For at least six years now, I’ve nearly religiously listened to Group Therapy, the weekly radio show from dance trio Above & Beyond. Every 50 episodes – so, once a year – they put on a big show somewhere in the world, with the location changing every year. In recent years, the show has grown to a two-day affair, putting it on par with a small music festival. Several months ago, they revealed that this year’s show – episode #300 – would be in Hong Kong, the first “milestone” show of theirs to be held in Asia.
While I was on my big backpacking trip a few years ago, it was comforting to listen to that weekly show. No matter where I was in the world, I could always count on a familiar voice and two hours of music to put a smile on my face and keep me moving. I would often listen while working on photos or my blog in a coffee shop in some foreign land, but other times their podcast was the background music to something more interesting, like a bus ride along a winding mountain road or a ferry ride to a beautiful tropical island. Though it’s cheesy and an over-used sentiment, that music was the soundtrack to my travels and continues to be part of the soundtrack of my life.
I’ve seen Above & Beyond in person twice (including this past year), but considered it something of a bucket list item to go to one of their annual shows. Subscribing to the view of “If not now, then when?”, I decided that this would be the year I would finally go (before I’m too old to be doing stuff like this). I decided to build a trip around the show, so I formulated a plan: I would stay in Hong Kong for a week and work remotely, go to the show on the weekend, then take off from work the following week and go to Taiwan.
Towards the end of September, after a long week of work and trip preparations, I left for SFO’s international terminal to catch my Friday night red-eye. After a long but tolerable travel day, I arrived in Hong Kong Sunday morning and proceeded to have an almost identical first-day experience to the last time I was here. Without the assistance of the mid-levels escalators, I hauled my bags up the hill to my SoHo Airbnb – only a few minutes’ walk from the previous Airbnb I stayed in – and arrived a sweaty mess. After checking in, I spent the rest of the day wandering SoHo and Central, taking photos, and enjoying the perfect weather. I ended up turning in quite early that day because I didn’t sleep much on the plane. Still, it was exhilarating to be back in such a fascinating place.
Monday morning was a different story, as I had to get back to work. This was a somewhat bad case of the Mondays since it was raining heavily and I got utterly lost trying to find my coworking space. I ended up on the wrong floor of the wrong tower in the wrong building. Hong Kong’s beautiful labyrinth of streets, escalators, breezeways, alleys, and skyscrapers is undoubtedly romantic and exotic, but can be really frustrating when you aren’t a tourist and actually need to be somewhere on time.
Once I got my bearings and found the correct suite and got situated, my uber-productive work week began. I really enjoy these remote work stints in Asia because I finally have sizable blocks of time to get work done without any interruptions. After an hour-long session each morning to catch up on emails and Slack messages from the previous day, the entire day is mine! This particular week, I was working on a proof of concept UI for a new feature, so I would hack all day, send the day’s results to my manager and colleague before leaving, then wake up the next morning to feedback and suggestions. The lack of distractions, fast feedback cycle, and minimal communication time – only messages, no calls or meetings – probably doubled my normal efficiency. It was a great week of remote work, as usual.
The mid-levels escalators are one of my favorite parts of Hong Kong, so I had intentionally picked my Airbnb and my coworking space such that I would have to take the escalators every day during my commute.
Since I was pretty busy with my project for the week, I tried to make the most of my free time in the evenings. On Tuesday, I met up with a friend and her husband for dinner at one of their favorite restaurants in the city. On Wednesday, I met up with some friends of friends – also from California – and went to the races in Happy Valley, a popular Hong Kong activity that has been an omission from both of my previous trips to the city. While hundreds (or probably even thousands) of older men in the stands and boxes did their research and placed serious bets on the horses, we ate fried food and drank pitchers of beer on the concourse. The warm evening weather, quasi-party atmosphere, and photogenic background create a fun scene on their own, but because of the time of year, there was also an Oktoberfest element added to the mix in the form of German beer stands, lots of festive outfits, and even a dance troupe who performed on stage. The concourse definitely had the highest concentration of Westerners I had ever seen in Hong Kong.
Thursday evening was my pre-scheduled Airbnb “experience”, a walking tour to Victoria Peak starting at dusk. For most people in the group, it was their first time to Hong Kong and their first time booking a tour through Airbnb. As everyone introduced themselves, we realized that most of us were in town for the same reason and most were also flying solo. Our tour guide, Alfred, was a long-time Hong Kong resident and took us through the maze of the city, up the mid-levels escalators, and along a dark jungle path to various viewpoints and eventually the peak itself. He was pleasant and talkative, everyone in the group was friendly and buzzing as well, and the latter half of the hike had amazing views of the city and harbor below.
On Friday, after finishing up for the week with another strong workday, I took the MTR to Kowloon and walked to the promenade to catch the nightly laser and light show, which we had also seen the night before from our perch far above the city. Hong Kong is my favorite skyline in the whole world – I’ll happily take either the harbor view or the peak view – and I wanted to savor it as much as possible before the weekend’s activities.
After taking the Star Ferry – another Hong Kong must-do activity – back to Hong Kong Island, I met up with some new friends (from the previous night) for beers, bar bites, and a hilariously aging cover band, courtesy of The Wanch in Wan Chai. The lead singer was in his 60s, dressed like he was in his 20s, and sang B-sides from the 80s. He looked like he had fallen in love with Hong Kong decades ago, decided to never leave, and was on a mission to sing old rock songs in a dive bar until he croaked.
I checked out of my Airbnb Saturday morning and transferred to a hotel by the airport, as Saturday’s show was on Lantau Island and Sunday’s show was in a park in West Kowloon. I think it would be boring if I tried to write meaningful prose about dancing to live electronic music, so I’ll just say that both shows were amazing, memorable, and absolutely worth the trip. I’ll post a few photos below, but for the most part, I’m going to defer to the official concert videos.
Other Saturday sets: Ben Bohmer, Spencer Brown, Andrew Bayer, and Ilan Bluestone
Other Sunday sets: Dom Donnelly & Penelope, Luttrell
In the week leading up to the big show, Above & Beyond chartered a traditional Chinese junk, gathered up their crew and friends and a few superfans, and sailed around the harbor for an afternoon boat party. This video has been on heavy rotation for me since I’ve been back as it captures the excitement of the trip and the beauty and mystery of the city.
It was also really wonderful to have spent a couple days with awesome new friends from all over the world. It was the perfect end to a fantastic week, a life-affirming way to enjoy one of the world’s most interesting cities, and most definitely a satisfying way to cross an item off the bucket list.
That said, Above & Beyond do this every year, and I wouldn’t be opposed to doing a trip like this again…
