Hong Kong Day 1: Or What Was Supposed to be a Beach Day

Sunday, January 19^th, 2014

On my first full day in Hong Kong, I woke up around 11am, had an awkward brunch with my host, and left. I walked around for an hour or so trying to find the metro, which was a laughable effort considering how maze-like Sha Tin and Newtown Plazas are. Along the way I found an indoor market full of meat, fish, produce, and clothes. I bought turmeric and instant curry seasoning packets, neither of which I have seen yet in Taichung. While wandering around I ended up in “Snoopy’s World”, and then I found a public library, which was wonderful. I haven’t been a library since Ramla.

A bit later I finally found the train station and bought an Octopus Card (used for public transit and apparently accepted at a lot of stores) so that Saturday night’s transportation SNAFU wouldn’t happen again. Note: This card is AMAZING. If you go to Hong Kong and plan to use any form of public transportation, get one.

It took me getting off at an incorrect stop to realize that there were no wrong moves on this trip. Having no plans or real limitations was freeing.

I went to the Avenue of Stars but skipped it in favor of hanging out on a balcony overlooking the Harbour. A guy started up a conversation with me over my Kindle (I am the WORST when it comes to small talk), and was confused by my name—Becca is tough outside of North America. He (as most people are) was surprised by how old I am, because he assumed I was in high school—which didn’t stop him from approaching me and striking up a conversation even though he graduated either from high school or university four years ago and thought I was between 14 and 18 years old. Not sure how to feel about that.

Later I bought a keychain (two dolls, pretty cute) from a woman to support the deaf-mute community. Also, there was an outdoor concert going on the whole time I was by the water. It was lovely to read with music in the background. Soon after that I relocated to the steps of a loading dock, where I was peacefully reading when two guys asked to get their pictures taken with me…People are strange.

By this point I was tired and ready to get to my second Couch Surfing host, so I walked to Harbour City (a big mall), thinking that the metro station was inside. On the way there I saw what appeared to be a harpist convention, and leading up to Harbour City was a walkway full of pink lanterns.

The Trek to the Second Host

After wandering through Harbour City for a while, I found the station I meant to go to, then took MTR to the station I thought I was supposed to go to. I walked for an indeterminate amount of time, then tried to hail a cab. Fifteen passed me by, and these were just the cabs with their lights on. Others didn’t know where I was trying to go, so I walked a bit more (by now I was backtracking, but on the other side of the road).

With no phone battery life left, I wandered from place to place (mainly restaurants, with a brief stint in a jockey club), trying to find one with an outlet they would let me use. I ended up at an apartment building undergoing construction because I thought it was the building I was supposed to go to. Kindly construction workers worked around me while I stood in a counter next to the outlet and waited for my phone to charge. They then pointed me in the right direction—back to the side of the street that I was originally on. The residents of the building filtered in and out, and only smiled when they saw me (thankfully no one got upset or kicked me out of the spot).

After crossing the street, I asked two more people for directions, and came to the conclusion that everyone is useless, at least with directions. The first person sent me down the wrong road, and the second person told me to go back down that road and turn left. I ignored the “turn left” and turned right instead, and FINALLY found my host’s building. Following a slight struggle with getting inside the building (not due to anything I had done, for once), I met my host—a happy ending!