Quote:
Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp
We used to do that walk all the time, from TKL to TKO or HH. My favourite restaurant was there, and we'd go for walks after, but this was before any of those connecting malls were there, or the hotels, or the vendome/sports park. Or even the art school! Although that was built pretty early. A lot has changed in 20 years (but not in that picture I posted!)
Po Lam hasn't changed a lot; still the same big mall there. The stores have changed of course. It's nice to walk around there too though. Maybe TMI, but you can walk from Po Lam to my village if you follow some trails through the jungle and over one mountain. I've done that hike a couple times, but it's not the most pleasant walk. But it was crazy the first time we did it, walking to a mall from where we live.
The most interesting thing about all these changes in Hong Kong is that in the 2010's they seemed to really build everything around attracting Mainland Chinese into the country, for tourism and especially shopping. This entire area was one of the hot spots, as all the local type stores and restaurants were squeezed out, and they even built a hotel there. And it worked for a while, as numbers skyrocketed. But somewhere along the way it's like the Chinese realized that hey, we can do all this shopping here! Why would we need to go to HK? And then covid sealed the deal. Although the sinking USD, which HKD is tied to, has brought them back more lately.
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I was musing of coming back in Oct/Nov this year cause I have vacation to burn. I did notice there were trails around Po Lam and would be great to go with the kids, but alas the airfare is something retarded like 1800+ for an adult. Even with free accommodation it's a bit ridiculous so that idea is on hold for now. It might very well mean we aren't going anywhere.
HKD is not cheap for us as USD is one of the currencies that the CAD is weak to. It makes Japan much more palatable budget wise as the JPY keeps devaluing against CAD. Even the Euro and Pound isn't as strong as USD when we are spending CAD.