The Peak, Protestors and Kung-foo

It's a pretty cool thing to travel halfway across the world and meet up with friends from back home. Especially when it's unexpected! 

I got a message the night before on FB from my friend Adrian saying that he was also in Hong Kong at the moment. Adrian and I used to work at Variety Village in the summers but haven't seen each other in a few years. I was originally going to spend the day being a solo tourist so I loved the idea of touring around with someone I knew!

Lucky for me, Adrian had been to Hong Kong quite a number of times and had some great suggestions. Instead of taking the Peak tram to see the famous view of Hong Kong, we skipped the long queue and jumped in a cab with some Russian tourists (who didn't speak much English but seemed fine with splitting a cab). We went to a HIGHER peak of the "peak" than the regular "stupid" tourists do and had a great hike down and around the mountain. 

The View from the Peak

After the hike and a wander around central we went to the Sogo area to see some of the #OccupyHK and umbrella movement democracy protests. There weren't many protestors there (even protesters have to work on weekdays) but tons of tents, signs and information. I was really glad I was able to see that. Potential history in the making!

The Umbrella Movement

Adrian bought us some fish balls, meat cubes, and sugar-cane water from a street vendor. It's nice to have someone who can order in the native tongue. We also went to a "susan would have never found this" ramen restaurant for a late snack. Luckily even though neither of us could read Chinese, there were pictures to pick from. I really liked the boiled egg that came with it.

Being a good sport, Adrian came with me to the Avenue of Stars even though I know it wasn't a priority for him. The Avenue of Stars is he Cantonese cinema version of the Hollywood walk of fame. I only knew of four stars (Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee) but I still liked reading about Cantonese cinema along the boardwalk. I also posed beside the Bruce Lee statue for a classic white girl attempting Kung foo imitation. 

Hiiiiiii-yah!

After that it was time to say bye to Adrian and I headed home for a mellow night. According to his pedometer, we may have walked 20k that day. Phew! That's a lot for this out-of-shape schlub. Bring on the dim sum to even this out!

Lights, Rocks n' Seafood: A weekend in Hong Kong

Day two was kicked off with a tipoff. Woke up and watched the Raptors game with some coffee (Vietnamese style with condensed milk to sweeten it!) before heading to James' teaching friends brunch. It was nice to meet all his crew if just a little awkward with not knowing everyone and celebrating the engagement of a couple I've never met before. But the food was great and it was nice to hear stories about teaching in Hong Kong (incase I get itchy feet in Toronto!). Capped the afternoon off with a glorious nap (damn you jet lag!) before heading to Kowloon and central for the night.

We had dinner at an area called TST (Tsim Sha Tsui) at a very yummy Thai Restaurant in a giant shopping centre full of designer boutiques and luxury watch shops (HKers are obsessed with luxury watches, I've never seen so many Rolex stores that close together before!). We met up with Krakers and his wife Isabella which was wonderful. Krakers had just come from a Chinese doctor (naturopath) and had a bag full of eastern medicine. He's really committed to the eastern lifestyle, with agreeing to twice a week acupuncture to cure his ailments. Pretty interesting stuff!

Then it was off to the HK light show (a musical light show on the Kowoon side of the HK harbour). Armed with beers and a good butt rest we enjoyed the show and the HK skyline view. This includes the tower made famous by "The Dark Knight". We took the Star Ferry across the water to central side and had some pier beers and crisps.

I am Batman

Now for the HK nightlife! We headed to a place called "Racks" at LKF (Lan Kwai Fong). Anthony Bourdain went here in an episode of "Layover". It had pool and beer pong tables set up. They even pour the beer into the cups for beer pong, what service. ;) A "few" beverages were consumed, an awesome trick shot was demonstrated by yours truly, a windy cab ride home and Zoe's delicious cheese pancakes concluded the night.

Waking up to jetlag and a hangover was not much fun. In fact, I ended up taking a melatonin to help me back to sleep. That shit is wonderful. Upon waking up to Zoe's delicious home baked scones (James Waller, you're a lucky man!), we headed out for an overcast day at the seaside. We took a minibus to Sai Kung pier where we had some pizza for lunch. We saw the wet market, where local fisherman display their daily catches on boats. Buyers come up, choose what they want and then the fishermen send up the food via ladders. 

Then we hopped on a boat tour. Thank goodness we had Zoe with us to explain what the Cantonese boat driver pointed out along route. It was pretty funny when we stopped the boat to look at "coral" and basically just seeing  the ocean.

