Discoverin' as Tourists

Two local students (Alex and Jack) took our suite around Central one day, and the day after Alex and I went to Discovery Bay together!

So a few weeks ago, Emily got invited to bring some friends for a student-lead tour of Central, the main city area. I was so happy to tag along!

"Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come."

We explored several areas of the city, and the first was the Maritime Museum next to the piers. It was pretty cool but after an hour or so everyone was sharing the same thought: okay, we've seen enough boats for one day😂

We walked around Tsim Sha Tsui and enjoyed the classical music that's played along the avenue of stars as we walked towards the Star Ferry (the Star Ferry takes you from the New Territories area to Hong Kong island, where Central is). For some reason we started calling Tsim Sha Tsui TST since it's easier to say, so if I refer to it as TST that's what I mean! TST is pretty boujie, as you can see even from the outside of the K11 Musea, a huge shopping mall.

Once we got off the ferry, we took a "ding ding" (the tram) towards some shops in Central. We checked out the antiques on Hollywood Road and also popped in some fabric shop. The antiques ranged from old swords to baseball cards, from old keys to traditional Chinese decorations.

We ate at a super local place for lunch, one of the "cooked food centers." Emily, Anna, and I split like four things: fried rice, sweet and sour shrimp, green beans, and some noodles. It was delicious and the guy even threw in a free iced lemon tea for me since I wasn't gonna buy one : ) After lunch, we stopped in the Man Mo temple (the first picture on this post). Sooo much incense and smoke in there! It was super ornate and the reds and golds were so rich. Then we walked to PMQ and checked out the shops there, which are super Western. It's funny, you could come back from Hong Kong with sunglasses from a French company or perfume from New Zealand. There was a poster art exhibit that we stayed at for a while, which was really fun! Since Warhol was one of the top artists featured, they had a DIY craft station where you could design your own artwork with stamps and markers. Some of the posters were cool, some didn't make much sense to me since they were from all around in the world and thus in different languages, and some were just weird or even creepy. There was one that showed a person's smile, except their teeth were made out of burnt cigarettes, to portray the dangers of smoking.

After we finished looking at everything, we went back to TST and tried a Korean place on Kimberly Road (where George and I had K bbq) for dinner. I got the bimimbop😍Since I ordered it in the clay pot, the rice and veggies would get crispy on the bottom as they kept cooking in the steaming bowl.

Overall, it was super fun being under the tour guide of some local students! It's funny tho because at some points we knew the directions better than our guides😂😂 They informed us that most CUHK students spend their time studying or with their friends closer to campus, since it takes an hour to get to Central. But, when on exchange...we go everywhere haha.

I asked Alex what he was doing the next day and he had no plans, so he joined me on my adventure to Discovery Bay! This was like two days after we both finished the Hong Kong Trail (50km//30mile hike) so we wanted a chill day!! I woke up early, did a quick workout, then we took the MTR to Central and hopped on the ferry to Discovery Bay. It's actually part of Lantau Island, and it's a residential area. Many Westerners live there, and now I see why--it kinda doesn't feel like Hong Kong!

I loved it immediately! The relaxing, beach, chill vibe is exactly what we needed after hiking all day and after exploring Central the day before. We a Shanghainese restaurant, which took a bit to find since most of the food was Italian, American, or other some other type of Western cuisine. I got my fave: xiao long bao (soup dumplings)! We also ordered the really yummy green beans with meat (when I get back to the US I'm gonna make some!)

We walked around the island, strolled through the big neighborhoods, and threw football on the beach. We found a playground and we were able to go on the swings for a bit even tho they're for kids😂 Three things I'll always love from my childhood no matter how old I get: 1) mac and cheese, 2) blankets, and 3) SWINGS!!

We asked a few teens on the beach if they knew of any boats we could rent, and they just replied in their Australian accents, "I have no idea." We saw some ladies harvesting oysters along the shore which was interesting to watch.

There were so many little kids running around, it was adorable! They had their aunties/nannies babysitting them during the day while their parents are most likely at work in the city.

I got Alex on that kombucha kick once I let him try it--they have a Slowood here!!!! Love that store so much now!

We took the ferry back after walking around and relaxing some more, a lazy afternoon, then met up with Emily, Anna, and Udhay for his birthday dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Central. I wasn't too hungry since we snacked quite a bit on the island, so I ordered a teriyaki chicken and shishito skewer and a green papya salad, both of which were great! Anna got the rice, beef, and soft boiled egg for her meal. We also tried mojitos, my first time! I loved it:)

After dinner, Udhay took us to a dessert cafe where they make the food look cute and there's a little song you have to sing every time they bring over a new food/drink to your table. The cheesecake was average, and I tried a bite of Emily's chocolate croissant, which was yummy. The day before, Jack's answer to all of our questions of how does is food taste was that it is "pretty okay," so I'd say that the dessert was pretty okay😂😂

xoxo