Beautiful Layover to India: Hong Kong

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My wife, Sayali (fiancée during our stay in HK), and I had planned this delightful trip on our way to India in December 2016. We simply extended our connecting Cathay Pacific flight for 3 more days while we were booking flight tickets. One of the major benefits of HK is on Arrival Visa for Indian nationals and definitely direct connectivity from SFO & Mumbai to HK.

Few Interesting Facts about Hong Kong:
-> It’s termed as Asia’s world city, composing of more than 200 islands.
-> It has most sky scrapers in the world, double than New York (next rival).
-> It has one of the most efficient subway system with a 99.9% on-time rate and entire system runs on AI.
-> It’s independent country to mainland China, but China has the right to absorb Hong Kong in 2047, and Macau in 2049, into China proper.
-> One last fun fact which I got to know recently: You can get married at the McDonalds in Hong Kong. It includes a balloon wedding dress, balloon rings, venue, and of course, food by McDonalds. This costs about $2000 USD.
We took Hong Kong’s Big Bus “Deluxe Tour : 48 Hours with Night Tour” tour for 2 days. We found them suitable with its hop in, hop off service as it covered all the major touristy places and has an app describing all the places to visit with pre-recorded commentary.
Day 1 : Kowloon Tour (Blue Route)
Must go place if you want to experience day to day life of Hong Kongers. Our hotel was in Mongkok city and hence we started with Kowloon Tour route.

That’s one my favorites places : Top view from Sky-100 Observation desk (7th tallest building in the world)
Sky100 observation desk was the highlight of this route where you get 360-degree overview of HK. It is tallest building in Hong Kong and has its own history & charisma.

Ladies Market is like Mumbai’s Fashion Street
Ladies Market was our favorite spot where your bargaining skills would be put to real test. As example, we bought one of the souvenir for just 30 HK dollars after negotiating with the seller, who started to sell it for 400 HK dollars in the first place. If you like shopping, you don’t want to miss this place for sure.

Day 2 : Hong Kong Island Tour (Red Route) & Stanley Tour (Green Bus)
Next day early morning, we left for Stanley city in Green Bus. We visited Repulse Bay, which is among the cleanest and beautiful beaches in Hong Kong.

Symphony of Lights illuminations
We ended the day with 1 hour panoramic night tour of Hong Kong Island’s fantastic ‘Symphony of Lights’ illuminations. I must admit that it was undoubtedly entire tour’s highlight and will be unforgettable experience. As a matter of fact, Guinness world record describes it as the world’s ‘Largest Permanent Light and Sound Show’.
Day 3 : Visiting Gautam Buddha

We were on our way to “Path of Enlightenment” to visit The Tian Tan Buddha and exploring Lantau Island on day 3. We took Hong Kong MTR super-fast trains to Tung Chung Station from Kowloon in less than 45 mins (BTW, beautiful route for sure). In fact, we travelled in MTR for several times during our stay because it could take you anywhere in HK in the fastest possible way. We took Ngong Pong 360 crystal cabin Gondola ride having spectacular scenery views on its 5.7km way to top.

Taking blessings from Big Buddha
You will be completely mesmerized as you see the Big Buddha, which was constructed from just 202 bronze pieces. Next to it is Po Lin Monastery which I found to be a great place to learn about their culture and religion. I bet you would feel and sense positivity everywhere around this place and indeed making your mind revitalized with constructive thoughts.
Visit this link for more details about the place, how to reach and things to do (This guy has explained precisely).
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