It was a bitter sweet feeling needing to pack our suitcases after breakfast, the Ibis Hotel North Point having been a good place to stay and Hong Kong being a much loved destination. After pulling our luggage along to the step free entrance of the MTR station we rode the metro for the final time this holiday on our way to Central station where we deposited our luggage at the Cathay Pacific desk of In-town Check-in after purchasing tickets for the Airport Express train. Tickets cost HK$100 each from the machine but if passengers go direct to the Customer Service desk and ask for a ‘Group of 2 Ticket’ the combined price is only HK$170.
Free from our luggage, we strolled across to the iconic Central Pier for a ride across Victoria Harbour on the Star Ferry, remembering to sit on the right hand side for the finest views. This morning we opted to sit on the lower deck as, with its open sides, it’s easier to take photos and is slightly cheaper too!
Wandering along the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade one last time we admired the old Kowloon station clock which was erected in 1915 as part of the Kowloon – Canton Railway terminus. The station was demolished many years ago but this colonial red brick and granite tower remains as a reminder of the age of steam.
Peninsula Hotel, KowloonContinuing along Salisbury Road we passed the elegant Peninsula Hotel and slightly further on, the former Marine Police Headquarters which were completed in 1884. This is one of the four oldest surviving government buildings in Hong Kong and is now known as Heritage 1881, the stunning colonial building now transformed into a heritage hotel and deluxe shopping arcade. Several brides were using the backdrop of this beautiful building for photo shoots, the nearest register office being just across the road.
Also located here is the Signal Tower, commonly known as the Round House. It was constructed to provide time signals to ships in the harbour, the ball dropping at exactly 1.00 p.m. each day. Its use ended in 1907 when the time ball apparatus was removed to Signal Hill, Kowloon.
Before taking the ferry back to Central we treated ourselves to a sweet potato and vanilla ice cream cone, sitting on a bench to savour this new flavour – and our verdict, delicious! A few minutes to spare so a quick glance in the Harbour City Mall before boarding the Star Ferry, this one being called Day Star, for our final glimpse of Victoria Harbour.
Then all that was left to do was to obtain refunds from our Octopus cards, less a HK$9 admin charge. The Airport Express train takes just 24 minutes to reach the airport and comes complete with personal speakers in seat headrests for passengers who may wish to view the video screens.
As we’d already checked our luggage in earlier in the day we proceeded straight to security and passport control. Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong International Airport is spacious and we stretched our legs browsing the shops and duty free outlets before settling down for a coffee and a few fries in McDonalds. As it was crowded we shared our table with two people who, by chance, were from Taipei so it was interesting chatting to them about our forthcoming plans and hearing a few suggestions of additional places to visit.
Boarding for our short (90 minute) Cathay Pacific flight to Taipei, again on one of their new A350-900 airliners was well organised. We had selected window seats on the right hand side of the aircraft as we’d heard that we might get some good views of the Taipei coast just before landing. Passing the time on the flight I was able to finish watching the film Bridget Jones Baby that I was part way through at the end of our previous flight. Attractive meal bags were provided with a plentiful supply of food for such a short flight. The snack included a Portuguese style chicken lattice pastry, an Anzac biscuit plus a carton of lemon tea. Other drinks were available on request but we were happy with our lemon tea.
Descending into Taipei, thick cloud prevented photo opportunities but we were soon disembarking at Taoyuan International Airport where baggage reclaim was efficient and finger printing was taken at border control with this taking several attempts until it worked successfully. Before leaving the airport we registered for free Taipei wi-fi at the information desk, needing to produce our passports to enable access. It’s not that we are obsessed with being online but thought it would be useful for such things as looking up train schedules and checking in for our inbound flights if we are not in our hotel. Other essential tasks were to obtain some NT dollars from an ATM and purchase EasyCards for the travel system. These travel cards cost NT$100 (£2.50) and give a 20% discount on each journey. We topped up each card with NT$500 to begin with.
