Well this will be my last post on my first but hopefully not last trip to Hong Kong. My final reflections will be in this post. Hong Kong is a great place to travel to, if you don’t mind the humidity and really chemically induced air from garbage, cigarette smoke, and car fumes. My cousin told me it might be best to visit Hong Kong from November-February which is the winter season that will help with the humidity which is on the extreme side when I visited Hong Kong, worst in the summer.
It’s a great place to shop, eat, play tourist, and more….did I mention eat? Yes, food…that was one of the highlights of the trip, to me anyways, for everything is super cheap when you eat there. About 3-8 USD will get you a great meal that will leave you feeling like you don’t have to eat for the rest of the day and most likely a drink to go along with it, usually tea or coffee. They have tons of food everywhere, expect most to be Chinese related though lol, but its definitely better than the Chinese I eat here in the U.S. lol. Here’s the interesting thing, you can eat like an American in Hong Kong with all the big meals but you burn it off walking everywhere that will leave you hungry for another great meal.
But a warning to those who wish to eat in a Hong Kong eatery, BRING NAPKINS/TISSUES WITH YOU. I cannot stress this enough as most of the places I went, especially the cheaper places, did not provide me anything to wipe my mouth with after my delicious meal. Then there is the shopping, although not really for me, which is super cheap too. I got two name-brand shirts for 20 USD that usually costs me 40 USD, just don’t know if its real or not lol. It was weird picking my shirts though, the lady that helped me just asked me what design I liked and went off to pick the color I like and pow, out of no where she busts out what I want. That was awesome, wish I had haggled for the price which really helps out to get a bigger bargain, unfortunately I know very little Chinese for that kind of “huge” bargains you can get, I probably would have gotten maybe a few dollars off.
For you ladies out there, there is a place called Ladies Market which is a very long street dedicated for you at cheap prices which includes shoes, purses, cell phone accessories, shoes, sunglasses, clothes, shoes…did I mention shoes? What was interesting for me though was anime posters that they sold in the Ladies Market, I didn’t pick up any though as there was nothing I really liked. There was even a “shoe” street that had all the name brand shoes along the whole street with only a couple stores deviating from shoes.
To travel around Hong Kong is awesome, you can get practically everywhere by transportation readily available including subways, taxis, trams, and buses which all, except the taxi, accept a traveling pass called “octopus,” possibly named for all the “arms” of travel you can get. Each ride basically costs around 27 cents USD, which is super cheap for the amount of travel you get, I went from the top of Hong Kong to the bottom on that fare. It works like a debit card where you can put money inside like a debit and have it directly taken out. These things are awesome as it scanned right through my wallet and my cousin says it even goes through purses for those ladies on the go. I even bought some pastries at the subway shops which accept the pass for currency which was awesome. Even though the taxi doesn’t accept the “octopus,” the rides are relatively cheap as I payed 5 USD for a very long and windy ride down the “peak” to meet family for dinner. Visit Hong Kong if you can, its a trip you won’t soon forget ^-^.
Great looking sashimi, although I did not take a picture because it looked great, see if you can find out why I took this pic.
I thought this was pretty messed up, live crabs wrapped up like this and sold to be cooked while still living. But I have come to accept it as a lot of crustaceans I eat are cooked while still living to give it that “fresh” concept.
Just outside of this shop they sold dried fish and meats which made me cough a lot due to the smell it generated. Looked good to eat though, for every living thing except for humans seems to be dead in Hong Kong. I barely saw any bugs like flies that would enjoy this dried feast, no birds possibly due to bird flu, and I saw one rat and maybe a few stray cats.
This was cool, a Charlie Brown Cafe, with everything from the chairs to the food dealing with the popular comic Peanuts. Charles Schulz must be proud for his creation to be made into something like this. I visited the Peanuts museum in California where everything was made so something like this was pretty sweet.
McDonald’s sometimes offers something that is only available in that country. Hong Kong was no different, although I’m not sure if it was only available there. Macaroni in soup is a really popular Chinese breakfast so its no surprise McDonald’s offered it as a promo. What really interested me was the cup of corn you could buy, I don’t get why corn is so popular in Asia. Another interesting thing was a McCafe which is a cafe that sells coffees, cappuccinos, cakes, and pastries sometimes right next to McDonald’s itself.
What was really cool was a chicken nugget sauce promo featuring Singapore mustard, Chinese sweet chili sauce, Japanese curry, and Malaysian sauce. Not your normal bbq, mustard, and sweet and sour sauce in the U.S. I tried the curry which was sold out in practically every McDonald’s except the last one I visited. It was Sugoi!!! Malaysian sauce tasted like fish paste but not bad.
