***Warning: longest blog post ever...***
Arriving in Hong Kong running on no sleep and not having a clue where we were going was sure to be an experience. We were fortunate enough to find an amazing couchsurfing host just 2 days prior, so thanks to his detailed directions we at least had a destination. However, to get to his house, we had to take a train from the airport to the city center, then walk to the harbor and take a 25 minute ferry to nearby Lamma Island, where our host Mike and his girlfriend Bee met us and walked us 25 minutes through the town and country and ultimately a dirt path in a deserted field to get to his humble abode. Humble it was not, however, at least in HK terms, as he had a rather large and modern 3 bedroom house where we were treated to our own room! Being extremely tired from our flight and hungover from our sleeping pills, we requested a short rest before heading off to their friends rooftop BBQ. After a quick shower we were on our way back into the town of Wan Shue Fan on Lamma to go to this American BBQ. Loads of meat including chicken, beef, pork, sausage, pork neck (yuck), and ribs (delicious!!) followed by a hot sauce challenge and we were all rightfully stuffed. We spent a good 5 hours there before the hurricane force winds sent us home early. We were home by 7:30 and by 7:45 I was crawling into bed for the night. I attempted to read for a bit, but by 8:00 I was out cold and didn't wake up again until 10:30am!!
We woke up to an empty house as both Bee and Mike had somewhere to be, so we enjoyed our cereal and our huge clean shower and finally head out around 11:30. We took a ferry into town, then a train out to Leung Chun in order to catch a cable car up to Ngong Ping to see the world's largest sitting Buddha statue. However, we were distracted by the outlet malls in Leung Chun and spent a while killing time and waiting for the rain to pass inside the cozy mall. Finally we were off to the top of the hill, riding in style in a glass bottom cable car for the 25 minute ride. In our car was a couple from Australia who we chatted up on the ascending ride. Upon arriving, we hopped off into freezing temperatures, lots of wind, and lots of rain. Good thing there was a Starbucks nearby! With our warm drinks in hand, we were ready to brave the cold, and the 300 steps up to the giant Buddha. Amazing views from above and some cool pictures and we were back down to check out the nearby monastery. So gorgeous and detailed and just plain incredible! We ran across a neat little vegetarian restaurant run by the monastery and decided to stop in for some noodles and spring rolls for lunch. After lunch we decided to venture down the wisdom path, which we heard was a nice little hike. Luck would have it, it started raining quite a bit and because they were expecting a typhoon the next day, we became worried that everyone else knew something we didn't, as we were the only ones on the trail! After making it to the famous tree monument, we decided to turn back just to be safe and happened to run into the Aussies we met on the tram! We stopped in the town to sample some traditional Chinese cookies before heading back to the cable car. We again ran into the Aussies and ended up ring in the same car on the way down, so we invited them to join us for dinner because Mike was taking us for traditional Chinese food, which they had yet to try! We boarded the metro and met Mike and Bee in the buzzing neighborhood of Mong Kok, the most densely populated neighborhood in Hong Kong! The area was all aglow in traditional HK fashion, with glowing flashing neon lights everywhere you looked. We made our way over to Temple Street to the famous night market there and wandered the crowded streets gawking at all the cool and useless stuff for sale. We ended at an outdoor street restaurant, where we ordered way too much food for way too little money. Whole fried fish, calamari, oyster cake, noodles, sweet and sour chicken, beef with broccoli, pork, mussels, bok choy, beer, etc. Everything was so delicious I'm drooling now just thinking about it. From there we went to a little dessert restaurant to get some mango mochi, mango and rice soup, and mango gelatin. Bee had to leave us to catch the last ferry back to her island and the Aussies left us for an early night, so Mike took us to the Wan Chai area for a beer before hopping on the last ferry home at 12:30. Unfortunately he had yet to hear from Bee about whether she had made it home safely, but at 3am just as he was about to make the hour long walk across the island to go to her house and check on her, she texted him informing us she just woke up in the hospital! Apparently immediately upon leaving the dessert place she fainted in the middle of the street and a passerby called 911 for her. She woke up one hour later in a hospital bed as they ran tests to see what happened. They still don't know why it happened, but she was released the next day to rest and recover and is back to normal now! Needless to say, it was a scary but needed sigh of relief and we were all able to rest easy after hearing she was ok!
