Last weekend I went on a nice trip to Hong Kong! Finally an real Asian experience.... It started on Thursday very early in the morning. The plane took of from Singapore at 6:00 am. The flight lasted only three and a half hours compared to scheduled four hours. On our arrival to Hong Kong we already realized that we now were very close to China. The only language you see everywhere is Chinese. This is really a bit confusing after staying in Singapore. Nevertheless we managed to get an "Octopus Card" needed for the local MTR system (similar to the Singaporean MRT). We took the next train to the location where we should find our hostel. We stayed at the Ruby Hostel on Nathan Road. When we arrived at building 383 we had some difficulties to find the place. The problem was that in Hong Kong hostel are often just normal apartments in one of the old skyscrapers. Inside those everything is in Chinese... but we managed to find the hostel. With the help of a neighbor who didn't speak a word of English we manged to get in despite the complicated alarm system. The apartment was very modern compared to the rest of the house! That was great!! We all enjoyed staying there and all our roommates were very kind people from all over the world. After our arrival we first relaxed a bit before we went to the area around our hostel. Again we were lucky enough to have our place right next to China Town. It was very cool to walk along all those stands where you can bargain and negotiate for the price of fake electronics, clothes and much more. Later that night we looked for a nice noodle house and ate some spicy noodles  before going to bed.

On Friday we slept in before taking the MTR to the Hong Kong Island in order to take the bus up to the Peak. The Peak is Hong Kong's most famous mountain from which you have an awesome view on the city. The bus ride took around 40 minutes. The view on top was very impressive even though the smog does not allow you to look further than the city itself (Yes, this time it is smog and not haze, but is by far not as bad Singapore). We then left again and went to Tim Ho Wan at the Hong Kong Station. It is one of the smallest and cheapest restaurants in the world that got awarded with a Michelin star. Of course we the food Hong Kong is famous for: Dim Sum. I tried some dumplings filled with pork and shrimp meat as well as some steamed spareribs. Both dishes were very nice! In the evening we to the ferry from Hong Kong island back to Kowloon in order to see the light show at Hong Kong's skyline. The ferry ride was cool, but we apparently missed out on the real light show since nothing happened besides the lightened skyline itself. For dinner we found the best noodle place in Hong Kong. We went there each of the following evenings. 

We did not preplan anything for the Saturday so we spontaneously visited places. We first walked through Mongkok, which is one of the busiest places around Hong Kong. It is basically one big market where locals sell their fruits, vegetables, meat and fish. You can see everything from living frogs to fish swimming in small buckets. We continued our journey up north and visited the flower market and bird park of Hong Kong. After some Dim Sum for lunch we visited a temple and then took the worlds longest outside escalator. It is definitely a weird feeling to stand on an escalator form 20 minutes, but it is a nice way to get to know the "hip" areas of the City.
On Sunday we went all the way to Lantau Island in the west of Hong Kong since we wanted to visit the big Buddha. It is also located on top of a mountain so we decided to take the bus. There is also a cable car running but it is relatively expensive with about 125 HKD (~15€). On top of the mountain we walked around the impressive Buddha and visited the Temple. It is a very impressive place. We then took the bus down to the Tai O village, which is a small, old fishing village. There scenery there is beautiful and I tried the best egg cake in Hong Kong. It is similar to a pancake but prepared over fire in the shape of eggs. But to get it we had to queue for 45 minutes. It was worth it. Afterwards we returned to our hostel.
On Monday, before taking the plane back we took part in a free Tai Chi class for foreigners at the waterfront of Kowloon. At first it felt really weird, but after a while it was really relaxing! Unfortunately we had to leave after on hour, cause otherwise we would have missed our plane.

On our arrival in Singapore we were quite surprised that the haze is gone for now. I hope it stays like that for the rest of my time here. So this was again a very long entry, but if you made it to here you should also take a look at the pictures of the trip.