This was interesting yet funny at the same time. Interesting for McDonald’s is offering a year’s worth of six piece chicken nuggets if you find four puzzle pieces. Funny because I don’t think many Chinese will try to with the year’s worth of nuggets while in America everyone would be trying to get this if they ever offered it resulting in a depletion of chickens across America…this results in a massive demand in chicken due to the low supply that will raise costs on chicken as well as condiments that go with chicken that will be passed on to the consumers…don’t mind the last part, its the economist in me lol.
$25 dollars for a drink lol, its actually in HK dollars which is about three USD. Funny though isn’t it. Drinks are everywhere in Hong Kong, probably due to the heat and humidity. My favorite drink that I had there was a mango crystal jelly drink that was full of mango flavor and chunks from a place that only sold mango related drinks/desserts/ and possibly meals, I wish I had taken a picture.
If you want to eat at a really great place I reccommend Dai Pai Dong, the food there was excellent. But what really made me recommend this place is the iced tea that they gave me with the meal which was super sweet when I first drank it but when I crushed the lemon juices and mixed it with the iced tea it became heaven on earth. I swear it was the best iced tea I had in my life. I had egg and shrimp rice that was excellent.
Hamtaro demands you to eat his curry!!! This was pretty interesting, for even my local Japanese food markets don’t sell anime-donned curry.
This was pretty sweet, a shopping mall in Hong Kong was selling beetles as pets along with little shrimp which I used to keep lol. I believe people will just use them to fight other beetles though. There’s a beetle fighting game in Japan thats really popular with kids which gave me that idea, plus it used to be really popular as entertainment where people would bet who would win like chicken fights.
One of the many red taxis you find in Hong Kong along with a couple of the many buses behind it. Although very efficient, only those with high skill or crazy will drive in Hong Kong. Everyone drives super fast to get to their destination and will go on the narrowest of roads where only five to seven inches, sometimes less, in between cars going the opposite way from each other. The first time I got in a taxi the driver weaved in between cars like nothing at high speeds I would never dare to do tat really freaked me out. On the way down from the peak, a bus in front of the cab I was in had to back up to let another bus past us at a corner of the road, the bus backed up to about 2 inches, maybe less, that was scary…but these drivers are very safe and if one were to actually crash it would cause a very long traffic jam due to the amount of cars which is probably an incentive to drive safe.
Ahhh, the infamous “octopus” pass that got me practically everywhere
This is a mural of cable car history that would take you up to the “peak” which is a really high point in Hong Kong which allows you to see practically the whole big city on a clear day. This place also had many shops, restaurants, and an EA game area where my game deprived self enjoyed very much as I played burn out and C&C 3 Tiberium. You go up the cable car up a very steep hill so get a seat if you can, I recommend waiting in line where the doors open if you can to get a seat which is much more comfortable than standing. The ride down is almost like a slow roller coaster ride down the top.
Here’s a pic of a portion of the subway line which I took, the subway is very foreigner friendly, to those who know Chinese/Kanji or English anyways as the subway would tell you where you were going and the next stop in both languages. The Subways are very fast and you can cross between the Hong Kong islands in a fraction of the time compared to people going by ferry.
This was a funny warning about not rushing to the door, possibly elevator but would more likely mean subway, and getting caught which ironically happened to my shoulder and not my hand as I rushed to catch the subway. The subway is very frequent as you usually wait about three minutes before the next one comes along which I really liked.
This got a laugh out of me, I don’t know why though lol.
I thought this was cute and funny as 7-11 gave it away as my cousin bought a drink there. Turns out little trinkets were inside, I thought it looked like something else… something for “safety.”
This was pretty cool, a Bruce Lee statue. This man is one of the most famous martial artist that made Asian martial arts famous across the world. Great pose too.
Well thats it for my reflection…back to normal otaku goodness
lol My teacher would go crazy over the Charlie Brown thing… xD
Ya, it was pretty awesome seeing the Charlie Brown Cafe, wish I could have ate something while I was there but I had so much to eat just minutes before.
Hehe! I have been to Hong Kong quite a few times now, and your blog made me remember how much i adore the place!
Ladies market is AMAZING! >w
@Shm: I’m glad to be of service ^^, Hong Kong is quite an amazing place and I wouldn’t mind visiting again. Ladies market uhhhh….was for ladies lol, nothing really for me.