Unusually neither James or I had thought to
check our flight time from Auckland, our ticket said departure at midnight and
arrival at 6am so foolishly we’d both anticipated about 6 hours. Needless the
say when the captain announced we were in for an 11-hour flight it came as a
bit of a shock! Fortunately long haul on Air NZ was pretty awesome and we
managed to amuse ourselves between movies and sleeping.
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| Very tired, and before I noticed the chicken's foot lurking in the rice! |
We couldn’t check into our HK apartment
until 10am so after landing at 6am we spent a couple of hours in the airport –
partly to take advantage of their free wifi but also because we were scared to
go outside a little bit…
Come 9.30am it was time to tackle HK’s
metro system – the MTR – and although initially a bit daunting I think HK
probably has the most efficient and easy to use train system on earth and
before we knew it we’d arrived at our new neighbourhood for the next four
nights – Sham Shui Po.
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| Our neighbourhood! |
Our plan on checking into our (unbelievably
small!) apartment was to try and catch up on sleep – but we were both really
hungry and a bit excited/delirious so we opted instead to try and find a
recommended restaurant in our neck of the woods. Where we were staying was
exactly what I’d expected of Hong Kong – absolute chaos! Just highrise
apartment blocks, street markets and neon signs as far as the eye could see. We
were both a bit nervous about heading out but we put on our brave faces and within
15 minutes we’d found the place we were looking for.
Unfortunately, nothing was in English, no
one seemed to speak English and it took all the strength I had to stop James
from running screaming into the distance. We eventually managed to communicate
that we wanted a table – but ordering food didn’t come quite so easily. They
gave you a slip of paper with dishes written on them and in theory you just
tick what you want – however, this didn’t seem to work for the woman who came
to take our order who quickly got bored and walked off without taking it. The
second woman had a bit more patience but wouldn’t accept what we’d ticked and
just kind of pointed at other things we didn’t want and then walked off with
our order.
Unsure of what we were going to end up with
we were pleased when the first dish arrived and looked fairly normal – sticky
rice wrapped in a banana leaf. James was still freaking out so I put on my best
‘don’t be so ridiculous’ face and heaped a pile of rice into my bowl and
started tucking in. It soon became clear there wasn’t just rice in the parcel
and as I nervously dug around to see what the hard thing was my chopsticks had
just hit I was fairly horrified to discover it was a chicken’s foot! My ‘I’m so
much braver in HK than you’ face quickly drained from my face and James had his
moment of glory as he removed it from my bowl and hid it out of sight! I guess
it had to happen at some point… Fortunately the rest of the food was delicious,
so we left content at our adventurous attempt at lunch.
We’d read in the LP about a local temple
that was supposed to be one of the most colourful in Hong Kong so to get over
the trauma of our first meal we headed straight there for a meander around. It
was easy to find and a welcome haven amongst the chaos of the Kowloon streets
outside.
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| Old meets new |
Soon it was time to head back for a shower
before catching up with our friend Becky and her other half Jon after work.
It’d been a good two years since we’d seen each other so I was pretty excited
for the prospect of a bit of female company (no offence to James, he can be
pretty girly at times) and see a familiar face!
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| Hong Kong Island |
After getting a bit lost in the TST MTR
station (easily done, it’s a maze!) we finally found her, and after a few catch
up hugs we headed above ground for a sunset stroll along the harbor. It was an
absolutely beautiful spot to admire the HK skyline before hopping on the famous
Star Ferry to cross the water to Hong Kong Island.
James and I could barely believe the
difference between Kowloon and HK Island – only 10 minutes between them but it
almost felt like we were in London! Within a couple of minutes we’d seen a
H&M and a Marks and Spencers! Where HK totally outplays London though is in
the way you feel like you’re in Blade Runner with every turn of a corner.
The highlight was the Mid-Levels where the
longest travelator in the world takes you from ground level up the incredibly
steep hill! We hopped off at one of Becky’s favourite bars – I can’t remember
the name for the life of me but it was pretty purple inside so we just referred
to it as ‘The Purple Bar’ from there on in.
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| The Blade Runner Travelator |
Luckily for us after work drinks seems to
be the thing to do in HK and happy hours are everywhere with cocktails for
about $3 each. A fair few cocktails in and Jon joined us from work – being the
first time he’d met James and I, unfortunately I think it was a bit of baptism
by fire for him as we were both jetlagged, a bit delirious and definitely half
cut! Nonetheless, we stayed for a few more drinks and shared our travelling
horror stories until about 9pm when we took a stroll to find food nearby.
We were both feeling pretty confident about
traversing the MTR back to our apartment after a few drinks and sure enough we
managed to get off at our stop, unfortunately though we took a wrong turn
somewhere and ended up wandering around the rather surreal night markets for a
good 20 minutes! Seeing backflipping robot puppies is not what you need after
no sleep for 24 hours and many, many cocktails…!
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