After a whirlwind of a few weeks in the US– leaving my Cambridge apartment, beaching in Avalon with the Quigley gang, boating in Boston Harbor, watching 4th of July fireworks from the Esplanade, going to a Phish concert in the pouring rain at Fenway, sailing on the Charles at CBI, and packing, I was prepared to set off to HK! Angela, Abbie, and I coordinated flights to share the long leg (16 hrs) from ORD to HKG together. Checking in was smooth, I had two big wheelie checked bags, a wheelie carryon, and a backpack. The heavier of my two checked bags was 62 pounds… 3 under the weight limit!

Business class luxury!

Enjoyed CRAZY business class service. Started off on Cathay with slice poached pork with Chinese cabbage salad , garlic Chinkiang vinegar dressing, then seared chicken breast with polenta dumpling, mushroom goulash and broccolini, and an oriental breeze: sour-plum tea and cranberry juice based drink with honey and fresh lemon juice and a hint of rose water. Then had fresh tea and fruit for dessert, and fell asleep laying horizontal for truly 12 hours. I woke up as we were over Taiwan. I was sure I missed breakfast, but they saw the minute I woke up and came to my seat, offering if I was ready for my meal. Yes please! It was amazing. Got out bags easily and ventured to our car service to the hotel. Once we loaded our luggage in the van, Angela walked around to the right side of the car to hop in the passenger seat… Our driver went running after her waving her off since she was in fact hopping in to the driver seat! It was a great way to kick things off.

Checked into the Harbour Plaza Metropolis easily and slept through most of the night. Our first impression was our bellhop, Felix. We all 3 had massive bags (3 each) that were going to be delivered to 3 seperate rooms. Sorry Felix! He was huffing by the time he got to my room, the last one. Abbie Angela and I didn’t communicate too well on how to tip, but we thought we should, so we basically didn’t tip and then felt bad so needed to find Felix. We lurked in the lobby with no luck for a bit. So, we went to the attached mall to wander. We saw Felix, clearly after his shift, changed clothes and leaving, come up from an escalator. We gave him the tip, he was very happy, and he showed us around the area a little bit, including pointing out where key things like they grocery store are. He then checked his watch and SPRINTED to the bus stop, he was going to be late for the last bus of the night since he spent the time to give us a mini tour. A very jolly/friendly first impression! On day 1, July 10th, we walked along the Avenue of Stars to our office in the One Peking tower. It was hot, but manageable. We got lunch with the rest of the HA crew, Nishanth, Daniel, Jeni, and Judy. Later that day, we went to Happy Hour at the Kowloon taproom right near our office, and went to Eyebar for scenic drinks and the LIGHT SHOW! There is a music-synchronized laser show at 8pm every night and Eyebar is a great spot to watch.

Thursday, our next day, we began our quest to find apartments. This entailed taking the Star Ferry (first of many trips on the Star Ferry to come!) to Wan Chai and walking through the neighborhoods. We worked our way up from bustling Wan Chai through financial district Central to residential Sheung Wan. We stopped for Taiwanese beef noodles, boba, and claw machines on the way. Note: there are popup stores that are like arcades but only claws and no one operates, and you can get stuffed animals and things for 5 HKD. Every time we walk past one, we obviously stop and play the claw. Rounded out the night with Thai food in iSquare mall.

Friday. Back at it with apartment tours. This time we saw Mid-levels and Soho first. We got to take the escalators for the first time, one of if not the longest escalator system in the world. It basically just helps people get around the area since it is nestled as the base of the mountains, as you walk from Central to the Mid-levels there can be some steep inclines. A few things you need to look for in an apartment that you have overlooked: washing machine, burner, sink, elevator.

We stopped for lunch and I had among my first “vegetable and rice” meals given uncertainty with soy sauce/GF options. I realized I really liked this area we had lunch, near the Man Mo temple and Gough street in between Sheung Wan and Soho. We next met one realtor for a visit– a TOTAL disaster. We wanted to look in Sheung Wan area, and she had mostly places in Wan Chai lined up. Most of our visits were quick 5 minute tours, I think we saw upwards of 20 apartments in these two days, we took 1.5 hours to see 2 places. Yikes! We trekked to Causeway Bay and then they called us an uber back to the areas we actually wanted to see (uber was a Tesla! Lots of teslas here actually). We had MUCH better luck with apartments on 28hse, spacious, and squarefoot rather than the realtor appointments. We then met up for Happy Hour at Big Sur and Abbie signed her place in Wan Chai.

We also prioritized getting local HK phone numbers. Without HK ID’s yet, which you need to do mostly anything here, we could only really go to the CSL plan. The minimum contract is 24 months which is long… We worked with our guy Kyle at the front, he let us pick our phone numbers, and then basically whispered to us that if we pay in cash each month, we can effectivel cancel after 12 months even though it’s a 24 month contract. We shall see….

We had a chill Saturday, we went to the hotel pool which is quite nice. We tried to eat lunch at Gyu Kaku in TST but ended up at a Korean restuarant instead, which supposedly charges you for extra food on your plate so we consumed it all. Angela went off to sign her place in Sheung Wan, and Abbie and I explored Kowloon park. There are flamingos! We compared milk teas and decided we like boba (bigger tapioca pieces) vs. pearls. Abbie, Daniel, Angela and I planned to get dinner in Hung Hom near the hotel that night. We found Yvonne’s Noodles on open rice (Yelp basically) and decided to try it. We never would have picked this place otherwise, the front door was those plastic banner things that you think of in refrigerated sections of Costco and they were quite old looking. It was a Sichaun place apparently. We all got noodle dishes, and I ordered last. Everyone else got “baby spice” but I got “medium”. It was spiiiiiiicy. Especially since it was a noodle broth, I kept getting the chili oil all over my face and it was certainly spicy. The few staff were watching me eat the noodle in suspense. At one point, the (likely) owner came over and talked to Angela in Mandarin, and said something along the lines of “should we bring her out a less spicy soup, can she take the spiciness, we can bring a less spicy one so she doesn’t need to suffer anymore”. Other than spicy lips and a VERY runny nose, I enjoyed it? Got milk and ice cream at 7/11 on the walk home to cool down.

On Sunday, we planned our first “outing”. We were thinking of going to Ten Thousand Buddha’s monastery, but a protest was scheduled nearby at Sha Tin, so we went to Nan Lian Garden and Chi Lin Nunnery instead. It was actually constructed quite recently, but was really pretty. We got to learn a bit about the architecture. We stopped in a mall to eat lunch at one point and they are totally zoos inside. We also stopped at the Kung Fu corner in Kowloon park on our way back to see some tai chi and other martial arts.