Hong Kong pt. 1

+16 hours later, I arrived in Hong Kong. Local time was 4am, and my uncle picked me up from the airport and graciously offered to put me up for a couple of days. After arriving at his apartment, I managed to receive a couple of goodies that I’ll need for my trip. He gave me a pretty awesome camera, which will help me document my trip a little better since the more I write the more likely I’m going to make an embarrassing error i.e. forget a word in a sentence. You, dear reader, will probably notice this as time elapses. He also gave me a phone that I could use in Australia, so all I'll need to do is get a new SIM card and away I go.



Anyways, despite arriving at 4am, my internal Canada clock told my body that it was 4pm, so I was wide awake and stoked to go on an adventure. So I took a quick powernap to compensate for the non-sleep courtesy of the babies screaming into my face and stealing my cutlery on the plane.

Conveniently, I arrived in Hong Kong in the middle of the long Chinese New Year holiday, so my uncle and most people didn’t have to work and there were a couple of things to do around town. But obviously, the first thing you want to do after being on a long flight is eat real food (after brushing your teeth, taking a shower to get rid of that sterile dentist smell/I-haven’t-showered-in-16-hours-smell and trying to breathe atmospheric air). Although the truth is, the flight wasn’t particularly bad; I will always vouche for the legitimacy of Cathay Pacific as a really comfortable airline. There were tons of movies/TV shows available (30 Rock?! Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations?!?!), so I was able to somewhat catch up with all those movies/TV shows I’ve always thought about watching but never got time too. The food was also really good, and I read somewhere that Gordon Ramsay was brought in as a consult for their airline food. I also saw the business-class seats and they were pretty sweet. Mental note for when I’m not a poor starving student.

So my uncle decided to take me to grab a bite to eat, and then to his office to grab a couple of maps so I could go exploring. We cut through the Wan Chai market, which is a really cool market filled with people buying vegetables and meat and seafood, and pretty nuts as cars/supply vans/Chinese military compete with market-goers/suppliers for space and the best prices/goods, which kind of sums up the sort of insanity that is Hong Kong. My uncle was also darting in and out of traffic, so I had to run to keep up with him. We would walk down a street and then he’d suddenly turn and cut in front of a car down an unassuming road and we’d end up someplace else. It was pretty cool, as we walked by a number of cool looking restaurants, including one called Amuse Bouche, which is headed up by a protégé from Petrus i.e. Gordon Ramsay.

He brought me to a small, hole in the wall (literally) restaurant. It was the kind of place where working class people get a bite to eat, and the kind of stuff I really like. Despite the perceived expense of living in a major city i.e. Hong Kong or Sydney, there are always good places to eat, if you’re willing to look and take a chance. Also, a small amount of honest dirt never hurt anyone.




Afterwards, we hustled over to my uncle’s workplace and he grabbed me a couple of maps. I then pretty much wandered around Wan Chai without any particularly plan or sense of where/what I was doing, but just grabbed my camera and the map and checked out the area.





So my uncle recommended this little bakery, for their Egg Tarts and their Chinese Doughnuts. I saw about a dozen little bakeries and restaurants that looked like they had good eats, but I decided to try this one. The name is a little misleading, as it’s actually a baked custard (hence the egg) in a flaky-sweet pastry base. Much more appealing? And the Chinese doughnuts were pretty interesting, and great with their little sugary dusting. And ONLY for $9 HK (CDN = A bit of a dollar)




I also decided to do the “thing” in Hong Kong and grab bubble tea. Apparently this is big business in Hong Kong, as each cup is about 11 Hong Kong Dollars (under CDN $2) but each of those ships can net like $2 million Hong Kong every year. The next Starbucks? I also thought it was pretty cool/funny that they served hotdogs. In the words of Anthony Bourdain, every enlightened culture eats meats of indeterminate providence in tube form.


I wandered into one of the many-multilayered levels of a Chinese shopping centre, with this one focused on computer goods. This rabbit warren of technologic madness was pretty cool, and was pretty much like Pacific Mall, but with less room and less lights. A younger, nerdier, less-hip version of me would have geeked out and wanted it all. But as we all know, I’ve clearly moved onto bigger and better things…

Then, I finally found this cool little park with basketball courts and just sat around for a bit while I waited for my uncle to get off work, and meet my aunt for lunch.

We went to another little restaurant that you could have totally missed if didn’t know it was there (and I think I did wander across from it like a dozen times while wandering around), and had one of my favourite things to eat; beef brisket in a noodle soup. It’s really pretty delicious and occasionally you can ask for tendons, which I’m crazy about.



I also stumbled upon this little restaurant, which was featured on No Reservations: Hong Kong. Despite meals reaching upward of $3500 Hong Kong (CDN $500), definitely a place I want to check out when I return.


My uncle had to go back to work, but my aunt took me to Times Square, which is kind of like the Mecca for shopping. Obviously, I was uninterested until I bumped into Hermione Granger hawking Burberry.



My aunt then took me to a Chinese New Year Fair (in a place called Victoria Park) where you could get all sorts of tasty snacks and buy some pretty neat things. Despite hating touristy things with a passion, it seemed like a lot of locals were doing it so, why not? However, to say that a lot of people were there is an understatement. There were more people rummaging around, bumping into each other than the girls searching through hotel trash trying to find the Jonas Brothers bedsheets. There were high school kids hawking goods left and right singing songs through loudspeakers like at a Miley Cyrus concert. There was a terrifying selection of snacks boiling or frying away in pots that looked like the historic predecessors of where they would grow the next batch of Disney stars. I hope this trend of Disney-related jokes has related some insight into my opinion of the kids these days.
Anywho, here are some pictures of the shenanigans that went down:





We then took the bus to go pick up my little cousin Joshua from his school. He was a little rowdy and insane but he was pretty fun. He is also tiny and only reaches a little above my knee.

And finally, to cap off what was turning out to be the longest day of my life, my uncle took me to a dinner for one of the pre-eminent Horse trainers/stables in Hong Kong. In one of the more surreal moments of my life, a singer/dancer who looked like if Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga ever adopted an Asian kid ala Brangelina, and took badass lessons from Male Figure Skaters took the stage and serenaded the crowd with his version of hardcore gangster rap. There may or may not have also been pyrotechnics/self-immolation/confetti flying out of his jumpsuit-frilly-leotard.

By know my internal clock told me I’d been awake for 20 hours. My uncle took me pack to his place and I basically passed out on the couch. I woke up like 7 hours later and now I’m blogging! I’m sure I’m missing some details but, I figure I’ll remember/update later on any missing details.

Today is my last day in Hong Kong so I’ll try and cram some more fun-tivities before my flight towards Sydney and school.

Cheers!
Ricksen