WhyNot: Hong Kong (HK from now on)

The reason for me to end up in HK was Freddie (the British fellow I made friends with). He told me that he’s got a friend in HK whom I would like and that his parents has got a sailing boat there. Two arguments; sailing boat and a local guide and I was sold. HK it was. This decision was also made in Istanbul at the same time that I decided to pay a visit in Israel. First flights after leaving Finland 6.6.2014. I even found a flight to HK on a same day that I was returning from Israel to Istanbul. I know that there is now somebody thinking why in the hell didn’t I fly directly from Tel Aviv to HK. Money is the key. It would have costed 1400€ to fly from Tel Aviv compared to the 200€ I spent.

So I woke up in Israel on tuesday morning at 5.30 and spent the next two days on 3 different flights and at airport lounges and arrived in HK around 2pm on thursday but this also includes 6 hours of time difference.

Double decker tram. Just take the front seat and enjoy the ride.

Nice park and a serious dude.

Skyscrapers

More of them

No, it's not rain. It is a waterfall and I'm inside it! Imagine
that ;)

By the time I found my hosteI I was starving. It took some extra time because the demonstrators* had barricaded some streets and some of the bus routes needed to be changed. With my luck the airport shuttle bus was one of them. Fortunately the police officer guarding the public toilet was knowable about the streets in HK and pointed me to correct direction. So I was in desperate need of food and I found a german guy in my dorm also willing to have a dinner. There was a street full of restaurants just next to hostel so in we went.

It was a crash course into using chopsticks. Well I had never really needed them before so I hadn’t learned how to use them. Thank god it’s allowed scoop the food straight from the plate to your mouth. I did not use a fork or knife even though the waitress brought me ones after having a couple of laughs at my poor technique I guess. Now I master the chopstick perfectly and snap flies from mid air and eat rice grain by grain.

HK is a city of possibilities if you got lots of dough but you can do it also without spending a fortune. Get out of the city centre and you get your plate of rice and meet for 2-3 euros. There’s also a beach and hikes just half an hour from centre. Although being quite pricy place you gotta love the public transportation here. Just crab yourself the Octopus card and use it in metros, busses and trams and it is cheap. You can also use it in Seven Elevens to buy stuff. Handy! Let's face it. Using taxis is also cheap here. Normally I wouldn't use them but since the metro closes after midnight it's sometimes just the most convenient ways to move in case you're a little tipsy and it happens to rain which never happened to me but I'm just saying if. Why do they name the cars after seafood btw. Isn't the the public trnsp. card in London called the Oyster card and to the ladies get Octopussy cards here?

Too busy, too commercial and too money orientated place for my taste but definitely worth the visit. Like this one Filipino expressed it HK is a huge shopping mall. I have to agree that guys opinion completely. Mainland Chinese come here to buy stuff with bags full of cash. They just look the price and if it is high enough they will buy the product no matter how tacky it is. Other than that this is a Western European city with a Asian twist.

You never expected to find a beach in HK....
I made a sand castle. Yay!

....but unfortunately almost everything was prohibited there
as you can see from my Aussie mate's face

Hiking in HK with me pals. Look at that view baby!

Nice

I wasn't drunk. The exposure time was just off. Really,

This was the first and the last temple in HK

She was quite ok but a little meh in the end ;) Oh look, there
is the massive "gimme all your money tourist attraction buddha"
on the background.

"Dallas" intro theme plays in my head every time I see this
picture. All we need is a JR

Night time HK. The amount of light pollution... =/

Count all the mobiles in the picture and win an apple
(edible one, not the one they are fiddling).
This is how to do it in HK metro

I feel like I’m forgetting something. Aaaah, the sailing boat. Well let’s say that Israel happened again. The guy whom I was supposed to meet in HK happened to be in UK during the best part of my stay in HK so no sailing what so ever. At least not at this time.

*Lets not forget the demonstrations. Mostly they've been peaceful except some smaller scuffles. Tear gas has been widely used here and that's why they call the movement here the Umbrella movement. Those of you who don't follow any news the Hong Kongese students are demonstarting against the Chinese biased mayor. Blah, read the news if you're interested I'm not gonna spell it for you :D