EWR to RDU through Asia: Hong Kong Week 1 & Week 2

Sunday 2/5

This was travel day.

We started in Vietnam went to Bangkok via Vietnam Airlines then Hong Kong via Emirates on a A380 (first time!).

Waiting in the Ho Chi Minh airport

Vietnam Airlines food - It was aite

1 big ass plane

They give u a $10 magazine - it took 3 weeks in HK to finish reading cover to cover

Inside the a380 - we sat in the front of the bottom level - the stairs were blocked so that you can't go up

Pull out screens

I got salmon - even the trays are bigger

We landed in HK at about 5pm.

Although the immigration officers looked at my student visa like I just gave them a document in a alien language, immigration and customs were not an issue. However, for a country that has English and Chinese as official languages, communication was an issue. After had to have 3 separate conversations to figure out that we need to buy an airport express pass to get to HK island. You get a discount if you buy multiple passes at the same time. We paid $210HK for 3 passes. We need an octopus card ($150HK) to get around in the metro after getting to HK island. We have to take 2 long travelators to get from the HK island stop to the "Central" MTR station.

We went to an ATM got out $4000 HK (the max for citibank atms). The money was pretty colorful and we found it interesting that they were actually issued by different banks and had different designs for the same denomination.

After an hour or so, we came out of the Causeway Bay MTR station. First impression, this was very much a city with a lot of people moving about. Second impression, I looked up and was a little worried when I saw the buildings. They were run down with no signs of regular maintenance and clothes were hanging out the windows. We hoped our building was not one of these buildings. When we stopped after several blocks, we stopped in front of such a building. At that moment, we hoped it would be nicer inside.

The first building I saw when looking out the metro stop

A Tram!

Our building

We gave the concierge the appropriate paperwork (my classmate did, he took care of the rental stuff) and were inside our room within a fifteen minutes. We were greeted with welcome snacks and some toiletries. The rooms were small but the living area 5x the area of the rooms.

After throwing down our bags, we decided to explore the immediate area. We exited our apartment and turned left (this was the logical direction because we came from the right). We immediately located some 7-11s (you never know when you need something) and a local supermarket. We got some necessities and even managed to find an electronics store that sold routers.

We were getting pretty hungry and decided to find some food. We took a turn at a random street and found a selection of 6 restaurants to pick from. We picked the one where we thought we would have the easiest time ordering. We ended up getting some spicy noodles and it was pretty good. At the end of the meal we discovered that they had a different process for paying for a meal (we waited for like 10 minutes until we realized that they weren't going to collect the money). Like some diners in the United States, you have to take the check with you to the front to pay for the meal.

Noodles with pork belly and minced pork

Restaurant where we got the noodles

Monday 2/6

This was get sleep and get settled in day.

We also have class from 645pm to 945pm every night so our days end pretty early. This also contributes to our nights being very late.

Till now, 3 of us were travelling together. The 4th, who was in Austrailia and New Zealand, met up with us this day.

They use bamboo scaffolding

Bread without crust

Taking a break from all the walking

Egg Sandwich?

Beef Chow Fun

I am not sure if I want to eat at the "Giant Foot Restaurant"

Even the paper isn't the same - you can't tell but the paper here is not 11 inches long - how do I know? it doesn't fit in my folder from the states

The metro takes about 30 minutes to and from school. This means that we don't get to our apartment till 1015pm. Finding food at this time is nearly impossible. As we wander from place to place, more and more restaurants close, leaving us with diminishing choices. As our 2nd night in HK, we settled on a local restaurant that seemed to have ok food. Eating in HK observation 2: a lot of these smaller restaurants have only 1 English menu. Impact to meal: ordering takes forever especially since we have no idea what to order.

Times Square - a mall in Causeway Bay - 6 minute walk (depending on people traffic) from our apartment

Taxis in front of Times Square

Pork belly, vegatables & hard boiled egg over rice

Tuesday 2/7

This is Mystery Day.

I don't have much pictures from this day so I must have not done much. My note taking of my daily activities severely dropped off after getting to Hong Kong. I know I went for a run early in the week so that was probably this day. I probably went for a run in Victoria Park (a park in Causeway Bay) since that was where I had my first run.

