On arrival go directly to Soho. Do not pass go. Ogle. Eat. Drink. Catch a ferry to Lamma Island. Stay there.
OK so I'm no expert, having been in Hong Kong just over a week now, but my experience of the main areas (Kowloon city, Central, Wan Chai) is one of overriding commercialism of the most impersonal variety, where everything has a price and only the price matters, and where East-meets-West really means faceless capitalism with some local colour painted on top as a facade. Don't get me wrong: it is safe, friendly, clean and easy, and if a bit of high-class shopping and strolling is what you are in the mood for then Asia may have very little to challenge it (yet). Unfortunately this kind of environment generally makes me want to scream, shave my head, climb onto the tallest building and open fire with a Kalashnikov. It induces a fit of pique in which anyone within earshot has to suffer yet another anti-consumerism first-world injustice-of-it-all tirade that benefits no one. In short, it is not my thing.
Even so, a small part of me does enjoy it a little once a decade or so provided I can escape again (but minus the impersonal quality of the high street or mall obviously), and so I found the area around Hollywood Road, especially South Of Hollywood Road, fitted the bill pretty nicely. It is a small manageable area sandwiched between Central and Mid-Levels full of small bohemian independents selling trinkets, antiques and arts of all kinds from Asia in general and South China in particular. Peppered among these wonders are great bars and restaurants, again mostly independents, selling just about every cuisine under the sun. Life cafe was very Ellen Friendly in a hippie vegetarian health-food kind of way, and there were plenty of Thai and middle-eastern joints to satisfy our more indulgent desires. All in all I can find absolutely no reason to recommend wasting time in any other district of Kowloon or Hong Kong Island; maybe one day if China stops poisoning the earth with such gay abandon it may be possible to see further than ten yards, in which case a stroll up top the Peak for a possible view may be advised, but until then you can get the same effect by just steaming up your bathroom.
After spending a couple of clean functional but ultimately impersonal and depressing nights in the centrally located HK Guesthouse our search for reality led us onto Lamma Island, where we are are currently ensconced among kindred spirits, in other words other hippie dysfunctionals who can't hack it in the fast lane. Its a bit like Stroud only on a small island off South China where even at night it rarely drops below 20 degrees, even now. There is a great laid-back small island feeling here, and it seems to have become quite a refuge for greenies, anti-consumerists, peace warriors and generally folk who want to find positive alternatives to the hectic madness that is Hong Kong. There are no motor vehicles on the island (well, a couple of exceptions) so the noise tends to come from the chatter and hubbub of the main streets and the lapping of waves against the shore instead; people have time to stop and chat, not everything is about money here, and most tellingly Chinese and Western folk are far more intermingled than in the rest of HK. Its the kind of place where people come for the afternoon and before they know it find that they've raised a family here, and where jaded old hippies like me can restore some sense of perspective. In fact I am typing this from the most excellently restorative Bookworm Cafe (restaurant, internet point, bookshop, library and cafe).