Spectrum of the Seas Review: Day 14 – Hong Kongfeatured
I feel like it’s pretty rare on a lot of these Europe and Asia cruises to dock in a city center. Most times, they drop anchor a ways away. At the very least, there’s some trekking to do. That’s part of the reason why we opt for excursions a lot – pure convenience. If our destination for the day is outside of the immediate port area or if there isn’t a robust public transit system (or, you know, a Hop On Hop Off bus), more times than not, we book an excursion just as a means to get us to where we need to go.
Our itinerary for this cruise gave us two days in Hong Kong, a full day, an overnight and then until 3:00 PM the following day. This wasn’t our first overnight – we did one in Russia a few years ago when we sailed the Baltics – but the difference was that this time, we’d be docked in the middle of Hong Kong and if we didn’t want to do an excursion, we didn’t need to. We had absolute freedom to do whatever we wanted, however we wanted, whenever we wanted. That’s an exhilarating proposition to me. I wish more cruises offered overnights in big cities where you’re docked in the middle of the action. But beggars can’t be choosers, I’ll take what I can get and on this day, what I got was a day and a half to explore however I wanted.
I was really excited to visit Hong Kong. All of my friends who have visited are obsessed with it. One of them told me that it was her favorite place in the world, that if you chopped up New York City and set it up in Hawaii, you’d get Hong Kong. My first visit to Hawaii wouldn’t come until well after this trip, but I was intrigued by the proposition, especially because I love big cities and having lived in one of the world’s largest my entire life, it’s hard for me to find places that give me that kind of urban rush, a level of WOW and excitement I don’t get at home in Chicago because I’ve lived it my entire life and having lived it my entire life, anything smaller than Chicago feels, well, small. I love the feeling of being lost in a big city, of turning a corner and seeing something unexpected, of the diversity of options they bring. And from all I could gather, Hong Kong fit that bill.
When I woke up, Stephanie was already out on the balcony taking pictures. Apparently the path into Hong Kong is quite picturesque – the ship navigates past some of the 270+ islands that lay outside Hong Kong. And once it pulls into the port, the views get even better. My understanding is that there is more than one cruise port in Hong Kong. We docked at Kai Tak, which sits in the middle of Victoria Harbor, surrounded by 360 degree views of the Hong Kong skyline. Kai Tak is located within six miles of all of the city’s major metro areas which made it super central and, fun fact, up until 1998, the Kai Tak cruise terminal was actually the Hong Kong International Airport. They transformed the airport into a cruise terminal when the new airport was built, but if you know what it was, you can definitely see the vestiges of the old airport.
The ship had the all clear for passengers to disembark around 8:30 AM. I slept in until about 9:00 AM. As much as I would have loved to get a jump on the day (especially while it was dry – we were forecasted for periods of rain for our entire stay in Hong Kong), Stephanie and I are more likely to argue when one of us is tired, hungry (me) or surrounded by crowds of people (Stephanie). I knew we were probably going to be out late because we had the night markets on our list, and while Kai Tak was centrally located, it was remote enough within central Hong Kong that going to and from the ship wasn’t really an option, making an afternoon siesta out of the question. So we slowed our roll, I got a little extra sleep, we took our time getting ready and then we had breakfast up at the Windjammer (which was WONDERFULLY empty with many people already ashore). We made a quick Google map of places we saw on Instagram that looked interesting, and I’ve got to say, breakfast with a sea view is pretty awesome, but breakfast with a full view of the Hong Kong skyline? It’s hard to beat.
After breakfast, we decided to try our luck at doing standby on the North Star again. The views around the ship were incredible and if we could just get up there, I knew we’d see something special. My hunch was that most people would be off the ship so we could walk on…and I was right! We got in line around 10:40 AM and we were up up and away by 10:45 AM. Peep on these views. Pretty spectacular, am I right?!
