Hong Kong

Once we set foot on the plane to leave The Philippines we realized we were stepping from the Southeast Asian world to the Far East Asian metropolis portion of the trip at the very same time. Yep...our trip was about to take a very different road leading to Hong Kong, Korea and Japan!

We loved Southeast Asia, the tropical beaches, jungles, motorbikes and delicious food...but we were quite looking forward to what was next. And first was...Hong Kong.

To me, Hong Kong felt like a giant, very clean and organized Chinatown. It was dumpling stands-meet-swanky bars, city skylines-meet-harborfronts, street markets-meet-fancy malls and everything in between.

We scored a sweet (and tiny) Airbnb room in Mong Kok. Mong Kok felt much more 'local' and our Airbnb room was right on the same street at Ladies' Market. Each morning we ventured around the corner for pork and kimchee dumplings for a late breakfast and then hit the town. Oooo the dumplings were so good!

I'll be honest, we pigged out in Hong Kong and most definitely passed the 200 dumpling market with our daily dumpling helpings, wonton noodles, fried wontons, dim sum and pork soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung (so good!!) and even more pork dumplings.

On our last night we were up for a really special treat, two friends from Amsterdam (one Canadian, one Australian) treated us to a very delicious Szechuan meal near Wan Chai. A big pot of boiling spicy soup is brought out to the table and you simmer away plates of beef, dumplings (yes...again), veggies, and noodles.

TRAVEL TIPS

Go for dim sum at Din Tai Fung on Canton Road (there is more than one location in Hong Kong and a few other locations around the world!). This place has killer pork-soup-dumplings and brisket soup!

Eat dumplings in Mong Kok...actually just eat dumplings everywhere ;).

Go to Chi Lin Nunnery for a bit of Chinese culture.

And ofcourse head to the Avenue of the Stars for a view of the harbor from below and go to Victoria Peak for a view of the harbor from above.