Monday morning we woke up and took what Mike described as a nice walk to the other side of the island where Bee lives. That nice walk turned out to be an hour long death hike, but the views were incredible so it was well worth it! We met up with Mike over there and he took us to a restaurant for a delicious seafood lunch! From there Jaim and I hopped on the ferry into town and caught a bus to take us on a scary hour long journey up to "the peak", which boasts amazing views of HK. We happened to meet a guy named Anthony from the Philippines on the bus ride up and were both delighted and annoyed at his obnoxiousness. Honestly the weirdest guy we've ever met, but it all adds to the adventure! After many failed attempts to shake him, it just wasn't happening, so we were stuck with him for the next 3 hours. We went to see the views and as incredible as they were, the typhoon was coming in quickly and we were about to blow off the mountain top! So we waited in line to ride the famous tram back down the hill and enjoyed killing time watching everyone struggle in the wind and rain. The ride down was extremely quick and uneventful, but we enjoyed meandering through the incredible downtown area and getting lost in between all the massive skyscrapers on our way to the port. We were finally able to lose Anthony at the port as we boarded the ferry to the Tsim Sha Tsui neighborhood on the island of Kowloon to meet Mike for dinner. We walked around the island, seeing the Avenue of Stars, the harbor, Heritage 1881, and trying to see the famous light show, but it was canceled due to bad weather! We traveled inland to find a nice dinner place and settled at Ned Kelly's pub for the largest most delicious burger of life. It was a needed change from all the Chinese food! We enjoyed our beers and burgers with live music to accompany it before catching the ferry home for an early night.
Tuesday we were up bright and early to take a day trip to the nearby island if Macau on the mainland China border! Famous for it's fusion of Chinese and Portuguese cultures, we were excited to experience the architecture and the food! It was a comfortable hour long ferry to get there (in which Jaim and I both immediately passed out) and within minutes we were in a new country! Macau is considered the Las Vegas of Asia and actually brings in more revenue from its casinos than Vegas does! So we hopped on a free casino shuttle in order to get into town and set off to explore. We went to the old town to see the main square, the ruins of St. Paul, many temples, the Protestant cemetery, ancient Portuguese architecture, and many many casinos. We wandered out of town and got lost many times. We went into every bakery in town to sample all the delicious cookies. We went to a Macau restaurant for wonton soup. By late afternoon we were ready to go, so we boarded the free shuttle back to the ferry. However, no trip to Macau would be complete without a visit to the largest casino in the work, so we found the shuttle bus and headed to the Venetian Resort and Casino. We spent the remaining 10 Macau dollars we had to gamble and promptly lost it all in 2 minutes, so we took to wandering the many shops and canals in the hotel. Then we were back to the ferry port and home in 1 hours time. We grabbed a quick sandwich in the mall before catching the 9:30 ferry back to Lamma. We joined Mike and Bee for some Glee on tv and called it an early night.
It was another early morning for us as Mike and Bee planned to take us to a little fishing village to get a true experience of rural life. We made a pit stop at a waterfront restaurant on Lamma to grab some delicious American breakfast before taking the ferry into Hong Kong. After learning we missed the ferry to this island by just 1 minute, we had to take the metro to the end of the line and then an hour long winding bus ride to this little village of Tai O. We roamed the village and the little street market, gawking at all of the outrageous sea creatures for sale. We sampled tons of traditional food, including "husbands" (wraps filled with pork and shrimp), deep fried egg donuts, waffle balls, deep friend sweet potato, and delicious pork jerky. We walked out through the makeshift stilted houses and onto a dirt trail through the outer village that led to the temple and ocean. It was on this trail that I made up for our loss in Macau, as I came across a lost metro pass with over 300HKD on it (50USD)! Jackpot, I was stoked! We headed back to the bus and slept the whole way back. Once back in Hong Kong, we rode the street tram to another market to look around. We then went to one of the tallest buildings in HK and rode the glass elevator to the top (twice) to take in the gorgeous views. Mike and Bee then left us to attend their friends play, so Jaimie and I took the ferry back to Kowloon to once again try and view the light show, this time with success! Too bad the hype was far too high, it was a dud. We made our way back to the Mong Kok area to hit up the first night market, as well as that first Chinese restaurant. We ordered far too much food again and the sad thing is we managed to eat the majority of it! Eeeek! We were so full, but were supposed to meet up with Mike and Bee for drinks, so sucked it up and headed to Wan Chai for ladies' night free drinks! Got to watch all the Asian hookers work their game, then danced the night away at an international bar and still managed to catch the last ferry home at 12:30am!
