The journey began with an early morning flight from Gatwick airport to Sofia. We expected it to take ages as the conventional route to Hong Kong is not generally via Sofia & Doha, but for the sake of saving £50 it was just about worth it! Also, due to Ashley being 6ft5” we got upgraded to extra legroom on two out of the three flights (not really so much of an issue for me mind but hey ho!!).
We landed in Hong Kong on Friday afternoon, having left Gatwick at 6am on Thursday. A long journey, but felt surprisingly fresh (excitement may have had something to do with it)! We journeyed to the Ashley’s uncles apartment via trains and a taxi where we are staying for our time in Hong Kong. Upon arriving we dropped off our bags before getting a quick walk around tour of the city by Ashley’s aunty and cousin. This was very helpful as gave us our bearings on the local MTR station and generally how to get around the city. We are staying on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong, as opposed to the Hong Kong Island, but it is just 15 mins away on the MTR. We also went across the harbour on the ferry so got a good view of the city which was quite spectacular; skyscrapers everywhere like nowhere in Europe! After exploring the city with Ashley’s aunt (Sheila) and cousin (Katy) we returned to the apartment for dinner. They were both actually returning to the UK that evening, so once they had left for the airport we decided it would be very rude not to see if we could find a local bar for a drink.
We managed to find a bar a short walk from the apartment which sold beer by the bucket and had live music. It being Friday night the bar was pretty crowded with a lively atmosphere. After a short time we got chatting to some of the locals at the bar and ended up playing all sorts of dice games and making lots of new friends. Ash and I were almost certainly the only Westerners in there but the locals were very welcoming! Before we knew it was 4am and the bar was closing, the bill was not cheap, but in fairness we had drunk a lot! We walked back to the apartment, via the local McDonalds, with the best of intentions of meeting our old school mate, Phil and his girlfriend (Mimi), at the ferry terminal for boats from Macau at 1pm.
I woke up first on Saturday morning, rolled over to see the time and to my great surprise it was 12:45 (15 mins before we were meant to meet Phil at the Ferry terminal which was half an hour away). We quickly arranged for Phil & Mimi to come and meet us at the MTR stop close to us, which gave Ash and I time to shower and get changed. Once we met up Phil suggested we go to the peak on the Hong Kong Island. We went to a cafe at the top for lunch (really breakfast), then found a terrace bar which looked over the city. We stayed up there al day watching the city go by, and saw the view of Hong Kong go from light to dark, it is quite spectacular with all the lights coming from the forest of high rise buildings. At around 8pm we came down from the peak for dinner (Mexican), before heading into Lan Fai Qwan; an area that is notorious for with the expat community for partying! Phil and Mimi had to get the ferry back to Macau, so at around 1am they left, but Ashley n I stayed out for a few more ’street beers’. Basically you can buy cans from SevenEleven for about 20% the price of a drink in the bar, but there is a total party atmosphere on the street anyway with loads going on! It got to 4am and the group we had been hanging out with were to looking to hit a club, we decided it had been a long day, so best call it a night, so we got a taxi back to the apartment, having to politely say no to several hookers on the way to, and whilst queueing for the taxi rank.
Day 3
After ab exceptional Saturday day & night it was inevitable Sunday was going to be a bit of a write off! I surfaced just after midday and decided I had to go get something to eat (the cook, Rosie, had her day off). After going out and picking up some pastries from the local patisserie, I walked back to the flat. The food sorted me out but not so much for Ashley, as he decided to stay in bed for the day. Once it got to the early evening I went out to the Mong Kok area of Kowloon which is famous for its street food. I wandered around the streets full of neon lights looking for somewhere to have a beer before dinner. It turns out Mong Kok is actually a very lively place to go on a Sunday night, with all the shops open till nearly midnight, and full of a vast array of street acts; you had people singing/dancing like Michael Jackson (after taking a video I later found out the guy was very famous around HK!). After getting some street food, I eventually found a bar; a bar like no other I had been to before! I am fairly sure I was the youngest person in there by about 10 years, and the first Westerner to go in there in a very long time! They were extremely friendly and welcoming, which made it very difficult for me to just turn around and walk out. The bar consisted of a band at the front, and it seemed people would go up an sing songs. I had a very attentive lady, who I think was some form of a hostess, who insisted on sitting with me and explaining the ins and outs of how the placed worked, and from what she said her boss seemed to be some kind of musical genius; he could play the guitar, keyboard, drums etc.. After one very big beer, I decided it was time to go before they made me go up and sing!
Day 4
Having explained the concept of a BLT to the Philipino cook (Rosie), we awoke to have ready made BLTs! After breakfast we headed over to the Causeway Bay area of Hong Kong Island for a bit of an explore. After around half an hour we found a Belgian beer bar which we made ourselves comfortable in for a few hours. With it being a Monday, so not many people drinking, we got happy hour prices, which by Hong Kong’s standards were quite reasonable! By the time we left the pub it was nearly time for the daily 8pm light show, which basically consists of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon firing lasers at each other across the harbour. It is pretty spectacular to watch from the harbour, but when I mention it to the locals they seem extremely blasé about it! After the light show we went back to the flat for dinner before hitting the local canton pop bar we had been to on the first night, for ‘just one bucket of beers’. We realised you could actually request songs for the band to sing, but the didn’t seem to know any of our requests, and thought any English song would do (usually George Micael or Evanessance). After around an hour a local guy came up to us and insisted we helped him finish his bottle of MacMillans whiskey. Needless to say even with the best of intentions this ended up being a 4am night finishing up in McDonalds.
Day 5
We awoke again to BLTs before getting the bus to the Hong Kong park. The park was nice, very quaint, but kinda strange to see high rise buildings surrounding the edge of the park. The park was also quite small, but nice nevertheless. We got some lunch before heading back for some dinner. Ashley needed to do some freelance work, but at around 10pm I ended up going out to meet some friends of friends for a couple of drinks in the TST area after they finished work.
