Wednesday 4/2/2008- Sunday 4/6/2008
The flight went by quickly and before we knew it we were waiting in the immigrations line in the Hong Kong Airport….which took us almost 1.5 hours. After clearing customs we bought two Airport Express passes and then headed to Hong Kong Island.
The Airport Express left us at the IFC (International Financial Center) in the same building where the Google office was located! We went to the office to meet some of the locals (only 18 people in this office) and to finish up our taxes. After our ‘afternoon’ in the office, we met Danae at the Airport Express station downstairs. Danae and Mike graciously offered to be our hosts during our stay in Hong Kong. Katie knows Danae through one of her best childhood friends, Stephanie.
To avoid looking like monster tourists with our huge backpacks, we jumped in a cab and headed back to Danae and Mike’s place. Their 2 bedroom apartment was ‘large’ for Hong Kong standards (very similar to New York pricing…), and Dermot and Katie were completely shocked to see the before and after renovation photos…. Incredible! We caught up about the last six years, and then we headed out to dinner to meet up with Danae’s husband Mike.
We ate dinner in Lan Kwai Fong at a very tasty Australian place called Jaspa’s. It had REAL meat (as opposed to ‘meat’ from S.E. Asia….) so we were beyond excited… we had chicken fajitas, lamb meatballs and some roti bread along with a bottle of red wine. Even though the food and drinks are expensive in Hong Kong, especially after coming from Southeast Asia, we were so excited to have a proper meal. We had fantastic conversions and felt like Mike and Danae were long lost relatives, as we shared so many stories from our travels.
After dinner we headed to Mike’s favorite pub called The Globe. He owns the ½ pint chugging record at the pub, so we felt honored to be with such a celebrity or (“Gwalo,” expat). The pub has all sorts of records for drinking feats ranging from pint chugging, to how fast you can drink a bottle of wine, to how fast you can drink all 80 beers on offer…. We could tell we were in the “British” influenced part of town. We played cricket and then headed home as Mike and Danae had to get up early for work.
We didn’t get out of bed until around 10 a.m. It was very nice to sleep in a comfortable bed where we didn’t have to worry about…anything, bugs, sleep sheets, wondering where all of our electronics where… and not having to lock up our stuff.
After getting up, we took full advantage of having a ‘home’ to stay in and did some odds and ends like laundry and such. We finally got out of the apartment around 2:30 to explore Hong Kong. Our first stop was the Hong Kong Metro. It took us a while to find the Central Station stop (signs in Hong Kong can be quite confusing if you are not used to them), but once we did we took it for 4 stops to another island called Kowloon.
The four stops on the subway made a world of difference in terms of culture. On Hong Kong Island there are lots of expats, while in Kowloon it is almost all Chinese and people native of Hong Kong. We decided to tour the ‘markets:’ bird, flower, goldfish and ladies.
Our first stop was the bird market. It was a bit odd as there were hundreds, if not thousands, of caged birds for sale. Birds are very lucky in Chinese culture and many people own at least one….and bring them anywhere they are gambling. We were a bit sad for the birds stuck in a cage, but at least they’d probably live a pampered life.
Next stop was the flower market, where they had all varieties of flowers and almost all of them seemed bigger and cheaper than we had ever seen: Mrs. Barnett would have been in heaven. If only we could buy them and save them for our wedding!! Continuing on the market theme, we ran into the goldfish market…hundreds and thousands of fish in little plastic bags waiting to head to a lucky home.
Our last stop was the Ladies’ Market, where ladies were not for sale…but rather their wares. This is a famous market in Hong Kong where poor women used to set up small stands and sell whatever they could to make a living. You could get just about any souvenir you wanted here. We resisted the temptation to pick some up, but enjoyed browsing instead.
We headed down to the harbor next to see the Avenue of the Stars, and to catch the last part of the Hong Kong light show. The waterfront was very similar to Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard, which had stars for all the famous celebrities from Hong Kong. Most famous of course, was Bruce Lee!
We caught the train back into Hong Kong Island and met up with Danae in Lan Kwai Fong at a crazy expat bar called Stormies. This part of town was quite the party spot. People from all walks of live enjoyed drinks and laughs together; it almost reminded us a bit of Beale St in Memphis, TN.
After a happy hour drink, we met up with Mike and headed to Le Jardin (a hidden gem) and then for a late dinner at Ebenezer’s for Falafel sandwiches…both cheap and good (two things becoming more important to us each day). With full stomachs were stopped by an underground/speakeasy bar that Mike and Danae knew about where some very amateur musicians were attempting to play various songs. It was fun but I don’t think any record executives will be rushing to see the talent there anytime soon. With a full day of touring Kowloon and partying in Lan Kwai Fong, we decided to head back to Mike and Danae’s to watching Beer League (Artie Lange’s movie). Dermot was the only person still awake by the time the movie was over. The movie was great, but I think you have to either be from New Jersey or have lived there to appreciate the humor.
