Cool World: Shek O

Hong Kong is a crazily busy city, and it often doesn't take long there for the average visitor to start craving a bit of piece of quiet.

Last October I was delighted to visit Shek O, which was - in mid-morning on a weekday - delightfully peaceful and quiet. It's a seaside village on the south-east corner of Hong Kong Island, and has pretty much all the open air cafes, corner shops and deckchair vendors you would expect from a seaside village. It's also got a lovely view of the South China Sea.

I didn't go swimming - to be honest, any city where they recommend you check the paper for daily pollutant levels before jumping into the ocean is probably not a city where it's worth going for a swim. For the record, the Hong Kong SAR government rates the beach quality as "Grade 2", which is pretty much average as it's a three-point scale. The beach is fitted with a shark net.

While I didn't try swimming, I did have an explore over the rocks: you can see them in the photograph above and they're populated with a charming species of colourful blue crab (all of whom moved far too quickly to photograph.

Cool World: Hidden Agenda

I don't understand people who dismiss Hong Kong. I've been involved in many conversations - more than I can count, actually - where someone mentions they went to Hong Kong, and someone else asks them what it was like, and the first person sort of sniffs and says something along the lines of 'Oh, it's OK, if you like that sort of thing. It's all air-conditioned shopping malls, really. Totally soulless.' Then they usually recommend some sort of hipster-ish holiday destination they think is much better. And this saddens me every time, because it means the first person failed to find the real Hong Kong beyond the touristy veneer, and it means the second person has probably been discouraged from ever trying.

Hong Kong is an awesome city, and it's only getting more awesome over time. In recent years, for example, there has been a positive explosion of independent music in the city that defies its image of clean-cut idol singers and manufactured girl groups. One of the epicentres of this musical scene seems to be the live music venue Hidden Agenda.

Cool World: Bruce Lee and the Avenue of the Stars

Running along the foreshore of Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, there's a tourist attraction known as "the Avenue of the Stars". It's basically Hong Kong's own version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with numerous cement sections of the pavement containing actors' signatures and handprints.

There are handprints by the world-famous (Jackie Chan, Jet Li), as well as many by actors probably not well known outside of Asia. It's a mild diversion in itself (Jet Li has astonishingly small hands), but it does feature two very cool highlights. Firstly there's the view of Hong Kong itself, which looks fantastic all lit up at night. Secondly, there's this fabulous bronze statue of Hong Kong's most famous screen icon, the late Bruce Lee.