Marshes, Munching, & Movies

Wanted to catch you up on two of my buddy dates from last week!

"Leave the road, take the trails."

The track and fields opened up so I started my morning with a nice track workout under the sunshine!! So happy :)

A while back I got dinner with Nicholas, a senior at CUHK. I met him in Mongkok and we had Japanese bento then sat in a park and chatted. We talked so much about food that we ended up getting dessert too, and our "dinner" led into a whole night of exploring the city. Turns out, Mongkok literally translates to "crowded corner!" Anyways, he told me that Yuen Long has some cool nature areas, and since it was on the pink line for the metro, I remembered that. Flash forward and Tanisha and I are on the MTR ready to go on our buddy date. She was cool with me picking the place, so I said why not check out Yuen Long? We stopped at a pizza place for lunch and I had smoked salmon and then a pizza. The ginger tea they served was great too. It was basically Pizza Press but in Hong Kong😂

After we ate, we went on a nice walk around the area. The weather was amazing out, sunny and a light breeze was blowing through our hair. This area felt like nothing I've seen in Hong Kong yet--mountains all around, and it was less than two hours away from campus. We got a little lost and ended up walking in a few circles but it only enhanced our sense of adventure. My buddy dates always end up being adventurous:) I still don't have a sim card for my phone, and everyone roasts me but at this point it's kinda a fun challenge, like I'm prepping for the Amazing Race to not rely on my phone for directions. Next we took one of the Public Light Buses (yay!! I've been wanting to go on one so bad) as far as it could go. Sitting behind the driver felt like I was in a race car since it's a stick shift. Other Globers have told me that these buses are hard to navigate as a foreigner since it's hard to let the driver know when to stop if you don't know Cantonese. Honestly it was so easy for us😂 We ended up at a spot we found on All Trails website (I use this to find running routes back in the states).

It was so so pretty!! A marsh surrounded by mountains and skyscrapers in the distance. I wish I could have recorded the sounds of the birds chirping, the tall grass rustling beside us, the crunch of our steps on the dirt path. and the water lapping up against the rocks. I felt like we stumbled upon our own little paradise in the middle of a city known as the concrete jungle.

My favorite part was how remote and random the whole thing was---it was like a hike, but we were on flat ground. Tanisha and I had some great conversations while we were walking around, and then we spotted some agriculture.

I thought they were bananas and mangos but they're actually plantains and papayas!! I *may* have grabbed one of each 👀

There were a bunch of other plants too but we didn't want to disturb their vegetation so we kept walking. This trail was supposed to be a loop that connects to a World Wildlife Fund protected wetland area, but we couldn't find it by this trail. We instead ended up having to face the scariest part of Hong Kong: walking on a path that, on either side, consisted of guard dogs barking loudly at us and pulling at their chains from the fence. It was legit the most uncomfortable I've felt in all of Hong Kong! We kept walking and realized it was a dead end, and then turned around to see a guy smiling and reading a newspaper while walking past the dogs, giving us a thumbs up like yall got this. If he can do it, we got this! So we got out of our comfort zones yet again and quickly passed the dogs, then walked back the way we came. We were going to find another marsh but it turned out we had to go through a country club with our ID and only I had brought my passport, so we ended up just walking around again. We took another light bus back to where we started, looked around in the mall, and ended up eating at a Shanghainese place for dinner. The food was soooo gooooood!! I realized that Shanghainese food (and any dim sum!!) is probably my favorite food in Hong Kong. It cracks me up because before I even started eating (my chopsticks were about to dig into the food), the lady came over and asked if I needed a fork. I was like "nah I'm okay, thanks!" and then she went and got a fork and I shook my head and laughed. When I picked up my dumpling with my chopsticks she motioned for me to dip it in the sauce, and I couldn't help but giggle at how she thought this was my first rodeo. Tanisha and I found it so funny because this was like my millionth time using chopsticks and eating shaolongbao at this point hahaha.

Phone at last for this meal😂 The green beans were my favorite--they had some pork and a ton of spice on them, which made it such a great side! When we got back to campus we went to sleep reaaal quick after a long day of fun!

~

Next is my buddy date with Allison! I texted her "hey do you wanna go on an adventure??" and she goes, "idk about an adventure but how about watching Wonder Woman 1984?"😂

I started my day with a nice long run, then grabbed a few star fruit for breakfast from the tree on campus ;)

Scrambled eggs with peppers and tomatoes, plus starfruit and tea :)

My buddy date with Allison was a lot more relaxing--we went to the movies and enjoyed watching the sequel. It was pretty good! I asked for her real thoughts and opinions and we died laughing at some of her comments--Allison has a great way of telling it like it is, which I love so much. Because of covid, we couldn't eat in the movie theatre so we had to eat our free popcorn after the movie🤪 We chatted and got burgers for lunch after me being too indecisive. I think I went from "let's get Asian food" to munching on popcorn thinking "a milkshake sure does sound good!"😂 After lunch we went to Cotton On, an Australian clothing store. We spent hours there!! I went a little crazy and went all out with some new jean shorts, bathing suit, shirts, dresses, and a jumpsuit. Basically I tried on any--and every--thing. By the time we were done shopping and walking around, it was dinner time. We met up with Udhay and Anna, who were on their buddy date, in TST. I was super hype to see the nightlife since we can now dine in past 6pm. TST is a pretty upscale and westernized area, so it was fun to see all the alleys and streets filled with restaraunts and hear all the music from each place. We chose this bar called Maze and I got tacos (finally hehe) and a drink.

My cocktail was called "feels good to be lost," and it had dragon fruit, lavendar, gin, and whipped egg white on it😂😂😂 Honestly it was delicious and, despite knowing that it was packed with sugar, sounds like it has some health foods in it (the egg white gave me Rocky vibes lol). Anna got some pasta, Allison ordered a sausage platter, and Udhay got the Korean lettuce wraps (like the ones I make at home!!)

Of course we had to stop for some traditional dessert as well!! I'm telling you, guyyyys the dessert is amazing here!! The only dessert Hong Kong is lacking in my opinion is some good cookies, but otherwise they have the US beat. I ordered a dish called Love Song, which was a sour mango soup with taro, coconut jelly, pearls, and mango ice cream. The mix of sour and sweet was the perfect way to end the day.

xoxo