27 Comments

  1. Hong Kong has neat junk to see - Grounded Traveler
    July 4, 2012 @ 8:01 am

    […] Kong has neat junk to see 4 July, 2012 Last Christmas, I had a single day in Hong Kong. It was a long layover on the way to New Zealand to meet Ali. During that one lightning fast day, […]

  2. Riding a Junk in Hong Kong - Ctrl Alt Travel
    July 3, 2012 @ 8:02 am

    […] a Junk in Hong Kong Jul 032012   This past year I did a crazy day in Hong Kong. My prime sightseeing thing to do was to ride a Chinese Junk. The single day was really a long […]

  3. My Goofy 7 Super Shots » Grounded Traveler
    March 19, 2012 @ 5:06 pm

    […] my way to New Zealand, I did a full day layover in Hong Kong. This machine was in the ferry terminal and seemed to sell cigarettes yet actively advocate […]

  4. Islands in the Sea and Sky – Indie Travel Challenge » Grounded Traveler - Expat Adventures in Germany
    February 17, 2012 @ 8:37 pm

    […] In the past few years, I have island hopped in Greece and Croatia on cruises and spent a day on Hong Kong Island on the way to New Zealand, also […]

  5. Traveling to Asia – Indie Travel Challenge » Grounded Traveler - Expat Adventures in Germany
    February 9, 2012 @ 12:51 am

    […] 8 hours in the city itself.  But even at hyper speed, I enjoyed my time. More about my day is here and there will be more detailed posts […]

  6. Christmas in Queenstown » Grounded Traveler - Expat Adventures in Germany
    February 6, 2012 @ 10:48 pm

    […] by WP Greet Box WordPress PluginTweetI flew into New Zealand on December 23 by way of a day in Hong Kong. This meant another quick flight (who is afraid of flying now.. um, me still) to Queenstown, which […]

  7. fotoeins | Henry
    January 30, 2012 @ 2:15 pm

    I’m looking forward to spending a few weeks in Hong Kong, and your post is a great reminder of the all great stuff to do, nosh, and see. Thanks again for your post, Andrew!

    • Andrew
      January 30, 2012 @ 8:15 pm

      Thanks for the comment, Henry. I’m sure I only scratched the surface on my day.

  8. Ali
    January 30, 2012 @ 7:49 am

    We’ll go back and spend a bigger chunk of time in Hong Kong one of these days. I’m so glad you got to do this to break up the long journey and that it helped with the jetlag.

  9. Nomadic Samuel
    January 29, 2012 @ 4:45 pm

    You really maximized your time! HK is one of my favourite big cities in Asia.

    • Andrew
      January 30, 2012 @ 8:12 pm

      Thanks. I needed to stay awake. No other reason for me to push so hard. What I saw I did like a lot though.

  10. Katherina
    January 27, 2012 @ 12:22 am

    That was definitely a quite busy day… glad you found the chance to sit down and eat dim sums… from my week in HK, it’s hands down the one thing that made me think that I might accept living there!

    • Andrew
      January 28, 2012 @ 3:18 pm

      I like the idea of spending more time in Hong Kong. Definitely the food was good and cheap in both places we ate. Not sure I can take the pace and bustle to live there for a long time, but definitely up for a few weeks. Especially as I have seen pictures and heard stories of other things to do around the area.

  11. Laurel
    January 26, 2012 @ 1:37 am

    Sounds like you packed a lot into one day and cool that you were able to meet up with people from Twitter. I’ve only had layovers in Hong Kong, but unfortunately they haven’t been long enough to leave the airport.

    • Andrew
      January 26, 2012 @ 8:18 pm

      Definitely take a few days and go into town if you can. It is a neat place. It was a full day, but it needed to be to keep me awake. The people helped a lot.

  12. Sabrina
    January 23, 2012 @ 10:16 pm

    Oh, doing these layover trips while fighting your first day of jetlag is tough. How cool that you were able to meet up with people. Always helps! I’ve only been to Hong Kong a few times and always for very short times, but it seems like a really interesting city. I really want to try to junk tour you mention above! Sounds like a blast!

