Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a City of Convergence where modern meets ancient, and East meets West. It’s a city of dim sum, sweets, tea of all varieties, bright lights, drunk ex pats, 7-11s everywhere, and high humidity. I’m loving it. My Cantonese is nonexistent so I rely on Linh to get us through. Here’s a breakdown of what’s happened so far on our trip.

Day 1 – June 17th/18th

Lots of traveling. First Linh and I flew from Los Angeles to Narita, Japan. 10+ hour flight to Narita (Tokyo), a 2 hour layover, and a 4 hour flight to HKG (Hong Kong). The best thing about flying is lots of orange juice and a few bags of peanuts.

When we arrived we straight to 7-11 to get microwaveable dumplings. Thirty seconds and you have mini shumai dumplings. fast food Asian style. Delicious.

Day 2 – Hong Kong

First, we went to Wan Chai to enjoy a lunch. We were turned away from the Che’s at the Broadway Hotel because we didn’t make a reservation. The funny thing was that when I looked inside there was nobody in there! What the hell. Instead of eating, we went to an internet cafe to hang out for 30 minutes. To satiate ourselves we finally sat down to have lunch at the Hoi Tin restaurant.

Before heading to TST, chilling at the Grand Hyatt to enjoy the air conditioning was too good to pass up. The hotel lobby was impressive. Large open atrium with the 2nd floor restaurant overhanging the registration table. Live piano graces an elegant presence to top your cooling off.

The ferry from Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) took about 30 minutes. I will post pictures later. To get an idea of TST, imagine Beverly Hills… but in Hong Kong instead. Chanel, Gucci, Cartier, all the places I couldn’t afford. Oddly enough they had an H&M for the every day person. At the mall, we found a life sized Yao Ming statue, as evidenced below.

Yao and I become friends.

Upon my return to the Central Harbor, I attempted to navigate my way back to Lan Kwai Fong (where the hotel is) through the large ITC Mall and its air conditioned walkways. Result: failure. I got us lost naturally, but somehow we managed to make our way back.

Night activities. Enter my friend Stuys. We meet up with Stuys and a bunch of her HK friends. The funny thing is that everyone here seems to have some sort of Southern California connection, sans one friend who just came back from London. Stuys’ God Brother Jay took us to Beijing Club at the M88 building on Wellington. Fun times. I’ll post more photos towards the end of the trip. HK people don’t dance as crazy as LA people do… but still the partying had a touch of what you see in HK films.

Jeff and Stuys

Stuys and Linh

The Girls