Duly Lamma

The city operates at sprinter speed with the endurance of a marathon runner, and, at times, a full day in Hong Kong - like in most mega cities - can take a lot out of you. New Yorkers can escape to Central Park; Parisians have the Champs de Mars to escape to. In Hong Kong, when the locals need to escape the city, freedom is only a short ferry ride away.

On Saturday, Nicole and I hopped on the boat with our friend Lyndsay to check out Lamma Island for a day of hiking and feasting. Failing to check the weather report, the skies opened up during our 30 minute ride, with some spectacular lightening and some stormy seas...just ask the Chinese children tossing their cookies the whole ride over there!

After surviving the ferry, we disembarked to find an adorable village - though sopping wet with rain. Running for cover, we took shelter at a bar (where else) to ride out the storm. There, we met a very friendly British ex-pat who has been living on Lamma island for the past five or so years. She told us all about living on the island, and suggested some destinations to check out along the two-hour hike from the ferry port city, YKW to the island's other village, SKW. She also assured us that storms like this were common during the rainy season, and, though ferocious, were usually brief. She recommended a great spot not too far away to grab lunch while we waited out the storm.

The clouds cleared up just as we settled our bill, and we were set to head out on the island trail. The trail starts on the east side of the island, meandering through tiny villages and skirting two beaches before turning uphill and cutting across to the West side of the island. Along the way we got some great views of the coast as well as the massive power plant that supplies energy to Hong Kong island. This provided some insight into the unusual juxtaposition that continued throughout the hike: beautiful vistas marred by massive industrial development. It was almost as if the Chinese land developers take pride in overcoming the obstacles posed by a pristine view in order to conquer the land. In the alternative, they wanted to provide a few laughs for the tourists passing through, because we definitely got a few giggles out of Power Plant Beach, which is apparently a local hot spot.



We had read that Hong Kong was a great place for hiking, and decided to start with Lamma because it was rated "Easy" by our guidebook. Fortunately, the prediction held true, and there were only a couple hilly sections on the walk. In fact, Lamma is a popular destination for runners, and we were passed throughout the hike by Hong Kongers (mostly ex-pats) who sprint the 6km trail for fun. Lyndsay said this would be fun to do. In light of the 30+ degree heat, I began to question Lynsday's sanity, but told her that I'd be happy to pick her up from the end of her run. Along the way we enjoyed the jungle, stopped to take pictures at a community herb garden, and enjoyed the local wildlife (viz. butterflies and stray dogs).

When we eventually arrived at SKW, right on pace two hours later, we walked into a village geared exclusively to tourists and Hong Konger looking for authentic seafood dinners. The entire shore was lined with seafood restaurants displaying their wares. Though the smells were sometimes unsettling, the fact that I had never seen some of the creatures despite years of dedication to the Discovery Channel, there was no question that we were going to devour as many of these beasts as possible.


(A view of SKW from the opposite bank of the bay. The floating barges in the bay are houses.)


We settled on Rainbow restaurant, which turned out to be an amazing decision. The place was wildly popular, and we were fortunate to get a harbour-side table to enjoy the sunset. What's more, they had a private boat to charter dinner guests back to Hong Kong, gratis. Talk about service! One of the best parts of eating seafood at a spot like this (depending on your intestinal fortitude) is the opportunity to select which individual critter you will devour. Without a doubt, this was the best and freshest seafood I have ever eaten. The fish was light, the crab, though small, was very sweet, and the prawns were massive. Even the mushrooms were amazing - these guys were on fire!



Speaking of on fire, while we were settling the tab, we witnessed quite the show. We heard sirens in the harbour and Lyndsay noticed a coast guard boat steaming into port at full steam. The restaurant-goers let out a collective gasp and stared out towards the pier where a luxury yacht of some 50-or-so feet had burst into flames!! The fire crew arrived on the scene quickly, but this vessel was done for, and the flames tore through the hull much like I had annihilated the fish only moments before. With the storm on the way to the island, and the boat fire as we prepared to leave, we hoped for the best when we boarded the boat home. There was nothing to fear, as the sea breeze and amazing nighttime views of Hong Kong were very relaxing digestifs.


