Somehow I felt like Hong Kong is a must see place if you travel China. Arriving by plane I had the spectacular pictures of approaching the airport in my mind. But at the same time I knew that we will land at the new airport built on an artificial island and not flying to the former one which is in the middle of the city. Once rated as one of the most difficult airports to land at.
Since at the time protests were going on in Hong Kong the public transportation was a bit limited. Not knowing that I was waiting for 20min for a bus just to get told that it won’t stop at the place I needed to go. The solution was the 3 times more expensive MTR train. However, I got fast and save to Hong Kong Island. One thing I realised on the way: The Chinese did much better in designing a metro station than the brits!

Ant another thing you will realise getting on the streets of Hong Kong is the high rising building all around. I think I never saw a normal house around the island. And yes, people live in there and not just work. My hostel was based on the 13th floor and my room was called deluxe. The space we got was ~11sqm for eight of us. Bunks with three levels were standard, sleeping in a shelf in a cramped place!

Although, if you were willed to walk up to the victoria peak you could first of all enjoy a nice walk through the city and secondly escape it. And finally you got a great view down. Around the peak I found some leftovers of old british fortification. According the signs built before the war and destroyed during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.

Back down in the centre I passed the main area where the demonstration takes part. It was much bigger the days before our arrival and became much bigger afterwards. No more to see at least at that time.

Staying in Hong Kong made me realise how much more lifestyle costs in the west. Compared to China which I think is not cheap at all is Hong Kong super expensive. For a night you paid at least 30$, a burger menu in a restaurant its around 15$ and so on. But thats the price to be back in the west I guess.
Unfortunately I missed the most famous thing – the light show in the evening. There was no second time as we were believing. Too late for that night and the day after I left it … Thailand next.