When I started traveling, I had initially expected to stay entirely within Southeast Asia, but, upon looking more closely at a map, I realized that my eastward journey home would take me through (or at least close to) some interesting places that would be worth a visit. I had always been fascinated by Japanese culture, so I knew that would be my last stop in Asia; in fact, I had already purchased a flight from Tokyo to L.A. (entirely with credit card rewards – score!) since I knew my timeline for being back in the states. And though I’ve never really been interested in mainland China, I was intrigued by the east-meets-west nature of Hong Kong.
Toward the end of my time in Thailand, I started putting together a rough timeline for each country and fired off an email to my friend Ka-Hing, a former coworker at Riverbed. Ka-Hing is also going through something of a sabbatical and has temporarily moved back to Hong Kong, his birthplace. As expected, he was quite agreeable to getting together while I was in town, but his response also included an interesting bit of information: Andrew, a friend of ours and another former coworker at Riverbed, was kicking around the idea of a trip to Hong Kong and Japan to christen his own newly realized sabbatical. The fact that I was already going and had start and end dates already set served as pretty good motivation for him to buy some plane tickets and join me.
Being first world, Hong Kong is much more expensive than Southeast Asia, so Andrew and I gave ourselves about a week to enjoy it. I was very happy to have a travel buddy for that time, not least of which because the cheapest accommodation we could find was a small hotel room for $100 a night. After being used to guesthouses or cheap hotels at around $20 a night, even $50 a night was a heavy hit.
Almost every day of the next week was spent wandering around some part of the city, sometimes with a destination in mind, sometimes not. Being from San Francisco, we both enjoy walking a lot, so we would often walk until it was time for sustenance, whether that meant food or beer or both. Andrew is also vegetarian, which ended up being a huge blessing, as veggie food in Hong Kong (and Japan, but that comes later) is difficult to come by, requiring a lot of research, searching, and patience. I feel fairly certain that if my travel companion for those two countries wasn’t veggie, he or she would have become pretty annoyed with me pretty quickly.
Chances are that if we weren’t walking, we were taking advantage of Hong Kong’s excellent public transportation, mostly the MTR (their rail system). Andrew had 3G service on his phone, so access to Google Maps was all we needed to easily navigate the city, which certainly speaks volumes about Google Maps and modern technology in general. This also speaks highly of Hong Kong’s transportation systems, which are fast, on-time, and reasonably priced. Even the taxis are strictly regulated to the point of ensuring a consistent experience: all taxis are identical-looking, drivers must give change less than $100 HKD, and customers cannot be refused based on their destination.
My notes to myself for the Hong Kong portion of the trip are basically a laundry list of neighborhoods and tourist sites: Central, Mid-levels (including the world’s longest covered outdoor escalator system), Wan Chai, Kennedy Town, Times Square, Mong Kok, Jordan, Lan Kwai Fong (for lots of nightlife), the Star Ferry, rooftop bars, Tian Tan Buddha, smaller neighborhood temples, a variety of city parks (including an aviary and a museum about teapots), and casual rides on ding dings (double-decker trams somewhat reminiscent of the cable cars in San Francisco).
While wandering through Mong Kok, a neighborhood known for its shopping, we happened upon some (apparent) celebrities in the form of three handsome, almost identical-looking guys in very similar outfits. Whether they were fashion models, a boy band, actors, celebrity triplets, or something else is beyond me, but there was a non-trivial crowd of fans, reporters, and photographers around them. Andrew and I climbed up to the second floor of a nearby mall for a better view and watched for a bit. I still have no idea who these guys were.
After Mong Kok, we took the MTR to Jordan to check out a well-reviewed vegetarian restaurant. As we walked around the neighborhood before dinner, I convinced Andrew to join me for a foot massage in a back-alley, third-floor, also-someone’s-apartment massage shop (are there any other kind?). Initially, the ladies assumed we wanted oil massages and ushered us into the back rooms, disposable mesh underwear in hand. Based on how one of them was dressed, I’m fairly certain that some “extra services” were also available for purchase. After explaining that we just wanted foot massages, the ladies called in some reinforcements and we enjoyed an hour of massage and Hong Kong TV for about $12 a piece. Much more expensive than Southeast Asia, but still a good deal compared to America. In retrospect, I’m pretty sure the ladies were mildly annoyed that we wanted only foot massages.
