Hong Kong Day 1
Woke up at 6 AM today, and promptly got to it. Claire wanted to go to central on a little walk thing we found in our guidebook, so after we got showered and ready and whatever we headed out to central.
- First time seeing central was intense. People, cars, smog, sound. People just unloading stuff in the street.
- Had some difficulty with the map, couldn’t figure out how to get to statue square for a bit.
- Managed to figure out that staying up on the sky bridge is the best way to get around. It’s pretty much a pathway that connects all of the buildings.
- Wandered into the square, started following the guidebooks directions.
- Tried to get to the 43rd floor of the HSBC tower, they didn’t really like that.
- Hong Kong park was awesome, there is a big tower with a spiral staircase that I climbed up and snapped a few pictures from.
- Visited a random Aviary that we found.
- Came back, went to the IFC mall. After struggling we found where we wanted to eat, some noodle-ish place called Tasty. Pretty cheap, good food. We didn’t get big portions but I think it was a place where you were supposed to order a lot of dishes and share them.
- Found an observation deck, took some pictures. The air here is pretty damn bad. Humidity wasn’t terrible today.
- Went to Mong Kok, holy shit it is crowded. People and shops and cars everywhere. Very dense.
- Went to the Golden Computer Shopping Arcade
- Wandered around the flea markets and day market areas for a bit, picked up a sim card for $3.00. I’m not quite sure what I can do with it.
- Found the place I was looking for, Keyboard Hell. It’s a mechanical keyboard store. Wasn’t open so I didn’t get to check out all of the prices, but it seemed about the same as online.
- By this point we were both tired so we headed back to out hotel. Going to rest and maybe eat or something.
Observations:
- People in the morning looooove their newspapers.
- The morning rush is insane
- There are hardly any pigeons. I think I saw one.
- Cellphones eeeeeeverywhere
- Octopus card is probably the best thing in this county. You can charge it up, check it, use it anyway (we bought some drinks with it for like 85 cents)
- There is a lot of garbage being peddled in Sham Shui Po. Things like you’d find in the dollar tree or the cell phone cases bargain bin at Fred Meyers.
- There were some awesome power tools stores and random stalls at the markets (zip tie stall, battery stalls, recycled flourescent light bulb stall, cell phone stalls every 10 feet)
- People love Samsung and Apple. I see Samsung smart phones everywhere.
- It’s pretty hot but people are wearing pants and hoodies anyway. I’d hate to see this place in the summer
