Three days in Hong Kong, what to do?

Ah man I love that tofu fa stuff, have it with some light muscovado sugar

Oh yeah I have a friend who's a real big foodie and goes to all the fanciest places in HK (and a fair number of non fancy places too)

Don't wanna post the link w/o getting permission, ilxmail me if you want it

My memory is slowly getting jogged. There's a bar in Sheung Wan/Central called Three Monkeys, it's izakaya style

They do some pretty great cocktails and have a nice selection of Japanese beer

Expensive tho

i'm going to try and remember where but i also stumbled into this "bar" in a shopping mall in kowloon that did NOT know how to make cocktails and as a result made the BEST long island iced tea that is basically 100% ethanol for like $40.

night!

Don't go here. But it was kind of amazing. It took me forever to find it in the crazy ass mall it was in.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5604/15531893522_77214d697b_c.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5601/15531057375_75c98164ea_c.jpg

WARNING! We Serve American Portions - @officialjaden

Thanks for the suggestions, dudes! Had a great time and my veggie friend (who also doesn't like Chinese food and anytime we'd go to a Chinese restaurant that wasn't strictly vegetarian, would pick at her food, sigh heavily, and proclaim, "I'm used to not having anything I like to eat" even if a hot pot of tofu and greens was right in front of her) was only moderately annoying. The best vegetarian food we had together was dim sum at the Lock Cha teahouse in Hong Kong Park, but she also loved Herbivores on Staunton Street in Soho. One evening, we went out for Italian. So there is my Hong Kong vegetarian advice.

Other things I did/advice/observations:
Got an octopus card and a sim card right at the airport along with a round-trip airport express ticket. It was super-great to be able to check my suitcase at central station on my way back. You can also get the balance of your octopus card refunded right when you get off the airport express.

We did take the cable car to the big buddha and that was really nice (the vegetarian food at the monastery was meh, though) and we took a bus from there into Tai O and I ate a bunch of street food: the egg waffle thingy, lotsa seafood covered in cheese (?), and the best cup of tea I've ever had. Paid some locals with a boat $25HKD to take us out in pursuit of the pink dolphins, but the pink dolphins weren't having it that day.

We did go to one of the high-up cocktail bars...I think Aqua? Drinks were ok and pricey, but you're paying for the view, which was incredible. Booze seems a bit overpriced in HK everywhere, though.

Wandered around TST a bit, did the Avenue of Stars, took a ferry back to Central. Visited the protesters at Admiralty. Walked around a lot of neighborhoods, popped into a lot of local bars and restaurants. Little Bao was a "bao burger" place near our apartment (also on Staunton) and was excellent.

I would also recommend checking out the PMQ building. It's full of local designers/artists studios and shops.

Lotsa stuff is closed on Monday. Taxis are everywhere and cheap, but cabbies are really reluctant to stop for you. They'll either slow down to take a look at you and then speed off, or stop and ask you where you're going and then speed off. This happened everywhere, even in a cab stand at central station. Give yourself extra time to find a cab if you're taking a cab.

It was hot and muggy as fuck. Would go back in January.

Thanks again!

Glad you had fun! Sorry about the cabbies, I never took them much

So my dude and I just booked a 5 day trip to Hong Kong and we have NO idea where to stay. My dude is not so much into "roughing it" or scoring the sickest deal and wd prob prefer to spend a little more to stay somewhere that will put him at ease (large crowds and not knowing Cantonese are prob going to stress him out a bit so as much as I wd love it we will prob avoid Chungking Mansions) but we have no idea what parts of town to look in or to avoid, or what hotels are great.

Any recommendations?

I stayed in the Four Seasons. It was uh, very expensive. But awesome.

Got an airbnb in a SoHo high rise and it was great. The one we stayed at isn't listed anymore, but it was near this one: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/8973520?checkin=04%2F20%2F2016&checkout=04%2F27%2F2016&s=s-_ZoVRa

Nice residential neighborhood but really easy to walk to the train and restaurants, etc.

We wound up getting some hotel at a YMCA in Tsim Sha Tsui that dayo recommended and it was relatively cheap and close to lots of stuff!!!

dayo i am going to HK in like 10 days and i am sure everything i will ever need/want to do is upthread but i'm just so stoked on it and wanted 2 let u know, also if there's anything extra-dope you think i'd love plz tell me, i'm just going off the Lonely Planet book and this thread tbh

like should I spend most of my time in Kowloon, or Hong Kong Island, or split it btwn the two? we have like 4.5 day(o)s

man i am envious

hope you're having fun!

I just got home last night (after 27 grueling hours of travel). I think it is my new favorite city?? I will give details soon!

have u guys ever been to lamma island?

dyao should i go to lamma island?

YES YES OMG!!!! IT IS SO GREAT!!! It was one of the highlights of our trip

PLEASE go, you can do it in like an afternoon

It's kind of baffling how something so chill and remote and laid-back can exist in such close proximity to HK?? It feels like it's a thousand miles away

yeah i was wondering that. i thought fly into hk in the morning, lamma island by ferry? and then back to central and across the border. but maybe spend a night there, if it's chill?? what did you do there?

We just walked around. It's v sleepy and beachy (though there's no beach iirc?), you basically just stroll and look and maybe eat something or buy a book from someone sitting next to a rack of books for sale. There's also a really bizarrely excellent record store there, the dude who works there is really into Ryuichi Sakamoto

there's a beach!

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dyao should i go to lamma island?

