After a short one and a half hour flight, we arrived into Hong Kong in the early afternoon yesterday. The city has had an unseasonable amount of rain in the last few weeks, and sure enough we arrived to a deluge that didn’t let up much through the afternoon. That suited the girls and The Boy just fine, as it meant they got to chill in the hotel room for the afternoon.

Sadly for them, and luckily for DW and me, the rain eased off later on, so we forced them all out of the hotel for a late evening stroll along the Kowloon waterfront. Our hotel is right on the water (Kowloon Shangri La) and we have a lovely view over the harbour towards Hong Kong Island itself. So the views were too tantalising to just sit in the room! Although the rain had stopped, it was still a bit murky:

I was loving it though. Hong Kong is one of those great world cities that I’ve always wanted to visit, so there was no way I was going to sit in my hotel room on my first evening here! I found myself feeling similarly to my first evening in New York back in 1998 – awestruck and mesmerised, and loving every minute of it.

Today also started murky, but dry, and stayed dry all day thankfully. We decided we would do the number one tourist thing in Hong Kong – journey up to the Peak for a panoramic view back over the city. And to journey there in true tourist fashion: a Star ferry across the harbour from Kowloon to Hong Kong island, a bus to the peak tram terminus, and then the peak tram (a funicular railway that goes on a very steep incline straight up to the summit). It was great fun getting there, with lovely views all the way.

On the peak tram:

Views from the tram on the way up:

When we got up top, we had the obligatory Burger King lunch. In our defence, we ARE travelling with kids, and they hadn’t seen either a Burger King or McDonald’s since Bangkok airport on the way to Laos. That’s, like, three weeks ago!!! Plus (and purely coincidentally), I fancied a bacon double cheeseburger.

Afterwards, we headed up to the viewing platform. No doubt the views are even more spectacular on sunny days, but I thought the misty conditions just added to the charm:

Before heading back down, we went on a short stroll along the 50 kilometre hiking trail that starts at the peak. We didn’t do the full 50k. Just the first 0.5k (and back!).

When we got back down, Eldest Girl was feeling under the weather, so DW took her and The Boy back to the hotel. Myself and Things One and Two decided to go in search of a renowned temple called Man Mo. In addition to the peak tram, the island also has a proper tramline that runs east to west using very narrow double-decker vintage carriages. Our journey to the temple involved going on this for part of the way. As there is a parallel underground metro line, I assumed this tramline was really just a tourist thing. But we were the only tourists on it – it was full of locals (perhaps something to do with it being rush hour). It was good fun though.

On the tram:

I took this photo out of the window, of another approaching tram. It’s very tall and narrow!

When we got off, we had a short walk to the temple itself. It was nice to walk through some of the smaller streets, and to see the mix of English and Chinese signs everywhere:

Sadly, by the time we actually got there it was 6.20pm and the temple was already closed (it closed at 6). Things One and Two did their best to hide their disappointment at not having to (sorry, being able to) look around yet another temple. So they decided to pose beneath a skyscraper across the street that they found particularly interesting:

Happy with that, we made our way back to the ferry back to Kowloon. It was dark by now, so all the lights were on and the island skyline looked absolutely fantastic:

We rejoined the others at the hotel. Thankfully Eldest Girl was feeling better so we went for dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant nearby. Myself and DW had very tender Australian rack of lamb, while the kids all had spaghetti and meatballs – made from wagyu beef if you don’t mind.

Tomorrow is all about the kids. We’re heading to the Hong Kong Disneyland!