all the street signs were in English, all the restaurants had menus in English and Chinese and everyone spoke English as this is their first language.

We stopped for dinner in a restaurant within a shopping centre which proved to be popular as within 5 minutes of opening it was full. Portions were a good size and I wanted to see if the Sweet and Sour Pork Hong Kong Style i would normally order at home was served the same (in the batter) actually in Hong Kong – and to my surprise it actually was.

After dinner we strolled back to our hotel and as we had then been on the go for over 36 hours decided to call it a night and fell asleep at 8.30pm – ready to start our adevnture the following day with our full day tour of Hong Kong Island – which I will tell you about in my next blog.

Have you been to Hong Kong and did you find it easy to get around, what was your main highlight of Hong Kong.

Have a great couple of weeks

Kerry

xx