Last Day in H to the K.....

Today was exhaaausting. It was my last day in HK so I tried to pack in as much as I possibly could. I got up at 7 am and went hiking with Yvonne, Sophia, and Christina. Yvonne warned us that it was a hard hike….but we were definitely not prepared for how hard it really was ha ha It was called “Twin Peaks” and the trail was just steep stairs….no flat areas at all….just stairs….It killed us lol We probably climbed a couple thousand stairs. My legs were wobbling the entire way back….i’m surprised I didn’t collapse ha. The hike was gorgeous. It was through tons of greenery, reservoirs, rivers, and beautiful lookouts. We even found lots of frogs, turtles, and fun insects! The whole thing took us about 3 hours and as soon as we got back we headed out to the famous Hong Kong City Hall for Dim Sum. Hong Kong is famous for its dim sum and the #1 place to get it is the City Hall. We heard so much about it and every list of top things to do in HK has it on it. And it was for good reason. It was so absolutely delicious. The best meal that I’ve had on this trip. Dim Sum is directly translated to “little hearts”. It is actually little snack foods like steamed dumplings, spring rolls, veggies dipped in sauce, etc that you eat until you get full. At the restaurant a person walks around with trays or carts of little dishes and you point at what you want as it goes by. It was Christina, Sophia, Kris, and I (because the other girls wanted McDonald’s…lame) with Yvonne and her Mom. The Lai’s go all of the time so they knew all of the best stuff and ordered their favorites for us! It was so yummy! I tried a lot of new stuff like lotus leaf rice, congee, char siu sou, mango pudding, sesame soup, almond soup, dou fu fa, some choy thing and lots of others!
After lunch Sophia and I went out on the town with Yvonne. It was a blast because she’s grown up in HK her entire life so she knows all of the little places that tourists don’t know about….so she took us everywhere that we needed to do, eat, and see! We first went to “Central” which is a high end shopping center. This is where all of the designer stores are. After, we went to “Causeway Bay”. This is another shopping area with lots of dessert shops and restaurants. We went to the famous “Hui Lau Shan “. This place is known throughout all of China. Everyone that I have met so far has told me to go here. I got this delicious mango drink that had rice balls on the bottom (different from tapioca pearls…and better!), with a slushy mango drink in the middle, topped with cream and chunks of mango!!! It was sooo good! Then after we went to a delicious crepe shop and shared one. After stuffing ourselves we headed out to Stanley Market. This is the most well known shopping street in Hk because it’s SUPER cheap and good quality (all of the knock off stuff). I bought lots of stuff. The picture below is of the building that they filmed a lot of "Dark Knight" on.

Yvonne’s driver then picked us up and took us back home and we had a delicious dinner that her cook made for us. Authentic home cooked Chinese. I loved it. Then we headed out to Kowloon to watch the “Symphony of Lights”. The Symphony of lights is a synchronised building light and laser show , featuring 44 buildings on both sides of the Victoria Harbour of Hong Kong accompanied by music. It is currently the world’s largest light and sound show. We took a ferry to Kowloon (another island in HK) and watched the show from there. It was so cool!

After this we came back to the mansion to meet Mr. Lai! He got back a day early! He’s sooo cute! He’s orginally from HK and he’s Chinese. He’s a really nice guy. Now we’re about to head to get some ice cream and go hang out at the beach. Tomorrow we head back to Taipei. I’m so sad to leave HK but it’s been a blast. I officially did all of the “Top ten things to do in HK” so I think I made the most of it.