Business trips can be frustrating: visiting exciting, exotic places and being stuck in hotels, meetings and conferences until it’s time to fly home. Hong Kong is a fantastic venue for Sibos 2009, and, at WealthCraft we are very fortunate to have our HQ here. We are also very fortunate not to be spending money on flights and hotels, so we thought the least we could do for our friends from around the world is to make sure you enjoy the experience by giving you our top ten things to do and see while you’re in town. 

1.       Leave Sibos at 5:00 pm one day and get the famous Star Ferry from Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui and go directly to number 2 on the list.

2.       Go to Aqua Spirit at sunset – definitely one of the coolest bars in the world – order cocktails and watch as the lights on Hong Kong’s iconic skyscrapers get switched on.  Preview it here . Aqua also have a superb restaurant on the floor below the cocktail bar.

3.       Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, not far from Aqua, has a great chilled atmosphere, more cool bars, live music and great views of Hong Kong Island.

4.       Want to break out of Sibos for an informal meeting? Get out of the conference centre and get the best cup of coffee in Hong Kong at Zambra, 239, Jaffe Road, Wan Chai. It’s about a 5 minute walk. It’s great for breakfast too, when  you get tired of the hotel buffet.

5.       Fun bars that stay open late with good live bands can be found in the two main entertainment districts, Wan Chai and Lan Kwai Fong. Favourites are Dusk til Dawn in Jaffe Road, Wan Chai and Insomnia in Lan Kwai Fong, Central District. If your music tastes are more hardcore, try Amazonia in Luard Road, that links Lockhart Road and Jaffe Road in Wan Chai. Conveniently, it is opposite a row of decent late night takeaways, like Ebenezers, who do the best kebabs in Hong Kong…

6.       For a more civilized evening out, head for Elgin Road, and Staunton Road, SoHo, where you will find a great range of high quality restaurants, the majority of which are reasonably priced. One favourite is Enoteca, a chilled-out Mediterranean wine bar/café. You can sit there for hours munching away at appetizers like seared tuna with sesame, rare beef with chilli and fried squid with aoli and harisa sauce. They also do superb, oven-fired pizzas and the wine is not too expensive.

7.       For a real Hong Kong experience go to Mong Kok in Kowloon and wander around the markets, like the famous Temple Street Night Market and grab some bargain gifts for the folks back home. The whole area is clustered into groups of specialist retailers, from consumer electronics to tropical fish, so you should find plenty of whatever happens to be on your shopping list. When you get hungry, go to the Temple Spicy Crabs Restaurant in Temple Street and eat some stunning, cheap food out on the pavement with the locals.

8.       Take a trip to Stanley, on the south coast of Hong Kong Island. It has a completely different feel to bustling Hong Kong Central – like a Victorian English seaside town with a Chinese accent. There are some good bars and restaurants along the seafront and a market you can lose yourself in for an hour or two.

9.       A must-do is to take the Peak Tram up and tramp around on the world’s most expensive piece of real estate. It’s a bit of a tourist trap, but go after dark, make sure your camera batteries are fully charged and get some spectacular photos.

10.   Take a hike! You won’t have much spare time, but one thing that amazes visitors to Hong Kong is the beauty of the countryside, the islands and the mountains, so roll it all into one and take a ferry from Central Pier 4 to Lamma Island.  There are two ferries, so our recommended itinerary is to take the 30 minute trip to Yung Shue Wan, a fascinating experience in its own right, take a look around the shops, have a drink or a bite to eat (Sampan is very good), then follow the path that goes across to Sok Kwu Wan. The walk will take around an hour and a half along a paved path and go over a few hills, so you will feel like you have had some exercise. Sok Kwu Wan has some great seafood restaurants, so have something to eat, then get the ferry from there back to Central.

Hong Kong has a brilliantly efficient public transport system, but if time is short, take taxis to wherever you want to go as they still offer a cheap way to get around.

As you can imagine, putting these ideas together was a lively exercise and there are a lot more that didn’t make it into this list, so come and see us at Booth 3G15 if you want to know more, or are looking for something really specific.

Most of all we recommend that you actually make the time to do some of this stuff, by adding one or both of the weekends either side of Sibos to onto your trip – you’ll be glad you did!

See you at Sibos!

The WealthCraft Team