(The boat goes up in flames)

Upon reaching ground, we heard the familiar sounds of pop music floating up through the ether. Looking down the pier we saw some kind of concert, so we obviously went over to investigate, and ultimately crash the show. Turns out we had found a Canto-pop concert featuring many of Hong Kong's favourite bubblegum acts, from the Super Boyz to Jason. The fans were going crazy, so we joined in the mayhem. Just like in Canada, Cantonese teens are happy to listen to contrived love ballads and generic, soulless pop music for hours on end. Just like in Canada, Cantonese teens were falling over each other to get close to their idols and scramble for TV face time. Our favourite teen was a young lad of maybe 14 years who was absolutely obsessed with Jason. As soon as Jason took the stage, this young man couldn't contain his excitement, and broke free from the seated crowd rush the stage and profess his admiration for the star. Jumping up and down with arms flailing like a little bitch this guy screamed at the top of his lungs for the duration of the performance. We were extremely amused to witness the culmination of this kid's existence. Teens...who needs them!


(There's your boy)

The Canto-pop was a hilarious end to an amazing day. With Lamma island under our belts we're ready to move on to some more challenging hikes in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!


(The hikers enjoying the vista of Power Plant Beach)



(Our waterfront seats for dinner)


(SKW is still a very active fishing village)

Settled in and Heading Out

Looking at my calendar, I cannot believe we have only been here four days. It feels as though we've been for for a month or longer and we've seen so much. I guess this is a byproduct of a city that runs at light-speed where everything is crammed into a relatively tiny geographic area: you can cover a lot of ground over the course of a day if you put your mind to it.

Since our last post we've enjoyed a great mix of getting settled in and exploring new sights and sounds in the city. I'll start local and work our way outwards with the descriptions.

As I mentioned before, our neighborhood is called Kennedy Town. Though a lot of ex-pat foreigners have moved into the area in the last couple years, the 'hood is primarily local which makes for a great variety of weird shops and cool restaurants. Nicole and I went for a walk around the block yesterday and found three real Chinese restaurants without a word of English on the menu, as well as a French/Italian Gastropub, two proper British pubs, and an oyster bar. However, our favourite place is a little lunch/juicery called Jus right across the street from our place. Even though it's no bigger than a school desk, they have a huge menu of great lunches, smoothies and health drinks. We'll be regulars as of tomorrow.

Oh yes, before I forget, I was privy to another rare sight on a walk through the 'hood. With the cost of rent extremely high for most store-fronts, it's very common for families to live in the stores they own. Now, many of these stores sell an array of random objects: plumbing implements, random boxes, odds and ends, etc. I was walking by one such store, and I glanced in to see an ancient Chinese man apparently changing, but certainly stark naked in the corner of the room. How good a view did I get? Let's just say the full meal combo: spring rolls, chicken balls, and a side of fried rice. If I saw this on Yonge street, I may have been taken aback, but in the new locale I took it as par for the course and kept walking.

While I was out perving on Gramps, Nicole was back here actually taking care of business. When I came home from my walk, she had set up a wireless router in our apartment, cracked our Iphones, and got our new SIM cards up and running. This girl is a whiz kid! Being totally networked it great and now we can make plans much easier AND we can both be on the internet at the same time...she's probably creeping one of you right now!

Outside Kennedy Town, we went exploring in Causeway Bay, which is a massive shopping hub further East on the island. There are massive malls (16+ stories) as well as very cool street markets everywhere. We wandered around, but all we bought on this trip was a tripod for the camera.

Last night was our first proper night on the town, and it turned into a great one. We met up with my local friend Mike and some of his pals and started drinking on a patio high above Central. This patio was great not only for it's amazing nighttime view of Kowloon, but also because you could BYOB! We picked up beers for little more than a dollar at the grocery store, and hung out at a great bar with amazing music (viz. Daft Punk). After some of the exchange crew joined us for a few more, we moved the party up the hill into Soho, where Mike and our friend Doug took us to a Nepalese restaurant for dinner. Amazing food!

After dinner and a few more drinks, we headed to a house-party with their local friends around the corner at a totally swank apartment in the heart of Soho. The local hospitality was incredible and the bubbly was flowing like wine. We met a very interested crew of ex-pats who have all found their way to this little island and who never intend to leave...hmmmm.

