Yay! Seriously yay! This is one of my favorite types of update/article things to do! I get to say screw it and not worry about a theme park, rides or any of those things. Let’s just explore a city! A great city at that. Hong Kong is a very interesting study in culture influences. On one hand, it’s very Chinese. But there’s also a very heavy British influence as the U.K. controlled it for the better part of the 20th Century. So place names are generally Chinese, but there’s street names that are very British, parks named for Queen Victoria and other notable brits. The exception being on Hong Kong Island where the districts are usually named in very anglo fashion (Causeway Bay, Admiralty, etc).
Getting around is pretty sweet thanks to 500,000,000 taxis, street cars (the “Ding Ding” trolleys… seriously), buses, ferries and of course the MTR rail lines.
I think my favorite culture shock wasn’t the culture itself (I like it)… it was more the issue of ordering food and getting the tab for $150! It’s only once you learn to factor in the exchange rate of roughly $7.75-7.85 HKD to USD that you don’t freak out anymore.
Okay, enough of my silliness… let’s look at pictures… pictures are more fun than words in this case. Thanks to Chris and Katia Glass for sharing these photos (over 2,000 in total). In the coming weeks I’ll be posting stuff from Hong Kong Disneyland, Ocean Park and more! Enjoy!
LAX… it’s blurry but that’s okay… it’s LAX. Just imagine this picture with the smell of stale urine and you’ve got the proper LAX “aura”…
Chris was ready to go…
So… enjoy your view for the next 15 hours. Los Angeles to Hong Kong is among the longer flights you can subject yourself to on this planet. True story. Generally speaking the only flights longer at LAX to Singapore and Newark to Singapore. So best to get comfy!
Thankfully Cathay Pacific is a great airline and fly very nice 777-300ERs on the route… and they also have a great entertainment system with more movies, TV shows, music, etc than you could ever bother to watch.
You can even set up your profile… make sure you always use the name Poop.
PHINEAS AND FERB!!!!! WOOOOOOOOO!!!! Seriously… the best damn TV show out there and if you disagree, you are stupid, ugly and basically not worth the air you breathe.
Other activities while flying for approximately 500 hours is to do the following.
1. Sleep for 8 hours only to wake up and realize YOU’RE ONLY HALF WAY THERE!
2. Watch TV
3. Watch the world go by (pic related obvs)
4. Pick nose for 5 hours straight
5. Play mad libs
6. Cry
7. Cry more
8. Poop
9. Cry while pooping
10. Write out a list of things you’d rather be doing than flying after 12 hours in the air.
But then, finally… after a seeming eternity in the air… realizing you’ve landed and while you left around midnight back home, it’s now 3PM for your brain and it’s early morning where you’ve landed. You have that very distinctive “long haul flight” icky feeling going on… all you can think about doing is taking a shower and sleeping for 3 days. But no… you have to stay up all day to keep from completely screwing your body clock for the next several days. Oh yeah… travel is glamor.
Calm your tits, the trains are quick… don’t get feisty.
The do and don’ts of bringing things to China.
Yay Hong Kong!
Hong Kong is pretty great for sightseeing too… grab maps and things.
The airport is very nice, big and open. One of the nicer massive international airports on the planet. Definitely not an awful place to travel into/out of, etc.
And of course there’s a Disneyland there… so y’know… not a bad idea.
Local entertainment…
So getting to and from the airport, they have a great system. The MTR has the Airport Express that can take you from the airport to city center (Hong Kong Station on the Island) pretty quick.
Always do it with positive energy… nobody likes to do it angsty… I mean, sometimes it’s not bad but… oh wait. We’re not talking about that are we? Nevermind.
Here’s the MTR route maps… memorize this… there’s a test later.
Yay for the Disneyland Resort Line!
Shouldn’t this just be common practice everywhere?
How ’bout some coffee… this is one of my favorite things ever… coffee in a can, served hot from the vending machine!
It is a lovely city…
Taxis can be adventurous…
Yau Tsim Mong, Kowloon and Hong Kong Island…
On the streets…
YOU HAD ONE JOB!
Always tap your Octopus after hearing dood sound. You can pay for nearly anything in Hong Kong with an Octopus card… not entirely unlike the Suica Cards, etc in Japan or Oyster Cards in London.
Bamboo scaffolding takes a little getting used to…
Sitting out area… I love stuff like this.
Stuff like this is everywhere…
Under Bridge Spicy Crab… nearly as good as Ireland’s Potato.
The Ding Ding street trolleys are pretty great.
Yay!
I’m offended by the offense…
A how-to on Monkeys…
There are also awesome cultural places… this is one… another popular one is the Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island. It’s pretty impressive.
But this is pretty great… don’t ya think?
Reprogrammed to read “Zombies next 10KM” in Chinese.
Gloucester Road in Central.
But we’re done for now… so sit back with some of your favorite container food and go forth!