Hong Kong Phooey

Post plane ride where every person watched the safety demonstration as if David Beckam was doing a live underwear runway show down the main aisle (that illuminates in case of emergency), we hailed a cab to get us to our hotel for the night. In order to cross the border into Hong Kong, we opted to take a late flight from Shanghai to Shenzhen, China, then take the subway the following day. Since we were leaving mainland China, we were trying to get rid of our Chinese Yuan, and had just enough to get us through our last few hours. Unfortunately, the cab was much longer and more expensive than what we’d read and sucked up almost all of our cash. We were short for the key deposit at the hotel, a pretty standard practice that is uber annoying and ties up our money, leaving us with a surplus of the wrong currency when we move countries. We failed to find an ATM in this little border city that would accept foreign cards, and negotiated with the lady at the front desk. At almost 2am, we finally placed our heads onto our pillows in a private room for the first time in almost our entire time in China. It was wonderful!

The next day, we found some cash, breakfast, and the subway thanks to a helpful travel agent, took the subway to the border, exited the station, followed the masses through customs, and literally walked to Hong Kong. It was funny.

Our 5 days in Hong Kong were a mix of street markets, fried breakfast food, and questionable guesthouses. Hong Kong is a very diverse city, totally unlike any of the other main metropolitans we’d visited before. This was the first time we experienced ethnic diversity among the Asian cities, along with a few other city life comforts we’re used to in the states; extremely high end shopping, plenty of street food, diners that the locals rave about, and 24/7 hustle and bustle.

Our first night in town, we explored our neighborhood in Kowloon, an urban area that borders Victoria Harbor and boasts a great view of the Hong Kong Island skyline across the water. We had been on a diet of fried Chinese street food and ramen noodles for the last few weeks and missed protein and comfort foods. We happened to stumble upon the cheapest jar of peanut butter we’d seen in all of Asia, so we bought it, grabbed 2 spoons, and enjoyed (…the entire jar. In 2 days. Then we bought another, and ate that jar before we left. It was a dream come true. Don’t judge). This is all I remember of my first night in Hong Kong. Frankly, nothing else mattered.

Day 2 was spent roaming up and down Nathan, the main drag in Kowloon, and where the Hong Kong protests were making world news headlines. It was INCREDIBLY cool to see first hand a potentially pivotal point in Hong Kong’s history. Informally coined ‘The Umbrella Movement” for the umbrellas used to protect protestors against police fired tear gas, we experienced a completely calm and peaceful demonstration. Participants barricaded the main intersections for a portion of the street with whatever they could find, set up tents and canopies, and called Nathan St. home for the better part of two months. There was no issue with tourists and onlookers to wander right through their camp. Many people took pictures, exchanged friendly ‘hello’s’ and talked politics. It was very calm, albeit extremely disrupting to the surrounding businesses and public transportation. We were strongly urged to avoid the buses and only travel by foot or subway, which we happily obliged.

I follow a wonderful blogger and DIY goddess on Instagram (@apairandaspare) who lives in Hong Kong and travels predominantly throughout Asia. Her blog is not only covered with a do-it-yourselfers dream list of arts and crafts, many of which I have earmarked for when we get back, but also an amazing selection of travel guides. Will had been doing 98% of the planning and research for all of our daily activities, travel, hostels, etc. (I run the social media and marketing campaign so you people know we’re alive), so I said I would take care of Hong Kong planning for us.

Per A Pair and a Spare's recommendations, I knew I wanted to explore the many street markets Hong Kong has to offer. We wandered through fish markets, bird markets, flower markets, night markets. We stumbled upon markets between markets. Nothing really piqued our interest to purchase, but we took many photos and had a great time simply exploring.

That evening, we got fancy and walked to the waterfront to watch the light show. Buildings in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon’s skylines participate in the light show that’s mildy entertaining. We grabbed a few beers to really class it up a notch and sipped as we watched each building take it’s turn displaying bright lights into the sky to music. We left before it was over…

Will heard about a bar in our neighborhood that just so happened to be the oldest bar in all of Hong Kong, so naturally we wanted to check it out. We sipped on wine and beer as a jazz band played and the entertaining lead singer kept mildly inappropriate jokes flowing as fast as the wine needed refilling. We met an eclectic group of coworkers on a night out, both became obsessed with the Italian couple of the group (there is just something so magical and possessing about Italians!! They fought like cats and dogs and we left saying “THEY ARE SO COOL!”), and enjoyed our evening out talking travel. We bid farewell outside the bar with a list of Hong Kong ‘must-sees’ and our friends mosied over to Kakalok for late night bar food. We walked the short distance back to our room in the Chungking Mansion and snuggled up for the night.

Do not let ‘mansion’ fool you, as our accommodations were slightly gross and there is nothing mansion like about the place except that it’s 17 floors. Each floor houses budget guesthouses that are popular with travelers and ethnic minorities in the area. The main few floors are filled with Indian food shops (that smell amazing) and stores to buy SIM cards. Every step through the main floor someone is trying to sell you something. The elevators are questionable and extremely slow. So slow, in fact, that we opted for the stairs more than once even though we lived on the 10th floor. But, per the usual, we never stay inside for long and we practically made friends with the pushy salesmen.