Once our ride was over, we grabbed our stuff and headed off the ship. We could exit on deck five, which was nice, but man, the walk off the ship and through the terminal was SO long. That’s where you could really tell this was an old airport – the walk out (which included passing through a thermal temperature reading) was pretty long, like walking off a plane and through customs.
We’d normally go for a Hop On Hop Off bus when we’re on our own in a city, but one, the bus didn’t stop at the cruise terminal (the ship did offer an excursion, which included drop off at a stop, but did mention they expected long lines which…didn’t sound too appealing) and two, it was like $50 and no Hop On Hop Off bus should cost that much for one day. So then, we were going to Grab or Uber to our starting point and then pick up pubic transit, only to find out during breakfast that both were outlawed in Hong Kong, so that was a no go. As we were walking off the ship through the terminal, a worker handed us a really nifty pamphlet that had directions to and from the terminal on various public transit options. This would be really helpful because if we needed to take a taxi back and our driver didn’t speak English, we could just show it to them and they’d know where to take us. That was an incredible relief to me because it’s always hard when you don’t speak the language and can’t Google it well because it uses a different alphabet. The pamphlet also mentioned that the terminal offered a free shuttle to two nearby MTR (public transit) stations and I figured if I could get to a MTR station, I could navigate just about anywhere in Hong Kong.
The bus ride to the Kwun Tong Station took about 15 minutes and as we started our ride through the city, I definitely picked up on the New York City vibes. Honestly, if you plopped me down in Hong Kong and plopped me down in New York’s Chinatown, the only way I’d be able to tell them apart is the directional signs in Hong Kong are written in multiple languages. The bus dropped us off in a parking garage beneath a shopping mall and I dropped a pin on my phone just in case we needed help finding it later. The shuttle would run until 10:00 PM, with a new shuttle arriving every 45-60 minutes. Not the greatest frequency for the volume of passengers it was accommodating, but it was free and it functioned for us (especially since we were the last two to load and we walked right on).
We quickly found the MTR through the mall and I knew from some Googling that the best option for us would be a one-day tourist pass, which offered 24 hours of unlimited rides for HK$65 (~$8 USD). In order to get a tourist pass, you need to go to the guest services kiosk at the train station – you can’t use the automated kiosks. But just tell them you want a tourist pass, they know it well. It was cash only when we bought ours, but the process of purchasing it couldn’t have been easier.
If you’re using public transit in a big city, I suggest getting your directions from Google Maps, which will tell you the color of the train line and the train’s destination so you can figure out which train you’re going on (so, for example, tell me I need to take a northbound Green train and I’ll probably get it wrong because I have zero sense of direction outside of Chicago, where the lake is always east, but Google Maps will tell me that I need a Green train to Tiu Keng Leng, which is printed on the train signs so I can’t mess it up!). For us, it was really easy and simple. The signs were in English. When we got on the trains, the stops were announced in English. Easy peasy. And cheap. Both things that make me happy.
As I stood on the train platform to take it all in, I didn’t quite know what to make of anything yet, but I liked what I saw and felt so far. I obviously love New York and Hong Kong felt like being in NYC with the sloping streets of San Francisco or Seattle. A little gritty, but an undeniable big city feel. Hong Kong, though, felt bigger, cooler and was definitely more colorful. Even on a gray day, it brought a little extra light to the city.
Our day started in Quarry Bay, where we were visiting the Yick Cheong complex. The Yick Cheong complex is a very colorful housing complex and when you look at it, it’s kind of amazing how many people live in a single building in Hong Kong. It’s like condos on condos as far as high as you can crane your neck up. I was surprised that there were only a dozen or so other people in this spot – it’s super Instagram famous – but I wasn’t complaining. It was fascinating, too, watching people climb onto dumpsters to get these super artsy shots. It was a little risky but I had to try!
