Disclaimer: I did not take a lot of pictures on this trip. I have no good reasons for that so I offer no excuses.
I caught a bit of a love bug for Hong Kong during my Chinese New Year trip there. Since it was just across the water I decided to go back relatively quickly after that trip. I was back 2 weeks later and I had very little on my agenda. I decided to go and see where the day took me. I woke up late and did not get going very well Saturday morning and ended up taking the noon ferry across. When i arrived in Hong Kong I decided to head to the hotel first. It was a new spot for me, called Mingle by the Park. Hotels are not cheap in Hong Kong, even the cheap ones, and this one was about 65 USD. That price in Hong Kong is pretty cheap. The room was small. It had a large bed and a walkway from the door to the bed. The bathroom was small and the sink was so narrow I had trouble washing my hands in there. In my opinion the hotel was not better than a hostel unless you remember that you are in a room alone and nobody else shares your bathroom. That is an improvement on hostel life but I am not sure it is enough of an improvement to justify the price. I will continue to look for more places to stay in Hong Kong as I continue going back but I doubt I will repeat at Mingle.
I was meeting up with a friend at some point that day but I was not sure when. Since we had kept everything vague I just decided to wander. Mingle is in the Wan Chai area of Hong Kong and I knew pretty close by was Causeway Bay. I headed in that direction and poked around in various shops until my phone buzzed. My friend had checked in to the same hotel I was in but on the Mingle with the Stars side. I assume her hotel room was better then mine because she had nothing super bad to say besides that it was small. Apparently if you stay in the Mingle properties you should book on the Mingle with the Stars side. I probably won’t but this advice is for you not me.
I met up with her and we headed to Dim Dim Sum for dim sum. It was close by the hotel and she had never had dim sum in Hong Kong before. We decided to go and see if the Temple Street Night Market was set up yet. I assumed it would be because it was late afternoon but I was wrong. It was barely getting started. We walked the street very quickly but found ourselves drawn to a display of weird English phrases. Each was more profane, insulting and confusing than the last. We had a good laugh and even considered getting some before we moved on. We were sure that we were a little early so we killed time walking down Nathan road before we made a second pass. On the second pass it had a few more stalls open but it still felt like a bunch were missing and it seemed a lot smaller than I remembered. I was kind of wondering if I was in the right place and I am fairly certain we only saw a portion and not the whole thing. I have been there before and this looked smaller than I remembered it.
We decided to give up on markets because neither of us were really trying to buy anything. Markets are great if you want random souvenirs to take home or decorations for your house. They are not great for useful things. They do have electronics but the electronics do tend to have a shorter life a lot of the time. I lost pictures on my camera because of a memory card deciding to stop working. In fact, it is not even recognized as anything when I plug it in. My computer and phone don’t react to it. There isn’t even an error message. So electronics in a market are risky. If you want some knock off toys or Chinese souvenirs then markets are great. Either way we decided to head back to Central and grab some grub on Lan Kwai Fong street. We headed to Rockabilly’s for sliders and a beer special. Then we headed to Gurkha’s and had a drink. I would not go back to Gurkha’s the music was terrible and the happy hour pricing was still expensive. From Gurkha’s we headed to Bombshell’s. Bombshell’s was disappointing because they made terrible mixed drinks. I ordered a beer so my drink was fine. My friend had ordered a cosmo that was terrible. She tried to send it back but that does not happen in Hong Kong apparently. So they remade a drink that was still not very good. We went into a club on the second floor that had nobody inside of it. We left there and ended up drinking in front of a 711 with a bunch of other people. We were talking to some younger patrons of the sidewalk outside of the 711 when my friend decided to talk politics. Our new sidewalk friends left us shortly after. We eventually headed home and went to our respective rooms.
I did not want to get up the next day and luckily my partner in crime did not either. So I went back to sleep and when I next woke I felt better. I got ready and checked out. then I waited for her to check out and that was when I announced my breakfast plan. We were heading to the Flying Pan for breakfast. I was super duper excited to be getting an American style breakfast. She was too. I ordered eggs benedict and coffee. She had huevos rancheros and a side of french toast. It was awesome.
I admitted that I was not inclined to do any sightseeing that day and she was feeling rough still so she agreed. We headed out the door and to the ferry station and went home to recover from our night. I had the kind of hangover that makes you lazy and she had the kind that makes you feel ill. Neither of us were a hundred percent and I think we made the right call. I mean c’mon Hong Kong is pretty darn close and you know I’ll be back. Next time I don’t even need to go to the bars. I have been there and done that!
A 13th Layer Production 