Edit: Now, I remember what we did. We were invited to a lunch with the other exchange students. Everyone was really nice and we were pleased with our exchange group. As far as the lunch, the university faculty ordered for us and the lunch was amazing. I didn't have pictured because I didn't want their first impression of me to be that guy that takes pictures of everything. I could save that as their 2nd or 3rd impression of me.

After lunch, we visited main campus on the University stop of the MTR. The campus was massive and we had an amazing view of the river and the surrounding hills. We climbed about 1 mile uphill to get our student ids.

For dinner, we did the usual roaming. This time we stumbled across a restaurant with a line. Since we didn't know any better, we waited in line also. It ended up being a pretty good dinner. It was a Japanese restaurant that had all it's sushi for 50% off after 10pm. There is a $80HK minimum so we ate a lot of fish. One piece of sushi was like 50 cents or something. I forget. But I ate a lot so it was really cheap.

Hand rolls

Wednesday 2/8

Wednesday was explore further day.

We started with the dim sum restaurant 20 feet from our apartment and then went inside the Times Square mall.

I guess a lot of people don't know what side of the street people drive on in HK

This means that a L in Asia means M in the USA

Inside the Times Square mall - mostly high end designers

After our 3rd day of class, we decided to try our luck with finding a restaurant around school. Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) was a 10 minute walk from where we have class. Despite our best efforts, we had a similarly disappointing night. We realized that it was more poor planning rather than poor location that resulted in not being able to find food. This night our expectations also contributed to the disappointment. We were not going to find super cheap good asian food as easily as we did in some other countries. We have to know where to go. The only thing we seemed to find was mostly western food.

We settled at a fast food pasta restaurant because we had to meet our friend from school later that night. She was doing exchange at another school in HK.

Got lost in the backroads of LKF

Buildings are showing their age

LKF

Mid-levels

Mid level escalators - didn't realize what this was until 2 weeks later

Penne Bolognese in a chinese food carton

I'm pretty sure I see either a Ferrari or a Bentley everyday

This was the night we discovered Wan Chai Wednesdays. Wan Chai is a region in between Central (where all the big buildings are) and Causeway Bay (where we live). It is considered the red light district. Between the plethora of girl bars, there are several regular bars. All of which have free liquor for females on Wednesdays.We got there around 11pm or so, it was packed.

Thursday 2/9

Today was try a different approach day.

To this point, we were going to random restaurants and it was very hit or miss. Our late nights resulted in late afternoons which made it hard to find places that were open.

My roommate who was feeling better than most of us (after Wan Chai Wednesday) started looking places up. He found a little thai place that we decided to check out for lunch.

Thai Iced Tea

Chicken Curry

We learned how to take the tram/trolley today. We wanted to avoid people traffic in the streets AND people ocean in the MTR. My other classmates had done some research (a lot of good ideas seem to not come from me) and found that the stop was right outside our door. Nice! No more walking!

When the tram stopped, the back gate opened and we entered. These trams are two levels (buses are also). The first level was crowded and we decided to go upstairs. Just as we were on the stairs, the tram started moving. It almost sent me tumbling down. Do watch out for this if you ever ride one. As we learned in subsequent rides, these drivers also like to brake and accelerate rapidly.

The entire journey ended up being much shorter. 20 minutes compared to 30 on the MTR. We were also treated to some awesome views at the foot of the Bank of China building with the mid-level apartments in the background.

View from the 2nd level

Sports fields

Bank of China Building

Apartment buildings on the hill

After class, we did the usual wandering, (we can only improve on so many things in one day). We found this food court that was fairly crowded. After taking 2 steps off the elevator we were assaulted by shop owners asking us to eat at their restaurant. We were pretty overwhelmed and didn't really know how to discern what was good or not. After seeing a few roaches, we weren't sure if we wanted to commit to any place. Overall, the scene seemed ok. It was a mixed bag of people: groups of students, old people, drunk people, etc. We left the place and decided to research the place before coming back. Luckily we found another restaurant around the corner called Wing Wah. It ended up being pretty good. The entrees were like $70HK.

