I really wanted to go to Japan and Korea and flights to Hong Kong ended up being cheapest by far and I have wante to check out Hong Kong for a while.  So I booked a flight to Hong Kong with the plan to stay in the area for a few days including Shenzhen and Macau.  Don’t tell China but I am going to count these as countries number 6,7 and 8 as they have separate immigration, different currencies and require operate mostly on their own from the mainland.

I was looking into flights to Hong Kong from Boston and realized that flying to SF first then going to Hong Kong was around the same price and so I decided to spend a few days in the bay seeing some friends before heading back to Asia.  I had dinner with south bay friends, watched the leafs game with hockey friends and celebrated the 2.25 year anniversary of the East Bay Beer Runners, which I only told one or two people that I was coming, for the rest of them it was a total surprise.

I had a great time and much beer was consumed.  In the morning I jumped on my flight to Hong Kong through Shanghai ($270!).   Upon arriving in Hong Kong I arrived pretty late in the evening so didn’t have time to do anything.

The next morning I decided to get my legs underneath of me again with a run around a park located around the corner.

I then set out to eat some of the recommended foods of Hong Kong.  First stop was Tim Ho Wan which is probably the cheapest Michelin star place you are going to find.  They are a dim sum place so it was a bit difficult to eat there alone, but I managed ordering a few dishes including their famous pork buns.

I then just went for a wander, seeing the city and shops and what not.  I eventually go to the harbor which was a great view.

I jumped on the star Ferry, which was extremely cheap and cruised across the harbor to Hong Kong Island.

I walked by the Ferris wheel and some big malls and eventually ended up at my intended destination.  Trafalgar Brewing Company.

This was not a typical craft brewery in that it had a very catering to expats feel.  Yes they had their own beer, but they were not experimenting with any flavors or anything, they just went for the baseline that would appeal to the baseline expat customer.  That also means that prices were pretty high.  Although I quickly found out that beer prices in bars were pretty steep and hovered above $8.

I enjoyed a beer there but did not get any food as it was very overpriced.  I continued my wander and eventually made it to my next beer stop Coedo tap room, which is actually a Japanese brewery, but it was recommended to me so I stopped by.  I decided to throw caution to the wind and order the $25 beer flight.

All of the beer was really expensive, so I might as well get a taste of all of it.  In general it was decent, but nothing really blew me away.  I am going to try and visit one of their tap rooms in japan if I can (I am guessing they have one, I don’t know).  By that time it was getting close to the time for the Hong Kong light show over the harbor that happens every night at 8pm.  I headed over to a specified viewing location and hunkered down to watch the show.  To be honest it was pretty lackluster, but still an enjoyable experience.

The next morning I woke up early to watch game 6 of the Leafs vs Bruins series.  It was a great game and there were plenty of times when I had to hold back scream because I was watching it early in the morning outside a bunch of thin walled hostel rooms.  The Leafs ended up winning which meant a game 7.

After the game I headed out to an area of the city up north of where I was staying on some recommendations of a market to visit and food to try.  I probably would have never gone to any of these places if not recommended to me, so thanks for letting me know Alex.  All of the places were near the Sham Shui Po metro station.

First up was the Sam Shui Po market where there was lot’s of fresh seafood and meat on display.  The second floor had fresh veggies and upper floors had some food stalls, but I enjoyed just wandering.

Next stop was Sun Hang Yuen which is famous for the their egg and beef sandwich, which was delicious.  I also had a milk tea which was great!

Next up on the food tour was a place that served Hong Kong style noodles!  I stuck my head in the shop, sat down and pointed at someone else’s noodles as there was no English to be spoken by anyone.

In general this was the way it worked for most of these places, as they probably don’t see many foreigners.  The noodles we delicious and cheap which is my favorite kind of food.  Right beside the noodle place was a steamed bun place and I love steamed buns and dumplings so I grabbed one of those too.  I wandered back to the hostel to grab my bag as I had to move hostels.

I stayed at the first hostel for 2 nights and when I asked them to extend the price had jumped up a pretty substantial amount and so I decided to move to their sister location which for some reason was still pretty cheap.  This one was very similar but had a much more livelier group of people staying at it.  I met a few people almost immediately, including a guy from China and another guy from Russia as well as an older woman from Australia.  My evening plan involved heading over to the island in search of another recommendation for food, roast Goose.  I have had roasted duck plenty of times but this will be the first time I have goose.  The lady from Australia was interested in joining me, so we took off together in search of some Goose.

We strolled up to this place and similar to the other ones, it didn’t look like much from the outside and I probably would not have stopped there on my own.  The reviews I read about this place were that the staff were pretty to the point and were interested in getting you in and out as soon as possible as they are used to having line ups.  When we arrived there was no line but the reviews were pretty accurate.

They were not all that nice but the food was pretty good.  We got a 1/4 duck each and some rice.  It was plenty of food and was delicious.  I really don’t know if I could taste the difference between duck and goose, but I love both, so I don’t think it really matters.

We then wanted to grab a beer post dinner and multiple people had mentioned the Globe for good craft beer and it was right around the corner, so we headed there and had a few drinks.  The beer was pretty good, but very pricey.  Drinking in Hong Kong continued to be about $10 a beer from most bars.

Upon returning to the Hostel, there were a bunch of people hanging out in the “lobby” area so we decided to join and had a great time.  Chile, China, Canada, Australia, Russia, Malaysia were all represented.