    • Andrew
      January 26, 2012 @ 8:09 pm

      Twitter is such a great resource for meeting people. I am so happy I got to meet them too. It helped to have places to be with people that would notice if I wasn’t there so I didn’t fall asleep somewhere. It helped keep me up while sitting still to eat.
      The city definitely looks worthy of a return visit. The junk tour was really cool, just take a jacket if it is at all cool. There is a lot of wind on the bay.

  13. Caroline @ Traveling 9 to 5
    January 23, 2012 @ 2:46 pm

    Im getting on a Cathay flight tomorrow morning and leave for HK. I have a week there and hope I can meet up with as many people as you did and get out to enjoy the city!

    • Andrew
      January 23, 2012 @ 7:51 pm

      Oo where are you flying from? The Cathay entertainment options in the seat back where one of the best I have seen in my limited experience. More than enough to keep me entertained for so many hours even as picky as I am.
      Definitely do some tweets to see who is around.

  14. ian in hamburg
    January 23, 2012 @ 11:12 am

    Sounds like a great day in Hong Kong. Transport there has always been reasonable. I think it’s because there are so many people crowded into a small area, they don’t have to charge so much per customer to come out ahead. The Star Ferry has always been the best way to see the harbour for next to nothing, but with a junk ride you went more than one better. A pity about how the air pollution hangs over the place now.

    • Andrew
      January 23, 2012 @ 7:53 pm

      Thanks, Ian. It was a great day. I hadn’t really thought of that. Not sure if it is still true, but the Staten Island Ferry in NYC was free for a long time. Probably for the same reason. The pollution was annoying to look at, but at least in my one day there I didn’t feel it so much in my lungs. In fact the afternoon was a nice sunny days that I enjoyed coming from wintery Germany.

  15. Andrea
    January 23, 2012 @ 10:39 am

    I’ve only been through the HK airport but would love to check it out someday. Getting out on the water looks like a good plan! I love DimSum – though I’m not sure if I could get John to try it…

    • Andrew
      January 23, 2012 @ 7:41 pm

      DimSum is great. They had all kinds of stuff (post coming). There were little BBQ Pork balls wrapped up in dough. Those looked foreign but didn’t taste weird at all. I’m sure you could get him to try at least though.
      The HK airport on the way home was COLD!!

  16. Ariana
    January 22, 2012 @ 9:38 pm

    Great job taking advantage of that layover! Hong Kong is definitely on my list of places I’d like to visit. I grew up in the Philippines, yet somehow during those 10 years I never managed to visit another Asian country. My sister went to HK with a friend, and my husband lived in China for a year. I will have to stop there on my way to visit my parents in the Philippines (hopefully in the next 5 years.) Also, good call on realizing that you would just fall asleep at Victoria Peak, and just taking a nap instead!

    • Andrew
      January 23, 2012 @ 7:40 pm

      Growing up, I really only remember traveling further than an hour or two in the car to see family. So I can well imagine if your family wasnt in another country there wasn’t much reason for the hassle. Definitely worth a few days at the least.

      Yeah, I wandered back down to the pier, bought a coke for 8 dollars (Hong Kong Dollars, so like 1USD, but wow did I perk up when she said that) and fell asleep in front of the Subway. 🙂

  17. Laurence
    January 22, 2012 @ 4:39 pm

    I love having stopovers when travelling to far flung locales, it’s like a mini holiday in itself. We had 13 hours in Shanghai on our way to NZ last year, and had a wonderful day out, and then on the way back we had a day in Seoul, which was also great fun. Nice post 🙂

    • Andrew
      January 23, 2012 @ 7:37 pm

      It is a really nice break. If nothing else to get out of the airport and stretch the legs. If you can manage to stay up and alert for most of the day, you can often take a big bite of jetlag too.

      Shanghai sounds cool. Did you have to deal with the Chinese visas to be out in the city?