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Here is my greatly delayed Hong Kong picture post! Unfortunately these pictures are all over the place in terms of timeline, but hopefully this makes sense. Also, by the looks of these pictures, you would assume that we pretty much never stop eating, all day long. Your assumption would be right.
The first picture is of me in Venice, California. The second is in the airport in HK. I am pretty sure I wore that dress for like three years! I also didn't have a chance to wash it, cause it was the thing I was wearing when we were doing laundry. Grosssssss.
So we got here at like five in the morning and the woke the hostel guys up cause we were under the impression that we could check in at any time. Hah! What? They stared at us like we were crazy and told us to come back at noon. So we hauled all our stuff onto the streets and found this restaurant. The above is the result of our attempts to order noodles and toast.
On the MTR, which is high in efficiency and low in suicide opportunities (doors close in front of the tracks when the train leaves). It's the best!
This is our hostel room inside the famous Chungking Mansions . It is amazing we survived our week long stay because apparently the place is a hub of crime and murder. I think this is an outdated notion, because my Dad stayed there in the 80's and said it was sketchy. Now it's mostly a bunch of curry places and annoying dudes who want to sell you imitation handbags. Anyway, the room is pretty nice (though incredibly small) but it was weird because we had NO windows at all. Which meant no natural lighting, which resulted in us sleeping for like 15 hours straight and having a hard time adjusting to the new timezone.
Bathroom! It's tiny. You can also see our sweet toothbrush holders.
Tom, somewhere near CKM.
Inside of a temple in Tsim Sha Tsui
Temple cat!
Kowloon park! The parks are beautiful and probably seem especially so because everything around them is concrete and skyscapers for miles. You forget how much you miss things like trees until you realize you haven't seen one for three hours. They're also filled with turtles. Baby turtles! You think you've seen the cutest turtle of all time and then one half it's size comes swimming up behind it.
Turtle cuteness is inversely proportioned to tininess!
By the aviary in the park.
Hedge maze!
Tom demands all the lollipops.
Public drinking! This is actually completely legal (he bought this at a 7-11), probably because no one really cares about alcohol here.
Our homeboys, Kitchee! They're a cute little underdog soccer team who we got to see play the more championed South China team, who grumpily started tripping and shoving our poor Kitchee around! It didn't matter, cause Kitchee won anyway and it was a totally awesome Mighty Ducks moment.
While we were looking for the soccer stadium, we found this community center where a dance competition was going on. I don't know who won or anything, but everyone was really good. Also, as you may have noticed, all the dudes in this picture are actually girls. Apparently actual girl and guy salsa dancing is too risque for 12 year olds (but the backless dresses are cool).
Shot from the harbor. One of these dudes probably made your camera.
Tom with some bamboo at the HK Botanical Gardens.
The world's most smug crocodile at the Botanical Gardens.
A typical restaurant/diner. I took this photo the first day we were here and did so because I thought it looked gross. Now I look at it and have a hard time deciding what I want for lunch.
The area we are staying now, Sham Shui Po. Everyone says it's the ghetto or something but I like it so much more than almost any other area of town we've been. Everyone is so friendly and genuine! The stores are weird (and cheap) and it doesn't feel like we're getting the tourist song and dance all the time.
Typical street market, probably in near our neighborhood.
Admiring Tom's fish at a Japanese place near our apartment. They took the entire fish (bones, skin, eyes, everything) fried it and put it on a plate. He said it was delicious!
Street vendors, which are all over our part of town. They're usually selling stuff like squid, curried fish balls, various meats we can't really identify.
Everything gets stuck on a stick, fried and drenched in sauce. People usually eat them leaning over the curb of the road so they're not covered in stuff after.
Yum!
Tom eating a Beard Papa Puff in Mong Kok. This area is usually packed with kids, especially at night.
Dragon Center, the mall near our place. Full of really inexpensive clothing and things to hang off your phone. Apparently it used to be the location of a POW camp?
I would probably buy more clothing here if I couldn't read english.
The awesome arcade in the Dragon Center. Sushi chopping!
In this game you touch the button when it says "touch". It's harder than it sounds?
So sometimes, we treat ourselves and head out to the fanciest restaurant in town which is, for real, Pizza Hut.
!?!?!??!!? They have escargot on the menu.
Tom's pizza had thousand island dressing instead of tomato sauce which was surprisingly (to me at least) delicious.
Pitcher plants at the flower market.
The cutest steamed buns ever.
At Victoria Peak! I think we were the first people ever to actually climb to the top. People aren't really down with walking here? We get horrified looks when we ask for directions and tell people we'd rather not take the MTR, if at all possible (to which they usually reply that the walk is impossible, cause the walk is a whole 25 minutes). Anyway, in true Hong Kong style, this place is a really pretty hill with a gigantic mall on top of it.
Tom eating an inside out (we melted them) lemon/grape Popsicle in our apartment.
Race track! Ponies are the only legal form of gambling here (besides slot machines) so everyone gets way into it.
Tom with his disgusting bag of salted crabs!
I can't wait to try one, obviously.
Adorable.
Bird market.
Baby parrots at the bird market. It was so hard for me not to birdnap them.
A tomb in Sham Shui Po! They found this place in the 50's, when they were digging up land to build apartments.
Buying cherries at a fruit stall.
