For our spring break at the beginning of May, my roommate and I traveled to visit a friend who was living and working in Hong Kong. Compared to Beijing, Hong Kong is great. If you ever get the chance to go (and haven't yet) do it. Do it and don't even think about it.
✈The first thing i noticed after I got off the plane and met up with my friends was the humidity. Even inside was humid. The weird thing was though, the AC was blasting so it was freezing and wet at the same time. When we hailed a cab I was amazed to find that not only was the taxi bigger than the ones in Beijing, but the inside smelled like chips. Doritos to be exact. Doritos. No butt smells. No cigs. No sewage. Chips!! I literally laughed out loud. If this place has cabs that smell like food and have ample leg room then I could die tomorrow a happy camper.
✈The next thing I noticed was that the scenery was beautiful. There are palm trees, moss, flowers, and exotic foliage everywhere. The streets are clean and narrow and give off a very Italian/British cobblestone streets by the seaside vibe. I ate it up. Many streets are also huge hills with bars, restaurants, shops, and park cars all perched precariously on its 45 degree decline. We walked everywhere and got a good workout while doing so. At night, all the condo high rises are all lit with different colored lamps from each respective household. This creates a mosaic effect across the Hong Kong skyline and is truly impressive. Also, every night around 8pm, there is a "laser show" in the Business district. All the tall buildings use LED's to create a light show that is visible from virtually everywhere in the city.
✈Shopping--> There is a lot of. Hong Kong gets a bunch of flack for being "expensive" and "ritzy" in comparison to the mainland. Even though there is a Louis Vuitton on every corner and a Starbucks magically appears every time you're thirsty, honestly, Hong Kong isn't subject to the mainland's import tax, so everything else is pretty reasonable. I went shopping at H&M and everything was very reasonably priced. I also picked up some Burberry perfume por moi and even some cute pumps ( in retrospect, the pumps are not cute. At all. I forgot to mention that Hong Kong sales people are really good at doing their job...)
✈There is way too much foreign influence to really understand what Hong Kong food really is. We pretty much went to breakfast diners, sub shops, American fine dining, and Middle Eastern restaurants the entire time I was there. But I'm not complaining, the food was great and it made me happy. There were also bunches of pretty cars there. Everyone seems to drive either a Mercedes, BMW (if they are still bush-leaguers) Audi, Porche, ASTIN MARTIN AND/OR FERRARI. I swear I saw five every single time we went out.
✈We also went to Macau but I don't have much to say about it because we were there for only about...3 hours. Enough to eat dinner, take pictures and leave. Its about an hour ferry ride from Hong Kong island to Macau. A very bumpy, nauseating hour long ferry ride. We got a late start because someone didn't remind me to bring my passport (how I was supposed to know there was going to be customs between Hong Kong and Macau?) Macau is famous for two things: Casinos and Portuguese food. Macau is like a little Las Vegas. It has pretty much all the big name casinos but just on a smaller scale. We were able to check out the casinos for 20 minutes but then we had to rush off to our Portuguese dinner before the restaurant closed. Dinner was good, but after eating Portuguese food, I really don't understand what all the hype was about. It was moderately satisfying at best. We ordered garlic green clams, chicken in various forms (curried and "African") cuttlefish, and suckling pig, none of which really stuck out as authentic Portuguese fair. The best part of the meal was the young coconut I drank. The coconut water was deeeelish and the meat was succulent and fresh. I wish they weren't so expensive back in states and about as difficult to open as they are to find. Oh if wishes were young coconuts....
