Yay Hong Kong!

UPDATED WITH PICTURES

Well I meant to post this yesterday but when I tried to use my phone it didn't work, and then it deleted my post. So here's my trip so far:

My flight was ok, it was delayed 2 hours and we had to sit on the tarmac waiting for them to refuel. So I sat in that chair for 17 hours. There were screaming babies on the plane too, which was nice, and the old man next to me didn't understand that, although his headphones were in his ears, his chinese movie was coming out of the speakers of his iPad. BUT they did give us cup-o-noodles for dinner, because Asia.

After we landed, I took the high speed train to central Hong Kong, and a taxi to my residence. Its located in Kennedy Town, which looks nice and close to everything on a map, but actually isn't in real life. Luckily I had a friend here, so I met up with him and we wandered around looking for linens for our beds. I'm in a double room with a local girl, but she isn't here yet. We found linens but wanted cheaper ones, so we went to Ikea.

The difference between where we were shopping for linens and the area that Ikea is in is crazy. We are in an area full of locals, tiny shops on the street, steep hills, and weird smells. Ikea is in Causeway Bay, which is a really cool area that kind of reminds me of Times Square in New York. Lots of malls, shops, buildings, and restaurants. But its a good 20 minute bus ride or $10 cab ride away from our res. We went there around 9:00 and it was super busy, full of people eating and shopping. I think it was busy because a lot of people do shift work here, so there isn't just a 9-5 crowd.

We ended up at a ramen place for dinner (fail, ramen is Japanese), because it was the closest thing we saw. It was really delicious! Then we went home, I showered, and I tried to sleep. My mattress is a rock, and its so hot here that I had to sleep with the A/C on the whole night. I get charged for A/C by the minute so this is bad. I tried sleeping without it, and woke up covered in sweat and had to turn it on at 4:00 A.M.

Hong Kong is SO humid. Its been sunny for the last 2 days, so its been even hotter, but wow is it humid. I've never sweat so much in my life, and I don't even feel that hot - my body is just on sweat overload here. I'm talking soaking through my clothes, sweat dripping down my face, sticking to my chair. Drinking lots of water!

Its really beautiful here. Its so big, there are SO MANY BUILDINGS and shipping barges and cars. Its hilariously British too - cars drive on the left side of the road, and they call the elevators "lifts". The view from the island is gorgeous. I can see Kowloon so well, and its been nothing but blue skies. The mountains in the background are so pretty, and when the sun sets, its like nothing I've ever seen.

Today I went with a friend from Queens and one from Brooklyn that I met to get a bunch of errands done. We went for dim sum in City Hall. It was great, but I was so dehydrated I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked. Honestly though, Very Fair Seafood in Toronto is actually cheaper! That's probably because this place is a known attraction (and it was very fancy) and they can jack up their prices (it was still only $20 each and we were stuffed and ordered too much food).

Then we went to the IFC mall, which is HUGE. It had a really cool Apple store there with the most incredible view of the harbour. The second tallest building in Hong Kong is also attached to it. The tallest building is in Kowloon and we will definitely be going there soon. Anyway, it was a great place, with a lot of really fancy stores. After running our errands, we went to visit Chabad because my friend needed a keepah (he's trying to pull the religious card to get out of his double room). The trek to Chabad was veryyyy long and hot. I was told there would be escalators... There were none to be found. So we walked through the Hong Kong botanical gardens and zoo to get there, and were stupidly sweaty by the time we got to the top of the hill.

Chabad was... meh. The rabbi asked for my 2 male friends' names, but didn't give a crap about mine. He wasn't very personal, didn't really want to engage in conversation, and wasn't generally a nice dude. They're doing a service there for the holidays and I will not be attending (sorry mom). But at least I went, right?

So then we cabbed back to Kennedy Town, and I bought some groceries since last night I was starving at like 2 A.M. Peanut butter, crackers, some sort of shrimp chips, and a chinese candy that supposedly is like starburst but better. I think I'm going to buy a Pocari Sweat drink tomorrow, since I'm sweating so much and need to replenish those electrolytes!

Going for dinner with some Queens people, and, funny enough, drinks with camp people tonight. Trying to fix my phone so that I can put pics on my computer, but in the meantime, no pics. I'll update this post with them later!

Pics are here!!

Pics from the train:

A PRAYING MANTIS!

Breakfast

Proof that I went to Chabad...

This picture doesn't really capture how crazy steep the hill is to get back to my residence. Its insane, my calves are going to be ripped by the time I get back.