Postcard from Hong Kong

Obligatory photo of the city's skyline. Kowloon side. 

So, this is an unusual venture. Typically my wanderings find me bumbling about with loose plans solo, but this time I have a friend in tow! Rachel, my old friend from high school, ended up following me to China a few months after I signed on and decided she wanted to be dragged about on summer holiday with me. Masochists everywhere. Well, I have made it clear to everyone, I am not easy to travel with. I have picked up a lot of habits I have written about in prior posts that make accompanying me, I imagine, both awesome and difficult. I wonder if I can get her to do a write-up about this trip from her point of view. 

Flopped on a piece of artificial turf near Star Garden. So hot!  Look! I have a friend!

Three nights and four days in Hong Kong. Not enough! I had heard from people that Hong Kong is a great stopover, a nice place for a long layover, but it doesn't warrant a huge visit. Oh sure, people will say, there is a Disneyland there, but it is tiny. A lot of people compare it to Tokyo and Taipei, and I can totally see that, but there is something hip enough about Hong Kong that keeps it from feeling like just some other meteropolis. 

Rainy season and chrome buildings kept making me thinking about the Silver Lake town in Neverending Story. 

Every town has its slums, its tenements, its rough roads and bad areas, but Hong Kong has a provailing back hum of prosperity, richness, and a feeling of ongoing success. The city seemed to have found that sweet spot between helpful without pushy. At no point was I hassled for money or pushed to buy anything. There were some guys on the tourist path hawking bootleg purses, but they were cool with a weak, "no, thanks."  As is often the case, I felt like a buffoon since I am monolingual, but no one ever even drew attention to it.  Great mix of different cultures and people and no one paid my face any more attention than anyone else. I was a normie in a city where everyone seemed pretty damned contented. Nice! 

Outside my AirBnB, Ladies Street Market. 

I feel a bit pressured to comment on the great food scene in Hong Kong, but I have a seafood allergy and Hong Kong kept trying to kill me. 

Most people would love this. 

I don't want to bore you with the play-by-play of what we did, but it ended up being two days of city exploration and two days of theme parks. 

Main Street, HKDL. Beautiful day!

Disneyland took a full day. It was hot, humid, and a Monday BEFORE the kids begin summer holiday, so until noon, the park uncommonly peaceful. 

I mean...

The Toy Story RC Attraction line. That's the entire line. 

 No one in front of you at the parade. 

Allll byyyy myself!!!

This can be over two hours at Tokyo Disney Resort! Space Mountin was 30 stand by! Amazing!

The crowds did pick up around two or three as kids got off school or whatever was going on, but Rachel and I did most attractions before 5pm! Including the parade!

Couple things that were really fun were Toy Story Land, unique to HKDL, and a few attractions only found here. Toy Story Land was fun mainly because of the name. A lot of it reminded me of Bug's Land in Disney California Adventure. Both employ the same scale with the whole "make the guests feel mini," but TSL definitely leaned on the nostalgia of toys we had as kids. 

The other standouts were the siblings of Big Thunder Railroad (in HKDL, it suddenly goes backwards and has a surprise cold air blast) and Haunted Mansion (not a ghost story here but a magical treasure makes things come to life). 

Combines Haunted Mansion style ride with a lot of story elements from Tower of Terror in Tokyo. 

Crucial to our experience was that it was July 4th. As Americans, fireworks on the 4th is like coffee in the morning. I don't NEED it, but my body is expecting it and I am cranky without. (Actually, I don't drink coffee, I'm a tea girl, but trying for a comparison that will mean something. I try.) 

The 8pm parade was canceled because of rain, but the sky cleared out just soon enough for 9pm fireworks. 

Absolutely fantastic. Which makes this comparison a bit unfair...

Ha. Yep. Perfect. Ocean Park. 

And here's the thing. I think in many, many ways, Ocean Park is a superior park. It's cheaper. I think it might be bigger. It has more attractions. It has better attractions (the Hair Raiser roller coaster is one of the best, if not THE best I've ever been on). It has giant pandas, lesser pandas (Real name. Google that. I didn't make it up.), dolphins, seals, sea lions, koalas... A great aquarium. And it was cheaper. Like, 60% the price of Disney. But... 

This is cool! The had a nice SpongeBob land with all sorts of goofy attractions like this, the Bubble Foam Pit but... Part of my lack of sparkle probably steams from that, when we arrived, it was pissing rain and, because of thunder, most attractions outdoors were closed. By the time the storms passed, the afternoon crowds were swelling in. The park is really spread out and, for a first timer, hard to navigate around. Also, I though food was stupidly overpriced, and I was at DISNEYLAND the other day. So, I dunno. I need to give this another fair shake. 

Back into the city

Rachel and I didn't just wear silly hats and ride on carousels. 

 Though we did enjoy silly rides. Rachel refuses to do the thrill rides with me. 

We also spent one day on Kowloon island and one day on Hong Kong island. And, here is where I'd love to see Rachel's opinions expressed in writing, I don't really mind the heat or humidity and walk a lot more than you'd expect for a chick my size. 

Adventure is out there!

Compromise between running around like a mad woman surviving on my genki spirit and bread and her contentedness to chill with her Nook for long stretches will be our struggle. I am a sightseer. I wanna just look at things. 

Pretty buildings. 

Nice roads. 

Famous landmarks...

Cool stairs. 

Darling streetcars. 

Seriously. Did I mention the cool buildings? 

This is going to be a great experiment. Rachel encourages me to stop more often and for longer stretches. I encourage her to go sooner and further. As long as we don't kill each other, this should be fun. 

Taking a Passion Cruise around Victoria Harbor ended up being nice middle ground. She wasn't being dragged about and I could look at new scenery every few moments. 

So, four days. Would I come back for a vacation? No, probably not, but if I could get a job offer here, I would abandon any friend/family member/job so quickly it would make The Flash say, "that was quick."  

Good bye, Hong Kong! 

"Let's go, Rachel!!!" "...I hate you."