co durham boy

Big Fan , worked there in the 90's , great place and so much to do . Always preferred Hong Kong side but each to their own .

Do the usual stuff but a decent spot for a bevvie would be the Eyebar on Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui , looks straight over Victoria Harbour from Kowloon side.

Miss Ann Thrope

I think SoHo (so called as it's south of Hollywood road, particularly busy around Staunton street) has pretty much supplanted LKF as resident expat going-out area - LKF strikes me as stag party territory now. I agree with D2D about staying on the island: I would always choose that. Late at night many taxis won't cross and none of the drivers speak English on the Kowloon side (always carry a card with your hotel address in Chinese, all hotels have them).

The public double decker bus from Central to Stanley is a fantastic - and cheap - hair-raising ride around high mountain roads with precipitous drops to the sea (though I believe one finally flipped recently): sit upstairs. There is a variety of interesting things to see along the way, including the millions of junks packed into Aberdeen bay, ending in an implausible ramshackle surfer's village perfect for a seaside beer. Shek O is another very surprising place accessible by public bus up around the mountain to a little fishing village on the southeast of the island with a totally different feel.

Star ferry crossing is a must as others have said but be sure to do it both by day and by night. Mid-level escalators are fun. And a good way to get to SoHo from Central. The gents toilet in Felix, the arsey restaurant on the top of the Peninsula in TST, is legendary, but not for the reasons you might suspect i say that. You stand there peeing on a full glass wall view over the harbour - surreal, assuming its still going.

I've been going to HK on and off for almost 30 years - it was more fun before the handover but still has most of the magic. Macau by contrast has been fundamentally altered by the mega casinos: the unique atmosphere has been completely compromised.

scrubbedexpat141

Thank you.

Can't wait to go.

DXBtoDOH

Definitely check out the midlevel escalators. I've never seen anything quite like them elsewhere. At the same time don't expect too much. You'll see what I mean. The mainly fun part is that it's an incredibly dense area with apartments, shops, bars and restaurants all right on top of each other on a steep hillside. Find a bar overlooking an escalator during rush hour and people watch!

Another thing to be on the watch for are those little egg custard cups. They were introduced by the Portuguese and are now part of the classic dim sum spread but there's little bakeries that sell them around HK. Fabulous. The big difference among the bakeries is whether they're in shortcrust pastry or a flaky croissant like pastry. Get them while hot, you're practically slurping them down.

For a taste of "old" pre-handover HK check out the old British cathedral just above Central. It's a little oasis of empire. There's a park nearby too, that has an aviary and a smallish zoo. It's a nice escape from the madness of HK for a hour or so.

Another cool thing to do in HK is to look at all the shop signs. Despite the British legacy many people still don't speak English, and a lot of the English are "Chinglish" and you get some very odd shop signs as a result. It's entertaining!

You'll find that all these areas, Sheung Wan, Central, SoHo, LKF, Midlevels etc blur easily into one another for that's how dense HK is. But also be aware that it's steep which means you'll be walking up and down steep hills (or taking the escalators).

Macau has become hugely popular with Mainland Chinese for the casinos so it's a different atmosphere. There's still old Portuguese buildings to see. As you're in HK for five days I wouldn't stop you from going but I personally have little desire to see Macau again.

scrubbedexpat141

Thank you very much.

Deliberating Macau. Will see when we're there.
Today I will get the Lonely Planet book so over the weekend will be writing lists from there, here, blogs etc. From that can start working out what to do, when etc.

scrubbedexpat141

Awesome city. Totally fantastic and everything I hoped it might have been.

