MIDDLEBURGH

MIDDLEBURGH FLY BY

Just suppose for a moment, that you were flying from Europe to Cairns to frighten the crocodiles, or indeed you are simply returning home from Australia after seeing "The Reef"...... Because it's a long trip you might decide to break your journey in Hong Kong...... What to see .. what to do...? Well if anyone asked me (which under the circumstances is unlikely I know) I would have suggested flying via Singapore .. but anyway ...

The Asia World Arena next to the airport hosts big name concerts, so an option would be to book a hotel near airport or up the road at Disneyland and take in a concert. Last week Eric Claptonwas performing. Obviously the downside with booking a hotel by the airport is that its not central for shopping although the airport express into town is fast.(approx 15mins) but the upside is that if you in the Disneyland Hotel you have access to the Park and near to both is the Ngong Ping cable car which takes you up to Po Lin Monastery and the Buddha

Short stayer visitords typically come to shop and after (a traditional Chinese) dim sum breakfast they wanna hit the shopping districts. My recommendation is to start West,travel East and remember that most shops don't open till 10:00am

• Central: for serious shoppers: (platinum cards)
• Pacific Place (Admiralty) : for serious shoppers(gold cards)
• Causeway Bay and Time Square: for bargin hunters
• City Plaza (Tai Koo Shing): Local shoppers

There are Multiplex Cinemas at Pacific Place , Time Square and Tai Koo which means if you are shopped out, jet lagged you can slip in catch a film or some zeds. NB You can also go skating in Tai Koo Shing.

For those of you who are into electronic gizmos like phones and computers you should visit

• the electrical shops in Time square (Fortress, Broadway etc - equivalent to Comet in UK) if only to check out retail prices.
• The Computer Mall in Wan Chai next to MTR (smart phones 1st floor) The smart tourist takes HK Tram from Pacific Place to causeway Bay stopping off in Wanchai. This is where I go for my computer bits (although last October we ended up buying Patrick's netbook round the corner under Hopewell Center - he reckoned 40% cheaper than in Dublin)
• Sham Shui Po - a district with a street market (and shops behind) devoted to electrical things; Has the widest selection of phones in HK for serious bargin hunter; Unfortunately is Kowloon side and not near the other malls.

Lets assume you have either taken you shopping back to the hotel or cached it somewhere. Left Luggage Facilities are thin on ground in HK. For items bought at larger and/or more reputable stores you can see if you can arrange to come back and collect items later. You can get a good meal in any of the malls and you you need a drink you can try the East End Mirobrewery at Quarry bay (near Tai Koo ) or if you prefer a bar in town just go back to

• Delaneys
• The Shamrock"
• The OldChina Hand

In the evening it is required that all tourists go down to Victoria Harbour, see the light show , take the Star Ferry over to Tim Sha Tsui and walk down the prom to get their photograph with Bruce Lee. Having done so tourists should make their way in an orderly fashion to Mong Kok to visit

• temple street market to look/buy some jade. (If you want to buy Gold try reputable jewelry shops in Causeway Bay. Gold is sold by weight and none of your namby pampy 18/22 carrot rubbish here - (personally I prefer buying bullion in North Point but that a different story)
• ladies market - You just have to go to this late night market
• the Mong Kok computer mall (as good as wanchi!!)

Hong Kong is a 24*7 city so if you can't sleep you can always take in a late movie after clubbing and pubbing and/or doing the night markets but lets assume you collected you shopping at a civilized hour and returned to your hotel for bobo's (forgoing any exotic room services)

On sunday you can do it all again or you can take things easy and do something sporting or cultural. Last weekend you could

• have joined in the Annual HK Marathon (ie hoofed it around the town with several thousand others catching all sights) or
• taken a trip down to Ferry Pier 2 for the tour of the Greenpeace boat Rainbow warrior II ,which like the US Pacific Fleet Command Ship, the USS Blue Ridge just happened to be in town.
• Alternatively you could do the cable car to see the Buddha or amuse yourself at Disneyland or at Ocean Park or even avail yourself of one of the free Access Heritage Tours run by the ... (yes you guessed it!) Heritage office.

Of course the problem last weekend (which is why I would have recommended Singapore ) is that it was spectacularly cold. In fact January 2011, Hong Kong was the coldest since 1977 and February definitely merited thermal underwear. (Sogo in Causeway Bay has a particularly good international selection !!). Fortunately the weather has improved so a visit on way back home would not be so challenging.

But then again Singapore beckons ; Be serious ... could you really pass up the opportunity to visit the site of the Changi POW Camp !!

Posted at 3/01/2011 07:19:00 am by David Middleburgh   Permalink

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