Hello Hong Kong

7:55am looking over Hong Kong, the view of tall buildings, water, and incredible mountains. As we descended from the clouds, we landed among a lot more greenery than I was expecting. After picking up our baggage and passing immigration, we were met at the arrival gates by our sponsor, Maggie, and her husband, Sash. They then drove us to our new apartment, which was around half and hour’s drive from the airport. Both Jack and I were already feeling the jet lag, with just around 8 hours sleep between us, over the last two days. Luckily, the blast of freezing air from the car air con, was enough to keep us alert for the journey.

Maggie mentioned on the walk to our living complex, that we would unfortunately have a different apartment to the one in which she emailed us images of. We were meant to have two bedrooms, one each, although only had one. The kitchen and bathroom were also a lot smaller, but the living and dinning areas made up for this. She explained that we were the only couple out of the group, and that everyone else would require their own room, hence why we only had the one bedroom to share. This wasn’t an issue for us. We were not expecting a palace, and are more than happy with our delightful quaint apartment.

After dropping off our luggage, and a quick tour of our complex, we made our way into town on the metro. It is relevantly cheap and easy to get around the city using the metro, and definitely the best mode of transport. I’m sure there are so many words I could use to describe my first impressions of Hong Kong, but to sum them all up, I would have to say speechless! The humidity was overwhelming, the smells were intense, and the sights were incredible. Hong Kong is extremely diverse; there is so much to take in. As we walked through the concrete jungle, we were bombarded by an overload of Chinese advertisements and signs, masking the buildings, like colourful decorations. The street stalls spilled out onto the road, selling an array of treasures. The aroma of fish, and stinky tofu, lingered under my nose as we walked past the multitude of corner food stalls. The closest place I can think of that has similar characteristics to Hong Kong, would be New York. The atmosphere is quite similar, but there are so much more to take in from a westerner’s point of view, here in Hong Kong. Maggie and Sash took us to a restaurant for food, which was a great opportunity to brush up on my chop stick skills, and learn from an expert. The menu was in Cantonese, so Maggie translated some of her recommendations. A lot of the food we ordered was very slimy and doughy, something unlike I’d ever tasted before. The waitress than brought out a whole peaking duck (not for the squeamish), cooked and marinated. The duck was then calved by our waitress and we made duck pan cakes. I had tried duck before, but never liked it, although the duck we had that day was yummy!

After we had finished eating, we hit the streets in search of sim cards, a wireless router, and Internet package. The Internet package here was pretty much the same cost as back home, and as our phones were unblocked, we only needed to buy cheap sim cards in order to keep in contact with everyone. With all that business sorted out, Maggie and Sash took us to an electrical market, which was in an arcade. We were amazed by many different varieties of electrical related items that they sold, but even more amazed by the costs! After a lot of price comparing, we found a found a wireless router, just like the one Jack had back home, only half the price!

We headed back to our new home, after a long day and a lot of walking around town. It was a relief to know we had the most important thing set up; a connection with the rest of the world.

The atmosphere of the city is incredible, there are many words to describe the place, but this is a place you need to experience for yourself.