HK Remix

My mom and sisters left early in the morning for the Philippines, so I was going to spend the day seeing Hong Kong with my dad. We hopped onto the subway and headed to Sham Shui Po to see my dad's childhood home and stomping grounds. The HK subway system, much like Beijing and Tokyo, is pretty awesome. English signs are plentiful and it's very easy to get around. While much of HK continues to evolve with new skyscrapers and new businesses, etc., Sham Shui Po is relatively more forgotten. Upon emerging from the subway stop, one isn't met with gleaming Louis Vuitton shops or skyscrapping condos. In contrast, the markets here are less for tourists and more for everyday residents. The surrounding residential towers are jam packed with old dense housing. So dense in fact, the windows are covered with plastic to hide the reality that a single apartment is shared by multiple tenants. Nonetheless, life goes on. Customers such as my dad is right at home buying Chinese medicinal oil at the corner pharmacy while across the street, I look upon the neighborhood butcher selling cuts of roast pork (yummy!). As we criss-crossed Sham Shui Po, my dad pointed out memorable locations from his childhood and relayed the stories that accompanied them.

Photo of the street outside our hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. I wanted to take a photo of the bustling street during the day. See bottom of this post for the converse.

Hong Kong subway. Super clean, cool (Beijing- take note pls), and comfortable.

Sham Shui Po stop

Open air market immediately outside subway stop

Neighborhood butcher selling roast pork!

Examples of the many dense residential towers in Sham Shui Po.

Hobby store that my dad often frequented as a kid.

Alleyway where my dad and his brother, my Uncle Henry, would read comics while they waited to get haircuts from the neighborhood barber.

My dad's childhood home (on the second floor). The window with the yellow paint is the living quarters while the far left window was my grandpa's office window. No one was home at the time, so we couldn't go up and see the place.

Some decent-tasting herbal concoction sold throughout Sham Shui Po.

One of several pawn shops seen in the area. Notice the interesting saloon-style doors that would conceal embarrassed patrons.

Another roast pork photo. (Yes, I like the stuff very much.) You don't see a hanging pig everyday.

Dad's childhood elementary school

One of HK's first public housing complexes. There's an initiative underway to restore these buildings to retain their historical significance while repurposing their function.

Hospital where my grandfather passed away.

It was a sweltering day and we had walked quite a bit by lunch time. At this point, I had been in HK for nearly 48 hours, but I still had not had dim sum! What a tragedy. We remedied that by having dim sum inside a large mall in the Sham Shui Po area. It was just the two of us, so no massive spread, but still awesome to have had dim sum in Hong Kong! Of course, a blog update wouldn't be complete without some food photos:

Soy chicken

Beef hor fan

Har gow

After dim sum, my dad and I split up for a few hours while he went to a travel agency to confirm plans for when he and my mom would visit Shanghai. After the Philippines, me and my sisters would head back to the US while mom and dad would stay in Asia a little longer. I took the opportunity to visit Mongkok's sneaker street to look for some unique Nikes. I had already been eyeing a pair from my visit the prior day. Without fail, I bought a pair.

Air Max 90 Fuse in Solar Red (yes, they are very bright)

The rest of the evening, me and my dad saw more iconic Hong Kong locations. It was dusk, so we made a beeline to the harbor to take the ferry across the harbor from the Kowloon side to the HK island side. It's probably the most touristy thing one can do in HK, but it was pretty awesome nonetheless. For the price of a subway ticket, the ferry is a nice 10-min ride that gives great views of the HK skyline. The cool evening breeze and amazing colors from the setting sun made it even better.

After visiting a Nike store in Causeway Bay, we boarded a double decker tram that slowly traverses the Central district. With the evening underway, it was an awesome way to see Hong Kong's buildings and businesses come alive at night. Because it was a Sunday, the masses of Filipina maids and housekeepers that make the Central district their playground on their day off were in full force. Tagalog conversation was continually in the air and it was cool to understand bits and pieces of it. Dinner was at Lan Kwai Fong followed by beers at a bar while my dad shared more stories of growing up with my aunts and uncles. Before heading home for the night, we passed by Temple Street, famous for its open air market and collection of plain odd things: Chinese opera singing in public and an entire street filled with fortune tellers.

Nike NSW store in Causeway Bay

Riding the double decker tram is a perfect way to see the Central area of HK.

Temple Street night market

Fortune tellers at Temple Street

Same photo of street outside hotel, but at night.

To say I liked Hong Kong would be a gross understatement. While my visit was short and sweet, it was awesome! What I thought would just be another big city turned out to be my favorite Asia city. Maybe favorite all-time city. It looks to have the best of everything. Modern life luxuries; beaches and nature within reach; family nostalgia, kick-ass mass transit, and the best Chinese food anywhere. What more could one want? I could totally live here or at the very least, visit more often!

Next stop: the Philippines!