Our visit to Hong Kong was brief, as it was just the first stop of many in our Asian Adventure. We wrote a post summarizing our high and low points which we then continued in every country we visited. Arguably, our first attempt at this was the best, so here’s our summary of Hong Kong, written on 5 January 2011.

Well, we are officially on our way to Bangkok.  Our time in Hong Kong seemed short (it was only three days) but I feel that we saw quite a bit.  I figured that we should sum up each city by doing a top 5 list, so let’s start with our “Hong Kong Top 5.”  We happen to agree on these, so we’re combining here…in other places we might each do our own list.

1.  Walking out of the Wan Chai MTR Station – While it would seem as if walking out of a metro station isn’t that exciting, it was our first glimpse of Asia.  Turning onto Hennessy Road and glancing up and down, I realized instantly that I was not in America.  I liked that.

2.  Food – The food was cheap, fast and delicious.  One of our favorite experiences was our first breakfast at Kam Fung Cafe.  We were crammed around a tiny table with another couple, with constant shouting and screaming from the lady in charge.  We enjoyed our first iced milk tea (basically very strong unsweetened iced tea with no ice – us foreigners can’t handle the ice – with sweetened condensed milk added…this place is known for it) and a really good pineapple bun.

3.  Star Ferry rides to/from Central, Kowloon and Wan Chai – They only cost 5 HK dollars (about $0.75) for each ride.  And it provides, hands down, the best views of the city.

4.  Symphony of Lights show, looking from Kowloon at the skyline of Hong Kong Island – We stumbled upon this and felt special…until we realize that they do the same show every hour or so at night.  We took some pictures, but they didn’t really do it justice.

5.  Efficiency – Again this may seem strange, but the people of Hong Kong are just so darn efficient.  They managed to dock the Star Ferry, unload over 100 passengers, reload 200 new passengers and leave the dock in six minutes.  We never waited longer than two minutes for a train.  At the airport, incoming passengers go to a different floor and you board from the floor above…no confusion, EVER.

Might as well include any items that didn’t make our Top 5…

1.  Jet Lag – Jet lag stinks.  It screws with so many things – not only have neither of us had a full night of sleep since leaving home, but we’re hungry at odd hours, feel kind of lethargic in the afternoons and just generally ick.  Julie read somewhere that it takes a day per time zone to get over jet lag fully (that’s like 12 or 13 days!), but I think it’s more like a day for every three hours…we should be good in the next day or so.

2.  Basil – Julie misses Basil and mentions him frequently – she made me ‘Like’ Kamp K9 on Facebook and I have to go there every day to see if they posted any new pictures of him.  There was a beagle sniffing drug dog at the airport today and she kinda freaked out.