Now you're caught up. We're going hiking and dining today on Lamma Island, so we'll get some pictures up of that trip shortly. Stay tuned for a look at our apartment. I'll contrast the video with tales of horror and embarrassment from our friends staying in the university residences.

With love, Nic and Jesse



As requested, these are a couple views of the bamboo scaffolding we mentioned in the first post. Blows my mind... all that is holding these pieces together are zip ties and some electrical tape!



Some views of our trip to Causeway Bay, and a shot from the patio bar looking out towards Kowloon. We wish we had found this Chinese restaurant before settling for Korean...expensive and largely unappetizing Korean!

Day 1: Hi from Hong Kong

Good evening readers,

We write to you from the comfort of our amazing apartment on the water in Kennedy Town, on the West-most part of Hong Kong Island. We arrived yesterday in the late afternoon after an uneventful – if lengthy – plane ride out of Chicago. One thing to note about the plane ride: we got exit row seats! This made all the difference in the world, and our legs were very thankful when we hit the ground.

Our local friend Mike met us at Hong Kong Central station to help us get settled into our place, and after we dropped our bags off we joined him and his friends for an excellent Vietnamese dinner in Central, the bustling downtown district.

We had an action packed day today. After signing all the paperwork for our apartment, we explored the neighborhood and picked up a few home furnishings along the way. This ‘hood is fantastic! Unlike Central, which is very multicultural, Kennedy Town is mostly Chinese, and the variety of stores is really interesting. Fortunately, everything we’ll need is mostly within a block or two: groceries, drug store, coffee shops, cool parks, opium den, all within a short walk.

One of the best features about the apartment (stay tuned for an upcoming post which will feature the apartment in detail) is the shuttle bus, which runs from our front door to Central for free. This is a huge time and money saver and couldn’t be more convenient. We hopped on the shuttle to go for lunch in Central (which is really the only area we know so far) and stopped at a little noodle house after a few minutes of searching. After lunch we took the ‘Travelator’ up through the city to the Mid-levels. The Travelator is a massive kilometer-long escalator system that runs from the malls at sea level up the hill through several, progressively more steep, neighborhoods. The Travelator is a shining example of Chinese efficiency! Walking up those crazy hills in the scorching heat would be nuts, but the Travelator makes it a breeze – though not a literal breeze; it’s far too hot for that.

After returning to the apartment, we had a swim in the sweet pool to beat the heat, and after a little nap we headed back downtown for some dinner. Our sights were set on some authentic Chinese noodles, but in a bizarre combination of inexperience and globalization we couldn’t find a Chinese restaurant anywhere in the maze of restaurants. Knowing that we would eventually find a suitable noodle house over the course of this trip, we settled for fine French cuisine tonight at a swish place in Soho, one of the restaurant/bar districts along the Travelator.

Just a couple notes on first impressions:

- Size doesn’t matter: this city is very multicultural and there are all kinds of tall people here. A few slack-jawed yokels gawked at my height today, but no more than I usually get in Canada on an average day on the town. Of note, however, is that people here ask if I play volleyball, instead of the usual basketball I always hear back home. They’re so civilized in this part of the world.

- Bamboo: uber-tool: Bamboo is used almost everywhere here for construction purposes – and there is construction going on everywhere! There are no scaffoldings in Hong Kong except on the most massive skyscrapers. Our apartment is on the 33^rd floor, and the building across the street is much higher than our level. The entire thing is covered ground to top in bamboo scaffolding. Pretty mundane, I know, but it’s pretty wild.

That’s all for now. We’re going to keep exploring the city over the next couple days so we’ll post again when something interesting happens.

Til then, enjoy the view from our apartment. Nicole & Jesse

Ni-Hao Hong Kong!

With our bags packed and our last feast consumed, we are tentatively prepared to embark on our adventure. We'll be spending the next four-and-a-half months based out of Hong Kong and touring around South East Asia.

This blog will be the place to keep up with our various comings and goings. We'll have pictures, videos, and hopefully some quality tales to provide some daydream fodder while you endure the harsh autumn and winter wherever you might be reading from.

Wish us luck on the 16+ hour Odyssian epic on the way over there, and our next post will be from Hong Kong!