We booked to stay in Hong Kong for 3 nights as a stopover en route to New Zealand. Countries in Asia are on our list of places to visit but we were always quite apprehensive. I’m not sure why, but possibly because of the language barrier, so we thought 4 days in Hong Kong would be an excellent way to get a taste of Asia.

We stayed in Kowloon which wasn’t far from Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong was an interesting experience. It immediately came across as a big and bustling city, where everyone seemed to be on the run. One thing we did notice was how British it was; the city seemed to blend in an interesting way the traditional Chinese life with the Western culture. This was a great and gentle introduction to Asia; we were able to experience it without being completely out of our comfort zone. I would recommend it to anyone – who is prepared to leave the country with spots. Yes, spots! Hong Kong didn’t come across as very clean: lots of smog and rather polluted. People living there were aware of this as the majority of them were wearing some sort of masks to cover their mouths and noses. (more…)