Ready to go, we boarded the new Taoyuan Airport MRT into the city centre. This had only been operating for two weeks with fares at an introductory rate of NT$80 each (half the normal rate).
From Taipei Station we needed to change to the MRT. In case you might think I’ve made a typing error, in Taipei the metro system is known as the MRT whereas in Hong Kong, their system is known as the MTR. Negotiating our luggage on the MRT was easy as all stations have at least one exit with step free access and within a few minutes we were exiting Sonjiang Nanjing station which was only about 5 minutes walk from our hotel, the Green World Hotel Grand Nanjing. This Taiwanese owned, Japanese style business hotel has only been opened a few months and our first impressions of a bright, modern reception area were good. Check-in was speedy and efficient and we were soon taking the lift to our 10th floor room (1010) our home for the next seven nights. The room was luxuriously appointed with every comfort imaginable including a cosy window seat enabling us to view the city life of Taipei.
The huge bathroom had both a large shower cubicle and deep bath tub. The bath having an LCD television with a built-in remote control. Another feature new to us was the Japanese toilet complete with side control panel with numerous options available including a heated seat.
Yet another interesting device that we hadn’t come across previously were buttons to press next to the key card holder indicating that we would like the room to be cleaned or that we did not wish to be disturbed. I wonder how long it will be before such a device is commonplace, moving on from hanging out a piece of cardboard on the door handle!
Resisting the temptation to fiddle with all these gadgets, we headed out to experience our first Taiwanese night market. Hopping back on the MRT was so much easier without our heavy luggage and navigating the Taipei metro system seemed relatively easy. We headed for Taipei’s famous Shilin Night Market which was a feast for our senses with the heady aroma of cooking spices drifting by.
Taiwanese cuisine incorporates Chinese, Japanese and local influences with noodle dishes, dumplings, pork and seafood seeming very popular along with locally grown freshly squeezed fruit drinks. The evening was warm with light drizzle but that didn’t spoil our fun as we munched our way through cuttlefish balls, chicken skewers and Gua Bao (Taiwanese pork belly buns in a soft dough) which melted in the mouth and tasted divine. I can already predict that our week in Taiwan will focus on much street food eating!
At almost midnight we returned to our room and we were both sound asleep the second our heads touched the pillows in our exceptionally comfortable bed.
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A ferry to Lamma Island, Hong Kong
Love Travelling Blog 
Our visit to Taiwan in 1982 was cut short due to delays in air travel caused during Japans’ Golden Week. We did love our time in Taiwan, but after Japan, the locals seemed a lot ruder and noisier. We stayed in the Hilton of the day right across from the train station where outside loudspeaker announcements started at 5:30 AM. Would love to go back one day. Thanks for sharing Marion. Allan
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We’ve only visited Taiwan once and stayed for a week. I liked it very much and would also like to return sometime and see more of the country.
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Pingback: Day 12. Leaving Seoul and taking the Korail train to Busan – Love Travelling
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Pingback: Day 15. Starting the day in Daan Park, Taipei – Love Travelling
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Pingback: Day 13. A visit to the Taipei Zoo followed by a ride on the Maokong Gondola – Love Travelling
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Pingback: Day 11. Starting the day with an appointment at the Presidential Office, Taipei – Love Travelling
Pingback: Day 10. A visit to Yangmingshan National Park and Beitou Hot Springs – Love Travelling
Your blog is great. The info you collect & share about the destinations is fantastic! Thanks very much your posts are 😎
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Thank you so much for your kind words, it means a lot! I’m so happy to read that you are enjoying my blog and finding it of interest. I like to document my travels both so that I can remember where I went and what I did but also to hopefully help others and provide a few ideas.
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Your very welcome little miss traveller. I enjoy your blog a lot. You do both great! 😀 & surely you’ll be writing a book sometime soon. Hopefully you do as I will read it! Take care Little Miss Traveller 😎
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Awesome😍 I travelled to Hong Kong this May and I am sharing my story too. But I think your experience sounds so amazing
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Thank you for your kind words, they are much appreciated
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First time I read your post. Loved it!! you look like you really enjoy travelling. Continue having fun, after all, that’s what traveling is for!!