― dylannn, Tuesday, September 27, 2016 10:51 AM (yesterday) Bookmark

no go to cheung chau instead

lamma island is for expats who fancy that they've 'gotten away' from central for the day

thank you.

top 5 touristy activities in hong kong, while traveling with a 20something tokyo girl, who mostly wants to get a feeling for the city, buy a cheongsam and go for yum cha?

take tram up/down to the peak
walk from mong kok down (but not before going to langham place) to tsim sha tsui to where the tailors for tourists are for cheongsams, then take the star ferry over to central and/or wan chai
yum cha - idk, probably any dim sum place that's connected to one of the giant malls would be enough
go see the horse races at happy valley (think they will have started by now)
drinking/partying - LKF is for expats, wan chai is for expats who are trying to find prostitutes and blow

crashed at a place on lockhart in wc last night but maybe chungking mansion tonight? anyone have advice on that? or maybe just find a cheap spot in mong kok, i dunno.

thursday to sunday rates at a lockhart love hotel are like, ranging from 300 to 700 but pricier on weekends.

i went to yung shue wan on lamma and walked to hung shing yeh beach, ate razor clams, saw the record store stevie d mentioned but didn't go in, tried to figure out who actually lives there, wandered dirt trails. it was surprising. i've been to hong kong a few times and never left, like, central/wan chai/tst. i saw ads on a bulletin board near the ferry pier with apartments for rent for like 400 usd a month, up to like 1500 usd a month. it's maybe admirable that the island is still quite shabby and undeveloped, mostly? it seemed actually uncrowded despite being 35 and sunny and on the beach there were just a few kids fucking around and it was otherwise really, really quiet, a few mainland tourists eating tofu at the stall on the walk to the beach, stray dogs, kids walking home from school. took the slow ferry to cheung chau the next day. pretty dead, too. pretty. nice ferry ride.

Entirely by accident I have booked a 2 day stopover in Hong Kong with xi jinping in town for the 20th anniversary of the handover celebrations. The fireworks ought to be good, he's bringing his aircraft carrier.

Can anyone recommend a good restaurant around wan Chai, Causeway Bay or GamJong?

gamjong?

ugh i used to live in the area, miss it hard

honestly a fun thing can be to just grab some beers at a 7/11 and sit on the kowloon waterfront and take it all in, views of central can get gorgeous

Really want to go

Really want to go back

my roommate is going for 14 days, any recommendations for what to do?

eat his food, walk around the house naked, go through his room + look for drugs + money...

;-)

Has anyone flown HK Express? I'm looking at flights from HK to Tokyo and they're about a quarter of the price of JAL, etc.

i haven't heard anything disturbing about hk express but ive never flown with them. i usually take vanilla for that flight, hkg to nrt.

Cool, thanks - i'll look in to Vanilla.

There seem to be really good value Cathay air mile redemptions with air miles as well.

Yes, I'm reviving China threads. Going to be there at the end of next week, wish it could be longer but maybe have 2-3 days in HK. Updated recs?

one of my favorite cities but i feel i've explored v little of it. usually stay in wanchai.
maybe depends on where you're staying but last time there i finally made it out to the islands and i can't recommend it enough. i always thought it would be a bitch to get out there if i was only there for a few days but it takes 30-45 to go to lamma or cheung chao. go out to lamma, wander around, get some tofu hua, record store, eat a late lunch seafood lunch at one of the restaurants by the ferry dock surrounded by sunburnt expats. cheung chao, considerably more chill and vibesy and time capsuley and fewer sunburnt expats.
walk from central over to wanchai, maybe see a horse race at happy valley (i've never done that but supposedly you should).
figure out one of the markets to go to. walk from tsim sha tsui to sham shui po and you'll hit them (as i say earlier "there's an ilx thread where i accidentally walk past chungking mansions and end up walking all the way to sham shui po," and probably check out chunking mansions maybe? if that interests you), depending on your detours and timing, go to vinyl hero in sham shui po.
go to some classic cha chaan teng (preferably in wanchai), get thai food (in wanchai), curry beef brisket noodles, wonton noodles, tuna sandwiches and chocolate milk from 7-11.

Thanks! I think if we even make a third of that list, we'll have a spectacular time.

i think you'll find unlike guangzhou or shanghai or beijing, it's a better city to explore a random area on foot because: it's so dense (mostly talking about hong kong island and kowloon, even parts of the new territories) + it has a history as a major world city that goes back further than 1980 or 1990 (i mean guangzhou and shanghai and beijing were world cities but they were put on ice for almost a hundred years) + far more multicultural than mainland cities, visibly, people from across asia and beyond, but also different peoples from china and the diaspora + more welcoming of outside and non"mainstream" ideas and lifestyles and cuisines and music and religion and everything else, making for a more interesting urban environment than you'll get in any city on the mainland.

i think it's my favorite city on earth and coming back to tokyo after visiting, i'm struck by how dull and unwelcoming this city can be. every time i go back, i regret not somehow living in a box in wanchai or a tiny house out on some island, as bad an idea as that would surely turn out to be. i mean, i think i love hk because i've never lived there... and visiting these days, i think it's impossible, unfortunately, to not feel that hong kong's days are numbered as an vibrant, multicultural urban experiment... i get the sense and maybe it's just my own prejudices that i'm seeing the last of hong kong as it existed for however long before 1997 or before the mid-2000s umbrella protests, the clampdown on hk democracy, the united front strategy, language laws, patriotic education, mainland wealth flooding into the real estate market.

^
Always enjoy your posts D