I always love going to Hong Kong. I may not have many memories of living there but it still feels like home in a way. Tara and I arrived late at night on the 2nd and made our way to Kowloon and then got a cab to our guest house. The place I booked was on the main tourist/shopping street in Kowloon called Nathan Road and was pretty cheap so we weren’t sure what to expect. We were dropped off in front of a big building with a bunch of little stores selling knock off watches and purses and no sign of any type of accommodation. After asking a few people directions, we were directed inside, towards an old group of elevators and told to go to the 12th floor. At the front office for the Cosmic Guest House, we were asked to pay in full for all four nights and then taken to a room. They told us that we would have to move after the first night because our other room was not yet vacated, but that they’d put us in a nicer room for the first night. The room they took us to was the size of a large closet, with three small cots packed in, and a one square meter shower, and one square meter toilet/sink room. We decided that it was a bit small, but very clean and pretty safe feeling, and the crazy jet/rain shower made up for it.
The next morning, we went across the street to have our first dim sum. I asked the front desk for a recommendation and they told me there was a superstar dim sum restaurant across the street. I was pretty excited because I figured this must mean the food was amazing, but when we walked over I realized that the place is actually called “Superstar Restaurant.” Luckily, it lived up to its name, and we feasted on dumplings and buns for as long as our stomachs could handle. When we got back, they had us switch rooms to an interior (no window) one that was a tad bit larger, except it only had one square meter bathroom area where there was a dinky little shower head connected to a hot water box on the wall behind the toilet: definitely the definition of a one-butt bathroom.
We moved just in time for Carly’s arrival and went down to meet her on the street. She was quite the trooper and was ready to go out and explore even though she had just gotten off a long flight from South Africa. After grabbing a quick lunch for her, we walked down towards the water on the Kowloon side, passing the famous Peninsula Hotel, and down the Avenue of the Stars. Unfortunately there was a thick fog covering the whole city, so you could see the first few rows of buildings on Hong Kong Island but none of the hills behind. Later we had some quick noodles for dinner and then met up with my friend Mamta, who was also a Computer Science student at WashU and just graduated in December in the same program as me. She took us to a delicious mango dessert place in the mall across the street from our hotel and then to the Mong Kok market, which sells fun, cheap little trinkets in a long, outdoor stretch of stalls. It was really nice to be with someone who knew the area well and it was fun to see her.
That night we decided to check out the night life in Kowloon and went to Knucsford Terrace to a place called Bahama Mama that had been recommended by the guide book and my friend Simon. It was fun, but kind of quiet since it was a Wednesday, so we decided to walk around and see what else there was. Carly spotted a sign that said it was Ladies night at a club called “Bubbles” so we went up to take a look. Turns out it was the hotspot for the night and we were given free Bubbles planners and free drinks by the owner who was pretty amused by his only non-Chinese patrons and wanted to practice his English. We got back to find that, although we had complained earlier, our toilet was still broken and would not flush. A hotel staff member told us it couldn’t be fixed that night and we couldn’t move rooms until after 11 the next day, so we should use the shower head to fill up the tank and then fill a bucket with water to pour in the bowl to flush it.
The next morning, we happily found that our toilet was working again. Apparently they had been working on the toilet pipes for the whole section of our building, and had just left them not hooked up over night. We got up and found it was another cloudy day, so we decided to save the Peak for the last day and go to Lantau Island instead. We took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong and then jumped on the fast ferry over to Lantau. When we got there, we hired a cab to drive us through the twisty hill roads to the Big Buddha. The Big Buddha pretty much fits his description. He is a very large bronze Buddha statue that sits high up on a hill overlooking a monastery, the largest seated bronze Buddha in the world, in fact. We climbed up the 260-stair pathway leading to him and circumambulated a few times. Then we went down and walked through the monastery, enjoying the smell of the incense and the singing voices of the monks. After that there wasn’t much to do except get gelato and go home. It was nice to see though, very pleasant and peaceful.