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Thank you for your kind words, I’m pleased you are enjoying reading my blog.
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It really seems like you are having a fabulous time! I enjoyed reading your post!
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Thank you for your kind words Agness. Hong Kong and Taiwan are both splendid holiday destinations.
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Love that bathtub with TV!
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It’s great isn’t it, never seen one before!
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Everything looks so colorful and beautiful. I have a friend from Taiwan but he never talks about it. Glad to find a detailed account! 🙂
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It’s my pleasure. We loved Taiwan with so much to see and do from the countryside to the cities.
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The Japanese toilet(which is sold in Leow’s now) is amazing. How bout the ‘sound’ machine attached for those noisy moments…Nice post. I look forward to visiting Taiwan one day. Thank you.
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Thank you for reading my post, it’s good to know you enjoyed it.
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I have loved following your trip around HK Marion. I felt as if I was there having been to the majority of places you have visited. This is another great post. I did not know that beautiful building in Kowloon was the former Police Marine HQ. Thanks for the info. Isn’t Taipei great!!!
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Thank you for your kind words Sue. I could return to HK anytime, I love it so much, but Taipei is great too and we loved every minute of our stay.
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Ah, I’ve always wanted to pop into the Peninsula and maybe have a martini at the bar. Thanks for the glorious look at HK.
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Thank you also Brad for your kind words – I’m so pleased you enjoyed my look at Hong Kong and hope you’ll also find my Taiwan posts of interest.
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I certainly look forward to them.
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Taiwan’s not a place I know much about so I’m looking forward to more. Very plush hotel 🙂 🙂
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Thank you for taking the time to read this post and for your interest in Taiwan. The hotel was gorgeous !
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Yum, the food sounds devine.
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It was delicious Monique and very cheap too! Thank you for taking the time to read and comment on my post.
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I love the convenience of Hong Kong check baggage and ticketing down town so you don’t have the hassle of that when you reach the airport. Just cruise in and head for your gate. I’ve never stayed in a hotel in Taiwan, only corporate accommodation in Taipei and beyond. Hong Kong is hard to leave behind with its great food and friends there. The price of everything from hotel to food to transportation has gone through the roof since my first visit there in 1970. But it has gone from and interesting place to shop to a hive of business and technology now so buying in for a business centre would be a consideration for only multinationals or Chinese mainland enterprise now.
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Hong Kong is always a difficult place for me to leave but I was also looking forward to visiting Taiwan and our hotel choice was exceptional for the amount we paid. Thanks for your contributions, they are most welcome Ian.
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The hotel looks good! Looking forward to your next post on Taiwan!
– Amor
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The hotel was excellent and far exceeded our expectations. Thank you for taking the time to read this series of posts.
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The Hong Kong Airport express looks impressively luxurious and clean! Love the bathroom in your current room and the push button do not disturb signs. That does need to become standard, as those hangers tend to fall off.
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The train was very smart and ran frequently o the airport. Our hotel in Taipei looked really nice when we booked but was even better than we had thought when we arrived.
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Looking forward to more posts on Taiwan as not a place I’ve read much about before but the hotel facilities look amazing! That tub! 😍
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Thank you for taking such an interest in my posts and for your pleasing comments .
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The Taiwanese night market sounds delicious! Especially the Gua Bao. I look forward to reading more about your trip to Taiwan in future posts, even as I catch up with the days you spent in Hong Kong.
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We loved the Night markets, being able to select snacks from different stalls and sit on plastic stools or chairs to eat our little treats.
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I so love seeing the photos and hearing about your time there. That bathroom is nice and I love the tub!!
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Thank you for your very kind words. I wouldn’t normally take photos of bathrooms but that one was really nice.
