dagmaraivonne

hong kong - may 2015

Our airplane window paralleled the water and enormous boats from far, far away, looked like beaming stars. Far enough to look like actual little suns, close enough to feel as though we were flying right among them. It was dark, and hard to tell we were facing the water at all, so I stared hard and pretended we were that high- among the stars. We landed back on earth, in Hong Kong, my head still in the sky. It wasn't long before I lost my debit card and snapped back into reality. Our introduction to hong kong was off beat; my card, gone forever, possibly in the hands of a stranger, me, ashamed for having lost it, and it had rained all night (and the next day). Shortly after, we also realized we would not be able to make it as far as we liked into China due to visa complications, and b's heart dropped from disappointment, so naturally, mine did too.

When the sun finally came out, the energy bursting through every man, woman and child we passed fueled our own. All of a sudden, we were walking and talking a little faster. We had been in third-world asia for a while at this point, so it was like we were injected with adrenaline the moment we stepped out into this busy city. We stayed in Kowloon, a condense, high-raised and fast-paced city just across the water from hong kong island, filled with delicious dim sum and indian restaurants. We walked to catch the ferry to hong kong island and released a chorus of "oooh ahhhs" at the skyline. Ever-bigger beautiful man made architecture, completely engulfed by ever-bigger mountains. It was like everything I had seen up until that point all in one place. It was the biggest city I had laid eyes on since being home in New York, but in a valley. Skyscrapers in a valley. Our first trip was to Victoria's Peak, way up a mountain behind the buildings. We took a double decker bus up to the top passing beaches and modern mountain homes. There we hiked for an hour or two and pointed at the gray blotches in the sky, wondering if it was fog from the rain storm or smog from the pollution. I leaned as far as I could over the gate separating us from the mountain abyss; the city looked endless. It stretched just as far as my eyes could see, as if the buildings planted roots right alongside the mountains and grew and grew.

One of the next days we took a thirty-minute cable car ride passed a couple of other mountains to see Big Buddah. The car followed a long, narrow trail for hiking (even split between bodies of water) and I wondered how anyone could muster enough energy for such a thing. The island of the Buddah was neatly carved and beautifully organized. We were told we had only fifteen minutes to see it, so we sprinted as fast as we could passing wild cows and fancy shops, and the sweet security guard lady let us in even after she'd just closed the gates. The size of this shiny Buddah was mutually fascinating and intimidating. We didn't have much time; in a few minutes, we waved goodbye to Buddah and hopped on the last cable car back. Our little car swayed calmly, and a baby girl with her Mama and Papa huddled up closely beside us.

On a clear night, we met b's friend from home and he took us to a delicious vegetarian restaurant right in Kowloon for a quick dinner. We had wasabi sweet and sour mock chicken and it was so, so good. In Vietnam, where we had flown from, the closest thing to fake meat that existed was tofu, and even that wasn't available all the time, so this was heaven on our taste buds. After, we explored the market and laughed at the fake name branded stuff. Nothing was average at these markets, every little thing on sale was either lit up, playing music, or had funny drawings on it.

Macau, an island a few hours from hong kong, was our last stop before flying out. We caught a ferry and because we entered further into mainland china, we had to go through customs there and back. It exceeded my expectations by ten fold. It was as if we took a little boat trip right back to Europe. We had known prior that it had European influence, but my arrogance (from being so familiar with many places in Europe) had led me to not be impressed by this information. But this island, this little Portuguese looking place, was undoubtedly beautiful. I instantly lost any prior idea that I knew what to expect, and fell right into helpless adoration. We did no research on where to go and relied on green signs pointing in tourist destinations all over the sweet town and had a blast. We stumbled into perhaps the only raw café on the island minutes before its closing time and were convinced it was destined. It began pouring as the sun went down, and, not surprisingly, we lost our way back to the casino from which we had came. We ran quickly from corner to corner, drenched, asking natives, who pointed us in all directions, to help us find our way. Somehow, in less than half an hour we were back on the ferry to Hong Kong, clothes stuck to our backs and hair heavy from rain.

Like everything else in Hong Kong, our stay was quick and over before I had time to consider it. It felt like a whole week had passed in just a day. It didn't matter if we were on hong kong island or
across the water, the pace never, ever slowed down. It was a intense transition from south east asia, but a good one.

victoria peak

ferry ride to hong kong 

view from the kowloon pier

the streets of hong kong

cable car ride 

street view from our airbnb 

market fun

macau island