I'll try to be brief:

- Dim sum was rank.
- Rest of the food was superb, properly tasty. Especially 'street' food at places like Temple Market.
- Mong Kok was cool, along with Temple Street Market - both just chaos and lights and sounds and smells and good fun, ignoring what crap was on sale.
- Mid-Level Escalators were fun, we rode them up and drank the way down. Lots of people watching from bars and had a fantastic time.
- LKF was probably the worst place we went drinking. If I was 18 with mates maybe, but nah.
- Happy Valley was probably the highlight for me, what a night. I lost money, she won money, I've never seen gambling like it, the beers were great and it was an absolute blast. Phenomenal location and just fantastic.
- Malls - meh, barely went in any, most seem to cater to Chinese visitors(?) with super-luxury brands non stop and repeated.
- Sneaker Street - bought shit loads.
- Fish Street (can't remember it's name), funny, worth a visit to see them hanging in their bags.
- Tailors - didn't bother, got hassled by plenty and argued with one, who after me saying 'no thanks' twice with a polite smile made some silly comment so I gave him what for which felt good (I can do this now I'm an adult).
- The Peak - went up at 0800 before the mall bit and viewing platform opened, was dead which was lovely. WEnt up to platform and was alright but hazy.
- Sky100 - in the ICC building (I think), empty. Went 1hr before sunset and there must have been 8 people up there, bizarre.
- HSBC Building - cool to see and underneath they've made a really good effort with some of the history.
- Star Ferry - wicked, really nice and easy to use. Great views.
- MTR - again, fantastic, really easy to use and organised exits much like Japan.
- Buses - didn't get more than 1 I don't think, walked a lot.
- Big Bus Tour - gave in to her and did it, very pleased I did as it took us to Stanley for a lovely stroll, lunch and escape from the chaos. Did the other route as well and used it wisely. It's not cheap and the commentary is good when it's on but fairly sparce and repeated often. That being said, it's a great way to see an entire place quickly to work out what's what. Would do it again in the future.
- Chungking Mansions was funny for a wander but just like being in Deira.
- Uber - used it once because someone told me they were Tesla cars which makes sense as there are so many of them cruising around. Lovely drive in a Model S. (I know it's sad but I've wanted to ride in one for ages).
- Bamboo scaffolding is mental.
- Some very, very cool buildings to look at.
- Some awful buildings which should be torn down.
- The British influence is everywhere and gives it an edge over other cities for me.
- The wartime history was fascinating.

I'll remember more but thanks again for the tips, ideas, suggestions and help.

Awesome place, definitely going to visit again one day.

DXBtoDOH

Surprised you didn't like dim sum. Where did you eat?

scrubbedexpat141

Only in the hotel, but it was very fragrant, stodgy and kind of unpleasant.

Should have tried more but was kind of put off.

DXBtoDOH

I've had some dim sum that I didn't care for, particularly at the more old school places where it tends to be stodgy with doughy wrappings and filled with gelatinous mystery meat mixture. But that tends to be the exception these days. Sorry it didn't work out for you, next time you're in HK or Singapore it's still worth the effort to check out a top dim sum place (or even in London). I can give a few pointers.

Glad you had a great trip overall. Happy Valley is something Dubai should do. Imagine Meydan on Wednesday night racing happy hours!

Millhouse

Great work Scamp. You did a lot and I'm a bit jealous. I love HK.

While you were at Happy Valley, I was at the Nottingham Dog track!

scrubbedexpat141

I'd definitely try it again, this one just put me off for the trip but I'm sure it's nice elsewhere.

Happy Valley was just immense. The racing was spectacular too.

DXBtoDOH

Millhouse, that's no way to talk about women. It may be Nottingham but let's try to be a bit nicer.

DXBtoDOH

Meydan would make a fortune if they introduced something similar. Different from the usual happy hour bars. Wondered why they haven't tried it.

scrubbedexpat141

I like the dogs but never really went much. Did Wimbledon and Portsmouth (shudder).

Yeah, it's a shame how quiet it is but that makes it nicer for me when I go on Thursday nights through winter

reddiva

Were you in the Kings regiment? I went to high school with a girl whose Dad was based in Hong Kong, they then moved to the Dale camp in Chester