Eat + Sleep + Shop + Lounge = HK

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The above equation is how I would describe living in HK, or travelling through HK.

As an Asian financial centre, there is an amalgamation of various cultures. People flock from all parts of the world to work in HK. And when I mean work, it isn't our regular 9-5 thing, it's 7am to 7pm at the minimum and the folks that work harder than the regulars work 14 hour days regularly. Hah, we've got in good in BC. Add to that the fact, that they are working extremely hard during those 12-14 hours and you've got an extremely productive economy. The MTR (subway system) is stupid busy at 9pm, when all the folks get off, I mean the platform is at least 1 kilometre in length from one end of the train to the other end, and the trains are also wider than Skytrains, but it's standing room only.

So what do Hong Kong folks do when they are off work? or taking a break or taking a lunch?
They do one of several things, one is they eat. Eat and eat and eat. Whether it be high-end fine-cuisine, or budget budget food. You can spend 200-300 USD, or spend 3USD it really is up to you. And at either end of the spectrum, there is one common tangent, all restaurants are packed to capacity. At the low-end, chains like Fairwood or Cafe de Coral are everywhere, it's the equivalent BK/McD's or whatever in Vancouver, and they are omniscient. Walk a corner outside, and voila a Fairwood, walk another corner and voila Cafe de Coral. These places are extremely cheap and in a very wealthy city like Hong Kong, it's very surprising that as backpackers, you can spend about 10-15 usd a day and eat pretty decent meals. And these places are extremely efficient, a significant contrast to Bali, which will be posted in the next blog. Hong Kong folks really like their free time, and anytime they aren't work, they want food fast and all other stuff quickly and efficient as possible. Time really is money over here. People probably sleep at most 5-6 hours, and it's very common to see people sleep on the public transportation networks.

Besides eating, HK folks love to shop. Due to the fact that the city is really hot and humid, there is a proliferatino of Malls, shopping complexes and the sort. It is a paradise for folks that love to shop, a mecca that must be travelled to. All the designer brands, etc are here, a very pretentious society. Wealthy folks flaunt what they have, not all people can afford cars, so they purchase a nice purse, hand bag, suit and shoes. Oooh yes, shoes, in Mongkok there is a square kilometer community translated literally as the court shoes street. In and out of any of the stores, and walk a few paces to the next sports store. It's freaking heaven for any shoe lover. It was once a place where you could bargain hunt for kicks and get them at a lower price then the retail stores in the malls, but since it's become so popular, there really isn't room to bargain.

So you've ate and shopped in HK, next thing to do is hit the streets to bar/club hop in Lan Kwai Fong, it's the touristy entertainment district, europeans, aussies, et al all congregate in the area, and enjoy a bottle of beer bought from the 7-eleven down the street, and party til the night is young. Oooh, and it's purported that the ratio of female to male is 4:1. I can attest to that, once you've visited some of the malls, especially when you're on Hennessy Road in Causeway Bay, you stop at an intersection and boom! you see nothing but a sea of women w/ hand bag in tow and bags of bought goods, it's wild, not a male in sight. At the clubs... it isn't exactly that ratio, we searched in vain to discover where all those women we saw, went to at night, but Lan Kwai Fong isn't a bad area.

Lastly, when you're pooped from visiting 4-5 malls/day and ate your fair share of food, you get some sleep before the daily routine continues again. HK is an extremely easy place to travel, the MTR network takes you wherever you need to go at a cheap price, and all in all a place worth visiting.

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Comments

[deleted_40150]

i love your words mike, but i've never heard of proliferatino. is that the latin equivalent of proliferate? Sneak onto any red hot with red tide beaches?