A very quick trip to Hong Kong, expect mostly photos and small tidbits. Our flight left Beijing at seven am on Saturday and touched down around eleven. We then had the AWESOME experiences of realizing Didi, which is china’s version of UBER, didn’t work the same here. I was told we could use wechat everywhere but guess what: ya can’t.
After checking into the hostel we went out on the street. I honestly felt so overwhelmed by Hong Kong. When researching things, there were so many comments about different areas and if you are or aren’t on the island, if you are going to a beach or a bar, I just was overwhelmed. So we wung it. or winged it. Whichever is correct, that’s what we did. I knew there were cool streets, things to look at, things to eat and figured we would just find them!
I actually was lucky enough to have friends in town for the one night we were in Hong Kong. We learned about the relationship between Hong Kong and China, the political climate, and if they can tell when people come form China, whether from Shezngen, Beijing, or somewhere deep in the Yunnan province. We went to an afternoon tea, which was awesome. There we had egg tarts, pineapple bread, and lemon tea. When you go to Hong Kong and have lemon tea, be sure to squish the lemons at the bottom of the glass and then mix all the lemon juice around your drink. Super refreshing in the insanely humid city.
We walked through the streets for a while until I declared it way too humid for the outside world. Then we went to the Golden Computer store and Sim City and looked at millions of wires, cords, laptops, computers, dvds, and cameras. I almost bought this film camera but decided against it until I could figure out how to get film developed in Beijing.
Over all, my Hong Kong trip showed me that I really do value nature and water, two things I thought I wouldn’t miss while living in a city. It did however make me realize that even though Beijing is one of the most populated cities in the world, it doesn’t feel that way. Hong Kong felt PACKED. Walking down the street, going to the metro, it was a struggle. Maybe its just down to the fact that the street sizes were different? Not sure.
Johnny and I also have come to rely on pictures on menu’s when traveling. This usually works out great, and we can use the little bits of Mandarin that we know to communicate further. In Hong Kong, every speaks Cantonese. So we were back to square one. For dinner we went to this place that had huge lines so we knew it would be good. We waited, we had sidewalk drinks, we waited more. When we finally sat down, it became clear to us that it was some sort of build your own noodle dish… with no pictures. neither of us had brought our phones and we ended up just guessing on what to put in our dish. It was delicious, but also kind of scary! I would recommend this adventure brought on by silly choices, 10/10 would do again.
Now it’s summer here in Beijing! June has become a bit more humid no where near Seoul or Hong Kong though. I’m appreciating the dry heat and the abundance of watermelons. Enjoy this picture of my dinner while I write this:
Alyssa in France 