July 2 – Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong and met up with an old friend of mine, Kyoshi, who’s given us his apartment while we’re here. I heard that apartments in Hong Kong which I can now confirm. If I stand in the middle of his place and stretch my arms out, I can touch both walls – it’s a little like sleeping in a boat cabin. Regardless, it’s very comfortable, in a great location and it’s really nice to be staying in something other than a hotel for a few days.

Kyoshi and his girlfriend

I’ve been looking forward to China for a long time and to seeing what all the fuss is about. Hong Kong is like a bigger, brighter and fancier version of New York, I never thought that was possible. The transportation system is incredibly modern and efficient, the streets are clean, you can pay for almost everything with the swipe of a prepaid cash card and the city itself is just buzzing - you can really feel the energy and the growth. Despite all the modernity and fast pasted growth, there is still a strong presence of the traditional Chinese lifestyle and culture. This makes Hong Kong a very unique place.   

We spent the first couple of days visiting tourist sights. First we caught a boat to a neighbouring island and took a gondola up to a Buddhist monastery called Po Lin, home to the largest Buddha in China and where I had my first taste of roasted pigeon (tasty but not enough meat). We came back to Hong Kong and watched the Symphony of Lights from across the harbour – the symphony of lights occurs every night at 8 pm when the water front buildings put on a light show to the sounds of classical music. Hong Kong’s skyline must be the best in the world; there are hundreds of buildings lit up in different colors bordering the water, mountains in the background, boats in the harbour and a surprising amount of lush green areas sprinkled throughout the city.

 

 

 

 

The following day, we climbed to the top of Victoria Peak which overlooks the skyline from the other side. It was Canada Day so we met up with Kyoshi at work, a wine bar called Palette, and spent a few hours drinking delicious wines before going out with some of his friends in an area called Lan Kwai Fong. Lan Kwai Fong is packed with bars and clubs spread throughout alleyways and stairways climbing up the hill. Given the amount of Canadians here, there were a lot of people out celebrating Canada day. I can’t remember much after the second bar we visited and the whole evening is a bit of a blur so I’m guessing we had a pretty good time.

 

 

Lungi found out about a hiking trail across a mountain to a beach with amazing seafood restaurants so we woke up the next morning, slightly hung-over and decided to find it. We took a ferry out to an island and after an hour of walking around we realized that we were in the wrong place. We decided to go back to the city and explore a bit more but while walking around we got separated and lost each other. I’m not sure where Lungi had gone (and she doesn’t know either) but I spent the next 3 hours walking up and down the streets trying to find her. We were on Hong Kong Island and the apartment was across the harbour so getting back is not easiest thing to do for “Lungi-types”. I eventually decided to head back to the apartment, hoping that she could figure out where it was but when I got there she was nowhere in sight. I went back and forth from the apartment to the train station and finally I ran into her on the street wandering around like a lost puppy. I’m actually pretty impressed that she was able to find her way back.

We then set off to find the Ritz Carlton which is the highest hotel in Hong Kong. After being given the wrong directions and ending up on the wrong side of the harbour we finally found out where it was and ended up walking there as the trains had already stopped running. We arrived at the Ritz at about 1:30am to find out that they had already closed the bar. Today was spent entirely on searching for places and each other.

Hung-over

Some of you will understand