3/2 Hong Kong Day1

3/2/2013: I had only booked for one night, and was pretty convinced that I'd move to a nicer spot the next night - especially in the morning after smelling cigarette smoke coming into my room somehow and hearing a dog bark non-stop for a couple of hours. I looked for other hotels nearby online but didn't find much, so I went to the front desk to ask about other rooms. They had a nicer one on the 10th floor, and they said they'd give it to me for the same price as my worse room after what had happened the night before (whatever that was that had happened, I'm still not sure). I agreed and it worked out.

Rosy and I had made arrangements to meet for brunch at 11am. She gave me detailed directions to Posto Pubblico in the SoHo area, so I left with plenty of time to spare and navigated the subway, then the crowded street, and then the "travelator," which is apparently the longest outdoor escalator in the world. Hong Kong, as far as I can tell, is built into the side of a very large, steep hill. I'm guessing that as the city got bigger, people built higher up onto the hill, so now there are San Francisco-steep hills and streets narrow enough for just a car and a half. The travelator appears to be a solution to the crazy steep hills. I met Rosy as we were both walking up to the restaurant and we had a good brunch. She invited me to head over to her house to meet her boyfriend, Andy, who had recently had a bad injury and was recovering from surgery. I went back to their place (we ran into Andy's mom Jenny along the way, who is in HK from England to help take care of Andy), and we hung out for a bit and Andy gave me some tips on outdoorsy things to do in HK. A few of Andy's friends came over to play some board games and keep him company, so I headed out to go explore Hong Kong.

I returned to my hostel to study up on the recommendations Andy had given me, then I went back outside and just started wandering. I was half-heartedly looking for some sandals and t-shirts (since I'd packed mostly cold-weather clothes for the trip), but mostly just taking in the sights. Hong Kong is an intimidating city with ultra-modern skyscrapers looming in every direction. I headed back west from my hostel in the Causeway Bay area, towards Central Station. I didn't really have a plan, I just wanted to take in this new city. I found myself back at the travelator, so I rode up it and decided I'd have a beer. I found a bar that had some soccer on (previously recorded, not live, since it was 9am in England), so I sat and watched some soccer and drank a couple of beers. After a while I decided to go find a place to eat, but I got tied up talking to the bartender, who also turned out to be the owner. She gave me a free beer and I sat back down and talked to her for a while. She recommended a street that had some random outdoor food vendors, so I went searching for it after finishing my free beer.

The street food was a few escalator segments downhill and seemed really popular. There were no open tables. I went up to the lady that appeared to be in charge and she led me to a small plastic patio table that was already occupied by a guy and pointed at the empty chair directly across from him. I asked him if it was ok if I joined him and he said it was fine. He turned out to be a Hong Kong native named Louis Yip and was obsessed with everything "Western" (not cowboys and rodeos, just Western hemisphere). Now retired, he had spent 20+ years working for an export company back when manufacturing was big in HK. He had learned English for his job, as well as a little German. He ordered a few dishes for me, and a beer, and we spent the next two hours talking about the Amish, origins of Western names, the history of Hangul script, and the history of Scotland. He could list all 50 states, and could tell me the origin of common Irish and German last names. He loves American movies and refuses to watch anything local. I hung out with him for so long (around 2 hours) that I missed Anna and Hector (the couple I'd met on the plane), who had agreed to meet up with me back at the bar where I'd been before dinner. I said goodbye to Louis and raced back up the travelator to Twist (the bar). Aruuna, the bar owner, told me I'd just missed Anna and Hector. Neither of us had working cell phones, so I couldn't call them. I sat down and talked to Aruuna for a while, as the bar was pretty quiet and she was bored. She was from Nepal, and has an 8 year old daughter and 5-month old twins. She showed me lots of pictures. She was pretty bored, so she took me around to her other bars (she has 3 total, and her husband runs a restaurant nearby). The first bar we went to was an art gallery/bar, and she had the bartended prepare me a tequila shot that I didn't ask for. Then we went across the street to her 3rd bar and I had a beer there. Then she got a call that the police were at Twist, so we walked back there to see what was going on. Apparently the door to the bar had been propped open and the police were hassling her about it, but she told me it was just racist police finding an excuse to pester her. We hung out until after the trains stopped running, so I caught a cab back to Causeway Bay and didn't get to sleep until around 2am. It was a fun night though - I hung out in one of the "whitest" parts of Hong Kong but managed to befriend a Hong Kong native (albeit a wannabe Westerner) and a Nepalese lady that fed me free drinks.