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Day 0

We left at 2pm Dec 28 from LAX and arrived in Taipei, Taiwan around 9pm Dec 29, local time (9am LA Time). We had a 10 hour layover so, naturally, we cabbed it to Snake Alley lonely planet | random blog and then to a bar called Revolver full of foreigners and backpackers. Snake Alley wasn’t as cool as D (my boyfriend’s mother’s boyfriend) had made it out to be. Although, he visited a decade ago where it was probably still full of brothels and snakes. Now it’s just junk and regular street meat. Revolver was a much better place - we had maybe 4 or 5 beers with some awesome Australians and Americans and local folk and talked about traveling, friendship, privacy, the situation regarding the Sony hack and some music mastering stuff that went way over my head. I put Hubski stickers all over the bathroom and outside railings.

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Day 1 - Dec 30

Arrival, wandering, shopping

We returned to the airport around 4am and hopped on the flight from Taipei City to Hong Kong at 7am and arrive in Hong Kong at 9am local time. We cabbed it to our first hostel - Guangdong Guest House where we would stay for one night. Place was itty bitty but very clean and quiet and awesome. Our room wasn’t ready so we dropped our bags off and went to wander around Hong Kong for a few hours. We were pretty exhausted (and stinky) by this point but got a good first glimpse of Hong Kong.

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My first impressions were this - it’s like New York…except the streets are bigger…you can see the height of the buildings more…there’s more water…there are more Asians….and it doesn’t stop. Like it’s a super busy NYC street block after block after block after block after block. It's not really like NYC at all except that it's the only reference point I have for comparison. It was amazing. Unbelievably amazing.

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We got back to the hostel around 1pm, showered, drank water, watched a couple episodes of Community and rested our feet, and then set off for more wandering. This was our only night not on Hong Kong Island so we decided to go shopping in Mong Kok Neighborhood and Temple Street Night Market.

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We walked all the way from the hostel up to Mong Kok neighborhood, stopping in little shops and stores, window shopping for expensive jewelry, etc. There were guys all over trying to sell us "copy watches...copy rolex." We stopped in a semi-classy restaurant for some pork belly salad, soup and crab. Temple Street Night Market was ridiculous. It's a huge flea market with souvenirs, fake bags, fake watches, electronics, and all sorts of crazy stuff. My favorite was the fake iPhone touting "Android OS!"

All told, we probably walked 7km over 4-5 hours. We hadn’t slept besides a few hours here or there on the plane so we were officially exhausted and passed out immediately when we got back to the guest house. It was probably around 8pm.

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Day 2 - Dec 31

Hong Kong Island

New Years Eve and New Years was EPIC. We woke up around 9am, ate some delicious pastries, packed up our stuff, and took the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island to our next hostel, Alisan Guest House. Another clean and lovely place with a super cool guy working the front desk who went to college in the US. He told us a bunch of places to check out, we talked about living in the United States, shared funny stories about attending college, etc. He's also the one who put getting a Sak Yant into my boyfriend's mind. (You'll hear about that adventure in the Bangkok Trip Report).

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We continued our wandering around and shopping. We went to Time Square and the malls, ate, and bought some Diclofenec for my knee which was thoroughly kicking my ass by this point. The malls in Hong Kong are insane. Literally. We got lost numerous times in the malls. They go on for blocks and blocks and blocks.

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Around 8pm, we packed a bag full of liquor and beer and walked a few km over to the Hong Kong Observation Wheel / piers area. We found a nice park that wasn’t too crowded and drank our beers and liquor and talked until the fireworks. Kissed at midnight. Awesome. Romantic. Yay.

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As we were walking out of the park, planning on going to bed, we stumbled into a group of English speaking folk. There was a guy who was a screenwriter who had been living in Hong Kong for a few years and a girl from the Phillipeans who had just returned from NYC, and her two brothers who she had flown over from the Phillipeans. We talked about all sorts of stuff until we realized, “Fuck, we’re out of beer! Let’s go to the bar!”

We ended up at this very loud bar with awesome live music, good energy, and a perfect dance floor. The guy singing was a great performer. He sang the best singalong songs - Livin’ on a Prayer. Call me Maybe. Etc. Etc. The energy was fantastic.

