I just got back from a short holiday in Hong Kong with Jules.  Since I’m not really into cities these days, we thought that rather than focus on the city itself, we decided to spend our time seeing the natural/cultural attractions that surround the city proper.

The weather on each day was on the warm side (26-30 degrees) which I’m to understand isn’t too bad in Hong Kong terms. I found it really enjoyable and managed to avoid sunburn, heatstroke or other ailments for the duration.

Our first day was on Lantau and involved a very scenic cable car up to the Ngong Ping to see the Big Buddha there.  The Buddha statue was indeed very big and quite impressive!

One very large Buddha

We also took an opportunity to walk along the Wisdom Path while there and see the prayer monuments set up there.  The natural beauty of the area and the Buddhist religious aesthetic created a really relaxing and enjoyable vibe for the day.

Getting our wisdom upgraded

The next day we went over to Hong Kong island and took a tram up to Victoria Peak.  It was a bit of a hazy day, so the view was only moderately amazing, but we made the most of it with a walk around various trails on the mountain.  My Garmin reported over 100 floors worth of climbing that day, which ‘aint too shabby at all.

View from Victoria Peak

We also hit up the Botanical Gardens while we were on the island, which was a quiet respite from the cars and people.  At one point we found some really neat looking critters in a greenhouse which I just had to snap a photo of!

Wascally Wabbit

The final full day was a 40 minute ferry ride out to Cheung Chau island.  It had a very different vibe to the rest of Hong Kong, with a strong feeling of remoteness from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Colourful boats lined up at the port

We spent the day wandering about, seeing a Pirate Cave, the Mini-Great Wall, along with various beaches, lookouts and temples.  All with the added bonus of me not getting violently ill from the ferry!  Win!

The final day was spent recovering while wandering around a gigantic mega-shopping-complex, generally relaxing and counting how many shops had “London” in their name in relation to “Paris”, “Tokyo” and “New York” (spoiler alert: London won, who knew it was considered cool by people?).

I really enjoyed the trip and it was super awesome to spend the time with Jules as well!

Now I’m back in Fukuoka and need to get back into a studying mind set again…