After dinner, we went back to Wan Chai. Wan Chai Thursday is not like Wan Chai Wednesday. The bars that we went to were fairly empty and it was almost like a ghosttown. After exploring the area further we found a bar with live music called Amazonia. We stayed out till about pretty late again and ended up getting some McDonalds.

Friday 2/10

This was we need to do some touristy things day.

We ate at a fast food asian restaurant before heading out to Kowloon for the first time.

For those that don't know, Hong Kong is made up of several regions with HK island being a small part of the city. Across Victoria Bay, is Kowloon. Further up there is the New Territories. There are also several islands that are also part of HK.

Noodles with dumplings

MTR

Kowloon was crowded. I thought that if we weren't on the island it would be better in terms of people traffic but that wasn't the case. Also, it seemed much more touristy with a lot of vendors trying to sell watches and suits. We browsed some suit shops, shoe shops and clothing shops (for our upcoming freezing Beijing trip). After a quick browse, we perused Kowloon Park where we got some of the seclusion we were looking for.

We wanted to check out Azure club to get a rooftop view of HK island but the weather was really cloudy so we skipped it and decided to just go eat at an all-you-can-eat-and-drink for $50HK place. In our walk, we passed many shops on Temple street which reminded us of our other trips through Asia. There were some shops we hadn't seen including sex toys and ancient fossils.

Kowloon Park

Markets

Many, many types of clocks

Kowloon further in

Temple Street Market

After we walked around for about an hour, we were in the general area of where we were supposed to eat. Following the directions on some blog, we manged to zigzag our way to our destination. There was limited conversation, we were given a table, directed to the bucket of beer, and was told what would be on the menu. After 10 minutes or so, the food starting rolling out. The food was slightly below average and it started to make sense why it was a $50HK unlimited dinner. When 20 high school/undergrands showed up, we understood what their target audience was.

Egg Rolls, Broccoli, and fried rice

Sweet and Sour Pork

Young-ins and a ton of beer

Alley next to the restaurant

Having had an interesting day, we made our way back home.

Saturday 2/11

This was a long day.

It started fairly early with me trying to be super productive. I found a website that listed some good running trails in HK. One of them was the Bowen Road run. It is midway up the peak and runs from Causeway Bay to Central. It's supposed to be about 6 kilometers with 60% of it without any cars. It sounded promising so I ventured on my own to find it.

Road to access the middle of the road

First part of the climb - pretty steep

2nd part of the climb - very steep

End of the run on the east side of the road

Aww.. the doggie knows how to carry his own leash

View over the city

Some huge building by the trail

Took most of the pictures on the way back

Exercise equipment along the side of the road

After being productive, I followed up with laundry and met up with everyone else for lunch.

Our clothes were hanging in the kitchen

Where we do our laundry - $35HK minimum with $5HK per pound

French Toast

Beef Chow Fun

For dinner, we were fortunate enough to be invited to the Happy Valley Clubhouse for a buffet BBQ dinner. It was $300HK to go which was pretty steep but it seemed like a good time so we bit the bullet. It turned out to be better than we expected and we had a amazing time with awesome food.

Our private seating area by the pool

There are those two buildings again

Yum yum yum

Overlooking the pool

Each of these desserts were AMAZING

After dinner, we decided to go out. It was a late evening.

MBAs roll out in groups. Us trying to get cabs

Rooftop view

LKF - much busier this time around. There are 7-11 guys on the street because one of the employees tackled a young kid that was shoplifting candy bars

LKF - outdoor drinking - 7-11 supplies an infinite supply of cheap beer

Sunday 2/12

Relax and Recover Day.

We woke up late, again. We tried to get some korean bbq for lunch but found that it was only for dinner. We went to the top floor to some applebees of china. The food ended up being decent.

Bubble Tea

Ramen

Roti Canai

This thing works well

Really?

Yes!

Wooloomooloo is a chain - that's the place we went to the rooftop bar the night b4 on Hennesy in Wan Chai

After lunch, we felt like we needed to do more than just go left or right out of our apartment. This time, we decided to go straight.. towards Victoria Harbor.

Construction for a new tunnel

What it will look like in the future

Shimp/Lobster?

My roommate loves fruit - Pomelo, the fruit of the week

My roommate found two options for some noodles. We heard that's what you eat in HK so that is what we tried to find. We weren't able to find the first one but we did find Ho Hung Kee.

