Japan + South Korea + Taiwan + Hong Kong = JAKOTAKONG, aka the best (author research) trip ever. And our first stop is Hong Kong, so greetings from Hong Kong!
This trip has been in the works for two years, a result of watching Asian dramas for years AND beginning to work on Hart & Seoul. Swag Master, my sister MC and I cooked up the idea, initially deciding to go to South Korea and adding on more countries as we got more ambitious. I don’t know how many hours I spent scouring the internet for ideas of what to do, and it felt like it was so far in the future that I’d never actually go, so now I can hardly believe that I’m here. Heck, I can hardly believe that I made it through the 15 hour flight (during which, might I add, I did not sleep, so I was awake every painful hour), but the swelling in my ankles is proof that it actually happened. Some people need compression socks, I apparently need a compression body suit. -_-
We finally emerged from the plane eeeeeearly the next morning, were given horrifically vague directions on how to get to our hostel, got lost in an upscale mall, and eventually wound up getting a cab ride in a car that was too small for all of our luggage plus us – all of our luggage was crammed in the trunk, and the trunk door was held down with bungee cord. Thankfully we didn’t go over any big bumps, or else we would have been stranded in Asia without half my wardrobe. Tragic thought.
Because we couldn’t check in until the afternoon, we came up with the brilliant idea to sight see all day in both an effort to pass time until we could check in and to stay awake. In hindsight, this was a HORRIBLE idea, as I was literally walking into walls from exhaustion just a few hours later, but at the time we thought it was a good plan.
We explored Kowloon Park, which is this beautiful oasis in the otherwise extremely crowded city. Seriously, space is at such a premium there, it’s $5,000 USD per square foot – it’s a wonder that anyone can afford to live in Hong Kong. I for one was very grateful for the extra space and time to just meander through the pathways of the park before we hit our food tour. Scheduled for 3.5 hours, we were supposed to try 6 different local food as we explored the city, but we made it half-way through the tour before my exhaustion hit full force. Amazing how exhausted one can be after essentially 48 hours of no sleep. Who knew?
After a restless night’s sleep on a very hard mattress, the next day we did a little shopping, rested, went to church, rested, and finished the day with a junk boat tour, which enabled us to see all the buildings on the coast light up as the sun set. It was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous, plus none of us got motion sick – win win! And then we rested again.
The next day we got up early once again, this time to hit the airport. The fact that we were clearly foreigners fascinated a group of people, who made it a point to pepper a lot of English words in their Cantonese conversation; one woman in particular listened intently whenever we spoke to each other. Not that our conversation was all that stimulating, as we were all still jet lagged and had yet to have a good night’s sleep, but whatever we said must have amused her since she kept on eavesdropping until we reached the airport.
And that, my friends, was my adventure in Hong Kong. Stay tuned for the next destination! And for those who have Instagram, never fear, pictures are coming. Till next time! 🙂
