Given that my family is from Hong Kong, I've had the chance to visit several times in the past:
2004 or 2005? First time visiting with my mom who was very paranoid about "dirty food". So it was very sad for this foodie to not be able to try all the amazing street food available. Instead, my mother insisted on eating at "clean places" = overpriced. The irony of it all? I got major food poisoning anyways from a fancy place. At first the doctors couldn't understand what was wrong with me and with my less than proficient Cantonese, they thought I had intestinal infections and wanted to operate. Thank god they soon realized it was just food poisoning. Needless to say, my first trip back was not the most pleasant welcoming.
2007 part 1 - Visited again with my sister, mother and boyfriend at the time. I almost forgot about this one! Very similar to the first time around but without the food poisoning.
2007 part 2 - this time it was just the sister & I visiting a friend who had just moved back. We got to stay at a free apartment in Yau Ma Tei area in Kowloon. We had free reign to eat whatever we wanted, visit any area we desired and got to really experience the true HK. It was awesome.
2009 - My sister somehow convinced me to join her for a study abroad semester to HK instead of Seoul. So instead of learning Korean I was enrolled in a Cantonese class. After the first day, struggling to pronounce and spell the Cantonese words for "see-taw-bell-ly" (strawberry), I quickly switched to the Mandarin program. The 6 week summer program at CUHK (New Territories) gave us another opportunity to further explore new parts of HK. After the program wrapped up, a few friends flew in from Canada and we rented a tiny apartment in Tin Hau for the rest of the summer.
2012 - As part of my 2 month sabbatical from work, HK marked the rendez-vous point for my boyfriend and I. After a couple weeks in Japan, we met in Hong Kong to celebrate my 24th birthday. The highlight? He took me to the Steakhouse in the Intercontinental Hotel. The irony is that we both ordered Alberta steaks. So silly. Anyways, I was so happy to have the chance to show my boyfriend my favorite spots around HK.
Hong Kong is one special destination. It is a mix of Asia's cultural history and forward thinking Western styles. The first few times I visited, I could only really speak English and that was no problem. Top things to do will always be: enjoying the views at the Peak and Avenue of Stars (checking out HK's Skyline), shopping at Tsim Tsa Tsui and Mong Kok, and of course, eating eating eating.
On a last note, this was a really fun post for me. More pictures of myself than I like but it's fun to look back at how much a) my photos have changed and b) how I've physically changed over the years. My own virtual time capsule :)