The Lemon Fool

Hi,

I am planning to take a 14 day cruise from Hong Kong to Yokohama next spring. I would like spend 2-3 days in HK and a week in Yokohama/Tokyo for sightseeing. I would love to hear any suggestions you may have. This will be my first visit to HK. I visited Japan many years ago (Tokyo, Kyoto etc) but will like refresh my memory.

Thanks.
alpha

Hong Kong is wonderful - it is totally unique. You basically have the choice of staying on Hong Kong Island or Kowloon. Hong Kong Island has most of the best hotels and westernised shopping experiences. It also has the Peak with its stupendous views of the city (a day one excursion to get your bearings), but it is more expensive and very westernised. Kowloon will give you a more authentic street side experience of Hong Kong - it is more earthy and Chinese but perfectly safe. Wherever you are, the food is wonderful with endless options and great value.

I love Japan and Yokohama is worth some attention. It has a great Chinatown and a lot of interesting developments waterside. Tokyo is amazing with distinctive neighbourhoods - my favourite areas are outside central Tokyo. Shimokitazawa and Nakano are great neighbourhoods in western Tokyo. Once again the food is fantastic and the Japanese are lovely. It is worth learning some basic phrases as it is really appreciated by the locals. Each time I visit Tokyo there are more and more western visitors, and with the Rugby World Cup and the Olympics coming up that will increase even more.

Oh - Both Japan and Hong Kong have fast reliable transport systems that actually work. Hope this helps.

alphab

If you PM me with your private email I will be happy to send you a guide prepared by a friend of mine on HK. It is very useful even although I know HK well having worked there for many years. I visited it again a couple of months ago.

Having come from HK not sure that you would find a Chinatown in Tokyo very interesting!

Dod

Thank you for the suggestions. I have added these to the result of searching for "things to do in..." with Google.

Cheers.

Dod's familiarity with HK and thus ability to help far exceeds mine, but one of the most enjoyable meals I've had in recent years was on Hong Kong Island at 'The Monogamous Chinese'.

Obviously there are thousands of places to eat, but this was really good. It is situated beneath (with the door literally being beneath) the mid level escalators; surprisingly difficult to find, just below the road level, hidden away under the escalator, but a small, welcoming restaurant, with interesting art on the walls, serving very good food IMHO.

It did have a website last year, but I can't find it now. Perhaps it's just down temporarily. Trip Advisor reviews from yesterday suggest it's still there, and still good.

HK is very hilly and offers wonderful hikes if that is your thing. On the island you have the scenic Dragon's Back trail which will take you to Big Wave Bay beach where you can have a swim and a cheap meal or Tai Tam Country Park offers a variety of routes which can give you wonderful views of the harbour on the north side and the South China Sea on the south side; A great way to get a memorable view of the island. On Kowloon side there are wonderful hikes in Sai Kung or you could head to Lantau island for a hike to see the Big Buddha. Not a good recommendation if you have a fear of snakes, they might be out by then.

If hiking is not your thing but you would like an aerial view of the stunning harbour views then a trip to the Peak via the tram will be more leisurely. Alternatively, a visit to the Ritz Carlton's Ozone bar on the 118th floor of the ICC building in Kowloon or the Ritz Carlton Bar and Lounge on the 102nd floor both offer superlative views (depending on the weather and pollution) with the latter offering an outstanding salad bar during lunch. Now you are looking back at the island which in my opinion is the superior view. The night time views are impressive.

Enjoy!

Pendrainllwyn

Agree about the views both daytime from the Peak, or nighttime from a good bar. For the latter, take a look at Ozone on Kowloon; probably the best view of 'The Symphony of Lights' from any HK restaurant. And if you want to be a lot closer, Sevva, a cocktail bar right next to the HSBC building has an outdoor deck, high up, and you really feel part of the show!

Hong Kong is very much about bling and shopping. I found it fascinating, but it was a bit too commercialised and shallow for Mrs. Zico's tastes.

I'd recommend the Ibis Central at Sheung Wan as a place to stay - just make sure you get a room with a harbour view, as the views are stunning (and there's about 40 floors in the hotel (which makes it a smallish building by HK standards!). Sheung Wan is an interesting good area, close to a bit of everything, there's a M&S food hall 5 minutes away, and Chinese restaurants and places selling dried fish virtually outside the door. It's a pretty easy walk to the harbour front for the boats, and not too far from some main sights, including the "biggest escalator in the world", temples, and the Peak tram. If you stay in Kowloon, you'll probably have to travel a bit to get good overview of the city.

