Adventures in Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s sail in is rumored to be one of the best in the world. 7AM brought the first glipse of the skyline and my first sniff of China mainland. The air was foggy and thick, but the mass of skyscrapers could still be seen from miles out, slowly surrounding us on all sides. They ushered us in as if foreshadowing the gauntlet of consumerism waiting onshore.





That last sentence sounded nice, but in actuality (since I’m writing this post-Vietnam and Thailand) Hong Kong is much more tolerant and laid back than I expected. The only annoyances were persistent Indian salesmen on every corner pedaling fake Rolex watches and custom suits. Luckily for me, I happened to be in the market for a custom suit. Tim, Clayton and I got off as soon as we cleared customs and hit the streets looking for a small tailor Clayton used last year in HK. We had to get our orders in as early as possible to ensure the tailor could finish our suits before sailaway 20 hours later. And what a 20 hours it was…



After the long and crowded morning walk, picking out fabric/style/cut/pocket location/etc and getting measured the first time, we were ready for lunch. I don’t eat McDonalds in the states, so I don’t know why I did today…but was encouraged to see fresh corn on the menu. I’m sure it was made from minced elbow or something, but at least it felt healthy…



Next, we hit up two of the famous marketplaces…one on the mainland, then took a taxi under the bay to the far side of Hong Kong island. There’s not nearly enough time to look around the whole of the markets, but good deals abound and make me look forward to coming back next time. Hong Kong used to be a great place to get deals on electronics, but since it was ‘discovered’ over the last ten+ years the cost of electronics is now comparable to America. However, it’s still the place to find all the latest gear, sometimes up to a year before it comes out in the states.





We trekked back to the mainland to ensure a timely arrival for our 4pm second fitting, and upon arriving early, spent a couple hours drinking pints and playing fuseball at an empty bar in downtown. I came in third place, I think.



My tailor and I during fitting #2...



We then searched for a Chinese restaurant to try out some authentic cuisine when we stumbled upon a very good seafood restaurant called ”Very Good Seafood Restaurant”…



Each of us chose 2 horrible sounding menu items, and 1 safety item, which would become our chaser salvation. The meal consisted of goose tongue, fish eyes, bean curd, duck feet, fish head soup and shrimp balls…with salvation items sweet and sour pork and beer. Duck feet was a shocker, really quite good after get passed the webbing...but as for the others...glad I did it once.













You can never have too much market…so the three of us hit the famous night market on a stomach full of body parts…



A friend of mine rejoined the ship in Hong Kong so I picked her up at a hotel in downtown and for some reason decided to go out to eat again at about 2AM. Despite pantomiming all of our communications with the non-English speaking wait staff, the meal was delicious. I wish I could sound cool right here by naming the style of restaurant/meal, but all I remember is the meat was cooked in a large pot full of spices and vegetables in front of us on the table, and that we had no idea what we were doing. We closed the restaurant, and finished day 1 in Hong Kong with meal number two and a backpack full of souvenirs and DVDs to take back to the ship.



I woke up relatively early on day 2 to do some solo exploration of Hong Kong Island. I took a ferry ride and a long walk to Victoria Park on Hong Kong Island, which proved to be just what I needed to settle my stomach. I spent the day writing, reading, listening to music, falling asleep on a park bench and being woken up by a group of Chinese girls laughing at me as they passed.

Houseboats & junks on the walk by the bay of Hong Kong Island...



Some kind of lawn bowling game at Victoria Park that I got swiftly kicked out of for not wearing the right socks or something...


I headed back to the mainland that afternoon, picked up my new suit and boarded my steed for our nighttime city sendoff, 8PM...