I ♥ HK

After nearly six months in the PRC, three days in Hong Kong was a blissful vacation from bad manners, incessant cigarette smoke, cold weather, questionable food and toxic pollution. Hong Kong is China at its best, a happy medium of Eastern and Western cultures. If I ever get the urge to move back to Asia, this is the only place that would cut it.

Buffin and I were able to jumpstart the re-Westernization process during our trip, but were a little frightened by how unfamiliar some things seemed. No pushing and shoving on the metro? Huh? Sniff, sniff. So this is what fresh air smells like? Wait. Where are all the crazy people yelling in Chinese? But the most glaring reminder that I’ve been in China too long came when we were eating lunch at a café in downtown HK and I got minor whiplash from ogling any semi-attractive white man that walked by. I can’t decide if I’m more concerned for myself or for the entire male population of Houston come February 6.

Buffin and I headed south for our last Chinese adventure after our final day of teaching (yippee!) on Sunday. We arrived at the Chungking Mansion (a massive building filled with budget hostels) and it was sketchy, to put it mildly. But, our hostel, The Maple Leaf, was clean and the manager was super friendly. We dropped off our bags in our shoebox of a room and set out to explore the city.

Buffin and I ranked our list of to-dos and decided to head to the Victoria Peak Tram to get a bird’s eye look at HK. Once we reached the top, we had an amazing 360° view of both Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. The skyline isn’t as trippy as Shanghai’s, but it has some amazing architecture nonetheless. For the majority of the early afternoon, we wandered around Hong Kong Island, soaking up our surroundings and crossing things off the list. St. John’s Cathedral? Check. Observation floor inside the Bank of China Tower? Check. One neighborhood we came across, called SoHo, was filled with cute boutiques and cafes, all with a dash of British flair. Right up my alley.

Back on the Kowloon side of the harbor, Buff and I popped into The Peninsula for afternoon tea, a must-do activity in Hong Kong. We indulged in decadent double chocolate truffle cake and sipped chrysanthemum tea, all the while surrounded by Chopard, Rolex, Cartier, Louis Vuitton and a host of other luxury stores all located in the lobby. It was a really unique experience, albeit touristy.

After rambling through Kowloon Park to kill some time (which turned out to be a happy case of serendipity when the sun set beautifully over the rose garden), we headed to the Avenue of Stars, the Chinese equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We only recognized a handful of names (Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat and Jet Li), but it was a great place to grab a seat to watch the Symphony of Light, a nightly light and laser show across the harbor, which was set to music – very cheesetastic.

The next morning, we took a ferry over to Macau, which is half Portuguese in the way that HK is half British. We started out in the Largo de Senado, which had the air of a town’s square and was especially charming with its black-and-white mosaic pathways. Wandering through the winding, cobblestone roads, we made our way toward the Ruins of St. Paul’s Church. Only the façade is left of the once grandiose house of worship; several fires destroyed the rest. The singular wall seems almost like a piece of abstract art, standing there all alone.

Then we stopped by Fort Monte, which sits on a hill adjacent to St. Paul’s. Even though our Lonely Planet guidebook desperately wanted us to visit the Macau Museum at the top of the old military fort, we resisted. One more museum and I think I will vomit from history overload. Following a quick bite at a tapas restaurant, we made our way from “old” Macau to the bright lights of the casinos, stopping in both The Grand Lisboa and The Wynn for good measure. With grey skies closing in on us, we decided it was best to head back to Hong Kong.

A short ferry ride later, we were back on HK Island. We took The Mid-Levels Escalator (the longest in the world!) from Central back to my favorite area of Hong Kong, SoHo, for dinner at an adorable little restaurant called Life. The all-organic, mainly vegetarian menu fit the bill. Fresh hummus, warm pita bread, pesto pizza and the best sauvignon blanc I’ve ever tasted (we wrote down the name – I hope we can track it down in The States). A place like that would make a killing in Montrose.

On our last morning in Hong Kong we attempted to have dim sum for brunch, but the restaurant hadn’t opened yet and we were famished. Buff and I ended up back in the same enclave of cafes where I had to physically stop myself from staring at men on our first day in town. Luckily, Hong Kong seemed to have worked its magic on me because I could now behave like a normal human being. I think that means I’m officially ready to be released back into the Western world. America, here I come.