We completely lost track of time (and money) but successfully made it back to the guest house at 4am and passed out.

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Day 3 - Jan 1

We slept until noon or so. I don’t remember.

The next day was pretty much a wash. Although…we did wander around the malls more and tried on very, very expensive jewelry. I had never seen a De Beers store so naturally I tried on all their stuff. Some $3000 leather jackets. Etc. Oh and we found and arcade so we played games…and watched crazy Chinese men play arcade games. And candy. We bought tons and tons of Chinese candy. So yummy. ....

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We finally got our Octopus Cards and took the MTR over a couple stops to end the day at a rooftop bar called Sugar. We got there early enough for a good seat (it opens at 5pm, we were there at 4:45pm) and blew waaaay too much money on fancy cocktails and food. But the view, the sunset, and watching the city change from day to night was so worth it. Plus the drink did finally kill that pesky hangover that had been following us all day.

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Day 4 - Jan 2nd

We woke up earlier and fully recovered from New Years and got some breakfast and moved to another Guest House around 11am. Once we set our stuff down, we hopped on the MTR and then found the bus that goes to Shek O beach. I really wanted to do the Dragon’s Back Hike but my knee was causing me too much pain. We got another pharmacy to dose out some Tramadol and even that plus the Diclos weren’t helping. :(

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Instead, we had a very lovely afternoon hanging out not in the city. It was luxurious and much needed break from the crowds and malls. It wasn’t too warm but it was still nice. We got a very filling lunch, some amazing squid street meat, and relaxation on the sand and rocks. My boyfriend and I talked about what we wanted out of our lives, both agreeing that we wish we could just travel endlessly. We talked about school, jobs, money, housing, etc. etc. etc.

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Then we headed back to the city and wandered through some of the fish markets and bought souvenirs for all our friends and family members back home. Both my family and his have a lot of January birthdays, and neither of us bought our friends Christmas gifts before we left, so we had a list a mile long.

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Day 5 - Jan 3rd

Our flight to Bangkok was at 6pm. We woke up early again (like 5am) and I got some work done. Then we went to find breakfast, which was more challenging than ever before. We ended up walking maybe 3km or 4km in an area we hadn’t explored before and just talking and wandering and shopping and talking. After finding some breakfast / lunch, we checked out of the hostel around noon, used the end of our Octopus cards to MTR it to the piers, went to the bar, got drinks, grabbed a cab, and took it to the airport.

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What I Learned & What I Loved

Honestly, I needed this. I needed to travel. I needed to explore. And I needed to get away. I had no idea how much I needed it. I haven’t been that happy, carefree, amazing feeling in so long. I have traveled a lot but this was my first adventure where it was just me (and my boyfriend). Previous trips have been overly planned by my meticulous and over-zealous mother or, in the case of Australia, I had no plans and lived with locals. I've also never taken this serious of a trip with a boyfriend….who I have only been dating since August. I wasn’t worried, but I knew things could have gone terribly wrong. Instead, I learned how amazing we are together. He makes me less anxious and more carefree. I realized how much of a team we are and how much I love being a team. There were no fights, all the crazy little stressful things that go along with traveling suddenly weren’t a big deal because we figured out how to conquer them together. We figured out how to travel, where to go, how to pay, what to tip, etc. without worries. We also got lucky and all our plane tickets & hotel reservations went off without a hitch.

I’m glad we didn’t plan more. We basically scouted the internet before we left and made a list of amazing things people recommend and then whenever we woke up we figured out what we wanted to do. Then we would eat. Then we would find another thing to do. Sometimes we just relaxed. Sometimes we thought we would go back out at night but fell asleep instead. It was very nice not having commitments. Simply exploring Hong Kong was enlightening, entertaining, and lovely. Everything was new and fresh and world-view expanding.

I wish we had gotten to do the Dragon’s Back Hike. I wish my knee wasn’t so fucked up. I wish that we had done the light show one night on the Observation Wheel. There wasn’t anything that I wouldn’t have done though. Spending one day in Kowloon was perfect - and it was great that we did it the first day / night. Hong Kong Island is much better.

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Also…I learned bamboo scaffolding is a thing.

Basically, it was perfect and it couldn’t have gone better and I’m extremely happy with the trip, with the boyfriend, and with everything.

Next Up! Bangkok!