Thursday was our last day in Hong Kong and as sad as we were to leave, we were ready for the adventure to continue! We had been waiting all week to sample the much hyped about dim sum, and Mike had the perfect restaurant in store! Back to Kowloon we went to put our names in at a famous Michelin rated dim sum restaurant. We walked to the nearby "ladies market" to pass the hour long wait for the restaurant, and finally we were seated after nearly 2 hours! What an amazing meal! We tried steamed pork buns (my favorite), rice balls, shrimp balls, etc! Everything was so so delicious! To top it off we had a custard tart from the market for dessert! We decided it was best to head back now, as we had to get our luggage and make our way to the airport.
We flew from Hong Kong to Manila, Philippines, where our flight was delayed! With less than 1 hour and no boarding passes, we reached the transfer desk to find it vacated. After waiting 10 minutes, a woman showed up, took our passports and luggage description, and took off. We waited 20 minutes, meanwhile meeting a Canadian girl who was working in Seoul with many tips on Thailand for us. Finally she returned with our passports and boarding passes, which were actually receipts, we were escorted through security and told to run to the gate as the plane was already boarding. Liars, we ran for no reason, looking like fools, and the plane was empty! With 4 crying babies on board and a puking man beside us, we were off to Taiwan, where we would arrive at 12:40am!!
Arriving in Hong Kong running on no sleep and not having a clue where we were going was sure to be an experience. We were fortunate enough to find an amazing couchsurfing host just 2 days prior, so thanks to his detailed directions we at least had a destination. However, to get to his house, we had to take a train from the airport to the city center, then walk to the harbor and take a 25 minute ferry to nearby Lamma Island, where our host Mike and his girlfriend Bee met us and walked us 25 minutes through the town and country and ultimately a dirt path in a deserted field to get to his humble abode. Humble it was not, however, at least in HK terms, as he had a rather large and modern 3 bedroom house where we were treated to our own room! Being extremely tired from our flight and hungover from our sleeping pills, we requested a short rest before heading off to their friends rooftop BBQ. After a quick shower we were on our way back into the town of Wan Shue Fan on Lamma to go to this American BBQ. Loads of meat including chicken, beef, pork, sausage, pork neck (yuck), and ribs (delicious!!) followed by a hot sauce challenge and we were all rightfully stuffed. We spent a good 5 hours there before the hurricane force winds sent us home early. We were home by 7:30 and by 7:45 I was crawling into bed for the night. I attempted to read for a bit, but by 8:00 I was out cold and didn't wake up again until 10:30am!!
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| The freshest seafood you can find! |
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| Our cute little town of Lamma |
We woke up to an empty house as both Bee and Mike had somewhere to be, so we enjoyed our cereal and our huge clean shower and finally head out around 11:30. We took a ferry into town, then a train out to Leung Chun in order to catch a cable car up to Ngong Ping to see the world's largest sitting Buddha statue. However, we were distracted by the outlet malls in Leung Chun and spent a while killing time and waiting for the rain to pass inside the cozy mall. Finally we were off to the top of the hill, riding in style in a glass bottom cable car for the 25 minute ride. In our car was a couple from Australia who we chatted up on the ascending ride. Upon arriving, we hopped off into freezing temperatures, lots of wind, and lots of rain. Good thing there was a Starbucks nearby! With our warm drinks in hand, we were ready to brave the cold, and the 300 steps up to the giant Buddha. Amazing views from above and some cool pictures and we were back down to check out the nearby monastery. So gorgeous and detailed and just plain incredible! We ran across a neat little vegetarian restaurant run by the monastery and decided to stop in for some noodles and spring rolls for lunch. After lunch we decided to venture down the wisdom path, which we heard was a nice little hike. Luck would have it, it started raining quite a bit and because they were expecting a typhoon the next day, we became worried that everyone else knew something we didn't, as we were the only ones on the trail! After making it to the famous tree monument, we decided to turn back just to be safe and happened to run into the Aussies we met on the tram! We stopped in the town to sample some traditional Chinese cookies before heading back to the cable car. We again ran into the Aussies and ended up ring in the same car on the way down, so we invited them to join us for dinner because Mike was taking us for traditional Chinese food, which they had yet to try! We boarded the metro and met Mike and Bee in the buzzing neighborhood of Mong Kok, the most densely populated neighborhood in Hong Kong! The area was all aglow in traditional HK fashion, with glowing flashing neon lights everywhere you looked. We made our way over to Temple Street to the famous night market there and wandered the crowded streets gawking at all the cool and useless stuff for sale. We ended at an outdoor street restaurant, where we ordered way too much food for way too little money. Whole fried fish, calamari, oyster cake, noodles, sweet and sour chicken, beef with broccoli, pork, mussels, bok choy, beer, etc. Everything was so delicious I'm drooling now just