To finish off our big trip and progressively get back to reality, we decided to immerse ourselves for a few days in one of the "hottest" cities of the 21st century: Hong Kong… It's difficult not to feel excited about the atmosphere of this place, and not to dream of being part of the action!
Hong Kong is a city of superlatives and contrasts: every street is boiling with activity, from the traditional markets to the famous financial districts… Colonial architecture lives side-by-side with Taoist temples and breathtaking modern architecture… Every district has its distinct atmosphere… Expats from all over the world cohabit with an increasing population coming from Mainland China… Cheap handbags and fake watches are sold in back alleys while luxury stores are everywhere (and much bigger than in Paris and Milan)… Glass skyscrapers stand out next to green hills and of course... the sea! It's impossible to resist, we both have a thing for cities by the water, and the covered-up Senne or the Canal in Brussels doesn't count!!! What still shocked us is the fact that while Hong Kong has been "so incredibly British" until 1997, English is actually not very well spoken, at least on the streets, restaurants and stores!
In order not to miss any bit of the action, we visited Hong Kong mostly by foot, occasionally taking a ferry or a metro to cross the sea separating the Island of Hong Kong and Kowloon (our hotel was located in Central, so getting around was extremely easy)! On a daily basis, we went on an intense "biathlon" of sight-seeing and window-shopping, walking several dozens of kilometers… Alessia was astonished by the number of luxury stores everywhere (and the crowds of people buying – see the pictures), but she managed to resist the numerous temptations, also because we were getting short on cash!
If the city is beautiful during the day, it really delivers the best it has to offer at night: the ferry passage to Kowloon, the skyline light-show (much better than the Grand Place at Christmas), the night markets… and last, but not least, its cool bars and excellent restaurants! On our first night, we went for some dim sums at Tim Ho Wan, the cheapest Michelin one star restaurant in the world: a tiny place looking like so many of the other Chinese neighborhood restaurants we had seen, but where people sometimes queue-up for more than an hour to finally get seated by a bossy waitress elbow-to-elbow at little formica tables. What a surprise when you finally get served some of the most artful/delicious dim sums we ever had the chance of tasting… at less than 10 euros for two! Our next gastronomic discovery was at the Sun Tung Lok, a three star Michelin, at the recommendation of François' Godfather, "REALLY A MUST" as he puts it, except maybe for the jellyfish! Finally we also tried some roost goose at Yun Kee, another Michelin one star restaurant, but less memorable than the other two. For after dinner, Hong Kong is filled with cool places for drinks… we went to the RED, which has beautiful views of the harbor and the skyline!
Since we had already seen a lot of Hong Kong, we decided to island-hop to Macau on Saturday… the Las Vegas of the Far East. We arrived "early", at around 11am, and the city felt completely deserted (apart from its historical center, where we started the afternoon), only to come alive at dawn, with the lights of the casinos. Apart from some very nice Portuguese architecture, neither of us liked the atmosphere of this city too much: too "bling-bling", too fake, completely centered around gambling, less safe than Hong Kong... and with much less friendly people! We started the evening trying to win back what we had spent during our trip around the world, but lost our 15 euro stake in less than 5 minutes! After that, we had some typical macau food before finishing off our tour around the world with some FIREWORKS! We were lucky enough to be here for the Pyrotechnics World Championships, and here again, the West was opposing the East: Austria vs. Taiwan! Needless to say Austria was completely squashed by the amazing firework display from Taiwan… Alessia even admitted they were even better than at Ferragosto in Jesolo!
All good things come to an end, and after an incredible trip of almost 3 months away from home we finally flew back to Europe (François again sleeping effortlessly on the plane, while Alessia was struggling to get a little rest)… Arriving in Brussels, we were very warmly welcomed by François' family (thank you so much Hélène for all the goodies awaiting in our empty fridge and the osso buco from Mum!), and then in Italy, where we spent our last few days before making our real come-back, spending some quality time with the "Famiglia" and stocking-up for the year on Venetian wine!
Thanks to all for having made this trip possible, and also for having followed us. To conclude, here are our best/worst of's of our adventures around the world!
Alessia's Top 3
1. Massages and Yoga in North of Bali
2. Chilling out in LUXURY in Moorea (Polynesia)
3. Shopping in Hong Kong
Francois's Top 3
1. Sailing in Polynesia
2. Kitesurfing in Sanur (Bali)
3. Sightseeing in Hong Kong
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Alessia's Worst 3
1. Biking above 4000m in Peru
2. Camping in the Australian outback
3. Francois forgetting his phone at a restaurant in the middle of the Balinese countryside (adding 1 hour to our already very long walk)
Francois's Worst 3
1. White nights in Darwin (due to the live music below the hotel room)
2. Fast/unsafe boat to Gili Meno
3. Sightseeing in (dead) Alice Spring
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