In Hong Kong with friends...

Hill in Cambodia
The view from Hill's bedroom
Market in Kowloon
Macau Island
The Bar District-Lan Kwai Fong
Chueng Chau Island
Giving offers to Hill's ancestors at the graves
A dragon that will be used for festivities on Chueng Chau Island
Macau Buddha
Danny and I went out during Typhoon 3 and were stuck in a restaurant for a few hours when I took this
Chueng Chau Island

I apologize to all my regular readers for not updating this. I never leave projects unfinished once I start them.

So ... Hong Kong.. Why did I go to Hong Kong? Well I originally did not plan to go to Hong Kong. There was nothing that I absolutely had to see there but I was quite surprised at how much I did learn and was thoroughly impressed by. Hong Kong was a lay over on three separate occasions so I decided to just extend one of them for 8 days.

When I was in Thailand, I met a girl named Hill, whom I met again in Cambodia since we were both traveling the same route at similar times. Hill is originally from Hong Kong and has family there. She had been in Australia for more than 4 years for college and was doing a trip on her own over land through southeast Asia and then up back to Hong Kong. Hill was an inspiration and a delightfully fierce woman to travel with. She told me to contact her once I was in Hong Kong and I stayed with her and her family for the most of my stay in Hong Kong.

The first day in Hong Kong after taking the express train to another island and then taking a taxi we got to her complex in "New Territories". Hong Kong is too dense for any houses. People live in huge high rises. Hill was on the 38th floor. What a view... mostly of the harbor. The first day I went with Hill's family for a long practiced tradition of giving respects to their ancestors. We met up early, at some dim sum and then went to several cemeteries where we gave offerings of inncense, fruit, and burned certain symbolic things like fake money in which was supposed to be used in the afterlife.

For one weekend I explored Hong Kong with an old friend from high school, Danny. Danny has lived in Beijing for 2 years and speaks fluent Mandarin. He has been there for work and travels to Hong Kong and other close destinations pretty often. Danny loves urban planning and likes to explore interesting neighborhoods with complex histories. We went to Wan Chai which is more a working class, both residential and commercial area of Hong Kong.

Hill took me to several museums and areas of Hong Kong. We went to view a giant buddha on Macau Island.

My favorite part of my stay in Hong Kong is when we went to Chueng Chau Island. Hill had some family still living on the island , including her grandparents who were in their 90's and still run a store on the island! They are beautiful energetic spirits and it is amazing that they can keep up a store on their own. Chueng Chau island has more than 30,000 people and not one single car other than an ambulance. There are no cars allowed on the island. So what is the main form of transportation? Bikes! Hill and I borrowed some bikes from a friend and biked all over the island. It was absolutely beautiful. Fishing is the biggest economy on the island and the boats are colorful and bright.

Staying with Hill and getting a tour off the beaten path from Danny as well really allowed me to see how people in Hong Kong live. So they have always been a hub/major port for the rest of capitalist asia. They have a very different history than China, and yet you still see both the Hong Kong and Chinese flag flying all over. Hong Kong has its own government that provides for its immigration, police force, legal system, monetary system as well as delegates but Hong Kong is under the Central People's Government which provides the territories defence and foreign affairs. There are sooo many x-pats in Hong Kong you can go to completely gentrified areas where you will see very little Chinese. In these areas you can get away with speaking English all the time. It makes it a very easy place to travel.

I loved the transportation system in Hong Kong! Thumbs up the the Octopus card which can be used on 7 lines - bus, shuttle, train, subway, ferry, as well as other forms of transportation.

Thank you to Hill and her beautiful family for taking me in and feeding me, giving me a bed and being my host family for a week. Hill if you are reading this.... I hope you are still dreaming big and I hope to see you out there as we keep blazing new paths and finding out more about the world.