This edition of bloggers goes on holiday is all about my trip away in the Far East (Hong Kong, Macau and Vietnam to be exact). Being somewhere as cultural as the Far East requires a decent camera so to capture the best bits; I tried out the Sony Xperia Z3 smart phone.
Packed with an impressive 20.7 megapixel camera, slim line design, HD resolution display which makes it a pretty good phone to use, plus used 4x HD video recording as well as being waterproof!You have to follow Sony’s rules around the waterproofing, but it definitely does the job!
Hong Kong
Although it is one of the biggest business capitals in the world it still holds heaps of awesome things to do both Morden and cultural. I won’t bore you with all, but here are a few of my best sights:
Victoria harbour – This won’t take you very long, but definitely worth doing! Get there at a good time of day/evening, as it will get jam-packed with tourists fast!
The walk along the harbour allows you to see the local fisherman at work, the avenue of the stars (HK’s version to the Hollywood walk of fame) and the local boats & ferries.
At night the view gets better….. When the night sky falls, the city skyline completely lights up for miles, with a cheeky light show starting at 8pm every night!
The peaks – I highly recommend going up here, if you want to see the skyline at its best!
Pick the right day and weather for this to get the best view, annoyingly when I went up there was Hong kong’s version of the scotch mist present, which was still interesting to see how thick it gets (The HK city skyline is actually beyond those clouds…..somewhere).
There will be a tram that takes you all the up, costing you $40HKD (that’s about 3.40) when the exchange rates decent). If vertigo is a challenge for you, prepare yourself….. It feel will like you’re hanging backwards!
Granville road
This is the place to go if you want all the gadgets you can fit in your luggage! Phones, tablets, laptops, cameras, smart-watches you name it, it’s on Granville road!
If you’re ever coming to Hong Kong, be savvy! The local merchants think we’re silly and quote ridiculous prices. You can negotiate them down; they will cave in to your demands if it means you don’t walk out empty handed!
Dining
Like London there are loads of places to eat around Hong Kong, all serving various cuisines western/local cuisines. One of my favourites was Hutong, which is at the 28th floor of ‘The One’ tower on Peking road. The restaurant has a totally cool oriental vibe, with an outstanding menu to choose from.
The best bit of the whole restaurant…….. The skyline view you get to see by the window tables. Worth the trip and the food is spot on.
Macau – If you’ve watched Skyfall, you know what this place is; it doesn’t quite look like the casinos in the movie however, but it is still immense. Imagine Vegas, but with Cantonese calligraphy all over.
The buildings are tall and the lights are incredible. If you’ve been to Vegas you will recognise a couple familiar casinos too such as the Wynn and the MGM Grand. I recommend having a spin inside, to get the experience of Chinese gambling.
Macau is quite easy to get to from Hong Kong, catching the ferry from the Kowloon/HK Central harbour. It’s going to cost you $150HKD (£13/£14) and the journey will take 2 hours across the China Sea. There’s a great level of Chinese culture on the island, so I would take tale the time to stroll through the town, before hitting the casinos.