The next morning I decided to do an adventure run on the other side of the bay, so I ran to the Ferry and then continued my run where the Ferry drops off.

I had researched running trails in Hong Kong and apparently the go to trail is about halfway the hill and is a flat road that is built into the side of the road called the Bowen Road fitness trail.  It took a bit to get up there as I said it was halfway up the hill, but the route I chose took me through the botanical gardens which were very pretty and had a few animals.

I didn’t spend too much time there but vowed to return to check it out again.  I found the trail and it was indeed pretty popular with runners, walkers and dogos.

I reached the end and considered turning around and making it an out and back but had read about the horse track having a running track around the inside of the horse track and I realized that the horse track was actually nearby.  I decided to head down there and see what it was about.  The inside of the horse track was indeed a public park.  There were soccer fields and walking trails and public fitness equipment and as promised just inside the grass horse track, there was a paved maintenance road that was open to the public for running, when races were not being prepped.  Luckily for me it was open and I took a few laps.

The full adventure ended up being 9 miles (14.5 km).  I returned to the hostel, had a shower and needed to figure out what I was going to do that day.  We met a new Australian guy who was in Hong Kong to meet up with his band who were touring Asia.  He had some passport issues so was only joining them on the last leg of their tour.  I wanted to continue the food adventure and had read about a wonton noodle place that was right next door.

The noodles were pretty good, but the portion size was pretty small for the price.

I decided I needed some additional street food and opted for a mixed meat cup from a nearby stand.  It appeared to have many of the parts of the cow and in general was pretty good, except for the liver.

I have never liked liver and still don’t.  We then headed to a market that looked like it would have cheap cell phones.  Arthur ended up finding something for about $90 which seemed to get him a pretty decent phone although where it came from, who knows.

After the phone, I saw some fried dumplings that looked delicious and when I go the box, they had the Michelin man on it.  I don’t think they have a star but are recommended in the guide.

Very delicious.  After the dumplings, we grabbed a beer from 711 and went for a stroll through a nearby park having some fun in their lane of comic book heroes section.

We returned to the hostel, chilled for a while, then headed back out to watch the light show from the other side of the bay this time.

I will say that from this vantage point it was a little bit better, but still not that great.

We then jumped on the ferry and went for a stroll to find the entertainment district I have heard so much about called Lan Kwai Fong or LKF for short.  As I mentioned before, drinks are pretty expensive in Hong Kong, so we enjoyed some beverages from the convenience store and wandered the entertainment district with those.

It was very entertaining and the area was very lively.  We caught the last ferry back and headed to bed.

 

The crew from the previous night decided that we wanted to climb Victoria peak the next day, but I was planning on getting up early to watch game 7 of the leafs playoff series, so they said they would wait for me.  I had scoped out a few bars that were open during the appropriate time of the game 7:30am and had visited one of them to ask them specifically if they would have the hockey game on.  An Irish pub very close to the hostel said they would have the game on and they opened at 8am.  I woke up in the morning, watched the first period on my laptop from the hostel then headed to the bar to watch the second and third period.  There was a lady there watching and was saving a seat for her boss but said they could squeeze me in.  They ended up being from Toronto and her boss was a pretty big Leafs fan.  They were in Hong Kong at a trade fair as they were in the boutique apparel business.  We watched the game which started out great but deteriorated quickly and the leafs ended up losing the game 7-4.  Since I was at an Irish pub and watching hockey I had to get a Guinness despite the 8:30am time frame and then decided that I was hungry so ordered their breakfast.

When all was said and done this leafs game cost me just over $30 for a beer and breakfast.  Oh well, it was fun hanging out with the fellow fans and people need to eat.  After the game was done, I headed back to the hostel and everyone was waiting for me to head on our hiking adventure.  There is a tram that will take you to the top but we opted to walk because it was more fun and cheaper.  We took the ferry across the harbor and started up the hill.

We passed by the botanical gardens again and this time I had an opportunity to check out the various animals and what not.  The monkeys were pretty cool although in my opinion their cages were a bit on the small size.

We continued up the hill and eventually found the path that went straight up.  It was about 30-45 minutes of straight upward climbing but eventually we made it to the tourist exit point of the tram.

We then took the scenic trail around the mountain for several amazing views of the city and harbor.

We then headed up to the peak and met some American guys who offered to share some of their beers with us.  We hung out with them for a bit and eventually made out way down the hill back to the city.

By the time we got back into the area of the city it was nearing happy hour time, and so I did a quick search to see if there were any good happy hours in Hong Kong.  Turns out that the place right across the street from the place I was looking up this information had an all you can eat and drink happy hour which allowed for all you can eat chicken wings and fries as well as Peroni for 2 hours for a bit less than $20.  It was a great deal and so most of the crew decided to try that out.

It was exactly as advertised and by the end I was very content on chicken wings and beer!  We slowly made our way back to the hostel from there and eventually just hung out until it was time for bed.

The next morning was the day I planned to go to Shenzhen, as it was the weekend and the Hong Kong hostels got super expensive.  It’s a 40 minute train ride away, so I wasn’t in too much rush to get there.  A few of us went for one more walk through the city and I went in search of a giant fried chicken cutlet place I had seen on the internet.

It was basically as advertised and pretty cheap so I was happy.  Andrei the Russian guy was also planning on going to Shenzhen but was going to wait until the next day.  At the last minute he decided to join me and so we headed to the subway destined for Shenzhen.