Sino Travel Blog 2017: Hong Kong

This summer after graduating from high school I embarked upon a two-month trip across Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China. I'd originally planned on posting on this now-rather dusty blog daily during the trip, but this proved to be an incredibly arduous task, impossible to fit between enjoying marvellously cheap food, snoozing, and posting on Instagram every day (with, yes, an official hashtag: #GVA2CHN2k17. We are millennials, after all.)

So now, almost three months after returning from China, having spent idyllic weeks lying around watching movies before moving to Oxford, where I've now been for more than a month (time flies when you've got weekly reading lists to complete!), aided by photos I snapped along the way, I will finally begin to recount #GVA2CHN2k17.

First stop: Hong Kong...

Day One: June 15/16

Our flight to Hong Kong left at 3pm, so I spent the morning packing my €30 Amazon hiker backpack. I thought it would be absolutely full, but it turns out that half a dozen white T-shirts and H&M shorts, flip flops, a Spartan toiletry set (toothbrush, toothpaste, towels, and a Lush solid shampoo that would cause me some trouble later), a 10-year-old Sony digital camera, my iPad, and a bag full of chargers doesn't really take up that much space. I threw in some eyeliner and the backpack ended up weighing a little more than 8kg –– impressive, for two months. Blaise, on the other hand, brought a 19kg bag for a two week trip. Life is hard when you wanna look good on vacation...

With a stopover in Dubai, where Blaise nonchalantly purchased a pastel-colored Swatch and we sat down to catch up –– we hadn't really talked in the past year apart from bored back-and-forths in TOK –– we landed in Hong Kong in the late afternoon. After an hour or so spent moving from one sterile, air-conditioned environment to another, wrung out from economy class seats and back-to-back movies, we emerged from the Prince Edward MTR stop into an absolute cacophony of neon signs piled up one on top of another clamoring for space, and the frantic beeping sounds of crosswalk lights, and throngs of people huddled under umbrellas as if blocking the rain from above would protect them from the insurmountable humidity that slithered past the narrow streets and grimy balconies to clamber into our rolled-up sweatpants. 

Our hostel was Wontonmeen, which in any other circumstance would be deemed sad, damp, and small, but because it was joined to an organic coffeeshop and was frequented by hipsters such as Mark, the harem pants-wearing industrial design intern, was instead "cool" and "edgy". It had one large room with ten bunk beds, three toilets, two showers, a washing machine we weren't allowed to use, a common room that was actually outside and was filled with potted plants, a drying rack full of clothes, and a neon sign that spelled out HONG KONG (see above), a full-length mirror, a shoe rack, powerful air-conditioning, and an extremely kind, artsy thirty-eight-year-old lady for an owner. Blaise and I dropped our bags onto our bunks and set off to explore Mong Kok.

Eight Pearls Food Products

Day Two: June 17

The next day was probably one of the most eventful ones of the entire two-month trip. My friend Ariel, whom I'd met the previous summer at Harvard Summer School, met us in the morning, along with her friend Jen, who studies Film and Philosophy at HKU, and Jen's friend Jair, who studies Linguistics and East Asian Studies at McGill and had recently completed his year abroad, and we got breakfast at a joint with a queue snaking around the block and grumpy waitstaff who barked harsh questions at us in Cantonese. The food was amazing: a curious East-West fusion that consisted of macaroni and sliced ham in chicken soup, with scrambled eggs on toast and yuenyeung: half milk tea, half coffee. I still think about that meal to this day. 

Ariel in her natural environment (water... get it?)

Next we took the ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui to Hong Kong Island. The ubiquitous rain covered the view with a thin fog.

Question: What else did we do on that day? 

Choose from this list of possible answers: 

A) Visited Chungking Mansions (for about two minutes)

B) Purchased flowers from an old woman in the IFC mall that smelled strong, sweet, and sticky, like pineapples

C) Got sour plum juice (酸梅汤) and sugarcane tea

D) Visited a store called GOD that sold household things like teapots and wallets with cool Hong Kong designs

E) Went to a building full of small independent design stores with expensive tchotchkes

F) Rode a streetcar

G) Went to a typical mall in Mong Kok

H) Had a waffle with spicy Korean chicken on it

I) Had curry fishballs from a street stall

J) Visited Man Mo Temple and paid our respects

K) Got caught in torrential rain

L) All of the above

Solution: L, of course.

Ariel had a sore throat, so she purchased some remedial herbal tea from this stall in Mong Kok.

After a long, exhausting day, Blaise and I squelched back to the hostel in our wet shoes. We were surprised by how well we were holding up against jetlag. Setting the alarm for 9am, we went to sleep.

Day Three: June 18

We woke up at noon. Oops.

