Kowloon, Hong Kong
After a 15 hour flight, with a lot of movie watching and not much sleeping, John and I have arrived! We landed late Monday night (1/15) and were so exhausted, but relieved to have arrived. After going through immigration, we parked ourselves at a bench in the baggage claim area and googled places to stay. We found a super affordable, highly rated inn just 30 minutes away from the airport.
We arrived at the Hi Inn located in Kowloon, which is a more authentic side of Hong Kong and less touristy. (Literally we’re the only white people in this area!) We opted for this area because its a lot cheaper per night and is a more authentic side of HK culture. After getting up to our room, we dropped our bags and passed out -- John on the top bunk and me on the bottom bunk. (The only private rooms available had bunk beds!)
Tuesday January 16:
We didn't have much planned for our first day, which was totally fine since we were both jet lagged and still exhausted from our flight. We just decided to walk around and explore our neighborhood of Kowloon and Mong Kok. Our inn is just off of Nathan Road, which is a popular and busy highway street that is lined up with shops, little family restaurants and....McDonalds. Yes McDonalds. John pointed out that at any one point, no matter where you are, you can turn to see a golden arch. And we’d be lying if we said we didn’t eat McDonalds on the first day.. Oops!
We walked all the way down Nathan Rd until we hit the water front. It was pretty humid out so unfortunately the view when looking out across the water was pretty hazy.
When I mentioned earlier that we're staying in a more authentic side, it was really just a polite way of saying "grungy". So one thing John and I agreed must be addressed when describing our experience so far is: the smells...just walking down the street you are instantly attacked by some sort of scent. The odor then follows you for only a few moments and then you are again instantly hit by some new foreign smell. Good bad good bad good bad worse good smell. In addition to these aromas, there's the pollution that adds to burn.
This is a photo I took of John standing by the water front. I made him pose a bunch while I had some fun with my DSLR.)
We walked around with our new masks on and totallly blended in! After admiring the view by the pier, we hung out at this cute cafe called Cafe+Kubrick. It had specialty coffees, cakes and cute hipster vibes. Inside there was a bookstore that had tons of interesting books and was also connected to a retro cinema house that played foreign films.
Our night ended walking back along Nathan Road to find a spot for dinner. Unfortunately, Johns meal wasn't so good....But I'm going to put together a post that has all the food we've eaten, so stay tuned for that! We had a really laid back first day and it was so fun just meandering around this new city and taking in all the new sites, people--and smells. We’re excited for the next few days in HK!!