It was starting to drizzle when we left, so Stephanie and I popped into a nearby McDonalds for some cheese teas and a slice of rainbow cake. The McDonalds here were so different and it feels kind of lame to talk about visiting McDonalds when I’m all the way across the world, but it’s so interesting to me how something as commonplace as McDonalds changes as you move through different countries.
We hopped back onto the MTR, this time headed towards Hollywood Road and the Man Mo Temple. The temple was located off of Hollywood Road, which is a main street with tons of shopping. Getting up to the temple required climbing up maybe two dozen steps, but we passed a small street market and had to get a few cheap trinkets. What can I say? I see markets, I shop. This is why we always come home with more luggage than we arrived with.
On this trip, we’d visited a number of temples and pagodas, but I think the Man Mo Temple was my favorite. It was so beautiful and somber, and visiting it without a tour group around us allowed us to really take it in without having to rush through for pictures before someone else stepped in our shots or having to listen to tour guides yelling or the general buzz of a larger crowd. It was really special.
Many of the places we had on our Google Map were off or near Hollywood Road, so we just started knocking them out. We stopped at Teakha for some of the best iced peppermint tea I’ve ever had. We snapped pictures of colorful facades and fun storefronts. We shared a very large, very delicious shaved ice treat at Shari Shari Kakigori, which flies their ice in direct from Japan to make their confections as authentic as possible. We wandered for hours and got lost in the best possible way.
As the late afternoon hours faded into the early evening, the light drizzle that plagued us all day turned into a heavier rain. We made a quick stop at Tai Cheong Bakery (famous for egg tarts that you’ll smell from a block away and are every bit as good as the hype around them), before hopping on another MTR, this one bound for Jordan Street.
So, okay, lets preface: shopping is my thing. Unless you just landed here, it’s like, thing number one you already know about me. One of my favorite parts of traveling is exploring the different ways to shop. In the US, it’s big box and department stores. In Europe, it’s boutiques, in the Caribbean, it’s craft markets and in Turkey, it’s bazaars. In Hong Kong, it’s night markets – a cross between a flea market and a bazaar that stretches on for blocks. If you want to tick all the boxes off a first time Hong Kong experience, you visit a night market. There are a bunch of them to choose from. Some of them are super broad and just have everything. Others are more specialized (like the flower and jade markets we wanted to visit but ultimately ran out of time for!). So we narrowed it down to two: the Temple Street Market and the Ladies Market (which were close enough to each other that we could get both in). The train ride from Hollywood Road took about a half hour and it was still pouring when we got off the train. Even with the rain, though, nothing was going to keep me down or ruin this day for us! Sometimes, you just get a little wet and you move on.
I’d found this article about the best photo stops in Hong Kong and there was this view of the Temple Street Market that was just primo. It gave step by step directions and we just…we had to try. And that’s how we ended up on the fourth floor of a parking garage hanging out of a parking spot. I think the picture was worth it though. In any case, if there are places you want to see and you’re into photography on any level, use Google! You never know what tips you’ll find!
After our photo stop, we shopped our way up and down the market. It opened at, I want to say, around 5:30 PM and we got there shortly before 6:00 PM, so a lot of vendors were still setting up, but it was packed. Everything I read said never take the first price, so whenever we talked to a vendor, I’d ask a price and immediately offer half of it. The rule of thumb seems to be that if you get a 20% discount, you’ve won and I came away with 30-40% discounts, so I felt like a CHAMP. There were booths with just about anything – shoes, apparel, jewelry, electronic gadgets, souvenirs. You name it, they probably sold it. We picked up some backpacks and some satin jewelry pouches and decided to head over to the Ladies Market.
At this point, it was starting to really come down again so we sought shelter in a nearby McDonalds. If you’re keeping track, that’s two on the day. I think in all, we probably hit three because they had free Wi-Fi and there was always one nearby when it started to rain.
When the rain let up, we hopped back on the MTR for one stop. Let me tell you – riding the subway in Hong Kong during rush hour? It is something else. Even on the busiest day in Chicago, I don’t think I’ve ever been crammed in a space that tight!
