Considering our extended stay over the holidays, me and my friends decided to jump at the opportunity we had to easily and comfortably travel around Asia whilst in Seoul, and I was first to chime in that Hong Kong was an absolute must. I want to say I’m not sure what it is that draws me so much to Hong Kong and construct this illusive and mysterious image of the city (because it really is that incredible) but I know exactly what it is. I’ve always found interest in film’s from Hong Kong, particularly those by Wong Kar-Wai and I would imagine myself within 
his film backdrops and only hope that it looked as incredible and foreign in real life. And it did.
The moment we landed in Hong Kong and got into our retro taxi, I felt as though I was in a film and this nostalgic feeling continued for the entirety of the trip. The city LITERALLY reached new heights with its skyscrapers and as we came to learn, this was because of the intense growing population of people in Hong Kong. However, to my surprise, I was still comfortable. I often don’t like being amongst large crowds of people I don’t know, but there was space to breathe despite being surrounded by hundreds of people at one time and buildings taller than one can imagine.
We spent our first day wandering the markets and streets finding amazing relics like the one displayed on the left, and just generally trying to understand the city and the way that it functioned.
As our time was very limited, we also felt obliged to do some of the more tourist-y activities such as visiting Lantau Island. The island itself is beautiful, with clear skies and waters that almost seemed like they couldn’t exist in such perfection, but the hot spot was the Tian Tan Buddha, or more commonly referred to as the Big Buddha. When thinking of going to see it and facing my fear of travelling by cable cart for 30 minutes, I expected something sacred that was to be respected by those who wished to visit, but my biggest surprise was discovering what could only be described as religious Disneyland. The main street leading up to the Buddha was littered with restaurants with themed meals, hot food stands, merchandise stores; it felt as though the only thing missing was a rollercoaster. Nonetheless, after the long climb up the stairs to reach the Buddha, there was a more calming feeling of looking over the island and seeing something more natural, and religiously significant. I’m unsure of whether this made the visit worth it or not.
Having said that, our next excursion was Disneyland so I can’t complain too much about the commercial elements of Hong Kong. There’s not too much to say about it as it’s just like any other Disneyland, but I met Chewbacca and R2D2 so its definitely the best one I’ve been to.