Hong Kong: Then Vs. Now part 1 ~2012~ — Earl Grey & Bubble Tea

Feb 1

Feb 1 Hong Kong: Then Vs. Now part 1 ~2012~

My original post was going to be about my trip to Hong Kong last month for the Lunar New Year however, while writing the post I got a jolt of inspiration. How about I scroll through the pictures I took of Hong Kong the first time I went there in May 2012? That was exactly five years ago and as I went through the old pictures, I realised there were so many different layers to each holiday to make both times I spent in Hong Kong wonderful and unique.

Everyone who knows me knows I lived in China and travelled a bit through Asia while I was at University (I never shut up about it) but funnily enough, I never really uploaded any pictures of my year abroad and all of the amazing experiences I had. I will say now I took a ton of photos but never got round to showing them off. Going through the pictures once more today reiterated to me how much my experiences through university really meant to me.

This post is a flashback photo journal of my time in Hong Kong and what I did there back in 2012 Vs. What I did this time round in 2017.

The first time I went to Hong Kong I spent ages at Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island. As a city girl born and bred, Hong Kong Island was insane to me, a tropical version of London complete with a life sized Canary Wharf, Double-decker buses and palm trees. (Let's not forget Marks and Spencer's!) Hong Kong has this amazing atmosphere of feeling completely foreign yet completely familiar.

The peak is the highest point on Hong Kong Island located at the top of Mount Austin or 太平山 in Chinese. At the top you can see pretty much all of Victoria harbour, Central and even Lamma Island.

During both vacations I made time to go to Macau. Affectionately dubbed as the 'Shit tip' by many of my friends back home (pardon my french). Macau is a unique mish-mash of Portuguese architecture, Chinese culture and Casinos. Dubbed by the rest of the world as the Las Vegas of East Asia I was keen to see what this small autonomous region was all about. It was like at first sight. Almost like meeting a friend you get on with instantly. I liked it as soon as I got of that tumultuous ferry.

I remember being dazzled by Senado Square which you can see in both pictures above and below. The architecture is so European and having spent around 9 Months in China at that time, I remember being dazzled by western architecture in Macau's city centre.

Casinos here are always a must see. The new age Chinese extravagance was conceived in the casinos of Macau with it's luxury shopping and ridiculous scenery. There is not a single star in the skies of Macau because the neon glow from the casinos account for all the lighting on the island at night.

Finally, the part which stood out to me the most on my first trip to Hong Kong was Lantau Island. It is the biggest island and boasts the most famous nature sites in Hong Kong. It's home to Tai'O fishing village and the Po Lin Monastery & Big Buddha the latter of which I visited during my first vacation to Hong Kong. I remember being amazed by the scale of the Tian Tan Buddha and the surrounding statues.

This was before I saw the Giant Buddha carved into the side of the Mountain in Leshan, China but the 35 metre, North facing Buddha still remains in my memories as one of the most amazing sights to behold.