Amazing Hong Kong

We flew north east for about four hours to a mega city I very much wanted to experience for a few years. Hong Kong in January is much cooler than is nearby Thailand or Singapore. It's made of 3 main islands which are Kowloon, Hong Kong and Lantau Island. We arrived around 8 pm nighttime to a beautiful skyscrapers scenery, took the high speed train to Tsim Sha Tsui, stop in Kowloon and then taxi to our Park Hotel. We would spend the next 5 nights wondering this ancient city, meeting its people and seeing what it was all about.
The first night after a quick shower we headed downstairs and into a nearby diner type restaurant to have something to eat before bed. Pretty much no one here spoke English and even the check was in Chinese numbers. I had a soup followed by an egg/shrimp and vegetable quiche plate. Apparently that was too much since I had stomach aches for the rest of the night.
The next breezy morning we had breakfast nearby at a French cafeteria and started to get a grip of the city. As in most of Asia traffic, it went on the left and back on the right side. People here were not in the same pace as in Thailand, or Singapore, they were very much in a rush and rarely smiled, very much like at home in NYC.
The population was mostly Chinese/ Japanese mix along with some ex-pats working here. We took the ferry across the bay into Hong Kong Island, and bought tickets to head up the mountain. Amazing panoramic views on the peak Tramway. Along the way up we passed Victoria peak and mid-levels, which are prestigious residency areas in Hong Kong. This train system began operating back in 1888 by the British Kingdom. We noticed that one big issue here is the lack of housing. The amount of people and the demand is so high that it's almost unimaginable for a middle level income individual to live anywhere well located, and much less bigger than a cubicle in size.
In the evening we walked around town and had dinner at the Pacific Place Mall. The malls in Asia seem to congregate the top chefs, therefore to grab a seat there's a guaranteed line on pretty much every restaurant. We had tickets to see the “HK Symphony of Lights” from Kowloon Bay. It's a perfectly orchestrated show of music, lights of different colors on the sides of skyscrapers coordinated with music and fireworks. Not bad at all! After that we took the ferry again across and visited “Times Square” where luxury retailers make most of their income in this very affluent part of the planet.
The next morning we decided to take the ferry out of Hong Kong on a two hour trip to visit something very different. We headed into Macau, a former Portuguese colony for 400 something years, now under Chinese mandatory. An interesting fact we heard is that Macau’s revenue is 12 times that of Las Vegas on a yearly basis! Since casino games are illegal in the mainland of China and also in Hong Kong, visitors come here in and out in masses.
We had experienced another amazing city which I had the pleasure to visit for the first time. I was truly delighted by their attention to detail, from cooking to their advanced fashion, to the mixture of stereotypes to every single aspect of their lives. Hong Kong I will be back for more of your exquisite taste!