All 3 times are a charm! - Hong Kong, China
Hong Kong, China
Where I stayed
Urban Pack
What I did
Ocean Park Hong Kong
Hong Kong Jockey Club Horse Racing
Néih hóu from Hong Kong!
We arrived in Hong Kong a few days ago and it has already blown us away! It's basically like New York meets the Caribbean and it's absolutely gorgeous! After flying over to the border of Hong Kong and China we took us bus to Harbour City in Hong Kong that ended up being right near our hostel which was great! Our hostel is owned by 2 Canadian guys and even though it's super tiny and we're in separate rooms it's actually the best hostel we've been too! The atmosphere is great and everyone talks to each other and there is stuff to do every night so it's like being with one big family from around the world! After settling in Jord and I decided that it was time to empty our bags and ship everything we didn't need back home so goodbye winter clothes, sleeping bags and all of our souvenirs up until now which made so much room in our bags! I also sent home some summer stuff because as much as I loved it...I was ready to make room for new stuff! I said sorry to Jord in advance cause now there's nothing stopping me when I get to those shops aha. Afterwards we found a great restaurant near our hostel which had AMAZING noodles so im very excited to go back there! I should also note that I could have said Hello from Hong Kong to start this blog because there are almost more English speakers here then there are Cantonese speaking people! I'm not even kidding! Hong Kong is extremely multi cultural and has many people from around the world which gives it a really cool vibe. The next day Jord and I decided to check out Ocean Park which is a huge theme park with rides, aquariums and zoos which makes it a really cool, place! It was a beautiful day out which I welcomed with open arms as we've been used to the very cold weather in Xi'an so it was a lovely change! We decided to check out the aquarium first which we're glad we did because it ended up being our favorite aquarium so far! The enclosures were huge and beautiful and the fish, sharks, sting rays and turtles were super active which was a lot of fun! We then took the gondola up the mountain to the other side of the park which gave us beautiful views of the oceanside and all the islands surrounding it! We then got to the rides and decided to do the one that soaks your first in order to cool down a bit and met a really cute kid and his Dad from Australia which made the ride a lot of fun. Unfortunately I didn't plan my outfit properly for the day and wore a white dress so after getting soaked I'm sure I either gave a few ppl a little treat or scarred the poor kid from Australia either or aha. I then let my darling fiancé talk me in to doing a Roller coaster that goes over the side of the mountain so when you're flipped upside down all you can see is the ocean...not as lovely as it sounds as that view almost gave me a heart attack ahah. In the end I faced my fears and went on my first Roller coaster that flipped upside down which I was really proud of. I had to apologize to Jord afterwards though because not only did I say things that would make a sailor blush, I also told him I hated him a few hundred times for making me do the ride ahah but we're still together so that's good. We then got to let out our frustration with each other during a life or death battle of bumper cars ahah. It was actually a lot of fun and I can't even describe the pure joy of happiness of seeing your loved on stuck between a bunch of cars when you have a straight view of them and get to attack them at full speed ahah. Sounds awful but it was the best form of couples therapy I swear to you and then we were besties again after that ride ahah. We then grabbed some lunch where I got a chicken leg which I've been craving since we left and it was so good that it actually gave Swiss Chalet a run for its money ahah. After that we headed down to do a few more rides and got to also see the Dolphin breeding and research centre which was really cool. Before leaving we got to see the famous Giant Pandas which was awesome because I think that they are just beautiful creatures and I always love seeing them even though these guys were sleeping the entire time ahah. We then walked over to see the alligators and after finding a small tunnel thing I decided to crawl into it where you could get upclose and personal to an alligator that was sleeping in his cave which was pretty cool. What wasn't cool was Jord yelling "Tal there's one behind you" and me looking over to see a super realistic statue of an Alligator that looked ready to attack which immediately made me think that I had somehow crawled into their cage ane almost gave me a panic attack ahaha. After my close encounter with death Jord and I decided to head back to our hostel in order to get ready for our big night at the horse races! A bunch of people from our hostel went which turned out to be soooo much fun! I had never been to a real live horse race so I didn't know what to expect it ended up being a FANTASTIC experience! Not only was it really fun to experience the energy there...but I also won on all 3 of my bets...not that I'm bragging or anything (who are we kidding of course I'm bragging ahah). I first bet on My name is Bond (picked him cause Jord loves James Bond) who placed 2nd, then I bet on Golden Harvest who won the race (picked him cause Mama wanted some Gold for new shoes), then I picked Lucky Omens who placed 3rd (picked him cause he was obviously lucky with that name)! All in all I think we won 20 bucks or something but it was still a lot of fun and now I have the pride of saying that I'm a genius when it comes to betting on horses...no big deal or anything. One thing I was really surprised over though was the amount of white people there! I think we actually only saw a few Asians which was super weird considering we're in Asia but it just goes to show you how diverse this country is to anywhere else we've been. We then went to a bar which was sooo packed but the music was awesome so it ended up being a lot of fun. Sadly we left there kind of early to head to another bar which was even more packed and only stayed there for 10 minutes since one of the girls had her phone stolen right out of her purse. I felt so bad for her because she's actually a sweetheart and they had already turned off her phone and everything before she even realized it was gone. It ended up being a kind of ****** end to our night but all in all it was an absolutely wonderful day and so far I've realllly loved Hong Kong!
Love tal xo