See What Tim Is Doing: Screw sightseeing…lets get drunk! Hong Kong (August 10

The overnight bus from Yangshou to Shenzen was great, I slept nearly the whole way so I arrived semi fresh and ready to get into Hong Kong. I followed the sea of people and made my way to the border crossings, first passing through China and then into Hong Kong, which was relatively quick and painless. Next mission was navigating my way to Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island, which again, was pretty easy. Several train changes but the Hong Kong MTR is extremely user friendly, and I was in Wan Chai ready to see Wooders!

I met up with Wooders and went and had some breakfast (Hong Kong noodles) and we chilled and caught up on the last few years, and then he had to go back to work for a few hours, so I jumped in the van with him and he dropped me at a shopping centre so I could shop and explore until he got back home later. So my day was spent cruising around Hong Kong, doing some shopping at malls and markets and wandered around the crazy streets.

Then came night time and the carnage of my first night in Hong Kong. Few beers at the apartment to prepare, and then a short walk from Josh’s place to an area kind of like Kings Cross, a red light style district with clubs and pubs everywhere. I met a few of Josh’s friends and we drank and partied with them all night, visited a few places, some nice, some pretty dingy but still as equally enjoyable, but one things for sure, we put away some booze!

On the 4am walk home, it got back to 16 year old youth antics, riding trolleys, lying on piles of boxes and having them all give way and end up face down on the street, adopting a street sign and taking it home and who knows what else. So, successful first night in Hong Kong, with an amazing hangover the next day!

Another noodle breakfast (wasn’t sure how I felt about noodles for breakfast before Hong Kong, but now I love them!) and Josh took me on a ferry over the harbour and showed my around the areas of Hong Kong for the afternoon and found some more markets. We chilled here and ended up getting some dinner at a little street side restaurant where the seating is all on the street. The food was epic, prawns, vegetables, oyster pancake (amazing!) and loads of tasty treats!

Friday was a bit of a day of doing a few bits and pieces while Josh was working, had to post some bits and pieces and get organised. So that was my exciting morning. Then after lunch Jeremy came and got me and took me to a few markets, for a feed of Hong Kong street meat that was amazing, and then we saw the new Harry Potter movie. The cinema itself was really cool as well, less then 50 seats and each chair was like a giant couch! Then headed back to the apartment to get ready for a feed with some friends of Josh’s at Mr Wong’s, a little restaurant where you sit in a little alley at the side of the restaurant/kitchen on fold up tables and plastic chairs, and where you pay £5 for all you can eat and drink. The food isn’t mind blowing amazing, but its still pretty good and I had no trouble stuffing myself and drinking some beers. Also learnt a very valuable life lesson, how to open a beer using a chopstick.

Saturday and possibly the most fun day I have had of my trip so far. It started early, leaving the apartment and on a bus by 830am, lucky we were semi controlled on the all you can drink the previous night. Arrived at our destination, a dock on the other side of Hong Kong waiting for our boat. 930am and it was already 30+.

The boat arrives and around 25-30 people (70% Chinese/Hong Kong 30% western) get on board and we set sail for somewhere quiet and clean and about an hour later (and technically in Chinese waters) we stopped, drop anchor and get ready for a day of swimming, throwing ourselves off the top of the boat, wakeboarding and of course, some drinking. All of this is included when you pay for the ‘junk boat’, all the booze you can drink, all the food you can eat and all boating activities.

It was a good day! The day literally consisted of the above things for about 10 hours! The food was good, the beer was cold and the wakeboarding was epic fun. Josh doing a backflip off the top of the boat in a weird blow up tube was a hilarious site to see, me attempting some sort of spin, flip manoeuvre on the wakeboard that didn’t quite go to plan was apparently an interesting thing to see as well. All in all it was such a fun day and the people one the boat (95% we didn’t know) were great fun to hang out with. This was the last kind of thing I was expecting to do in Hong Kong, jump on a boat, cruise out to a little bay that had no one around or a building in site, rolling green mountains and to spend the day drinking in the sun on the boat.

That wasn’t the end of the day though, we arrived back to the apartment around 9pm had showers, another beer and then got ready to head to Lan Kwai Fong an area full of pubs, clubs and people! We met up Craig and Ramona, who I met in Jiuzhaigou, and headed to one of the bars where straight up was a round of potent jelly shots and a beer chaser. The night followed much of the same pattern, drinking, talking, bit of dancing and also meeting more random people, Hong Kong locals and people abroad. The night didn’t get too out of hand, we were still merry but the hangover the next day was not too paralysing.

Just as quickly as it had started, my time in Hong Kong was already near an end, and I was on my last day. What better way to start the day then to fill our slightly seedy stomachs with some Yum Cha! We ordered a lot, including chicken feet which Josh said I had to try, but lucky for me they never turned up, which was probably a good thing as we struggling to finish the mountain of food we had!

Stomachs full, the next part of the hangover cure, a trip to the beach. Yep, Hong Kong has proper beaches, I didn’t expect this but it was a welcome surprise. We arrived at the beach, got ourselves an umbrella and got set up amongst the hundreds of other beach goers. The beach was pretty nice, rather clean considering how close it was to the city centre, nice hills and mountains around and most of all refreshing water and warm sand. There was BBQ set ups with BBQ’d meats and corn readily available, ice creams, drinks and surf boards (although there was no surf) all just as easy to get your hands on. Hours went by and we swam, slept, ate and just chilled in the sun. It was a great, relaxing finish to the alcohol fuelled 5 days! Hong Kong is a wicked city! Really, really liked it! Has a little something for everyone!

A big thanks to Josh as well, the kid knows how to show you a good time! Looked after me, showed me around and was a wicked host! Thanks mate and see you back in Sydney at Christmas time.

Things learnt in Hong Kong

• None of the buildings have floors containing the number 4 (eg 4,14, 24 etc) as the word for 4 means death

• How to open a beer with a chopstick