Our 30-minute Qatar Airlines flight to Doha, Qatar, arrived without a hitch, save for watching young, spoiled Emerati brats annoy the helpful staff. We then narrowly made our connecting flight to Hong Kong, our gateway to the Far East.
Rain is non-existent in the Middle East, even rarer in the summer months. After seeing dry desert for so long, rain accompanied by lush, tropical vegetation was utterly refreshing, both metaphorically and literally speaking.
Prior to our arrival, I had been corresponding with Mike, a good friend of a friend of mine, a pilot and fellow West Islander, who had agreed to host us for a few nights.
Mike had come to meet us at Hong Kong station as we exited the train arriving from the airport. We then took a cab back to his place in Mid-Levels, a residential area halfway up the slope of Victoria Peak.
Mid-Levels is just above SoHo, or South of Hollywood road, another district known for bars and restaurants and apparently the early-evening hangout of all of Hong Kong's expat community. We hadn't seen this many white people since being back in Canada.
After dinner and a drink in SoHo, we went back to Mike's place for some rooftop beers and cigars before Josh and I called it a night.
Like in Lebanon, our first order of business was securing a Visa for our next destination, mainland China. Although rumored to be notoriously difficult to obtain, we merely handed in out passports, took a picture and gave the agent the required fees. She said it would be ready in 3 business days. That was easy, a little too easy...
Josh and I then made our way to the peak tram, operational since 1888, bringing passengers up to the top of Victoria Peak.
The tram was quite packed and surprisingly steep, but somehow still managed to get us up to the top of Hong Kong's tallest mountain, at a height of 392m (1286ft).
From the peak, we went to the Sky Terrace and enjoyed the view of one of the most stunning skylines in the world. The innumerable skyscrapers, rolling green hills and the beautiful waters of Victoria harbour make this a view like no other.
After a while of listening to the band and fighting off propositions from the prosties, we headed back to Mike's place.
Early that morning, Mike's friend Rob arrived to Hong Kong to stay and travel with Mike for 2 weeks. Coincidentally enough, I had actually met Rob in November of 2011 at the party of Jess, the friend who had put me in contact with Mike in the first place. Small world indeed!
To give more space to Rob; Josh and I moved to Chung King Mansions, across the harbour on the Kowloon peninsula, in the Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) district. Chung King Mansions has the distinction of being China's best representation of globalization, housing and employing people from over 100 countries. The complex also contains over 30 different budget accommodations. We chose the Taiwan Hotel for its cleanliness and positive reviews. As a bonus, Josh barely fit in the beds!
That evening we watched Symphony of Lights, a nightly laser-light show using all of Hong Kong's skyscrapers in an impressive and beautiful spectacle. We then met up with Mike and Rob for an amazing steak dinner and some partying in Wan Chai and LKF.
The benefit to staying in Kowloon is that you get to take the Star Ferry all the time to reach Hong Kong island. The ferry is a ridiculously cheap ride, providing amazing views of both sides of the harbour.
Our next day started out with some delicious Dim Sum before heading to Mongkok to visit the ladies market where fake wallets, belts, t-shirts and Beats by Dr Dre headphones among other things are sold.
After a hearty dinner of a Big Mac Trio (only 3$ in HK), Mike and Rob met us at Kowloon station. From there we met up with Dan, another Montrealer living in Hong Kong, and went to the rooftop of the Ritz-Carleton, located at the 118th floor of the ICC, the fifth tallest building in the world. Take that Dubai!
After far too many drinks, my ability to make conscious, rational decisions was gone and I ignored Josh for no apparent reason when he was heading back to our hotel . I then looked for Mike and Rob who were also nowhere to be found.
I then left and stumbled my way towards the harbour. By this point it was already 5am and the ferries would be starting up again in less than an hour. I stupidly decided to lie down on an elevated sidewalk and set my alarm for when the ferries were set to start. Unfortunately I overslept my alarm and woke up on that same sidewalk during peak rush hour on a Wednesday morning.
Talk about embarrassing!
I do realize that my mother reads this and I know it's incredibly stupid and careless and I am not proud, but it happened so I am including it.
To quell my shame, the four of us had decided to go to a man-spa complete with 2 saunas, both a hot and cold jacuzzi and a 45-minute massage to nurse our hangovers.
After the rejuvenating powers of the man-spa, Mike took us to Hong Kong's favourite pass-time: horse racing. Introduced to Hong Kong by the British 165 years ago, it is Hong Kong's only legal form of gambling and the weekly goto spot for every Caucasian in the Special Administrative Region.
From there we headed to Wan Chai for some post-horse racing partying. I think I figured it out: Mike was trying to kill us!
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