Friday was a national holiday in Hong Kong, Ancestor Grave Sweeping Day. It was very refreshing to see the homage paid to the elderly and deceased. Danae decided to take us over to a more local part of town for a hike and markets. We took a 10 minute taxi through the winding (Katie almost got sick) streets to the south side of Hong Kong Island.
We walked around the Stanley Markets, which were outdoor stalls of anything and everything you could want. The most interesting thing we found was stalls of ‘brand name’ clothes for 15% of the cost—such as Gap, American Eagle, Abercrombie, Laura Ashley, North Face, Billabong, Rip Curl…you name it! The sizing and availability was much like TJ Maxx…and Dermot and Danae were luck to find some winners.
We had lunch at a Seafront Restaurant on the water and then headed to the hills to do the Dragon’s Back hike. The hike started at the base of a jail, which was also next to a cemetery. Being that it was ‘Grave Sweeping Day,’ there was tons of traffic and people in the streets. Once we started our hike, it was about 2 hours and not too strenuous. It was a very windy and foggy day, so we couldn’t see anything from the top of the mountain, but the fog rushing across the peak was very cool.
After our hike we headed into Shek-O town to a little pub called Back Beach Bar for some much earned drinks. It was a very fun, very local and very reasonably priced bar away from all the hubbub of metropolitan Hong Kong. Not to mention that we had Brooklyn Lager cheaper in Hong Kong than it would be in NYC!
We then headed to local dinner, literally in a woman’s living room called Shining Star. It was all homemade food and we enjoyed everything that we ordered. Danae wanted to check out a new bar that opened up down the road, so off we went. The bar was one big fish tank and the chairs and tables were giant clam shells, with sand on the floor. They were playing some loud music and the DJ came over to us to see what we thought…since it was a ‘new place.’ He was from San Fran and just arrived in Hong Kong two weeks ago. Dermot thinks he had the hots for Katie, but no harm was done… he did give his card to Katie as well.
Our last stop of the night was back to trusty Lan Kwai Fong to Insomnia to see a Filipino Cover Band. They played a mix of 80s, 90s and modern rock and had a ton of energy… not to mention they sound EXACTLY like Madonna, Shakira…and we were seriously blown away. Katie and Danae danced the night away as Dermot felt like they were back in college.
Our original plans to get up early and head to Macau were slightly delayed due to our late night…. We did eventually get up and caught a boat to Macau. There were not seats left in economy class so we splurged for “Super” class and bought tickets on the 1:15 ferry. We had breakfast at Starbucks and then caught the one hour later to Macau. We toured around the St Paul’s church and square.
Macau was controlled by the Portuguese all the way up to 1999 and you could sense that in its architecture and culture. We then headed to Fernando’s, a Portuguese restaurant, for lunch. This restaurant came highly recommended from Mike and Danae’s friend, as well as many articles Katie had read about Macau. We shared delicious pork steak, beef steak, garlic prawns and Portuguese rice along with a pitcher of sangria. Deeelish! After swapping more hilarious stories about our travels and dating life… we continued our Macau experience.
After our late lunch/early dinner, we decided to head to the Venetian to test our hand at Asian gambling. It was just like the one in Las Vegas…. only bigger. We headed to the sports bar once we got there so that we could watch the second half of the Liverpool/Arsenal game. Dermot thought it was a bad sign when right as he walked into the bar Arsenal scored an equalizing goal. The game ended 1-1 and we decided to hit the gaming tables. Dermot and Katie’s amazing luck at roulette (with help from the number 18) continued as they ended up $350 richer than they started by the end of the night. Mike and Danae did not have quite as much luck, but as a whole we left with more money then we entered, which is always a good thing.
We grabbed a late dinner in the casino at the 3 Monkeys Café and then made our way back to the Ferry Terminal. We boarded our 3 a.m. ferry (oye! The only one available!) and once again everyone except for Dermot fell asleep. We got back to the apartment around 4:30 a.m. and needless to say went straight to bed and fell asleep before our heads hit the pillow.
We woke up around 11:00 a.m. after our very late night in Macau. We folded our laundry, packed our bags, showered and got ready for our last chance to explore Hong Kong Island with Mike and Danae. We walked around the Cat Market, Man Mo Temple, down Hollywood Road, through the ‘grocery’ (aka: flower, fish, meat and veggie market) and grabbed authentic Chinese at Dumpling Yuan One unique part of the food market we saw was where you could pick out a live chicken and have it killed and prepared for you while you wait.
After lunch, we hopped off the moving escalator back into Mid-Levels, and we stopped by XTC on Ice on the way back to Mike and Danae’s place. It is supposedly Hong Kong’s best ice cream and didn’t disappoint…although the locals enjoy Ben and Jerry’s!
We grabbed our bags in their apartment, said our goodbyes (you guys rock!!!) and hopped into a taxi to the Airport Express terminal downtown. You can actually check in for your flight downtown (check your bags and all) and then get on a train to the airport…hands down the *best* feature in Hong Kong. In the airport we picked up some postcards and books before boarding our plane back to Thailand to Koh Samui.