🇭🇰 Hong Kong - Junk Boat Party, Hiking, Music, Cantonese Food

The city that's got it all

I got a full reset in Hong Kong. I stayed here for a while despite the region not being particularly big, mostly filling up my time with general sightseeing and meeting friends who live here or were visiting.

Chungking Mansions

While people say Hong Kong is an expensive place, I found it not to be if you’re careful - there’s a lot of variance in food and accommodation prices. All of the hostels were in a pretty terrible state, and for not very much money I got myself a little single room with a fridge. The fridge was important for making my first overnight oats in 6 months. When I was shown the room, the peace I felt from not having to share a dorm and bathrooms for a bit was immeasurable.

After booking a room, I found that the guesthouse is in the Chungking Mansions. A place that I thought to visit as a tourist attraction, due to its reputation for being one of the dodgiest buildings in Hong Kong. It was also the backdrop for Wong Kar-wai’s 1994 film ‘Chungking Express’. Having read accounts of the building being used for drug trafficking, illicit sex work, and just about anything else illegal, I didn’t know what to expect. It was actually alright.2

One of the many stairways into the building 🥰

The building had just about anything you could imagine - there were curry houses next to Filipino supermarkets blasting budots, with Jamaican CD stalls in front, and Ghanaian hairdressers to the side. Here I realised that you can definitely travel to Hong Kong on a budget - I’ve been able to get really good food for £3.80 per portion.

The building has gone through various renovations and is now pretty safe, complete with lots of CCTV, so it didn’t feel too sketchy despite groups of men hanging around at all hours of the night outside. I did need to pass guys peeing in alleyways on the way out and a guy selling discount porn mags and dildos on the way in, but controversially I’ll take that over a groomed hotel lobby any time. It had character.

I was pretty grateful to have found a place that was so affordable, as Hong Kong is experiencing one of the worst housing crises in the world. It impacts everyone, with the poorest having to live in cages. For the more fortunate, it manifests in many cultural experiences costing a lot more than what I’m used to (more on that later). I enjoyed Mike Okay’s video discussing the crisis from a first-hand perspective.

Chungking Mansions

Sightseeing

Hong Kong has some pretty cool-looking buildings. I checked out the colourful Choi Hung building, and the Yick Cheong “Monster” building, with its packed blocks. Sadly, much of the latter was under renovation, but it was still fun to visit.

Choi Hung building

I also visited ‘A Sky Full of Gods and Buddhas’, which is a collection of thousands of discarded deity statues. It was on the coast and went on for a while. With the waves breaking behind me, it all had a very eerie atmosphere. I loved it. There’s no proper organisation to it, either - one guy has been voluntarily maintaining the place for over 20 years.

Galleries and Museums

Hong Kong is rich in museums and galleries, and I visited a bunch:

• Hong Kong Museum of History - a cool place to learn more about the history. With the British schooling system conveniently omitting colonialism, I had some homework. It also had some old film and propaganda posters, which I really liked.

• Hong Kong Museum of Art - a free museum with an expansive collection of Cantonese artworks. The pieces made for export to Britain during colonial rule I thought were particularly interesting, utilising Asian techniques for European tastes.

• M+ Gallery - a huge contemporary art gallery. I spent hours in here, absorbed by the expansive collection of predominantly Asian artists. They had many pieces by popular artists, too, such as Ai Weiwei, Noguchi, and Yayoi Kusama. I found out about Xie Nanxing here, whose macabre pieces really appealed to me.

• City of Lights by Keith Macgregor at the Blue Lotus gallery - photography exhibition on Hong Kong’s neon signs. It was fascinating to get a glimpse into old Hong Kong, with most of its old iconic signs having been dismantled due to new regulations (boring!). Many of the original positives on slide film were available for viewing, too. They felt much sharper than any other positives I’ve seen; maybe people just used to have more expertise with developing slide film back then.

Xie Nanxing’s photography

I say that the neon signs being dismantled is boring, as Hong Kong has been impressively good at preserving its history. For example, I learned from locals that the trams (dubbed ‘ding dings’ due to the sound they make) are being kept due to being a local favourite, despite being an inferior method of transport (they have no AC and are slow). A few locals were of the opinion that if the government tried harder, they could have kept the signs.

