exploration journal

Hong Kong diaries – 1

 

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I am on the plane to Vientiane, Lao.
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I spent 5 days in Hong Kong.

I wanted to spend a month in an Asian capital and had decided that it would be Seoul.
Then I knew I would join friends for a trip in Lao. Hong Kong was on the way from Seoul to Lao. I thought it would be fantastic to stop there for a few days. I did not know the city and I felt quite curious and attracted by it.
Paul, a friend from highschool who I would see once a year at our Wine & cheese gathering event, had been living there for 5 years. I asked him if he would agree to welcome me for a few days. He accepted, telling me : if you are not afraid of sleeping on a mattress in the living-room, no problem – apartments are very small in HK because there is little space, demand is very high and rents are therefore extremely expensive.
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So I landed in HK 5 days ago.

It was a really strange moment because I felt still « into » my Seoul experience, as if I was not totally ready to go to the next step.
« Now I am in Hong Kong », I repeated to myself.
It is the first time I travel this way. Usually, I go somewhere and then come back to Paris.
Paul had told me which bus I should take and I had my first encounter with a HongKongese on the bus : the wifi did not work (yes, there is wifi on the Airport bus…) and I had to tell Paul that I was on my way. So this 60 years-old Hong Kong lady who was coming back from China kindly accepted to lend me her cell phone.
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What I saw through the windows of the bus was totally astonishing !!

An enormous industrial hub-harbour, the sea all around, thick vegetation, endless bridges, towers, mountains, social housing buildings (HK version – very new !), huge roads…
It was hard to believe that I was here, seing what I was seeing.
I expected and imagined a quite rich and clean and organized city with business towers and the sea and mountains. I pictured an homogenous finance hub.

It is part of it. But I discovered that HK was indefinitely much more.

I arrived at my bus stop and Paul had come to pick me up. He lives in Wan Chai, on HK Island.
Seoul => Hong Kong. It seemed that I had arrived on a new planet !
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I was charmed immediately.
But I would not bring my grandmother here !
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The city is full of a kind of fluid and organic chaos.

Intense permanent sollicitation. Cars, buses, bikes, pedestrians rushing in all directions. The noise of the traffic and shops. Neons of the shops. Shops everywhere, all around. Modern shops. Small stands. Chains that you see everywhere (7eleven, K Circle). Firelights that make noise according to the color of the light. Striking colors. Busy busy streets. Speed and restlessness.
It is a mess ! But I loved it.
Being new here, I felt totally fascinated because there if a form of life that never stops. There was so much to observe and wonder at all around me.
And it seems that it never stops. Many shops are open 24h a day.
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There is such an energy in this city !

And it is really cosmopolitan and international city compared to Seoul where the population was much more homogenous. There are a lot of Westerners. HK being a melting pot, I was almost an insider (while in Seoul you are regularly reminded that you don’t belong here).
We went out for dinner with Paul, his girlfriend Viviane (who is HongKongese) and his flatmate Arnaud. They brought me to a small sushi shop that had a table on the sidewalk.
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They ordered an assortment of varied sushis and it was delicious !
Then we jumped in a cab and tey brought me to a French theatre improvisation show which was so good. We laughed a lot. I loved it.
We came back home getting on a tram. No windows, they go fast, the fresh night wind blows in your hair… Magic.
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And so my Hong Kong experience started.

I appreciated so much arriving in a place where I was expected and warmly welcome and taken care of ! I felt I had a « local » family for a few days.
They helped me a lot to get started, giving me a guide of the city, buying with me a local SIM card so that I could have a local phone number and the wifi everywhere (it is really cheap), showing me how public transportation worked and giving me advice. I felt that they were like my harbour, and it was great to see them at night, sharing about our day !
I must say that having the wifi on my smartphone all the time really helped me : I could find any information I needed whenever I needed it, look for adresses, look at the map and use the GPS to know how to get there. Technology empowerment AND dependance. But I can tell my sense of directions is really getting better !
By the way (I feel that I am totally unstructured in the way I am writing ! But travel is not structured, right ?), in HK there is something very convenient called the «  Octopus card » : it is a card that you charge with your credit card and then that you can use almost everywhere to pay : metro, supermarket and shops, bus, ferry, tram…
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I had no particular expectations nor objectives concerning my stay in HK.

So it was relaxing. I was here to discover and enjoy.
On the first day we went for a hike in the mountain – there are mountains very close from the city. In HK people hike a lot during their free time. You can also go to the beach.
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The next days I visited the city and worked, read and wrote in cafés. I met entrepreneurs, even if that was not really planned.
After 2 days I had experienced all the city transportation means : bus, taxi, tram, ferry, minibus, metro.
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I really loved taking the tram and the ferry. The metro is also very easy to use.
I walked a lot. I opened my eyes and ears. I was careful when crossing the streets. It is amazing to discover the varied neighborhoods – they are very different.
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The weather at this season is really great. Like summer, and there is shade thanks to the high buildings.
I was always carrying a cardigan and a scarf in my bag : whenever I would go « inside », I was freezing !
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Everything was vertical there.

In Asian capitals, there are shops and restaurants all around you. Not only on the ground floor. It is extremely common to find a hairdresser or a beauty salon at the 5th floor of a building and a restaurant in the basement. You take the habit of looking up and down.
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Sometimes the streets were no longer streets.

I had the feeling to be in a futurist video-game. It was as if I had to learn and find my way through a new kind of architecture : there are several floors of city in the same place, it seems that there are streets, bridges and roads tangled and intricated. Some streets are so big and with endless traffic that you can only cross them through a footbridge (passerelle). A real maze !
What is striking is the contrasts between huge modern and small old infrastructures. It seems that several worlds, several times coexist in a never-ending hustle and bustle.
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All taxis look the same and they are everywhere. Uber only has a high-end offer here and they are not so common.
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I also expected that everything would be expensive but it is not the case (except accommodation/rents). You can have a good dinner for 6-10$ for example.

To be continued… see next article !

Une réflexion au sujet de « Hong Kong diaries – 1 »

  1. Bonjour Julia,
    Samedi, nous avons partagé un délicieux moment avec tes parents et j’ai été informée de ton super projet par ta maman qui m’a donné l’adresse de ton lien . C’est pourquoi je prends, en chemin, le reportage de ce magnifique voyage plein de promesses que tu as mûri et entrepris.
    Sa richesse m’a enthousiasmée tout de suite ! Je suis très touchée et convaincue par les motivations de ton engagement.
    Si tu le permets, je vais suivre ton périple avec un grand intérêt.
    Quel plaisir de te lire ! Tu sais décrire avec une telle simplicité et humilité tes émotions, les gens, les paysages…
    Je te souhaite bon vent ! Gardes tes sens en éveil, ce voyage est unique et merveilleux !
    Prends bien soin de toi !
    Bises. Pascale

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