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