Blaise and I took the tram up the steep, steep hill to Victoria Peak, paying using our Octopus cards instead of purchasing a ticket, which is much more expensive! It was still shrouded in fog, and when we went onto the balcony, it looked as though we were looking out onto oblivion.

Soon the fog cleared a little, and from it emerged that legendary skyline.

Being cheapskates, we descended from Victoria Peak by foot, following winding paths through the forest. After a while, these turned into steep roads with minimal sidewalks that took a toll on our knees. I was wearing flip-flops because my sneakers were still wet from the previous day's thunderstorm, and Blaise's heel was developing a blister. We slid into the nearest sit-down place, which turned out to be an overpriced American-style diner for hipster expats. A white guy on another table was there with his adorable pug. The coleslaw was too oniony.

We chatted and wandered around the streets of Hong Kong island until night fell, then went home.

Day Four: June 19

I woke up with disintegrating cuticles, probably as a result of the change in environment –– Blaise's face was shedding dry skin. I wrapped up my fingertips with band-aids to stop myself picking at them, and we set off. It was noon by then, but we chalked it up to jetlag. We weren't too worried, because our friend Seb was in the air and due to land in Hong Kong in the afternoon, and that was all that mattered. Seb had been working at a conference in the ILO for two weeks, so hadn't been able to join us at the beginning. 

Thus the trio for 'phase one' of the China trip was completed. We were originally supposed to be four –– the four students who made up the most fun table in Year 11 Spanish –– but unfortunately Yasmin wasn't able to make it. We missed her dearly!

Blaise and I killed time munching baozi at Kowloon Park, visiting a small museum, and checking out Canton Road and the waterfront at Tsim Sha Tsui again, before making our way back to the airport. 

Referencing Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters at MUJI.

We checked Seb into the hostel too and went out for a walk around Kowloon. It started raining again, and as we wandered past crowds of bobbing umbrellas, Blaise fell in love with the 7-Eleven umbrella that some people were toting around, so we walked around, checking each store location, until we found him one.

We ended up in Fa Hui Park and its empty sports court whose shallow puddles glinted under the lamps. Following near-empty streets and going out of our way to climb overpasses, we returned to our hostel via the flower market. 

Day Five: June 20

Woke up at noon again. It was becoming more and more difficult to make a good excuse for this, and it would become an awful habit for the next two weeks. :( 

Had dim sum at a nearby place called Ming Dim Sum. We queued for around 15 minutes in the rain, but it was totally worth it for the grilled wonton, the pork and century egg congee, the cheung fan, the chicken rice wrapped in lotus leaves, and of course, the beautiful white, fluffy char siu buns that were as soft as clouds and as sweet as a kiss. The best feeling in the world is introducing your friends to something you love and seeing them love it too. Nursing our food babies, we set off for the afternoon.

We took the gondolas on Ngong Ping Island to see the Big Buddha. It being typhoon season, the weather was still very overcast, and we were initially hesitant about spending money on the télécabines if we weren't even able to enjoy the view. We hadn't considered that the view might be enhanced by the fog.

We lurched forward slowly, passing murky waters, construction projects, and lush green foliage. Ahead was absolute nothingness –– cue that track off the Interstellar soundtrack that makes you feel like the only living being in the universe. 

Up at the top, cute orange dogs lazed around on the floor. The Buddha looked splendid, only barely outlined from behind the fog as we looked at it from the bottom of the steps. We climbed higher and higher, and its forms materialised until it was colossal and we had to crane our necks to see it. Inside, there were rows of people's ashes, and I discovered, from the cards and flowers placed in abundance, that this was Anita Mui's resting place.

We'd been playing Yumeji's Theme in the gondola, so in the evening we checked out Goldfinch Restaurant, where they filmed the famous diner scene from In the Mood for Love. It wasn't that good, and we weren't able to get nice photos. Still worth it, though. After pho, we went back up to Victoria Peak to catch the cityscape at night. 

We had been here for only a few days but I was already being devoured by mosquitoes. It turns out I'm weirdly sensitive to mosquito bites, because not only did I have triple the amount of bites my friends had, but they also swelled to astonishing proportions. We stopped by a Watsons and I purchased some mosquito products to fool myself into thinking such things would make a difference. Obviously mosquitoes are a big issue in Hong Kong, because there was a whole aisle of mosquito sprays and anti-itch lotions. The choice was overwhelming. I stood there for what seemed like an eternity, trying to decide which one was cheap but effective without looking like an idiot. In the end I settled for a spray that had a picture of Gudetama on it, because priorities.

Then went to the bottom of the HSBC building to look at cool lights. When Blaise had taken enough photos, we went to a bar that a friend had recommended in Lan Kwai Fong. We talked for hours over mojitos and caught the last MTR home. 

