Hong-Kong
Combining long-haul business travel and family adventure
July 2009
When my brother called me a few weeks earlier to come and spend some holidays at my place on the French Riviera, I told him those dates wouldn’t work as I would be on a business trip to Asia.
This was my first long-haul for this this employer. He asked if he could come along, so we extended the dates and went to discover this little part of Asia.
We flew Qatar Airways from Paris via Doha where we had a stop-over and visited the place, but more on that later.
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We got there late afternoon local time and after fixing a slight problem with the booking and unpacking we headed of through Causeway Bay by foot, then caught a Metro across the straight to the mainland part of town where we ended up in the Kowloon district, strolling along the night markets and finally settling to indulge some local colorful food. |
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On the next morning, after an Asian breakfast, we walked through Honk Kong Island pounded by the hot and moist air, caught the cable car that took us to "The Peak" for a breathtaking view of the skyscraper forest!
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After lunch at the top, we caught a cab back down the other side to the Aberdeen district for an afternoon on the beach. The water wasn’t very inviting but as Tim said: “That’s another sea off the bucket list” !
After a shower we walked to the center of the Aberdeen neighbourhood, indulging the rush hour atmosphere and then went for diner and the legendary JUMBO floating restaurant.
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The next couple of days we moved over to Kowloon where we had a room at the Sheraton, as my event took place there. As I did the job, Tim went exploring more places and and customs.
One evening as we were having a late diner, the day before the main meeting I was assigned to, I unfortunately drank a whole jar of tea. Adding the jet-lag to the tea I couldn’t get a minute's sleep that night!
The day after I was done with my work, we decided to catch the one-hour ferry to nearby former Portuguese colony: Macau. The Asian Vegas!
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We visited the old town, took a glance at the casinos and went for the mandatory swim on a Macau beach (... bucket list!...), then caught the ferry back to Hong Kong where we came across the Beerfest in the Central neighbourhood followed by a long walk back.
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That was the last evening and we already catch our flight back via Doha again.
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Unfortunately as we asked the taxi to drop us in the city center we actually ended up in a all called "City center" and we totally missed the old town. Instead of traditional shaded souks and mint tea, we walked amongst the to-be skyscrapers put together by Philippine slaves and ended up having breakfast at Starbucks in the western-style mall, hosting an ice-skating rink when the outside temperatures are nearing 50°C! |
Once again the bucket list took us over to the beach, a refresher was highly in need! Persian Gulf Swim: DONE!
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Feeling slightly cooler, another 6 hours Up In The Air before touchdown at Paris Charles De Gaulle.
Really cool discovering the world with the Bro!
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