Here come the girls...

Home for one night...re pack the next morning, go to work and then get a driver to HONG KONG! The boys were off to Macau (very exciting...David Beckham posted on Instagram that he was there too - but they didn't bump into him!!)  us girls thought it was a great excuse for cocktails, brunch and shopping! Hong Kong is a couple of hours away from Gaungzhou on the train and it took us 2.5hrs by car straight to the hotel. We stayed in the Wan Chai district and headed out for a dinner at 'The Optimist' which is known for it's tapas style dishes and grill menu. Their gin cocktails were also pretty special!!

After dinner we headed to Woomoomaloo, a rooftop bar - with spectacular views of the city...

The next day we headed over to Causeway Bay to a cute little place for brunch, called Elephant Grounds. We did some shopping around here and then got the metro (which is really easy...buy a pre paid Octopus card which saves hassle going to ticket machines) to the central area.
Here, there were lots of shops - naming a few: Topshop, Zara and Marks & Spencer!! Topped up on Percy Pigs and enjoyed a bit more familiarity. Also there were a lot of Christmas decorations up, so started to get more into the Christmas spirit! Enjoyed a cheeky cocktail at the Mercedes bar (with a ginormous ice cube) before heading back to the hotel for a nap and to get ready for our night out!

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That evening we headed to The Globe, a nice pub with a good atmosphere, food and drinks. A friend that I used to work with at Bohunt, now lives in Hong Kong, so he came and met us for a few drinks which was so lovely! Weird seeing someone so familiar in a place I had never been before but was now so close!

After this we went to a quirky bar with live music, The Iron Fairies on the way to Lan Kwai Fong (where most of the bars and clubs are). This place had real butterflies hanging from the ceiling, little booths made of old submarine pods, fairy dust and just a fun vibe. The live band were equally as amazing and the place was full of people dancing, singing and having a great time. After being here for a few hours we ventured out to a few other bars in LKF which were so busy and a lot of Westerners there which felt a bit more like being in any other city in the world!

The next day, Kate and I were getting an early train so we headed off to the IFC mall for breakfast at Pret A Manger!! And then got the double decker train back to Guangzhou East station.

I cannot wait to go back to Hong Kong again, do some more touristy bits and go and hunt down some of the recommendations Emma has kindly given us!! Great weekend...and only 13 more teaching days till we fly home :-)

View from the Apple store in IFC Mall across to the harbour of HK