"Copy watch, copy handbag, tailor, ladies' tailor"

Trip Start May 06, 2007
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140
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Trip End Jul 24, 2008


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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Hong Kong is not known for the quality of it's cheap hostels. In fact, it's well known that all the cheap hostels in Hong Kong are pretty damn ghetto. Mine was no exception. There are three dilapidated high rises that contain most of the budget hostels in Hong Kong. I chose one that was supposed to be slightly nicer and walked around 6 different floors looking for a place that was relatively clean. Luckily on the 12th floor I finally found one for about $8 a night in a 4-bed dorm room. I stayed in Kowloon which is on the mainland and is also home to the largest variety of knock-off shopping in Asia. It was impossible to escape the touts trying to sell cheap versions of just about everything imaginable.

Hong Kong is a big, modern, international city. It immediately felt different from everywhere I had been in Asia. There are so many expats from western countries that a lot of the western culture has seeped through - my favorite being the cafe culture. Hong Kong Island is loaded with nice cafes with yummy foods and drinks. I took great advantage of this part of Hong Kong, knowing not to expect this throughout South East Asia.

I spent my first day in Hong Kong with Chris from New Zealand. Together we attempted to reach the top of all of the tall buildings in the downtown area. Most of the time we were turned away seconds after stepping off the elevator by a guard frantically shaking his or her hands and head at us, yelling for us to get back in and go downstairs. A couple of times we managed to get to a window, but a thick haze covered everything we could potentially see. Oh well. We also rode the entire mid-levels escalator, the longest covered escalator in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It goes up a large hill through a nice area of town full of cafes, restaurants, and bars. On the way down we visited the botanical and zoological gardens, but were quite disappointed that the jaguar was not in his cage that day.

While in Hong Kong I also spent some time shopping - it was quite exciting to have both H&M and Zara in the same city. Some of my clothes had gotten a bit grungy and were ready for a refresh, so I was more than happy to have a reason to spend some time in the stores. On my final day in Hong Kong I met up with Meredith, who I had met in Matsuyama, Japan, and we took a free Chinese cake-making class. We made wife cake, a pastry with a glutinous rice filling, and egg rolls, a crepe-like batter rolled up to look like an egg roll. I was much more skilled at the pancake-rolling than I was at pastry stuffing, but both tasted good.

While in Hong Kong I also took care of the exciting task of getting more pages for my passport. I only had two completely blank pages left, which would not be enough space for Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Lao visas, much less for all the other random stamps I'll be accumulating over the next few months. Luckily it was a very easy, painless process - I filled out a form, waited 45 minutes, and got back my passport with extra pages added inside. Fun times.
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