It's worth planning at least a half-day on the Peak, to coincide with a good weather day, when you can see the view. The walk around the Peak is also really good, flattish, but with tremendous views (including one scary bit (for me) that I chickened out of). The Peninsula hotel is worth a look, as a place for afternoon tea or whatever.

We did a tourbus trip as an easy way of getting an overview, but generally the recommendation is to use taxis to places of interest, as they are pretty cheap. The "backside" of Hong Kong is much less citified (by comparison with the main harbour area) but I didn't find it that interesting, unless of course you want to do a fair bit of hiking.

alphab1 wrote:Hi, I am planning to take a 14 day cruise from Hong Kong to Yokohama next spring. I would like spend 2-3 days in HK and a week in Yokohama/Tokyo for sightseeing. I would love to hear any suggestions you may have. This will be my first visit to HK. I visited Japan many years ago (Tokyo, Kyoto etc) but will like refresh my memory. Thanks. alpha

I used to live and work in Tokyo in 93/95. I revisited quite recently with my wife around 5 years ago. Hence I had some understanding of the city, but wanted to approach it differently 'as a first time tourist might' on the latter visit.
We stayed around the Shinjuku area. We travelled around central Tokyo from there, including places like Roppongi/Akasaka where I've previously lived, Shibuya, Ginza, Omote-sando, Harajuku an so on. All of that is in a pretty small radius, like say within Zone-1 London/north of the Thames.

Before we went I went to Tripadvisor, something I often do, and refreshed on say the 'Top-5' to-do lists within reasonable range of where we were staying. So their top-5 things to do, top-5 places to eat, top-5 bars/pubs, etc, edited down to stuff that interests us. Condensing such into a short-list gives me a focus-list for a holiday; I use this approach generally, noting against each place tips from other reviewers like what to order, or when to get reduced price entry. - I appreciate this might sound a bit OTT, but it doesn't take me more that 1/2hr, and means we have a informed cue-list we can do as much or as little of as we feel like when we get to destination.

zico wrote:Hong Kong is very much about bling and shopping. I found it fascinating, but it was a bit too commercialised and shallow for Mrs. Zico's tastes.

That is the view of a visitor but HK is really nothing about bling and shopping. It is all about a really civilised way of finding out about Chinese culture. Commercialised? Well of course it is, that is what has kept it going for these last 175 years or so. It was not established as a tourist attraction. It is most definitely not shallow, Chinese culture goes back how many millennia?

It will be off putting at first for many but dig down a little bit and there is so much more to it, just like Singapore. Sadly the political situation does not help HK because of course it is now under the thumb of Beijing.

If you know where you want to go the MTR (the underground system) is almost certainly the cheapest and most efficient in the world. Taxis are not expensive but not worth the hassle of communicating and finding one.

Dod

Hong Kong is Cantonese and represents about 90 million people in Guangdong. "A civilised way of finding out about Chinese culture"? I have Chinese work colleagues and friends who would find that totally insulting. If you ever talk to mainland Chinese they look upon Hong Kong as a shopping and entertainment theme park.

Sure - you can dig a bit deeper within the MTR boundaries, but do not kid yourself that you are delving into the mysteries of the Chinese psyche. You'll have a great time and be perfectly safe, and enjoy wonderful food, but Hong Kong is not China

Dod101 wrote:

zico wrote:Hong Kong is very much about bling and shopping. I found it fascinating, but it was a bit too commercialised and shallow for Mrs. Zico's tastes.

That is the view of a visitor but HK is really nothing about bling and shopping. It is all about a really civilised way of finding out about Chinese culture. Dod

It's inevitable that a tourist will focus a visit on doing touristy things, and so form an impression based upon them; irrespective of the country. It's inevitable that it will be variably superficial, but perhaps that's better than remaining entirely ignorant of a place. The Chinese do, IMO/E, come over as predominantly commercially minded and $-focused, but I imagine that in part comes on the back of some gradual lifting of the PRCs impoverished communist ideology. I agree that HK, or Singapore, are gentler ways to gain some insight into their culture. Travelling on the mainland can be full-on immersion in comparison, and not to everyone's tastes*. Same way I've enjoyed visiting some Middle Eastern countries, but have no desire to visit the source of their central culture, the harder-core Gulf ones.