This was our second room in the mansions. It was literally the size of this bed. Will had to sleep diagonally because he was too tall and his feet hit the wall at the foot of the bed.

The Chungking Mansions was also our first experience with the shower/toilet combo. Gotta go? Just use the toilet like normal. Need a shower? Shut the toilet lid and shower away. The water heater is on the left wall. The hand held shower head isn't picutred.

Outside the mansions, the streets were also bustling with pushy salesmen. From custom suits to ‘copycat’ designer bags, evey step meant saying “no thank you” to some Indian man trying to sell me a silk shirt. One day, I walked down the street saying “NO THANK YOU” on repeat. I must have been hangry.

Per our friends from Ned Kelly’s, we had awesome fried egg sandwhich’s for breakfast at a super popular little diner called Kakalok Fast Food Shop. There are no seats- only take away. The sandwhich was nothing special, just white bread, crusts removed, with a fried egg, tomoato, and cheese or ham if you wanted, but it was delicious. I smeared chili paste all over mine. Yum.

We walked to the bus stop and waited in line as mini bus after mini bus pulled up to take passengers to Stanley beach. We waited maybe an hour before our turn, there were so many people waiting to go. It was worth the wait, because although the beach was nothing compared to some of the others we’ve seen, it was the first time I was outside and not cold. In fact, I was outside, in my swimming suit, and I wasn’t cold. It was miraculous!!! We spent the day being beach bums and explored the little market near by the beach. It was a super calm, relaxing day.

The following morning, we enjoyed another Kakalok fried egg sammie and took the subway to Lantau Island. Our first stop was a climb up the 268 steps to see the Tian Tan Buddha, also known as "the world's second tallest outdoor bronze seated Buddha.” Althought it's claim to fame is a bit ridicuous, it was extremely beautiful.

Back on the ground, we walked through the Po Lin Monestary, full of plenty of gold and shine. They serve a great vegetarian a la carte lunch. We chose the mock duck three ways, fried noodles, and some dessert bar that must have been related to Rice Krispie. It was tasty and cheap, and the money went to support the monks and monestary, so it was a feel-good meal.

Since we were on Lantau Island, we figured we would see the other main sites all in one day, so we took a bus to Taio to see the stilt village. All of the homes are built right in the water on stilts. It used to be a predominant fishing villiage, but now has become more of a tourist spot than fishing town.

Back on the bus, I had planned for us to go to another beautiful beach. I read it was the best in Hong Kong. There were two bus stops we could get off at, so I felt confident we would be able to figure it out. I was super excited to have more beach time. The bus stops were not announced in English, so we tried our best to decipgher what the driver said and what we thought the stop was called. To my disappointment, we totally missed the stop and ended up at the bus station. There was an OK beach there, so we just cut our losses and spent a few hours there. It wasn’t hot, but it was still nice to feel the sunshine. Since we didn’t end up where we thought we would, our return trip plans changed from the subway to the ferry. It ended up being a neat way to see Hong Kong, and we actually really enjoyed the hour and a half trip back to Kowloon.

We got up early and probably ate at Kokolok again (I can’t recall) before starting an amazing hike to the top of Victoria Peak. We opted for a route that wasn’t very commom, and I had mapped out a few trails I wanted us to follow. 4 hours later, we had reached the summit super sweaty and super hungry. Luckily, the Peak is also accessible by gondola, so there is a mall of restaurants and shops with plenty of creature comforts. Since we are budget travelers, we found a grocery store and grabbed some food to eat picnic style at a park further up the peak.

We stopped back at the mall area to debate our return route, not quite excited about trekking the way we came. While discussing a few options on the map, a nice English guy suggested a route that wrapped down the other side of the mountain, a mere 30 minute jaunt. We were easily sold, descended the incredibly steep path, and made it back to the city before sundown. There was an antique market I wanted to explore, so we visited that on our way home. We got back, showered, grabbed some dinner out, and called it another successful day of travel.

Our flight to Taiwan was early, so we had prepped everything the previous night to make an easy morning. We got dressed, grabbed our packs, checked out, and were on our way to the subway station to transport us to the airport.

Subway tickets are purchased from a vending machine. We had plotted our route and transfers the previous day so we knew exactly what to buy. We got to a machine, typed in our destination, and waited.

No luck.

We tried it again, and again, and again, no luck. We switched to the next machine.

Again, no go. We couldn’t select the airport stop on the touch screen. After plenty of aggravated taps, a passerby ran up to suggest we get help from a station attendant, as it was too early to go to the airport via the station we were in. The attendant suggest a route that needed multiple transfers and cost significantly more than we had planned for. Begrudgingly, we bought the tickets and rushed to the platform. We were behind schedule.

“Uh oh.”

“What?”

“My birkenstocks are sitting in our room.”

“WHAT?”

“I meant to grab them. I accidentally left them under the bed...”

So, I ran through the train station, down the street, and back to the Chungking Mansion, waited forever for the elevator, flew into reception, borrowed the key to our room, grabbed my beloved sandals, tossed the key back on the reception desk, took a few breaths waiting for the elevator, and ran back to the station. I had to re-purchase my ticket. I got back to the platform right as our train pulled away. My little mishap got me quite the eye roll…

We made it to the airport in plenty of time, boarded the plane, and once again, we were off to another country.

From Hong Kong, with Love,

Sara + Will