The rain was letting up when we got to the Ladies Market, where we did more damage, buying chopstick sets and more souvenirs to take home. I preferred the Ladies Market to the Temple Street Night Market but really, the merchandise isn’t all that different and from what we could tell, neither were the prices.
The ship had offered an evening excursion to one of the night markets but honestly, it was so easy to navigate them ourselves. We saved a ton of money (the ship tour was, I want to say, like $50? We paid $8 for a full day of public transit), we got to experience it on our own time and choose which ones to visit ourselves. I wouldn’t have changed a thing about our DIY day in Hong Kong.
The only thing I had left on my list for the day was to visit one of the streets that has low-hanging neon signs that light up after dark. There isn’t one particular street – there are a number of them that are “famous” for this. But as we were walking away from the Ladies Market, Stephanie told me to walk ahead of her and she snapped some pictures of me – we had inadvertently found ourselves on one of those streets! Boom, check. It was almost like being in Times Square with all of the colors and lights. Obviously not as grand, but just so colorful and breathtaking.
At this point, it was well into the evening and we were STARVING. Stephanie was looking for a dim sum place when we realized we were near Langham Place, another mega shopping mall. And if this trip had taught me nothing else, it was that anything you need or want, you can probably find in an Asian shopping mall. This one didn’t disappoint – Yum Cha, a chain of dim sum restaurants famous for their fun character buns, was in the mall and even though it was packed (late in the evening on a weeknight!), we walked in, got a table and FEASTED. I don’t think food ever tasted as good as it did when ours came out. I couldn’t tell you if it was actually that good or if we were just starving – it was probably a combination of the two – but even remembering it is making me hungry now!
We left the restaurant shortly after 9:00 PM. We knew it would take us a half hour to get back on the Green train (which would take us directly back to our starting point, where the shuttle was) and that the last shuttle was at 10:00 PM. Stephanie wanted to take a taxi. I hate taxi’s (especially after we got swindled in Paris) and really wanted to take the shuttle. So we went for it and figured we’d make the best of it either way. The trains in Hong Kong run like clockwork every two minutes or so and I think our ride was just under a half hour. We got back to the starting point around 9:45 PM and walked out to the shuttle stop to see at least a hundred people lined up. They were cranky (apparently some of them had been waiting for an hour!) and we weren’t even sure we’d get on the shuttle, so we compromised: instead of taking the shuttle, we’d go to the grocery store nearby and then take a taxi back.
I’ve probably mentioned it before, but Stephanie and I love shopping at local supermarkets when we travel internationally. We buy all kinds of goodies to bring back. When I go to Paris, I come home with boxes and boxes of soup mixes and cookies and mustards – so many good things. So in the shopping mall the shuttle and MTR station conveniently merged at, there was a grocery store in the basement. Even at 10:00 PM, it was packed. We grabbed carts and we just went for it. Face masks, peanut noodle mixes, obscure Asian candies – all in the cart.
Afterwards, we headed up to the taxi stand. Our driver spoke English and gave us a mini tour on the short drive back to the ship. The ride was HK$47, which is less than $7 USD. 100% worth it.
The line to get through security to get back onto the ship was excruciatingly long. Once we finally cleared and made the long walk back onto the ship, we headed straight up to the Windjammer to get some cold beverages. We were surprised to see that even that late at night (it was nearing 11:30 PM at this point!), they had a food station set up in the Windjammer for anyone who wanted a sandwich or a snack.
After multiple rounds of strawberry kiwi juice and Instagramming, we headed back to the room. We were on the side of the ship looking out over the harbor, which meant that we could see the twinkling city lights out the balcony window as we went to bed. My bedroom window at home overlooks the skyscrapers of downtown Chicago, so seeing that skyline, the ambient city light streaming into our cabin? It was the closest thing to home I’d felt in the two weeks we’d been gone.