* I think visiting a 'Wild animals' restaurant in Guangzhou did it for me. The entrance-way was lined with cages of cats, hedgehogs, deer, and all manner of poor wretched animals...

That is a fair way of putting it DE. It is a long time since I was in Mainland China and a lot will have changed since then but clearly the Cantonese still like their dog (which I have never eaten) but snake soup in the winter months is actually very good, a bit like chicken. To pick up your point about the Chinese they are nothing if not commercially minded which is fundamentally why they were kicked out of Indonesia and why Singapore went independent .

Depending on where you go, HK can be very 'full on' as well. My trouble is that I like to see the history of a place and thus very much liked Shameen Island at Canton which is where all the foreign concessions were in the years before HK. China is fascinating but back to HK. I prefer to keep away from Central on HK Island and go to the old back streets because one of the joys of HK is that old and new sit very close to one another so it is easy to see both sides. And of course the off shore islands are not exactly bling filled and they are again only a (cheap) ferry ride away.

I am planning a return having been in March, next winter, maybe before Christmas.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:It is a long time since I was in Mainland China ...
To pick up your point about the Chinese they are nothing if not commercially minded which is fundamentally why they were kicked out of Indonesia and why Singapore went independent .

- Me too, mid-90s IIRC.
- Agreed. Also why the likes of Malaysia has their nationalist 'Sons of the soil' (bumiputra*) policies.

Dod101 wrote:Depending on where you go, HK can be very 'full on' as well. My trouble is that I like to see the history of a place and thus very much liked Shameen Island at Canton which is where all the foreign concessions were in the years before HK. China is fascinating but back to HK. I prefer to keep away from Central on HK Island and go to the old back streets because one of the joys of HK is that old and new sit very close to one another so it is easy to see both sides. And of course the off shore islands are not exactly bling filled and they are again only a (cheap) ferry ride away. I am planning a return having been in March, next winter, maybe before Christmas. Dod

I agree HK can be full-on. When I visited, in the preceding years I'd been travelling mainly in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indo-China, so I expect you'll understand why HK seemed 'Chinese enough' to me [This was before I visited China itself].
I enjoy history too, gives a sense of place/how 'they got here', but I also think outside politics history is 2ndary to many people in the region, almost a distraction. Ie more forward-focused than dwelling on past glories. That said, the Chinese do still have a prominent 'sense of empire'. Shameen must be the ex-colonial area in Guangzhou/Canton, if so yes that's one of the primary reasons I visited. It's always interesting to see places that have inter-twined history with your own country [ditto, very much, like Kuching in Sarawak].
I had friends who lived on an off-shore island from HK, Lantau [?], or similar, but sadly never got to visit them. I would consider a return trip, but there is so much of the world opening up it's not on the priority list. If I did return at least I wouldn't have to stay in Chungking Mansions again
Good luck if you make a return trip, I'd be interested to hear any experiences.


* Wiki, interesting, hadn't realised they had an equivalent in Indonesia:
'Bumiputera or Bumiputra (Jawi: بوميڤوترا) is a Malaysian term to describe Malays and other indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia, i.e. the Malay world, used similarly as in Indonesia and Brunei.'

Chungking Mansions. Not a good idea!

I have a European friend (well I have several) still in HK and he lives at Discovery Bay on Lantau which may be where you are referring to. Of course just off the north of Lantau is the CLK Airport nowadays. A more efficient airport is difficult to imagine although Changi comes close. I am also fortunate with HK as I have a lot of Chinese friends who were colleagues of mine and they give me the inside track.

Never been to Kuching although I might put it on my list. I love the Far East in general and if I were not so old I would go and live there again!

Dod

Dod101 wrote:Chungking Mansions. Not a good idea!...

Hehehe. I was a poor back-packer. I spent a night in a dorm-room with 6-7 West African gentlemen. You might imagine...
Yes I think Lantau used to be a real back-water, and hence cheap - they were both ex-pat teachers so no fat budget.