I'm alive, no need to worry. I've had no time to update and I've left HK quite some time ago actually, right now I'm on an island SE of Thailand....I'll explain that later.
Hong Kong. What a crazy city. Leaving from Tokyo and arriving here is like going to a whole different planet. In Tokyo, you had so much organization and...so many Japanese people (obviously). Arriving in Hong Kong made me feel like I was back in the States (i.e. a big city like New York, but I guess, London would be a more appropriate example with all the British people that are present in HK). There's so much diversity from the instant you hit and quite honestly, it was a very nice thing to see, mainly because I know now that there will be people speaking English for sure. Well, to get started, the airport is far from the main city. It's actually located on an island called Lantau Island and is about a 40 minute bus ride from the main Hong Kong area. The ride was beautiful because you go through much of rural HK and across some fantastic bridges that show what the sea port life is like in HK. Things get interesting here once I reach my hostel...
Chungking Mansion. This is one dirty place from afar. The instant you set foot out of the bus near this "mansion" you are approached by gawkers (hustlers) who are trying to get you to stay in their guesthouse/whatnot. Its hard to hide from them when you have a giant backpack on your back. Back to Chungking, this is what most in HK would called the ethnic hub of HK. There's a lot of Indian, Haitian, Korean, Filipino and more immigrants that all work out of here. It's very famous for its guesthouses though and probably the dirty business that runs out of it (hidden prostitution). In terms of guesthouses, there's definitely more than like 20 there and the one I stayed in was the Paris Guesthouse. A lot of guesthouses (hostels) meant a lot of tourists, so even though there was some questionable things happening, seeing other tourists somehow balanced out the experience? I guess..
Outside view of the lovely Chungking Mansion
The Paris Guesthouse
Immaculate interior plumbing
The Paris Guesthouse was run by an Indian family, a very nice family, that definitely made the stay worth it. Initially, in my mind, I was already thinking about an escape plan and how in the world I was going to find a new place. But once inside the rooms, they weren't' bad at all and best part is, they were safe (security camera's everywhere). That is actually the beauty of HK, similar to Tokyo, it is a very safe place. Although people may initially look like they want to start trouble, as long as nothing is provoked, you are very safe in HK. In this case, it was safe for me to leave my luggage here no matter what, especially when the owners offered me a 1 million dollar guarantee in safety (classic Indian over exaggeration). Anyways, I made my way around HK the next 4 days taking in the sights and sounds as best I can while making use of their amazing transportation systems.
MTR (Subway System) that will take you anywhere you need to go in HK for very cheap
So, similar to my travel approach in Tokyo, I hit the Subway and started to get off in random places. The cool thing is my hostel was very central in HK, very central. I was within walking distance of some of the most popular places. Note to ladies, if you want to go shopping, I can't think of a city with more stores (at least yet). Every single major neighborhood had streets and streets of shopping. I've never seen this much shopping. I thought Shibuya in Tokyo was big, but Shibuya doesn't compare in size to the amount of malls and stores in HK. Anyways, here are some pictures and videos of some of the things I saw in the more urban parts of HK.
People...Everywhere.
There are markets everywhere as well. Local meat markets, fish markets, stolen good markets, designer markets...whatever you need. This one is the meat market and if you're all about being a vegetarian, you'll probably hate this place. Just name the animal...and it was hanging dead on this street, marinated of course.
Local fish market
Went to the Jordan Street market one night with another guy from my hostel (coincidentally he's from Redmond) and this street is known for its spicy crab. He ordered it, I didn't have the heart, but judging from how much water he drank, it was pretty spicy.
So, the food all over HK is great. But my favorite place by far were the bakeries that were scattered throughout the city. They had some of the most delicious food and for a good price. I was obsessed with these placfes. You had sausage croissants, chocolate croissants, spinach croissants, braised pork croissants (not a personal favorite, but definitely the most popular in HK), and you name it, it was here.
This is what my usual order in the bakeries looked like. The casual chocolate, sausage, spinach and curry croissant combo with two madelines.
GIANT BUDDHA
For lack of a better name, that is essentially what I went and saw one day. There's a 125 foot Buddha located on Lantau Island that is literally a day trip to get to. It was a pretty foggy day when I left to go see the statue, but the views from the top were awesome and its really amazing to see how something this big can be created.
Just made the walk to the village located at the bottom of the statue
I lost track, but I think it was about 250 steps
Other statues at the very top. They're all looking towards the main Buddha statue
Boat Trip To Aberdeen
Unfortunately, it was pretty foggy in HK the entire time I was there...and one of the days it cleared up a bit so the HK harbor looked really nice and I got talked into by a salesman to take a 3 hour boat ride on this old sail boat to Aberdeen. Aberdeen is one of the sea ports in HK and known for basically being the hub for where all the fisherman reside. The minute I got on the boat though, the fog rolled back, so the ride was not as eventful as I hoped. Aberdeen was very neat though and there's this huge floating seafood restaurant (about the size of 2 football fields) which was ridiculous.
The boat
Inside
Reaching Aberdeen. Ship production!
In front of the giant seafood restaurant...this picture doesn't really do justice.
Leaving Aberdeen, the fog rolls back
Leaving Aberdeen 2
On my final days, I wanted to catch the famous Symphony of Lights show on the Avenue Of Stars (same place where I was at for the Good Morning from HK vid). Honestly, the show is basically a light show and at points it was kind of corny. The music sounded like ringtones from the original nokia cellphone, but regardless, it was cool to see. It was foggy for this too, so kind of hard to see. I've heard that the show for Chinese New Year's is amazing, complete with fireworks from each building and close to an hour show.
Right before the show, foggy harbor
If you can see, there's a ship in the fog. All they do is honk and make their way around the harbor, its pretty amazing there's no accidents between all the ships that roll through here
Middle of light show
Well, that's what I have for HK. Next stop is Bangkok.
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