A dim sum-mary of Hong Kong

Almost caught up! This latest post happened only 2 months ago. 2 months!

Back in May, a few of us were lucky enough to get a 4-day weekend because of Buddha's birthday. I was given my vacation days with very little notice but was able to find real cheap round-trip tickets to Hong Kong on wego.com (great website for travel within Asia, check it out). I chose HK because (a) it was a much cheaper flight than anywhere in Japan, (b) I'd heard fantastic things and it's China...sort of, and (c) three of my buddies in Korea were independently going: Eric by himself, Jo with her parents, and Chris by herself to see some old friends. I figured it was in the cards to hit up HK.

My awesome co-teacher and vice principal let me leave school early on that Friday and Roger (my buddy that's fulfilling his mandatory 2 year public service at my school) generously volunteered to drive me the 1.5 hours it takes to get to Incheon International. I hopped on an afternoon flight, stopped briefly in Beijing, and continued on to the city of lights, finance, and dim sum...Hong Kong.

I landed at HK International around 10pm. Since I was traveling sans Jules, I had to be responsible for my own hotel info, transportation into the city, etc. And contrary to popular belief, I actually came prepared. In my pocket was a printed-out confirmation of my hostel, the Yesinn, a detailed, printed-out bus schedule with info to my hostel, and my passport.  I took out some Hong Kong Dollars, bought an Octopus card (debit card for mass transit + convenience store goodies), and found my bus heading for Hong Kong Island.

The ONLY problem was, when I reached into my pocket to pull out the info telling me where to get off the bus I got a handful of nothing. Here I thought I was being all "indepedent" and not "needing a chaperone" i.e. Julie, and here I am on a bus heading into Hong Kong, no hostel info, no bus info, no clue where I'm going, no nothing. It must have somehow fallen out while purchasing the Octopus card. That damned (yet extreeemely handy) card cost me my travel info (I didn't have Julie to blame!). Thankfully I still had my passport. Didn't lose that. Positives to build off of. Sweaty and slightly worried, I ventured on. My mind was a little eased when I saw the beautiful sights of Hong Kong. Driving into the city it looked a little something like this...

aaaaaaand then I was over having lost my info. Such a beautiful city. I vaguely remembered which area I had to get off the bus, Electricity Rd, and took my chances. I got off the bus and started hitting the streets in search of the Yesinn. Unfortunately, it was starting to get late, was ~90 degrees out, extremely humid, I had a huge backpack on my back, dripping sweat, and walking the same 4 block radius over and over. No convenience stores knew where the hostel was. One time I went into a 7-Eleven and asked the ladies working where the Yesinn was. After giving each other dumbfounded looks, they told me they "don't sell those here." Great. Chalk another one up to lost in translation. Eventually I went into a different hostel (ANY hostel was really difficult to find in this area) and the extremely nice guy called the Yesinn, told them I was coming, and gave me a map for his hostel yet wrote down where mine was. Chalk another one up to Asian hospitality. I ended up finding my hostel, sent out emails saying I was alive, and hit the sack in my room already full of sound-asleep, snoring backpackers. Then it sunk in, I was in Hong Kong.

The next day I woke up before any of my roommates and met up with my friend Chris, along with her friends Sara and Justin. Sara is Chris's friend from home who works for Reuters in HK and Justin is Sara's friend from HK who works for Morgan Stanley. They're great people and even better hosts. We met up early so that we could hit the New Territories for some hiking alongside the ocean. The hike was about an hour outside of the city and was a little more intense than I thought it was going to be. We took the slightly more difficult 'Sharp Peak' route and hiked for ~5 hours give or take. The hike lead to some breathtaking views. The only downside was we were so high at one point that the view was completely engulfed by the clouds. It was still a fantastic way to start off my trip in Hong Kong. Here are the photos...

"This trail to Sharp Peak is very treacherous and difficult. For safety reasons, you are advised not to proceed"

Sara and Chris

Sara, Justin, and a sweaty me

'Accomplishment beers' along the beach 

That night I waited for Eric at the hostel. When he arrived, the two of us went to meet up with our friend Joanna in the Soho district. After saying goodbye to Jo's parents, we hit the night running. Quick side story. Justin had texted me earlier in the night to go to ALS. As an abbreviation connoisseur, I figured this was either a district or a 3-word bar/club. We asked a super friendly Italian guy what one means if they said "go to A-L-S." He didn't know but took us to the nearby bar distrcit LKF (Aha! Acronym!), or Lan Kwai Fong. We were still confused by the whole ALS thing but decided to hang with our new friend Simone. He took us to a club on the 30th floor of a building, which was maybe halfway up. The club was free to get into, but if you wanted to go out on the terrace, you had to buy a drink. We all bought the cheapest beer they had, Heineken, for about $15 each. Sounds expensive but the way I see it, cover is $15 and it comes with a free beer and a hell of a view. We never did find Justin that night, but on our way out of LKF we noticed a pretty happening bar. Al's. Words of wisdom, never assume anything is an acronym.

Lan Kwai Fong

The infamous ALS

To be continued.