Study Abroad in China & Volunteer Abroad in Peru: Hong Kong: Day 1 and 2

Hong Kong is one of my favorite cities! We got there Wednesday evening and after settling into our hotel, we took cabs to the Peak! From reading online, we were told that we would take a tram up to a look out point from where the whole city would be visible and the view would be fantastic. So, we got on a tram which we paid for with our octopus cards (multipurpose cards that can be used to pay for metro rides, tram rides, in convenience stores etc. ). The tram took us up the tracks which were at a very high incline and we got glimpses of the view we would be seeing from up top - it looked promising.

The Tram

Alex and Vince on the tram

When we reached the top we were surprised to see that where we got off was actually a huge multi-story mall!

Entering the Mall

We split up to get some dinner. In Shanghai, everyone speaks Mandarin. However, in Hong Kong, everyone speaks Cantonese and almost everyone speaks English. It is much easier to get around and ask for directions in Hong Kong. The hotel staff were all fluent in English unlike the hotel staff in a hotel in Shanghai or Beijing. Also, while walking down a street in Hong Kong, you are more likely to come across immigrants from countries like India that have now settled down here. Immigrants in Shanghai or Beijing are almost non existent. Apart from the language, the food in Hong Kong is also different. They eat Cantonese food which is lighter and the food has less seasoning and spices. I got my first taste of Cantonese food at dinner that night. I ate some noodles with beef. It was delicious!

My dinner

After dinner, we headed towards the top most floor from which we would be able to see the peak and the breathtaking view. When we got in line to pay to get up there, the woman selling tickets told us that it was very very foggy outside and there would no point trying to go up there that night. We peeked outside and saw for ourselves that you couldn't see more than a foot ahead of you. We were pretty disappointed and headed back out and got into cabs.

The cab ride was an interesting one both in terms of the driving and the conversation. We had to go downhill and visibility was almost zero. That didn't stop the cab driver from driving quite fast nor did it stop him from making interesting and entertaining conversation. I was manly the target of the conversation much to the amusement of the rest of my friends in the backseat. I was glad when the ride was over and we got off at a really cool area called Lan Kwai Fong which is famous for it's nightlife. It was a sloped street that looked like it could belong in San Francisco, but instead of adorable houses, it had loads and loads of bars mostly sports bars. There was a FIFA World Cup game between Switzerland and Spain, so we found a bar that would seat our big group and went in. Luckily and to our surprise, that bar in Hong Kong had people from Switzerland cheering on their team. It was fun watching them especially when their team won.

Lan Kwai Fong

Next morning, we headed out to a restaurant not very far from our hotel for dimsum. The breakfast was delicious. Czahreena and Vince helped order and they made really good choices. They also ordered a lot so everyone was very satisfied. The food turned out be pretty inexpensive considering the amount we ate.

Dim Sum - Delicious Meal

Group picture after breakfast

Hong Kong is famous for shopping, so after our delicious breakfast we took a ding ding to Times Square. What's a Ding Ding you ask? and what is Times Square doing in Hong Kong?

This is a Ding Ding, followed by some pictures I took on the streets of Hong Kong. A ding ding is like a tram or a trolley that is double decker-ed. They run on tracks along the roads and are very commonly used. They almost replace buses.

Ding Ding

Streets of Hong Kong

Times Square is a very famous shopping mall in Hong Kong with stores that have all the known name brands. We killed a couple of hours that morning just shopping. You can tell that shopping is a big deal in Hong Kong because all the people - ladies and men are very trendy. More trendier even than the people in China or America. Most people say that Hong Kong is one step ahead of the world in fashion.

Times Square

Entering Times Square

Buzz Lightyear in Times Square !?

Shopping

After window shopping, we decided to head towards a park and maybe hang out by the water if we could find. However, once we got to the park, the boys saw a soccer field and immediately wanted to play. The only problem: They didn't have a soccer ball. How do they solve the problem: They make friends with a bunch of 10 year old local kids who were playing soccer on one of the fields and the kids invite them to play with them! The boys were so happy and immediately started playing! The girls walked around the park and then came across a soccer class for 2 -4 year old boys. This was the cutest thing. We spent a couple of minutes being creepy and taking pictures of them! Later, we headed back to the soccer field where our friends were, to watch the game. It was a very very hot day, so we found a nice patch of shade from which to watch the boys play in the scorching heat.

Soccer with local kids

Soccer class for kids

The boys were extremely excited after their game because never did they imagine that they would come to Hong Kong and get to play soccer with a couple of local kids. Once they got over their excitement and took showers, we headed to the famous electric store and night markets of Hong Kong located in the area Mong Kok. We got there by MTR which is the metro. The MTR in Hong Kong is really great! It took us almost everywhere we wanted to go. It is much cheaper than Hong Kong cabs.. which aren't as cheap as Shanghai ones.

Once we got to Mong Kok we split up for dinner. Vince, Alex and I found a hole in the wall restaurant where they served very cheap and delicious bowl noodle soup! We wiped down our chopsticks and dug in!

Hole in the wall restaurant

We walked around the electronics store and then the Ladies Market. The Ladies Market was cool. They had t shirts, sunglasses, skirts, pants, jewelery, everything. Once we were done with Ladies Market, we headed to the Temple Street Market which I liked better. It had a lot of small silly stuff like jewelery, clothes you'd never wear, interesting and useless souvenirs, toys and other exciting stuff.

Since our China phones didn't work in Hong Kong only a select few of us bought Hong Kong sim cards and the rest of us just stuck to someone who had a phone. On the walk from the Ladies Market to the Temple Street Market, we lost 2 of our friends neither of whom had phones. We had no idea when or where they had strayed away from the group. Neither us nor them had any means of contacting us. So we sent out 2 search parties. One that went ahead and one that retraced our steps. The first group returned quickly empty handed. The second group returned around 40 minutes later with our lost friends. So kudos to Vince and Hakim for not giving up the search and looking until they found them even though the 2 lost kids could have easily found their way back to the hotel .