Hello Hong kong!

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It's been a packed two days so far in Hong Kong. I made it to the flight in Frankfurt right on time thank goodness, but I slept maybe an hour and a half on the 11 hour flight. It's cool though because I had quite possibly the world's best breakfast on the descent. Was I delirious from lack of sleep, water, and clean air? Maybe, but I don't care! Loved that breakfast, Cathay Pacific. Keep it up!



Immigration and public transportation were surprisingly a breeze. The trains and buses really could not be easier. As my tour guide Mandy said, it's impossible to get lost here. I was a little turned around when I was trying to find the hostel in the rain without internet, but that's the only thing. Unfortunately the room wasn't ready until 1:00pm so I parked my can on the hostel lobby couch and met some of the randos staying there. Oh what an impression I must have made, wrapped up in my scarf in the corner with all my electrical cords and glasses and 'i'm just here for vacation!' story. Whatever, none of them appear to work for a living, so who is anyone to judge Rae? My room was eventually clean and ready for me to move in, but I had to leave for my foodie tour in 15 minutes and didn't have time, or a towel, for a quick birdbath. So, as you can imagine, I was not in the best of moods for that 4-hour long tour. I almost fell asleep standing up in the antique Chinese souvenirs street!



But the food tour itself was good. Got my bearings of the city and got to meet some nice international folks (even one EY!). We started with the wonton noodle soup, which had a delicious broth, but who enjoys a shrimp in that large of a chunk? I tried to hide my shivers whenever I bit into one of the huge wontons (similar the shiver that runs through you when you get a piece of "fruit on the bottom" in your yogurt when you thought you bought "blended"). So I hid the last one under my spoon and booked it outta there before anyone saw. Next place was a roasted meats restaurant. You know the type from Chinatowns: roasted goosies and chickens hanging in the window. There was even roasted cuttlefish and pigeons, and if that isn't appetizing enough, we were led to the kitchen in the back where toilet-looking water ran all over my new Keds and we saw a whole pig in what the guide called a 'human-size' oven. Good thing we saw all of this *after* eating the delicious roasted pork and sticky rice. It didn't make me sick though, so I guess it's fine. Fun fact: most restaurants (at least the roasted meats kind) don't have their kitchens in the actual restaurants. The meat gets roasted and prepared over in Kowloon/New Territories and then get steamed to reheat in the restaurant. Apparently it's much cheaper to do this as delivery labor $ > space $. Next we trekked through a rapidly-disappearing wet market to our next destination that sold sugar cane juice and 'turtle jelly'. But even those items didn't send me reeling until I saw the still-beating hearts and twitching heads of (alive??) cut-up fish. Flopping around everywhere! I've never been less hungry! Luckily the fourth stop was a preserved fruit shop that had some nice little things. I've noticed that Chinese people do a lot of things just because they're traditional. I'm trying to like everything I tasted, but sometimes it's like, there's a much better way to make edible things, y'all. I hate to say it but I only finished the dim-sum to be polite. And when Yammy (guide) brought over some more shrimp for me, I've never been happier than when she spilled the bamboo steamer on the table. It could have been spilled in my lap and I would have been thankful! I'll give it another go at some point while I'm here, but dim-sum has been probably the greatest disappointment in the herstory of womankind. Last on the itinerary was egg tarts. Which were good! Plus I got a ton of recommendations for what to eat during the rest of my trip, so even though I wanted to fall asleep right there in the gutter, I'm glad I went. Was out like a light by 7:30 (until bunkmates came in around what felt like 2:00AM, or whatever the most inappropriate time possible is.



Woke up this morning for me private tour with Mandy. Instant BFFs! We rode a double-decker bus (regular public transport, not the sight-seeing ones) to Kowloon to visit Buddhist and Taoist temples. The Buddhist one was really lovely and peaceful. I see the connection of the Buddhist themes of balance with that of Hong Kong. There's such a contrast between the new and old, nature and city, and rich and poor. But there's a balance to this place. It's really unlike anywhere else. The Taoist temple was more like a party, with streamers, fortune tellers, superstitions, and blessed goosies. People get these cans of numbered sticks, and will kneel in prayer, ask a question about life (i.e. career, health, romance, etc) and shake the thing until one comes out. The number on the stick corresponds to a page in a fortune-telling booklet, which has a short story that should apply to your situation. I won't say what I asked about here, but my stick immediately fell out. Supposedly (I can't read Cantonese, so it's possible Mandy just made one up to be nice) my story was about someone sitting beside a tree and watching things go by. Basically, nothing particularly bad or good would happen if I stayed stagnant, but that I would likely get good results if I took action. Well, well! I think that applies to my HK trip in general, wouldn't you agree? 😊



For 'brunch' we went to a tea restaurant in the 'projects' of Kowloon. It's just public housing for poorer (which in HK basically just means no crazy-wealthy), but it wasn't dangerous or uncomfortable in the slightest. I had one of the best meals, not only in HK, but of this whole trip there. Fried udon noodles with pork and a tea/coffee drink (ying yang!). So delicious and lovely people. The Mandy took my to the harbor harbour area where I got to see the whole skyline of Hong Kong island. We took the Star Ferry back over to the island and bid farewell. I boarded a bus to the Repulse Beach and Stanley areas and spent a couple hours walking along the water and through the open air markets. This place, and the double-decker bus (the sight-seeing one - which I cannot stress enough that I was not on) had the most white people I've seen. But the majority of them were ex-pats, not tourists. Can you imagine permanently moving to Asia? I couldn't so I got back on the bus and went back to do super-touristy things: rode the tram up to Victoria Peak (did you know there's a f***ing Bubba Gump Shrimp Co restaurant up there?!) then back over to Kowloon to go to the world's highest bar atop the International Commerce Center. Boy, that Ritz Carlton is fancy! And I wasn't dressed fancy, but the staff was super friendly so, naturally, I've never been more uncomfortable. Being 118 stories up didn't help! Only thing that did was my dragontini (I know). Delicious and worth $220HKD!



Rode the MTR, the love of my life, back to the hostel where I've been typing this up and likely alienating people. Going to visit the 4th floor terrace and take a shower before a hoard of people arrive in the middle of the night again. Till tomorrow!

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