thinking about it. From there we went to a little dessert restaurant to get some mango mochi, mango and rice soup, and mango gelatin. Bee had to leave us to catch the last ferry back to her island and the Aussies left us for an early night, so Mike took us to the Wan Chai area for a beer before hopping on the last ferry home at 12:30. Unfortunately he had yet to hear from Bee about whether she had made it home safely, but at 3am just as he was about to make the hour long walk across the island to go to her house and check on her, she texted him informing us she just woke up in the hospital! Apparently immediately upon leaving the dessert place she fainted in the middle of the street and a passerby called 911 for her. She woke up one hour later in a hospital bed as they ran tests to see what happened. They still don't know why it happened, but she was released the next day to rest and recover and is back to normal now! Needless to say, it was a scary but needed sigh of relief and we were all able to rest easy after hearing she was ok!
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| Getting in touch with our inner Asians |
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| Amazing views on the 25 min ride |
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| downpour, but cute little town with so much to see! |
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| the world's largest sitting Buddha! |
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| ignore the Starbucks...it was cold! |
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| Add caption |
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| Buddhist Temple |
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| Mong Kok |
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| Aussie friend, Jaim, me, Bee, and Mike! |
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| We were brave and ate whole fried fish, head and all! |
Monday morning we woke up and took what Mike described as a nice walk to the other side of the island where Bee lives. That nice walk turned out to be an hour long death hike, but the views were incredible so it was well worth it! We met up with Mike over there and he took us to a restaurant for a delicious seafood lunch! From there Jaim and I hopped on the ferry into town and caught a bus to take us on a scary hour long journey up to "the peak", which boasts amazing views of HK. We happened to meet a guy named Anthony from the Philippines on the bus ride up and were both delighted and annoyed at his obnoxiousness. Honestly the weirdest guy we've ever met, but it all adds to the adventure! After many failed attempts to shake him, it just wasn't happening, so we were stuck with him for the next 3 hours. We went to see the views and as incredible as they were, the typhoon was coming in quickly and we were about to blow off the mountain top! So we waited in line to ride the famous tram back down the hill and enjoyed killing time watching everyone struggle in the wind and rain. The ride down was extremely quick and uneventful, but we enjoyed meandering through the incredible downtown area and getting lost in between all the massive skyscrapers on our way to the port. We were finally able to lose Anthony at the port as we boarded the ferry to the Tsim Sha Tsui neighborhood on the island of Kowloon to meet Mike for dinner. We walked around the island, seeing the Avenue of Stars, the harbor, Heritage 1881, and trying to see the famous light show, but it was canceled due to bad weather! We traveled inland to find a nice dinner place and settled at Ned Kelly's pub for the largest most delicious burger of life. It was a needed change from all the Chinese food! We enjoyed our beers and burgers with live music to accompany it before catching the ferry home for an early night.
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| Cute little fishing village on the other side of the island |
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| view from the peak, but the typhoon was on it's way in so the view wasn't so great |
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| Hong Kong by night. A different city. So amazing. |
Tuesday we were up bright and early to take a day trip to the nearby island if Macau on the mainland China border! Famous for it's fusion of Chinese and Portuguese cultures, we were excited to experience the architecture and the food! It was a comfortable hour long ferry to get there (in which Jaim and I both immediately passed out) and within minutes we were in a new country! Macau is considered the Las Vegas of Asia and actually brings in more revenue from its casinos than Vegas does! So we hopped on a free casino shuttle in order to get into town and set off to explore. We went to the old town to see the main square, the ruins of St. Paul, many temples, the Protestant cemetery, ancient Portuguese architecture, and many many casinos. We wandered out of town and got lost many times. We went into every bakery in town to sample all the delicious cookies. We went to a Macau restaurant for wonton soup. By late afternoon we were ready to go, so we boarded the free shuttle back to the ferry. However, no trip to Macau would be complete without a visit to the largest casino in the work, so we found the shuttle bus and headed to the Venetian Resort and Casino. We spent the remaining 10 Macau dollars we had to gamble and promptly lost it all in 2 minutes, so we took to wandering the many shops and canals in the hotel. Then we were back to the ferry port and home in 1 hours time. We grabbed a quick sandwich in the mall before catching the 9:30 ferry back to Lamma. We joined Mike and Bee for some Glee on tv and called it an early night.