The restaurant was good and in the traditional Chinese style and we were pleased to see we were the only Westerners in there. In fact, the waitress complimented me on the ability to use chopsticks, so they really must not get a lot of tourists.
Hong Kong is a place with a lot of different photo opportunities and two of my favorite spots were Victoria Peak (at night) and Chi Lin Nunnery. Victoria Peak is a tourist trap for sure and packed with people, but offers up some incredible views of the skyline on both sides of the water. Chi Lin Nunnery is a sprawling complex with temples, statues, rock gardens, bridges, walkways, ponds, and lush plants; like most of the other green spaces in Hong Kong, towering modern buildings in the background make for a classically Asian dichotomy.
On our only Sunday of the trip, Ka-Hing invited me and Andrew to join him for a hiking meetup that was starting in the late morning. After shaking off some mild hangovers, we took the train to Tung Chung, a station very close to the airport popular with outdoor enthusiasts going hiking or biking and shopping enthusiasts going to the mall. We met up with about 15 others and hiked for the rest of the day along the coast of Lantau Island, stopping for a noodle soup lunch in the mid-afternoon. The destination of the hike was Tai O, a small fishing village that has become a tourist destination for locals and foreigners alike. Sometimes referred to as the “Venice of Hong Kong”, its visual attraction comes from its waterways and stilted houses. The hike itself was beautiful and a welcome injection of exercise, but I also really enjoyed chatting with lots of locals all afternoon, most of whom are fluent in English.
Later that day, Andrew and I embarked on an unexpected adventure while in search of some live music. Courtesy of TimeOut Hong Kong, I had found an album release party for Carsick Cars, a Chinese indie rock band. The venue was named Hidden Agenda, which turned out to be an apt name indeed. We took a bus from Wan Chai for about half an hour and were dropped off in a dark, industrial part of the city. After we crossed under the highway and started wandering among closed warehouses and workshops, we noticed a couple was walking towards us. Sensing our confusion, the boy asked us if we were there to see Carsick Cars. After we confirmed, we followed him to one of the many featureless buildings, through an unmarked door into a body shop, and up a yellow steel elevator to the second floor. Once the doors opened, we were greeted by the familiar sight of walls covered in music fliers, teenagers in skinny jeans, and a cheap card table supporting the weight of a cashbox and a pile of paper tickets.
Overall the show was okay; Carsick Cars was good, but one of the opening bands was pretty horrendous. After their set, I told Andrew that I was really impressed… with how three technically proficient musicians could combine to make such terrible music. Luckily patrons of the club could make a “donation” to the venue and receive a free beer in return, being that Hidden Agenda obviously doesn’t have a liquor license. While the music was mostly forgettable, the evening as a whole was one of the most memorable parts of the trip.
My impressions and memories of Hong Kong are very positive. I was (and still am) very impressed with how clean (no spitting!), safe, and well-designed the city is. Public transportation is excellent, the British/Chinese culture is quite interesting, and I didn’t feel claustrophobic, even though Hong Kong is one of the most dense places on the planet. We met a lot of very friendly and interesting people and felt at ease communicating since English is spoken everywhere. Mostly because I’m vegetarian, I’m not really a fan of Chinese food and Hong Kong didn’t do anything to change that, but, like any good global city, there are plenty of other food options available. I feel like Andrew and I hit the pavement pretty hard and I don’t feel the need to go back as a tourist, but if somehow a professional opportunity in Hong Kong came up, I’d be hard-pressed to turn it down.
After a few more days of wandering the neighborhoods and a few more late nights, it was finally time to say goodbye. Ka-Hing joined us for a beer on our last night and luckily one of us remembered to get a photo before Andrew and I left on an early flight to Kyoto the next morning.
