Another full week of work flew by. I’ve been busy on a project so lunches have become less “go out for 1.5 hours and eat a big meal at a restaurant” and more “order delivery and eat in our lobby”. We have had so many varieties of food, including Indian, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese. I’m not sure that I even really know what “Hong Kong” cuisine is, if not a combo of many other Asian dishes. We scoped out a fun place to go for Happy Hour on Friday after work. It was empty when we arrived, but they wouldn’t let us in since the tables were reserved. I’ve been learning that is quite common here, they highly prioritize reserved tables and even if you promise to leave the table in a certain amount of time, they won’t give it to you. We ended up going to the place next door and tried this place called Tipsy Tap, which felt like it belonged in Cambridge as a hip local brewery with lots of beers on tap.

That night, we went on a tram party! Which is exactly what it sounds like it would be. We took a tram from Sai Ying Pun to Causeway Bay and back on a party tram. Felt just like high school prom. It was through Abbie’s friend who lives in HK, and we met lots of cool people. Turns out that Nishanth recognized a lot of the people from junk boats he has been on in the past, such a small world! The best part was waving to everyone on the streets and busses passing by and getting smiles and waves out of people. It seems like this would have been organized for some occasion, a birthday, celebration, etc., but nope! After asking everyone on the tram it was basically no, there is no occasion, we just wanted to do a tram party so we did! I get the sense that will be the vibe in HK, as a “why not”? We went out to LKF after and saw for the first time the bustling nightlife scene on the main street there.

Next morning we got up bright and early to do a new hike. It meant we took the ferry to Mui Wo from Central (after missing the first one we wanted, whoops). Mui Wo was a nice small town and we easily found our way to the trailhead. There was a lot of animal droppings on the trail we took, and after lots of guessing and suspecting, we found out it was from buffalo which are wild in the area. The other primary wildlife on the hike was SPIDERS. Golden orb weavers I suspect, but I wasn’t trying to do more research entailing looking at photos of more spiders. They are massive. The size of my hand. They have huge webs all along the trail. Across the whole hike, we only passed 2 other hikers, and at the intersection of crossing paths with them, we slowed down and got single file. They had stopped walking for a bit, and waved their hands down to us. They had spotted a huge spiderweb across the trail so we had to duck a lot to avoid getting caught in it. We for SURE would have walked through it (and the spider) had they not been there. Lucky timing!

The hike started out as more of a coastal walk, but did turn into a decent vertical hike. Cue the sweat! Once we got to the top part of the hike, there were unreal views of the water. Then we descended to Pui O beach. We started on the edge which wasn’t near the main beach shack, and it was ultra polluted with trash. I have never been to a trashy beach before and it was really unsettling. It was just not nice to walk through but also was sad to think about where it’s all coming from and ending up at this beach. At the more populated section of the beach, it was cleaner and more maintained. We got a well deserved lunch at this beach shack place and I also got a full coconut. I more so got the coconut to be like survivor (was in the jungle, was wearing a buff, etc) and while it was refreshing I’m not sure that I really love coconut milk (water?) or the white part either. We did swim in the Pui O beach and it was like bath water. I have never been in an ocean so warm. We went in shifts so half of us would watch our stuff while the others went to swim. We caught the bus back just in time to Mui Wo and took the ferry back to central, where surprise surprise, we went back to our hotel food court to eat Vietnamese food (pho). After we all showered we congregated in Dan’s room since we figured we have to take more advantage of our dorm style setup all living down the hall from each other! We watched Survivor, mwhahaha with my Hulu and a US VPN. Started with season 25 , Philippines. I think other people got hooked and we will try to watch that season!

Sunday, I went with Abbie to Wan Chai to scope out her apartment. It was a good trip and we met her neighbor which was nice. Now just having a chill day and might watch more Survivor! Even during writing this post I have looked out my hotel window with great harbor views and have watched the weather change from sun to rain to cloudy and back. I also cooked my first real meal since being here! A thai red curry, and put the kitchen scissors I brought to use. Will be nice to cook a little more once I’m settled in my new apt, which I get the keys to in a few days!