Hong Kong

Hong Kong... a humid and historic location, and our first stop. We've been here two and a half days now, leave tomorrow for Hanoi. We spent our time wandering around and taking in the atmosphere, and enjoying the food. There aren't really any first rate sights in Hong Kong. The best bit so far has been The Peak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Peak), a mountain that affords fantastic views across both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, with more skyscrapers in view than anywhere else on the planet (probably). The views are great, and the tram up there is charmingly faux-Victorian. Although for the real Victorian colonialist experience they should probably offer Sedan chair rides up the mountain (this is in all seriousness how the ruling class would get up there before the tram was built).

The view of Hong Kong Island from Kowloon at night is also pretty spectacular, with all of the neon lights on the skyscrapers making an impressive backdrop to the harbour. At 8pm every night there's a light show, pompously entitled "The Symphony of Light". It's quite amusingly underwhelming, though: rather than turning off all the neon and then embarking on the light show, they leave half of it on as normal, so it's not immediately obvious which flashing lights are part of the light show and which are just flashing as part of normal advertisement. The only reason you really know when the show starts and finishes is because there is pumping music played, and spotlights on top of some of the buildings. The whole thing is fantastically camp.

One thing that Hong Kong can certainly be recommended for, however, is the food, which is sensational. The dim sum in particular has been a real hit - for those that don't know it's a bit like Chinese tapas. We've been eating crazy dumplings filled with unknown meats, and all for cheap. It's been dead good.

All in all Hong Kong has much to recommend it for the casual visitor like us, if perhaps not enough to recommend it for a holiday destination in itself.