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I agree!! I’d have to disinfect the tub myself but then I couldn’t resist!!!
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Sounds like you’ve had an awesome time. Enjoyed reading the posts on this trip 🙂
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Thank you for your kind words and for reading my blog posts.
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That looks like a very nice hotel. Must remember that if I make it back to Taiwan. Hope you get to Tainan and Taroko Gorge.
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The hotel exceeded expectations and I would definitely recommend it and stay there again myself.
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Oh, the places you go! Richard and I stayed at the Peninsula Hotel on our honeymoon trip a thousand years ago. Wonderful to see the building again – great photo. Thanks for sharing your travels with so many of us.
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It’s my pleasure ! I couldn’t think of a more beautiful place to spend your honeymoon than Hong Kong’s Peninsula Hotel – we just had a few days in the English Lake District! Thank you also for your inspiring comments on my blog, they are much appreciated.
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Really interesting to see such everyday things like trains or even toilets there. For someone like me, who never ventured into that part of the world, there is really a lot to learn from your posts!
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Thank you so much for your inspiring comments, they are much appreciated and it’s so nice to read that you are enjoying reading my blog.
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Wow what a beautiful place. You did a great job of bringing us along with the pictures and narrative.
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Thank you so much for your ever welcome thoughts. I’m so pleased you enjoyed the post and hope you have a nice weekend.
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You are most welcome. Thank you for letting tag along. You put so much worthwhile work in your post and we appreciate it.
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So happy you are visiting Taiwan (my home country) and can’t wait to read all about your adventuring!
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Thank you Kelly for taking the time to look at my blog. Taiwan is gorgeous – hope you like my series of posts and hope to hear from you again.
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The hotel sounds great – the toilet intrigues me especially!! I read about Taiwan in a blog recently, somewhere I would probably not have considered but it looked beautiful and it seems like there are so many diverse things to do. The night market seems like the perfect thing for your first evening.
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I would never have thought that I would be taking photos of a toilet and describing it!! But it was so unusual I thought it might be interesting to share. Hope you are tempted into visiting Taiwan sometime
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Absolutely!! Looking forward to reading more..
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Love the bathroom in Taipei. Will certainly stay here when I get a chance to visit Taiwan. For now, I travel through your posts…
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Thank you for your thoughts on my post. I can definitely recommend that hotel and it was very reasonably priced too.
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I am surprised Cathay Pacific are utilising a brand new plane for such a short route and more so that it takes over an hour. If you like airports check out Songshan in the middle of Taipei! I wish now that I’d flown there instead of Taoyuan but if the metro is up and running that changes things, I used to have to catch the bus between the city and airport. Nice to see they’ve finally opened it. I wish they’d open an IBIS in another part of HK as both are on the island. Anyway, wishing you well in Taipei, it’s a nice city.
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Thanks Kelvin for your interesting thoughts. I’m unsure why CP are using those planes on short flights but it was a bonus for us.
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It was a mistake to read about Taipei’s Night Market when I was hungry…
Now all I can think of is Gua Bao and dumplings 🙂
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They were delicious! Thanks for your much appreciated comments
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I miss Hong Kong after reading your descriptions! The Star ferry is a fantastic experience. I’m hoping to get to Taiwan one day..
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Thanks you Nikita for your kind words. I do hope you get to visit Taiwan as it is such a beautiful island with so much to see and do.
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What a timely post! We’re in the process of planning our trip to Taipei next January. I think I’ll hold off on deciding how many days we should be there and arranging for the travel and accommodation until I have a chance to read what you did there. Thanks for sharing your travel experience.
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Thank you Keng, it’s so nice to hear that you are also planning to visit Taiwan. I hope you find this series of posts useful but don’t hesitate to contact me afterwards if you need more advice.
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Super. Thanks in advance. Looking forward to reading your other posts.
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You will love Taiwan. Fantastic place!
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I’m sure we will, thank you for your ever welcome thoughts.
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Thanks for linking my post
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