Day Six: June 21

This was a much more relaxed day. We visited the HKU campus in the afternoon, with its gorgeous architecture, steep hills, and relentless mosquitoes. 

There was an extremely hipster café next to the campus called ethos that sold stuff like kiwi smoothies and crème brûlée. We sat there, enjoying the air conditioning and looking at memes on Instagram.

In the evening we were invited to dinner by my parents' college schoolmate, Sui a-yi, and her son. She told us to meet her at the Hong Kong Bankers' Club, which could only be accessed via a really high-tech elevator from a high-end shopping mall. Once we arrived, we realised it was an extremely fancy, exclusive location, with a low-key front desk that made it look like more of an office. We were barred from entering, though, because shorts, flip-flops, and sneakers apparently weren't part of the whitecollar dress code. Sui a-yi wanted to see if we could borrow some jackets to put on, but this wasn't allowed. Instead we had marvellous Argentinian steak that cost so much, we felt extremely guilty. Later we discovered that Sui a-yi was the CFO of Bank of China (Hong Kong). So it wasn't that bad. And the Occitane lavender lotion box-set we'd purchased for her as a gift probably wasn't that impressive to her. She was a really nice lady. 

Day Seven: June 22

Started the day by getting tagliatelle carbonara at the Wontonmeen café. Blaise and I had had it once a couple of days ago, ordering the meals ten minutes before the kitchen closed. It had been cooked up behind the bar by the barista using a teensy-tiny pan, and had been served with a runny egg and a smattering of pepper. I'll let my short-lived journal explain how much we'd loved it: 

(Falling in love, as it turns out, does indeed feel as good as that carbonara.)

So on that day we ordered the carbonara again. Unfortunately it didn't taste as good as the first time. The egg wasn't runny enough. I was sad. 

The magic always wears off. Thus is life.

We took the MTR all the way up north to Sha Tin, where the Hong Kong Heritage Museum is located. The MTR station is connected to a giant mall (not to be confused with MTR stations that are also malls, with underground MUJI To Gos and Mrs Fields Cookies) and we wandered around for a while, confused by Google Maps. Eventually we realised we had to go through a store and step out onto a balcony, where employees were taking a smoke, then cross a bridge into another section of the mall... Finally we arrived. The reason why we were so interested in the Hong Kong Heritage Museum was because, at the time, a lot of Hong Kong museums were closed for renovation. Back when Blaise and I were killing time waiting for Seb's plane to land, we'd visited what we thought was the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Kowloon Park. It turned out that it was actually the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre, a building with some worn-out exhibits (a lot of things were out of order) that illustrated the history of the city with some slight pro-PRC undertones. Stunned by the fact that there are two institutions by the same name, we went in search of the true museum. And when we found it, it was a little anticlimactic.

I really don't remember what was inside the museum. One of the temporary exhibitions, I think, was about constructing the Louvre. Another was about Jin Yong / Louis Cha, the prolific and revered martial arts author, which made me really happy because I love Legend of the Condor Heroes. I tried to explain Jin Yong to Seb and Blaise, but I don't think they really got it. It's something you have to experience. 

The museum played Erik Satie's Gymnopédie No. 1 on a loop. Blaise and Seb didn't recognise the song. I was filled with disappointment. 

We took a nice stroll along the Shin Mun River and then returned to the city center. For dinner we took up Sui a-yi's recommendation and tried out bo jai fan (rice cooked in a clay pot with meat on top) at this grimy restaurant in Yau Ma Tei where the bright lights glared into our eyes. We got some chrysanthemum tea to go with the dish, and proceeded to have one of the best meals of the entire trip. Seb and Blaise finished the whole thing, but it was too much for me –– and I personally wasn't interested in scraping burnt rice off the sides of the pot, although apparently it tasted excellent. It was a little shady, but we know the adage: the shadier the ethnic food place, the better the ethnic food. 

Bellies full, we wanted to go to sleep early so that we could catch the flight to Taiwan the next morning. But as we were packing up, the proprietor of the hostel invited us to a movie night that she was hosting. Blaise stayed in bed to text his girlfriend, but Seb and I went downstairs and chatted with some of the other hostel guests in the closed Wontonmeen café. It looked so different empty and with the lights dimmed: I felt like I was partaking in something secret and sacred. Crammed in the back room, where she had installed some cinema seats, we watched Ah Ying (1983), a sort of hybrid documentary about a girl who sells fish at a market, but decides to become an actress. She falls in love with her teacher, who is like twice her age, but it's quite a beautiful and contemplative film overall. And Ah Ying is played by the real-life Ah Ying who inspired the movie. 

To be continued...