What is Hong Kong?

Well, friends are what I asked for and that's what I got! This hostel is a non-stop party full of travelers who are all pretty much on the same mind set (very different from my hostel experiences in Japan). I must admit, I feel a bit of guilt because during the first 3 days of my stay in Hong Kong, (besides 4 hours spent wandering) I have really made no effort to go out during the day and visit the sites that tourists usually go to. I wake up late, head out for a bite and some walking with some people from the hostel and next we're all gathered in the common room meeting more people and planning our night which doesn't start until around 12am. Where is the popular place to go at night? Lan Kwai Fong: a few brick streets set on a hill that are lined up with bars on each side. The idea of this place isn't to necessarily spend your time inside the bars, but to purchase your single beers at the centrally located 711 and drink on the streets using the endless bar height table tops that are so conveniently built for public use. In my opinion, the only purpose of the bars are to pump their obnoxious music into the crowds outside, oh and for the restroom services of course. It's wild, it's crazy and it's dirty...2 nights/mornings of this and I couldn't do it anymore. I wanted something new for my third night, maybe a calmer type of night...a lounge like pub perhaps? Jie (girl who just moved here from NYC) took me to a real Hong Kong Pub where there were no tourists, it was perfect! Here we learned the popular HK game called Liar's Dice, thanks to the bartender. We indulged in an abundance of the best complimentary trail mix and drank to old karaoke music videos of Britney Spears and Rhianna. On we went to the next place of the night, Wan Chi. An area of bars, hotels and prostitutes? Yes, this area gets rather dirty at night but don't ask why we went. Curiosity I suppose. Dirty or not, going there turned out to be amazing. We added Tom from Israel to our little group along the way and happened to meet a group of young Filipino skater kids who were the most outgoing and positive people I have ever met. We spent the rest of the night in a park, sipping wine and listening to their stories of what it's really like to grow up and live in a crazy city like Hong Kong. Without a doubt, an entertaining night but still very rough on the body. It wasn't until 530am when we started to head back to the hostel. I had to pack and get ready to leave for the farm! I was looking forward to have a bit of stability and something other to do than party until the sunrise. All of this madness makes me feel twice my age.

American, Swedish, French (left to right)

LKF

Jie from NYC

Liar's Dice