For dinner we went back to the mall across the street and went to a Japanese place that made pizzas that had rice as the crust. It was pretty good and we decided to start a chain in America when we get back. Back in our room, we turned on our air conditioning and it started making loud noises and spitting water everywhere. It had also leaked a whole puddle of water all over my bed, and our stuff on the bedside table. I called the front desk, and the lady came down, took it apart, wiped off the table with a rag, frowned at it for a while, and told us that she didn’t know what to do and she’d fix it tomorrow. I asked her to get me dry sheets and she said she’d rather not because she would have to get them from upstairs, but that I should put them under the fan and then they would dry. We were feeling tired that night, so we went back over to the mall and saw Avatar in 3D because Carly and Tara hadn’t seen it yet. It’s an amazing movie even with Chinese subtitles. If you haven’t seen it yet you definitely should.
We had decided that we’d spend our last day exploring Hong Kong Island. Much to our dismay, there was still a fat cloud squatting over the whole city. We took the Star Ferry over again and then got an angry cab driver to take us to Central where we found the famous Luk Yu Tea House and had dim sum. Unfortunately the waiter (who was also very angry… bad day for Hong Kongers, I guess) told us that EVERYTHING HAS PORK! So we found a nice little vegetarian café afterwards for Carly. The man who worked there was in a much better mood and said he had lived in San Francisco for a while. His whole place was decorated with vintage American signs, clothes and toys, and apparently it’s a member’s-only restaurant, but he made an exception since we were only visiting.
After lunch, we made our way over to the Peak Tram, and went up to the Peak.
The Peak Tram is an old cable tram system that goes almost vertically up Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island. The peak is supposed to have the most spectacular view of the city, harbor, and Kowloon all together. We could vaguely see the harbor once we were at the top, but everything was coated in white mist and not very clear… so we got gelato. On our way down, we got off at the Kennedy Road stop, and after confusing a lot of people and resorting to our trusty iPhones for directions, we found the place where I used to live - #1 Monmouth Terrace. I explained to the man at the gate that I was born here, and used to live in apartment 20A and got just about the exact reaction I expected: a completely blank stare and a “so… what?” He told me that no agents had come that day, and that I’d have to come back with an agent to see an apartment. Oh well... it was fun to see the outside at least. From there we made our way back... to the trusty mall again… for some pho dinner and mango dessert. Since our flight was early this morning, we stayed in and rested a bit.
At about 10 pm, the fire alarm went off, which thoroughly freaked us out. We jumped out of bed, got dressed and got our bags and were about to quickly head out when a little security man came down with a Cosmic staff lady and started yelling at us to “not smoke in the room!” We had clearly not been smoking in the room – it was so tiny and boxed in that it would have been pretty obvious if we had. This accusation was the last straw and made me pretty angry. I started yelling back that we weren’t smoking and that they were being irresponsible and should check the other rooms because there could still be a fire. They walked down the hall, looked at each of the doors without opening them, came back, and told me that it was probably someone’s shower making too much steam and to forget about it. This is about the time that I decided that I do not like the Cosmic Guest House. I wish I was a Lonely Planet writer and I could go up tell them they were thrown out of our book for bad behavior. Unfortunately, I had already paid in full, so my yelling really came to nothing.
I guess since I’m more familiar with Hong Kong I didn’t really describe much about it, so for those of you who have never been there, here are the things I can think of that might be interesting. All the cabs are red and kind of old fashioned, boxy cars. The cab drivers are much angrier than anywhere else I’ve been, I think. It seems like even since last time I was there less people speak English and more people speak Mandarin (the local language is Cantonese). I guess that makes sense since its part of China now and not a British colony any more. It’s a very beautiful and cosmopolitan city with people of all sorts of ethnicities everywhere. It’s mostly made up of Hong Kong island, which has the downtown area as well as some beautiful rolling, green hills. The buildings line the beautiful turquoise harbor and the mountains make a crazy contrasting backdrop. On the other side of the harbor is Kowloon on a peninsula. Kowloon is also highly populated and has a lot of shopping and hotels. What a city. Love it.
Anyway - Sorry I’m running behind on these. We’re now been in Beijing for a day and have already had some interesting adventures… but I’ll save those for the next entry.
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