It’s weird how Hong Kong is really big and really small all at once. I mean its clearly a small place for 7.5million people to live in, yet somehow there are 263 islands, huge country parks and multi-day hikes to remote beaches. Sometimes what you need is just a down the road, other times you find yourself adventuring for an hour to a random part of town to buy an air mattress in an old industrial building. It always feels (so far at least) like there are so many parts yet to be explored, and what better excuse than having tourists in town!

We started with Kowloon, first we tried to find the kitchen-gadgets street but took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere random wandering in the rain. Hunger beckoned, so we headed for the classic Bafang Dumplings to show off these amazing morcels to our guests. After sitting out the worst of the storm in Bafang, we made our way to the Goldfish Market, dodging umbrellas and sloshing through puddles. I’ve been wanting to go here for a while and it wasn’t quite what I expected. ‘Goldfish Corner’ would be a more accurate name, it was fascinating nonetheless to see walls of fish in teeny plastic bags. With the added bonus of stumbling across Queen Sophie’s tart shop where we had serious problems deciding which flavours to try. We went with the classic egg tart and a lemony conconction, both were awesome, I’ll be working my way through the rest for sure. We then headed to the Flower Market which exceeded expectations, it’s mainly one long street with almost exclusively florists and plant shops on it (apart from the random motorcycle shop). The smell was a delight and it was really fun checking out all the different crazy plants and flowers they have.

We headed up to Sham Shui Po to the fabric-sewing-stuff street, it was half closed, the Saturday of Easter weekend maybe wasn’t the best time, but you could see the potential. Rows of fabric shops and stalls, in an interesting, kinda grungy-in-a-good-way area. Our final mission for the day was to the Temple Street Night Market, we checked out it’s namesake temple on the way then headed to the market. They were just setting up for the night really, but you could see the tarot readers getting their cards warmed up and knock-off bags being hung. It seems like it would be a worthwhile place to check out later one night.

The next day we headed to 2 places I hadn’t heard of or read about, Nan Lian Garden and Chi Lin Nunnery. An oasis in the hustle and bustle, the garden is huge - with ponds, bridges, pagodas, huge rocks, bonzai trees, lily ponds and even a lil waterfall. We wandered through then headed to the Nunnery, a gorgeous, large temple with many big golden buddhas to enjoy. I really enjoyed the views where you had some pretty golden pagoda with the backdrop of huge high rises, that classic Hong Kong juxtaposition.

From the relaxing quiet of the gardens we made our way to the pumping streets of Causeway Bay for lunch. Din Tai Fung is a legendary Dim Sum place that I had somehow not made it to yet, it’s in every guide book and article about Hong Kong food so I was excited to be finally trying it. The soup dumplings are the go-to dish and I can see why. Once you figure out the complication of picking the thing up with chopsticks; dousing it in sauce; resting the dumpling on a spoon to release the soup and then slurping away it is heavenly. Next time I’ll be ordering a whole basket for myself! The other bits and pieces, normal dumplings and pork buns were also really tasty. We rolled out of there and hopped on a tram.

The tram’s are still one of my favourite things about Hong Kong, I appreciate their slow pace as you can watch the city go by, the breeze from the open windows and being one story higher then the crowds! We got off in central to take the famously long escalator up the hills of central, but got distracted halfway by Tai Kwun. It is advertised as a Centre for Heritage & Arts and is housed in the former police headquarters, we wandered round looking at lots of interesting old buildings, jail cells, courtyards, exhibitions, cafes, art installations and instagram-posers. It was a bit overcrowded but if you could find a quiet day to go there I think it would be really nice to spend some time there.

The next stop was PMQ, the former sleeping quarters of the married police (Police Married Quarters), we were pretty knackered at this point but we grabbed a drink and did some people watching, and had a little bit of a nosy at the shops. We then headed down to look at Man Mo Temple to breath in some incense, finally finishing the marathon day with a couple of street art spots in Sheung Wan.