On Falling in Love with Asian New York (aka: Hong Kong)

I should have learned my lesson in Rio. When Scott waited for me for six hours at the airport in Brazil. I should have realized that you should always travel WITH your travel buddy ON THE SAME FLIGHT. I didn't learn. For some reason passengers standing on their seats and screaming at the cowering crew did not convince me that it is much easier to endure the madness of the skies knowing that your friend is alive and well. 

In case my dramatic intro did not give it away, the journey to the destination was once again quite eventful, but this time, I was on the waiting end.

Have you ever thought your best friend was rotting away in a Chinese jail? No? Well look at this and tell me if you would also jump to that conclusion: 

These are the texts that welcomed me to Hong Kong. I arrived with a smile on my face thinking that Glenn would be waiting for me, ready to show me around the magnificent city. WRONG. As far as I was concerned, he had either been arrested or given up on Hong Kong and headed to Bangkok. 

Long story short, after about 10 hours of radio silence, I received the text: "landed in HK." As much as I had enjoyed wandering around Hong Kong (drawing in pictures of Glenn in all my photos in case he never got to see the city), it was quite a relief to run (through crowds upon crowds of confused Chinese people) back to our hostel.

Where had Glenn been this whole time? Stuck in Beijing (after a late takeoff made him miss his connection) because everyone from the beloved city was flying to Hong Kong to celebrate China's birthday. Guess we never did our research on that one...  

After some dinner and a quick wander through the streets and parks before the sun went down, we headed back to the hostel to watch the fireworks. Best fireworks show EVER. We sat on the roof of our building in awe. Happy Birthday, CHINA!

We grabbed food from a local hole in the wall. I'm now obsessed with Thai Curry. Glenn insisted that we eat the food while we walked because "it's all part of the experience." Did I mention that we were also using chopsticks? And that NO ONE else was eating while they were walking?

After hitting up the famous Aqua Bar that our Australian friends had insisted we go to, we headed to the waterfront to stare at the skyline of the beautiful city. First day: WELL SPENT.

DAY TWO: Since Sunday was in reality our only full day in Hong Kong, we headed to what we both wanted to do most: see the view from The Peak. Most people stand in line for well over an hour to take a tram to see the view of Hong Kong. BUT Glenn found this awesome trail that only took 45 minutes. I think you can guess how we got to the top... Not only was hiking more rewarding - it was way faster (and you know how I feel about waiting in lines).

                 

After a well-earned drink at The Peak (and five minutes of waiting in line for the tram to take us down) we decided to run down the mountain. Why? It's easier and faster than walking AND obviously faster than waiting for trams. We wandered through the streets of Hong Kong, stumbling upon fish markets, flea markets and Buddha temples. (by "stumbling upon" I mean that I held my guidebook a few inches from my face while Glenn wandered embarrassed ahead. He later admitted that he was glad I bought the guidebook :))

Strangely enough, that night we were craving American food (Glenn was still a bit against anything Chinese after the whole Beijing fiasco). We headed back to our favorite spot sitting on the rocks, looking at Hong Kong island's exquisite skyline.

DAY THREE: And just like that, our final day in Hong Kong was upon us. We headed to McDonald's for iced coffee (I swear we went to a lot of local restaurants too...). The plan was to go to the Big Buddha. As I looked at my book for the best way to get there, a feeling of dread washed over me. I hadn't exactly done my homework on this particular destination, and it so happened to be two ferries and a bus ride up a mountain away. 

Oh, and we had a plane to catch that evening. As I began to lose all hope faced with the prospect of such an extensive pilgrimage, Glenn was overcome with resolve and insisted that it was more than feasible and that he just realized that he didn't want to leave Hong Kong without seeing Buddha. So off we went.

After what ended up being an extremely relaxing ride, we arrived and were certainly NOT disappointed. It was not only so much bigger than we could have imagined - the view was also breath-taking (seeing as Buddha sits on top of a mountain). 

                           

The long journey to and from Buddha ended up being half the fun - to take the ferry through the surrounding islands and then wind through the towns once we got to Lantau Island. Props to Glenn for being decisive.

We then headed to Bangkok that night, and after a full day of travel, welcomed a relaxing night in! 

Stay tuned for THAILAND.