Our boat arrived Kiu Tsui Chau Island (Sharp Island) / Kiu Tao, where they have the Hong Kong Geopark. Baaaaaaaasically, a beach and a buncha rocks. ;) Spent the rest of the afternoon reading on the beach and exploring the island before heading back for dinner. 

Geopark, Geopark!

We had seafood for dinner at an Anthony Bourdain recommended (a theme in this trip so far!) seafood restaurant at the Sai Kung pier. If you're fancy and rich, you can even order straight from their fresh fish and seafood in tanks beside the restaurant. With my two locals as guides though, we ordered a smorgasbord of seafood off the menu. 

Fresh seafood in Hong Kong

To fill our bellies, we ate: deep fried breaded squid (not a fan of this dish, too chewy), razor clams in a black bean sauce (delicious), scallops with garlic and glass noodles (too garlicy for me), and a crab stirfry with ginger and onions (my favourite). I am definitely eating outside of my comfort zone on this trip by trying everything "foodie" James suggests. That's the point of traveling though, to try, discover and fall in love with new things. Bring it on, Asia. I'm loving it so far. 

Kickin it off HK Stylz

 I made it. I survived the 15 hour flight, busy subways, and having meat for the first time in a year and a half. Welcome to Hong Kong!

The flight was.... Long. I was spoiled on my last flight to Asia with the benefits of first class, but settled for being a common coach passenger on this trek. It was the biggest plane I had ever been on, I think! It was Air Canada's Boeing 777 (about 450 seats according to my pal Mr. Wikipedia). Seat mates were a young man and an older lady, perfectly non-talkative the entire flight. Movies watched: Dawn of the Planet of the Aprs (yeeeeeeeesh), Billy Madison (to make up for the last one, I watched one I knew I'd like -- t-t-t-today junior!), a 2-part documentary on 1964 (woo American History nerd!) and about 30 minutes of Tammy (couple of lol moments but I fell asleep). Food wise, I found 2/3 of my meals to be great (tofu and rice with no sauce was blargh, but tofu scramble and rice wrap were amazing!). Huge hint: if you ever get hungrier than other people, pre-order the veggie meals, you get it delivered like 10 minutes before everyone else (pretty sure I got some death stares when that happened).

When I arrived, the first thing I went in search of in the HK airport was... A hairbrush. I forgot mine at home and couldn't find one there, so that's part of my mission for today! Took the airport express train into the city and arrived at HK station (HK Island). It was wonderful to see James! Especially since he had a beer and pork bun waiting for me when I arrived!

Yes, you heard that... Pork bun. I am putting my vegetarianism on hold for this trip. I want to experience new foods and new cultures and unfortunately a lot of that involves meat. I will most likely still stay away from the slabs of meat styles, but will be open to trying everything once and stick to veggies when possible.

James, my host with the most!

Speaking of dinner, James and I headed off in the #searchforSzechwan. After deciding the cab line was way too long, we took a more traditional route and hopped on the subway. In Hong Kong, they have a transit card similar to London's Oyster called the Octopus (still haven't figured out the name choice yet).. But unlike London, it also can be used to make purchases at certain stores like 7-11 or Mcdonalds... It's like HK's own debit card! 

We took a very busy rush hour subway to a place near James apartment. We hopped on the #11 minibus to go to a  Szechuan restaurant that James' wife Zoe recommended and was later going to meet us at. Well, turns out we were on the wrong bus after having some passengers yell/explain our mistake to us in Cantonese. We hopped off and switched to a cab.

After finding the restaurant (getting lost is just a part of the adventure), we grabbed some beers and peach tea (very sugary and delicious, reminded me of those ice-tea freezies that we used to love in Grade 8). We ordered an assortment of food covered in spicy Szechuan sauce (super spicy, a little too much for this little white girl!). We had jellyfish (kind of like a crunchy slimy noodle, not my favourite), beef and green beans, chicken hot pot and a noodle dish. Even though I was a bit worried about introducing meat into my system, spicy meat at that, everything seems to be a-ok.

Yummy!

It was pouring by this point so we took a cab back to James hotel (errr, apartment), but seriously this place is gorgeous! Huge swimming pool, gym, billards room, movie theatre (byo-DVDs) and soon to be built spa. James says because they live so far away, they have all these amenities to attract people.  Jet lag had seriously kicked in and after poppin some melatonin, I was out like a light by 9:30. Slept all the way til 6:30 am, so hopefully it won't be too bad! 

James' view from his living room window

Overall, a pretty eventful first 5 hours in Asia. Tried meat, got lost, fell asleep. Well, maybe it's just eventful because I'm halfway across the world! ;)