We later found out that this was a Michelin 1 star restaurant

Preserved Egg

Wonton Noodle - $33HK

Fried Wonton - $88HK

Cooking some congee

Monday 2/13

Eat different stuff day.

We ate more different stuff.

Our elevator... not very efficient

My steamed dumplings

Curry dumpling

Vegetable dumplings

Pork dumplings

Kimchi dumplings

Sounds fun

So much random stuff

Tempura Udon for dinner

The tempura

Tuesday 2/14

We had another late day (there seems to be a trend). We went to the chinese version of McDonalds. I had some goose and chicken.

After lunch we split ways. I decided to go shopping for the upcoming Beijing trip. The weather was supposed to be 25 degrees Celsius and I had only 1 sweater. I had the choice of buying a jacket or freezing to death.

However, on the way to the MRT, I got sidetracked by a very very very long line of people. After 3 different conversations, I figured out that the line was to get a ticket for a chance to buy a limited edition $100HK bill to commemorate the 100 year anniversary. It would be a 2 hour wait. Should I wait in line and not be able to go shopping? Thinking it would be a the best souvenir ever, I decided to wait in line.

Well, god didn't like my decision and decided to have them run out of tickets in about 30 minutes. What happened afterwards was kinda crazy.

The police tape that they were using to maintain the line dropped. People immediately starting running towards the front of the line. Some (<10%) walked away. Confused I walked towards where people were running. Police started yelling trying to maintain order. The lone police man had control for about 10 seconds before the wave of people over powered him and ignored his orders. Mass histeria over some limited edition bills. 3 minutes later a police van filled with police showed up. The cops started removing people from line and order was restored.

So many people in line

The special edition bill

Police car showing up - the people were rushing the area to the left

I was bummed I wasn't able to buy a special bill but at least I don't have to freeze to death. Well on the way to the MTR I saw the coolest thing. Floating horsies and hearts. Oh yea... it's V-day! How cute. These soapy figures were able to keep my attention for about 20 minutes before I realized that it wasn't going to get any better.

Stencil to make the shapes

I decided that Kowloon would be a good place to find a cheap jacket. The Causeway Bay area seemed to have mostly high end designers and it made no sense to buy that kind of merchandise in HK when it's most likely cheaper in the USA.

In Kowloon, I got sidetracked again and did a more thorough walk through Kowloon Park.

After the walk, I found my jacket and a sweater (it's pretty ridiculous looking, don't know what I was thinking). I treated myself to a mango smoothie and a burger before heading to class.

After reading about them, I found that they originated in S. Korea

More people waiting - this time by the Bank of China tower

Spitting is a no-no

For dinner, we went to the Under Bridge Spicy Crab restaurant. Ordering took about an hour. We ended up ordering the medium crab which was $800HK for ONE! We ordered a couple of sides in addition to the crab.

Large on the left, medium on the right

Sweet and Sour Pork

Our crab after it's been prepared

Famous Under Bridge Fried Rice

How we remove the spicyness off our fingers

Our final bill

Wednesday 2/15

We were nearing the 2 week mark and felt like we were super unproductive compared to our shorter trips. We needed to do something touristy so we decided on the ten thousand buddah monestary. We started the day off right with some good american breakfast at the Flying Pan. It's located in Wan Chai and was fairly busy when we got there around 1pm.

Large OJ

French toast and eggs over medium

There were SOOOO many steps.. it was especially hard because I had already done the Bowen Road trail that morning

Random monkey showed up

After 50 feet of leaving the monestary, my sandal broke. That's what I get for running down the hill. I had to walk to the MTR with one shoe, ride the MTR with one shoe, and walk to my apartment from the MTR with one shoe. It is probably the closest I got to being embrassed.

After cleaning up, we did the whole class thing and partook in Wan Chai Wednesday part 2.

Starfruit - fruit of the week

I got kicked by one of my friends who used me to climb onto the bar

Thursday 2/16

This was a very late day. After our 2nd Wan Chai Wednesday, we woke up around 2pm-ish, maybe? We went to Flying Pan again for lunch. After class, we went to Wing Wah again and went to bed as quickly as possible to get ready for our 8am flight.