Hong Kong

Hong Kong was a cool city, but it didn't feel Chinese and not just because of the political situation. The whole city was ultra modern. There were fancy boutiques selling the finest New York/European/Tokyo fashions. There were as many international restaurants, if not more, than in Chicago. The ethnic mix is ....well.....existant. So, it truly felt as if I was in a new and different country from the main land, much more so than Macau.

The coolest thing about the city is that there are walkways above a lot of the streets so that you don't have to worry about traffic while walking. While that's good, the best part is that in order to combat the uphill nature of the city they have installed escalators all over the place in side of these walkways. So one doesn't need to walk up hill. You can just take the escalator up the block.

Upon our arrival we were met at the hostel by an all Cantonese speaking staff. They looked confused and disorganised, and told us we were going to have to wait an hour or so for the boss to show up. I was a bit worried because I had booked in May, but had booked the wrong dates. While I emailed and changed the dates in early June I was worried that something had been lost in translation, and that there would be an issue. We decided that we would check out the town and come back to check in in stead of waiting for the boss to show up.

There aren't too many sights on the island, or the Kowloon peninsula. We began by just walking around the island, and checking out the SOHO mid level escalator area. This is kind of like expat row. This was the area of town that had all of the western style food. After that we headed back to our hostel.

At the hostel we were told to check in to a room with two beds. Now, obviously this was a little awkward seeing as there were three of us. We argued, but they swore that this is what we booked (I assure you it wasn't). The hostel was having issues talking to us because they didn't speak English. So, the hostel owners called HostelWorld.com to have them translate. Once on the phone we discovered that the issue was with HostelWorld's system error. This was relieving because I assumed they would make it right. Well, I was wrong. They didn't at all. They refused to pay for a third room despite admitting fault. Things were looking pretty bleak and we were getting upset (more Mike and I, I think Jake was annoyed and would have just settled for the two beds). However, the hostel was able to recommend another one to us that gave us a three bed room for the same price as we had agreed to. Unfortunately the new hostel had a toilet in the shower, and a see through door, which made for awkward poops.

That night we headed up Victoria peak. It was very picturesque and well worth going. We were there for sunset and really enjoyed the view.
The next day we headed to the peninsula and checked out all the different markets. There was an entire market for just goldfish, one for just birds, one for just sporting goods, one for just women's clothing, one for just jade, and one called the junk market. All of the aforementioned markets were exactly what you would think. It was a place with shanty tents and booths set up outside selling just the specific item the market was named after. The bird market was a little strange, just because it was also a bird park where old men came to display there birds and discuss them with other old men who apparently love birds. The second most unique market was the night market, which was cool because it only is run after dark. It was cool, but kind of dirty. There were way more booths selling sex toys than I would have liked. The prices were also kind of high compared to the silk market of Beijing.

We also saw a light show where the culture center plays music, and the entire skyline lights up and puts on a show to the music. It was kind of cheesy, but was cool, and impressive.