If you were to ask me to describe Hong Kong, I would tell you one word. Regrets.
I felt that my whole time spent in Hong Kong was regretful because I was there for such a short period. I joked with my friend that we came, we saw, we shopped and we left. We did all that in less than 48 hours.
I could blame it all on the flight but I shouldn’t – the timings were not favourable as we had a night flight, the only timing available because of a fare offer. We arrived in Hong Kong at around 5am on a Monday and was back at the airport at 4am on Wednesday for our flight back home.
I regretted not doing more research. I thought that I wouldn’t have much time to see much anyway and so decided to just focus on shopping. I gorged myself on shopping malls, cheap bargain stalls and night markets – I thought I was in shopping heaven.
If people were to tell me about the amazing food in Hong Kong that they had found, I would tell them, I couldn’t remember what I ate. Street food was delicious but where was all the good restaurants with all the awesome goodness of Hong Kong cuisine? I regretted not finding out more about the many food options.
So I shopped and I spent. I went home with a luggage full of new treasures and not much more of Hong Kong itself.
The irony of all these? I have yet to wear any of the clothes after all these months. All because I did something I told myself never to do. I bought them without trying it on. Because why? It was cheap!! And the shops didn’t allow me to try it on.
So, yes, I regret all the shopping that I did in Hong Kong. So much for making it into a shopping trip.
Lesson learnt.
Hong Kong, I will do you better next time. I promise.
such is life – sometimes you only have a small chance to see a place sadly. It will still be there in a few years I’m sure, and when flying to Europe it’s easy to get a flight via HK and take a few days.
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Oh yes, definitely. It also helps that it’s close by too so anytime there’s an airfare promotion, I’ll be sure to look out for one to HK now…haha…:)
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Don’t regret. The Peak is cool. Sometimes the only research that is worth it is last-minute. And what’s wrong with shopping malls 🙂
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Nothing wrong with the malls but I just wished I had spent more time exploring HK rather than just being in the malls…BUT I was on limited time so I chose to shop then….next time I will spend more time elsewhere….:)
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These lessons are the ones that really stick with us, painful as they are. could you try the clothes on over top of what you were wearing?
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Haha, not really…they didn’t let me do it…so…it would seem that some of the clothes will just have to be off to the flea markets instead, oh well…:)
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Not to put salt in the wound, but Cheung Chau island was pretty amazing 😉
I’ve nominated your blog for a Liebster Award. Check out the post here!
http://spartanwanderer.com/2014/06/18/i-won-an-award/
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Hahaha, thanks for the salt…let me put it rub it in myself………but yeah, I’ve definitely been reading about places in HK which I kind of regret but no matter, there’s always another time since it’s close by.
Anyway, thanks for the award!! I’ve actually been nominated before but more is always welcomed. of course!! I’ll make some time for questions maybe, I like to answer questions…haha…cheers! 🙂
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That is the great thing about life, we get second chances. Now you can dream about your next trip and where you will go, and if I know anything about you, you will have a well developed plan, lol!
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Oh yes, I’m already looking around for cheap airfares…who knows when I would get to visit again…but this time, I definitely will make sure I have more things on hand than just shopping!! Haha…:)
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A brilliant excuse to go back! Sorted! 😉
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Absolutely! Raring to go again now….:)
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You’ll be back soon and it’ll be amazing! Make sure you write about the amazing food stalls you find 🙂
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Next time, definitely. 🙂
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Ownnn! Dont worry next time you will enjoy as much as you can! 😃 and I will look forward to read about it!!
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Thanks! I shall look forward to my next trip there…:)
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🙂
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Well, that’s a pity. Hope you get a promotional air fare soon! There is lot’s to see here in HK! Just curious – where did you shop where they wouldn’t let you try on the clothes?
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Hello!! Sorry for the late reply. I am certainly looking forward to visiting again! Haha…
The places that I visited were mostly bargain shops…so they didn’t really let me try it on each time I asked…so…my bad I suppose…oh well…:)
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I think people, travel people 😀 , would be very disappointed reading this. 🙂 I gotta be honest, Sha….. But hey! At least you admittedly declare it, and recognized what your mistake was. When I was in Italy, I regret a lot of things afterwards because I didn’t get to some of the places I could had easily gone to. When I went to another foreign country, Japan, I was motivated, more forceful to people I went with :D, and I really tried to hit every places I wanted to go to. I couldn’t let time and opportunity go into waste. I learnt from my lesson. I hope you will too. 😉 Loved your honest confession here.
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Hey! Sorry for the late reply. 🙂
Lol…I can expect all those travel people to come after me for confessing then…”I went to HK only to shop!!”…haha..
but yeah…I keep reading about all these other places in HK and I didn’t even know they had a beach!! (Me love beaches!!) Of course…I did visit during winter…but I did really wish I had spent time getting to explore rather than shop and end up with clothes I do not wear…>.<
Lesson learnt. No shopping. Haha…^_^
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🙂 Thank you for this post. I will be in Hong Kong for 2 weeks and some told me that is too much, searching about the city I am falling more and more and this post just confirmed that it was a good choice to take my time there 🙂 tks again!
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Oh no, you should certainly stay as long as you want. I’ve been reading a lot of posts on HK which is why I mentioned that I regret spending so little time there just to shop since there are so much more things to do there.
And for those who says it’s too much time, I would say just go with your own feeling. My friends said the same thing to me when I went to Sydney for 2 weeks and I ended up wishing I could stay longer!
So good luck on your travels! 🙂
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Thanks again, maybe you wish for more after 2 weeks as you do more than just touristic things so you kinda fall for a place.. a little 🙂
Good luck to you too!
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Oh yes, it’s nice to just take things slow and maybe get out of touristy things…:)
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Oh no – they didn’t fit? Often the shop owners are pretty good at sizing, too. They were obviously too busy making their sale! You’ll definitely have to do a return trip – luckily not too far.
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Yeah, it didn’t really fit but definitely makes my psyched to go again for a different experience this time round..:)
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