HONG KONG 2016 | DAY 1
People have asked me: “Why Hong Kong?” Well to be honest, I don’t know why. When I was buying my tickets earlier this year, I decided that I wanted to stop by a place before I make myself ways to Korea. I don’t know why, but I just decided on Hong Kong. I didn’t even know what was in Hong Kong. But I think traveling is most fun when you go to a place where you don’t even know what to expect. But obviously, I did some last minute research and found out that Hong Kong was actually really really nice. So I jotted few of the places I wanted to visit while I was there for 3 days.
The start of this trip was actually pretty hectic. It was Monday when I realized my flight took off on Tuesday night. The whole time, I thought the flight left on Wednesday night. So starting Monday night, I had to hurry and pack and prepare myself for a trip that I thought I still had 2 days to prepare for. Well long story short, it all worked out and I was ready to embark to Hong Kong.
I had a layover in Korea for 4 hours so during my time there, I caught up with some work and read the third book to Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. By the way, if you guys are finding books to read, I highly recommend Stephen King. He’s an excellent writer. Anyway, I didn’t have much jetlag because the strategy I use when I travel is to book a red-eye flight and knock out in the plane. That way, I arrive in the morning with a good 10-11 hours of sleep. Boom – problem solved. No jetlag. Thank you.
To be honest, I didn’t even know 100% how I was going to get to my hotel in Kowloon from the airport. So I had to research various methods to do so while I was at Incheon. I got in the plane and was headed to Hong Kong in no time.
The plane ride was only 3-4 hours. I immediately started to get excited when we were descending because Hong Kong looked freakin amazing. I looked like I was flying into gaddamn Jurassic Park. I was replaying the song “dan dan.. dan dan …DAN DAN DAN DAN DAN DAN DAN ~” (the Jurassic Park song…) But yea, to simply illustrate it in words, we were flying over all these random islands and the city looked like it was engulfed by huge mountains. And everything was greeeeeeeen. But after landing, the pilot announced that it’s going to be raining for the next couple of days. I stopped humming the Jurassic Park music in my mind because that news totally ruined everything. Most of the things I wanted to do was outdoor activities but if it rains, I wouldn’t be able to. I mean, I could. But, yea- no. I had to be flexible and change my schedule around. Ugh.
Transportation is actually really simple and easy to understand in Hong Kong. After getting off the plane, I was able to buy an express train ticket to Kowloon station, where my hotel was located. The train was super clean and the ride to Kowloon station took around 20 minutes. The station had a free shuttle bus that dropped me straight to my hotel so I hopped onto that bus. The bus took us into the city and stopped by couple of stops. But something seemed off so I asked the driver when we will be reaching Sheraton and he told me that my stop was the first stop we made. This would happen to me. So I told him to drop me off and asked him “HOW? HOTEL? HOW?” and he just said “THAT THAT THAT THAT THAT” by pointing his fingers in every direction. Well, I’m screwed. So I got off the bus with my big suitcase and had to figure out how to get to my hotel. And by the way, it was super humid. SUPER humid. Hong Kong is actually FILLED with international people. So it was really easy to ask around where Sheraton was and they kindly gave me directions that were super helpful. Not like that gaddamn bus driver that just yelled “THAT THAT THAT” while pointing his fingers. Jk. He was kind enough to drive me. Yea right, kind enough to drop my off at the wrong gaddamn stop! Jk. that was my fault. Okay, I’m over it. After walking and sweating like crazy, I arrived at the hotel and was finally able to check in.
After freshening up, I went out to grab some lunch. I had to be flexible and make some last minute changes to the list of things I wanted to do because of the rain. (I guess I’m coming back to Hong Kong in the future to complete those). Usually when I travel, I just walk around. A lot. And I try to take pictures of this and that to capture everything that I’m seeing at that moment. Yea – sounds super cliche so moving on. I find this small ghetto restaurant where they sold all types of dishes. I went in and got myself a sliced beef something something noodle. To be honest, it was the best Asian noodles I had in my life. NO joke.SOOO good.
After lunch, I walked around for couple hours and took a lot of photos. It was raining on and off so it was kind of frustrating because it made the atmosphere more and more humid. I came back to my hotel after exploring the city and found out that our hotel had a good rooftop pool. So I swam for a bit and came back to decide what I was going to do for the night. I really wanted to ride a junk boat in Hong Kong because that’s one of the things they are known for. I was afraid they weren’t going to offer rides because it was supposed to rain all night. But I called just in case and to my surprise, rain or not, they were still giving boat rides. And best part of it, the pier was right across from my hotel. I lucked out for sure. So I got super excited and got ready to go out.
I had 2 hours to kill before my boat ride so I wanted to spend some time at the pier. I got to the pier and it was probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The view of Hong Kong was insane. Hong Kong is known for their lights. The whole city just puts on all these crazy lights on their buildings. So during the night, you get to see all these lights go crazy and it’s so cool because all of the building and the lights reflect off the water. It was too much to take in because it is probably one of the best views I’ve had in my life. People were just sitting and watching on the pier and there were a lot of busking with good music. Families were scattered throughout the pier and watching the lights with their kids and loved ones. It was a really good sight. It was actually really hard to take pictures because my lens and camera kept fogging up due to the humidity. But I did the best I could so hopefully you guys can enjoy the pictures. At 8PM, Hong Kong does this public light/music show utilizing all their buildings. Think of World of Colors in Disneyland on crack. You get to watch all of this in the Tsim Sha Tsui pier – which was the pier I was at. So I lucked out again. I was peacefully thinking about life and was enjoying the beautiful show until some gaddamn monster cockroach decided to ruin everything. I startled myself and had to reevaluate where I sat to relax. Totally destroyed the moment. You damn roach.
The boat arrived. Have you watched Mortal Kombat? It straight up looked like the boat from that movie. Thought I was being taken to fight in a gaddamn tournament. The name of the boat was Aqualuna. Yea – I wasnt feelin the name though. LOL. I got on the boat and was served a nice, cold glass of beer. PERFECT. I got situated in a comfy seat at the edge of the boat and from that point on, I was straight chillin. The boat ride was about an hour and it was going all around the edge of Hong Kong. I was able to see all the beautiful lights and tall buildings while riding on a boat. I must say, it was an amazing experience. Until I knocked out half the ride because I was feeling so drained and tired from such a long day. But it was amazing because it didn’t rain one bit while I was on the boat. God was definitely showing favor for me and I realized I deserved a good time. The weather even made my photos come out more cooler. So all in all, everything worked out!
After the boat ride, I walked straight to my hotel. I was too exhausted to do anything else. I ordered room service and had some dinner. After that, I washed up and knocked out. It was a great first day and Hong Kong is freakin beautiful. Can’t wait for Day 2.
