Day Four – The Peak

It’s great having you’re own kitchen with fridge etc . when on holidays. Whilst some, okay, most would argue the opposite, for us it means access to fresh food when you want. We kick started the day (well afternoon as we’re still lazy!) with a fresh fruit salad. A whole watermelon is around €1. Amazing value.

We took the MTR, Hong Kong's Metro from Kowloon Island over to Central on Hong Kong Island, where we connected with The Peak Tram.  As we’ve already recommended, if you plan on visiting this city, get yourself an Octopus card. We were able to skip the rather long queue of visitors at the tram station simply by using our prepaid Octopus card. The Peak, some 800 meters above the city provides incredible views of the harbor from above the highest buildings. The entire city sprawls beneath you. The cost of the upward journey was around €3 and €2 to come down. The gradient is very steep, so be prepared to hold on! Great fun!

Leaving the tram station, you enter the first of two peak shopping malls with some nice gifts to be had. We opted to eat in Burger King, how western of us. It was very cheap, fueling us for our hour-long trek around the summit walk, a 3.5 km pathway around the peak itself. The views are breathtaking. At one point, dragonflies danced in the air to the setting sunset above the skyscrapers and fishing boards beneath. Nothing can compare to the views from here. Truly beautiful; hard to find in another city.

The most popular time for The Peak is at sunset. Most couples come up to see the sun set over The South China Sea and witness the nightly light/laser (and sometimes fireworks) show from the skyscrapers beneath. We opted to head down early to squeeze in some more shopping in the central area.

Not only do you have all of the international fashion brands in this city, but you’ve the UK ones too. There is a massive Marks and Spensers, which we had to pop into. We left with some overpriced hot cross buns. Tasty!

Taking the MTR we re-connected with Kowloon Island where we visited the evening gold fish and ladies markets. There are markets for just about everything in this city; you’ll find most in midtown Kowloon around Mong Kok. The almost 500meter stretch or backstreet dedicated to goldfish was a sight. Store after store with fish of all sizes in plastic bags for sales. Some fish were tiny, so had lots of room to swim, whilst others where so large all they could do was look out longingly for someone to free them. Larger stores offered full aquariums and accessories. Nestled towards the end of the market were a few pet stores with one dedicated to bull dogs only!

The goldfish market lead nicely into the ladies market, which unlike the named suggests, is a 1km long narrow street filled with stalls selling clothing for men and women. You can buy copy-anything from D&G to the Gucci. We believe due to crack down in laws, they are rather open about the items being fake.

Heading back to our apartment, we found a Beard Papas in one of the subway stations. As some of you know, I can’t get enough of these delightful cream puffs of happiness. They are a Japanese sweet chain, recently expanded to the UK. We picked up 4 cakes and went back to the apartment get ready for Saturday night out Hong Kong Style; we didn’t get back to bed until 6am! The bars stay open until 3, some later, with the clubs staying open until sunrise!