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| Portuguese influenced architecture |
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| ruins of St. Paul |
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| Casino Lisboa |
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| WOOOO losing $10!! |
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| The Venetian |
It was another early morning for us as Mike and Bee planned to take us to a little fishing village to get a true experience of rural life. We made a pit stop at a waterfront restaurant on Lamma to grab some delicious American breakfast before taking the ferry into Hong Kong. After learning we missed the ferry to this island by just 1 minute, we had to take the metro to the end of the line and then an hour long winding bus ride to this little village of Tai O. We roamed the village and the little street market, gawking at all of the outrageous sea creatures for sale. We sampled tons of traditional food, including "husbands" (wraps filled with pork and shrimp), deep fried egg donuts, waffle balls, deep friend sweet potato, and delicious pork jerky. We walked out through the makeshift stilted houses and onto a dirt trail through the outer village that led to the temple and ocean. It was on this trail that I made up for our loss in Macau, as I came across a lost metro pass with over 300HKD on it (50USD)! Jackpot, I was stoked! We headed back to the bus and slept the whole way back. Once back in Hong Kong, we rode the street tram to another market to look around. We then went to one of the tallest buildings in HK and rode the glass elevator to the top (twice) to take in the gorgeous views. Mike and Bee then left us to attend their friends play, so Jaimie and I took the ferry back to Kowloon to once again try and view the light show, this time with success! Too bad the hype was far too high, it was a dud. We made our way back to the Mong Kok area to hit up the first night market, as well as that first Chinese restaurant. We ordered far too much food again and the sad thing is we managed to eat the majority of it! Eeeek! We were so full, but were supposed to meet up with Mike and Bee for drinks, so sucked it up and headed to Wan Chai for ladies' night free drinks! Got to watch all the Asian hookers work their game, then danced the night away at an international bar and still managed to catch the last ferry home at 12:30am!
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| The coolest little fishing village. All houses made of scraps on stilts above the water. |
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| backup plan... |
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| THE most delicious beef jerky ever. |
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| Back in HK on the street tram. |
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| Awesome building made to look like a Bonsai tree |
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| Sub-par laser show, but at least we got a good pic! |
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| We are officially chopstick masters. |
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| We even caved and bought our first real souvenirs: chopsticks! |
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| It's true. |
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| Our night out with Bee and Mike! |
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| So freaky! |
Thursday was our last day in Hong Kong and as sad as we were to leave, we were ready for the adventure to continue! We had been waiting all week to sample the much hyped about dim sum, and Mike had the perfect restaurant in store! Back to Kowloon we went to put our names in at a famous Michelin rated dim sum restaurant. We walked to the nearby "ladies market" to pass the hour long wait for the restaurant, and finally we were seated after nearly 2 hours! What an amazing meal! We tried steamed pork buns (my favorite), rice balls, shrimp balls, etc! Everything was so so delicious! To top it off we had a custard tart from the market for dessert! We decided it was best to head back now, as we had to get our luggage and make our way to the airport.
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| A delicious end to a week of delicious food and fun! |
We flew from Hong Kong to Manila, Philippines, where our flight was delayed! With less than 1 hour and no boarding passes, we reached the transfer desk to find it vacated. After waiting 10 minutes, a woman showed up, took our passports and luggage description, and took off. We waited 20 minutes, meanwhile meeting a Canadian girl who was working in Seoul with many tips on Thailand for us. Finally she returned with our passports and boarding passes, which were actually receipts, we were escorted through security and told to run to the gate as the plane was already boarding. Liars, we ran for no reason, looking like fools, and the plane was empty! With 4 crying babies on board and a puking man beside us, we were off to Taiwan, where we would arrive at 12:40am!!
Shrimp whats? Sorry, you set me up.
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