Sibil

[kpol]

We just booked Hong Kong for a long weekend in October. ;D

Any recommendations??

ETA: We've only booked flights so far and are still researching hotel options

[basilosaurus]

Long weekend. What do you want to do? You know, when I was there I was just thrilled to have access to western foods. I spent way too much money at L'Atelier and at the mid levels. Oh, and I drank a lot of spiced wine. So wonderful in January! I ate at more than 1 tapas restaurant just to get more tastes of western food. Best risotto I've ever had was at a greek restaurant at the mid levels.

Macau was probably my favorite day. And I'm not into casinos. It's just that the architecture was so great. And a very walkable town.

HK is loud. I walked around with headphones most of the time just to get a chance at quiet. It didn't help that I stayed in a hostel for about $15/night.

Favorite parts of HK were wandering the spice market area, and I'm sorry I can't remember the name of it. There was a temple there, too. Just the smells and the medicinal shops were fascinating. And there was an alley known for making chops. Sure, touristy, but I got H some with his Chinese name in his favorite script. Also knocked out a wedding gift for friends

Also, Lantau. Definitely take the gondola over. If my knee hadn't been effed up, I would have climbed to the Buddha. There's a vegetarian buddhist restaurant at the base, but I have to admit it wasn't that good. I love my vegetarian food, so I was excited, especially after meat loving Korea, but it just didn't measure up to my own

Let's see, other than that. Of course Victoria peak. Star ferry wasn't special IMO, but why not do it once?

Things that might interest you given your location... There are good English bookstores near the ferry terminal on the tsim sha tsui side of the ferry terminal in that mall. Great selection in general, but also a really good selection of books about China. On the other end of the ferry was a mall that had a great international food selection. I stocked up on things like speckled lentils (yes, I'm a dork) and other ingredients my limited commissary didn't have.

Anything specific you're interested in?

[kpol]

I'm sure we'll have to cram as much stuff into as little time as we have. We really wanted to go somewhere for that weekend but airfare was outrageous to everywhere except HK, and even then it was still a little pricey.

What you've given me is a great start. Victoria Peak was on the list and the gondola to Lantau sounds good.

A friend mentioned checking out the American Club but their website says Naval Officers can access it for free so I wasn't sure about Army O's or if it was worth it.

Our rough plan is to eat, walk, shop, repeat. I tried talking M into the Intercontinental pool deck but he's not too keep on the price tag on that one!

[basilosaurus]

Let's see. More, based on googling to check my info

Page One is the name of the bookstore. They apparently have multiple locations.

The hostel I stayed at was about $30 in Mong Kok. I don't recommend staying that far unless you're really on a budget. I'm super cheap when traveling alone, but given that I mostly kept going to mid levels for meals, I would have stayed closer to there. It wasn't that bad due to close subway, but it still took extra time.

The octopus card is definitely worth it. Great public transport.

I don't have to offer on markets as I was kind of trying to get Asia out of my system a bit. But I've heard the ladies market is good.

If you do end up in Macau, take the free shuttle bus to the Lotus casino (bonus, 2 michelin restaurants in the casino) and walk everywhere from there.

Man wa lane is the are with the chops. Be aware that it's a phonetic translation, though, if you don't know your real Chinese name. As in, you can't actually ever use it in an area that can interpret the characters.

I forgot to mention the park at the bottom of the tram to victoria peak. I have no idea why, but I just absolutely loved walking through the bird part. Probably for the quiet

[basilosaurus]

What's the American club?

I did eat at the officer's club in Macau. But it was open to the public. It was the old portuguese o club. Great portuguese food, right next to lotus, plus, I met really nice people. No one looked askance at me for eating alone.

Oh, the other awesome of Macau is so much access to tawny port. Yum!

[kpol]

Sept 19, 2012 2:16:06 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

What's the American club?

I did eat at the officer's club in Macau. But it was open to the public. It was the old portuguese o club. Great portuguese food, right next to lotus, plus, I met really nice people. No one looked askance at me for eating alone.

Oh, the other awesome of Macau is so much access to tawny port. Yum!

www.americanclubhk.com/aboutus.aspx

Swanky fraternity for old rich people is my best assessment. I think I was confusing this for the Army and Navy club in DC. They are related, I guess, but I'm not sure it's worth a stop.

[basilosaurus]

Huh. That wouldn't be my scene.

I planned my trip with only about 10 days notice and the help of an old lonely planet from the base library, so I surely missed out on stuff. H lived there as a kid, but that didn't really help me.

I do know there are more restaurants I would have looked into had I known about them. I basically did the LP recs. I might have gone to Bo Innovation had I known about it then.

There's actually a (really) small chance I'll be in HK soon. Let me know if there's anything I can check out for you.