We are going to Ocean Park today (a theme park/zoo thing) so you can soon expect nine billion pictures of Pandas to flood your flist!
The first picture is of me in Venice, California. The second is in the airport in HK. I am pretty sure I wore that dress for like three years! I also didn't have a chance to wash it, cause it was the thing I was wearing when we were doing laundry. Grosssssss.
So we got here at like five in the morning and the woke the hostel guys up cause we were under the impression that we could check in at any time. Hah! What? They stared at us like we were crazy and told us to come back at noon. So we hauled all our stuff onto the streets and found this restaurant. The above is the result of our attempts to order noodles and toast.
On the MTR, which is high in efficiency and low in suicide opportunities (doors close in front of the tracks when the train leaves). It's the best!
This is our hostel room inside the famous Chungking Mansions . It is amazing we survived our week long stay because apparently the place is a hub of crime and murder. I think this is an outdated notion, because my Dad stayed there in the 80's and said it was sketchy. Now it's mostly a bunch of curry places and annoying dudes who want to sell you imitation handbags. Anyway, the room is pretty nice (though incredibly small) but it was weird because we had NO windows at all. Which meant no natural lighting, which resulted in us sleeping for like 15 hours straight and having a hard time adjusting to the new timezone.
Bathroom! It's tiny. You can also see our sweet toothbrush holders.
Tom, somewhere near CKM.
Inside of a temple in Tsim Sha Tsui
Temple cat!
Kowloon park! The parks are beautiful and probably seem especially so because everything around them is concrete and skyscapers for miles. You forget how much you miss things like trees until you realize you haven't seen one for three hours. They're also filled with turtles. Baby turtles! You think you've seen the cutest turtle of all time and then one half it's size comes swimming up behind it.
Turtle cuteness is inversely proportioned to tininess!
By the aviary in the park.
Hedge maze!
Tom demands all the lollipops.
Public drinking! This is actually completely legal (he bought this at a 7-11), probably because no one really cares about alcohol here.
Our homeboys, Kitchee! They're a cute little underdog soccer team who we got to see play the more championed South China team, who grumpily started tripping and shoving our poor Kitchee around! It didn't matter, cause Kitchee won anyway and it was a totally awesome Mighty Ducks moment.
While we were looking for the soccer stadium, we found this community center where a dance competition was going on. I don't know who won or anything, but everyone was really good. Also, as you may have noticed, all the dudes in this picture are actually girls. Apparently actual girl and guy salsa dancing is too risque for 12 year olds (but the backless dresses are cool).
Shot from the harbor. One of these dudes probably made your camera.
Tom with some bamboo at the HK Botanical Gardens.
The world's most smug crocodile at the Botanical Gardens.
A typical restaurant/diner. I took this photo the first day we were here and did so because I thought it looked gross. Now I look at it and have a hard time deciding what I want for lunch.
The area we are staying now, Sham Shui Po. Everyone says it's the ghetto or something but I like it so much more than almost any other area of town we've been. Everyone is so friendly and genuine! The stores are weird (and cheap) and it doesn't feel like we're getting the tourist song and dance all the time.
Typical street market, probably in near our neighborhood.
Admiring Tom's fish at a Japanese place near our apartment. They took the entire fish (bones, skin, eyes, everything) fried it and put it on a plate. He said it was delicious!
Street vendors, which are all over our part of town. They're usually selling stuff like squid, curried fish balls, various meats we can't really identify.
Everything gets stuck on a stick, fried and drenched in sauce. People usually eat them leaning over the curb of the road so they're not covered in stuff after.
Yum!
Tom eating a Beard Papa Puff in Mong Kok. This area is usually packed with kids, especially at night.
Dragon Center, the mall near our place. Full of really inexpensive clothing and things to hang off your phone. Apparently it used to be the location of a POW camp?
I would probably buy more clothing here if I couldn't read english.
The awesome arcade in the Dragon Center. Sushi chopping!
In this game you touch the button when it says "touch". It's harder than it sounds?
So sometimes, we treat ourselves and head out to the fanciest restaurant in town which is, for real, Pizza Hut.
!?!?!??!!? They have escargot on the menu.
Tom's pizza had thousand island dressing instead of tomato sauce which was surprisingly (to me at least) delicious.
Pitcher plants at the flower market.
The cutest steamed buns ever.
At Victoria Peak! I think we were the first people ever to actually climb to the top. People aren't really down with walking here? We get horrified looks when we ask for directions and tell people we'd rather not take the MTR, if at all possible (to which they usually reply that the walk is impossible, cause the walk is a whole 25 minutes). Anyway, in true Hong Kong style, this place is a really pretty hill with a gigantic mall on top of it.
Tom eating an inside out (we melted them) lemon/grape Popsicle in our apartment.
Race track! Ponies are the only legal form of gambling here (besides slot machines) so everyone gets way into it.
Tom with his disgusting bag of salted crabs!
I can't wait to try one, obviously.
Adorable.
Bird market.
Baby parrots at the bird market. It was so hard for me not to birdnap them.
A tomb in Sham Shui Po! They found this place in the 50's, when they were digging up land to build apartments.
Buying cherries at a fruit stall.
We are going to Ocean Park today (a theme park/zoo thing) so you can soon expect nine billion pictures of Pandas to flood your flist!