Food

I went to a few cha chaan tengs, which are traditional Hong Kong cafes. They were busy at all times of day, and I usually needed to sit with strangers at the table. This was fun, and usually resulted in the locals correcting me because I was eating something wrong. I really liked the busy atmosphere in these.

Cha chaan tengs mostly serve simple, comfort dishes such as slightly upscale instant noodles, toast, eggs, and sausages. I usually balanced them by going to local vegetarian spots for dinner. Yuenyeung was a highlight for me here, which is a coffee and tea mix. It surprisingly works.

I have to give props to Hoko on Brick Lane in London. It’s managed to recreate the feeling of a cha chaan teng incredibly well, despite the menus being about 5 times the cost. Given this, I wasn’t tempted to order one of the super rich French toasts, as I’ve had it from Hoko before and felt that it chopped a few weeks off my life.

Hong Kong is also full of bakeries, and I tried a few local specialities. The first was Hong Kong’s own spin on an egg tart, which I felt fell far behind Macau and Portugal (unless you go to Bakehouse for one with a sourdough crust, but that’s not very authentic). I also got a pineapple bun, which is a slightly sweet bun. Nothing spectacular, really, but maybe you’d appreciate it more if you’ve got more of a sweet tooth.

Nothing Gig

I found that Nothing, an American shoegaze band, were touring in Hong Kong so I picked up a ticket. Later I found that it was organised by friends of a friend from my pottery studio in London, Yilin. She pointed me to O.cult Mag too, which is a culture magazine in Hong Kong. They publish incredibly well-curated guides on what’s going on in Hong Kong each week, which was a godsend. I wish something like this existed in London; it feels like anything like it in London quickly loses authenticity due to sponsorships.

Anyway, the gig was great, and there weren’t really any Hong Kong-specific details that I can outline. The Crush opened, which is a Hong Kong-based band. They had this post-apocalyptic narrative between songs, which I thought was a very cool touch. Nothing followed them and were fantastic.

Something unique to Hong Kong was the ticket price. I ended up paying around £42, which is about double what I’d have paid back in London for a gig of this calibre. This is partially a symptom of the housing crisis here - many cultural venues are closing, and the ones that are still open are struggling (even this one, which was a small, unassuming basement). Even tiny local bands are forced to charge high prices for their gigs; there was another alternative rock night where a few were playing where tickets cost £25 - something that in London I could roll in and see for about £10.

Giammarco Orsini at Minh (宀) Club

I was very curious to visit Minh after having read a bit about it. One of the owner’s comments on Reddit in particular piqued my interest, as it seemed like the club caters to a lot of what I most value about club nights - a good sound system, solid curation, and an intimate setting where you can let loose and get absorbed in the music.

Sadly, on the weekend that I was in Hong Kong, it was slim pickings. Saturday had a DJ I liked, but it was a gay night with a darkroom aimed at men, which didn’t feel like a space for me. That left Friday with Giammarco Orsini - an Italian DJ, vinyl-only DJ playing house, electro, and techno. Not fully my taste, but I went anyway to experience the club.

The club was on a high floor of some commercial building with no signage outside. Upon entry, I got a sticker on my phone camera and went into the darkest club space I’ve ever been to. I had to slowly walk because I had no idea what was in front of me until my eyes adjusted. The club lived up to a lot of the hype - there was a well-tuned soundsystem, very subtle lights (even once my eyes adjusted, I could only see vague shapes of the people around me), and pretty minimal decor. There were a few tasselled lamps around the DJ that I thought established the look of an old Hong Kong lounge well.

The care that was put into the environment felt like it had a very real impact on the crowd. People were really letting loose, and looked the most comfortable I’ve seen in any club night in Asia. The energy was infectious, and with Orsini meandering between genres, I was engaged for hours. The fact it was vinyl only felt like a saving grace; the tracks tended to be longer and had interesting, layered build-ups, which is what I generally appreciate about trance.

A curious aspect of the club was the lack of a dedicated smoking area. You could either smoke in a tiny space at the back of the club, or go down 6 floors and go outside, which felt like a lot of effort. This seemed to have a real impact on the crowd, with everyone effectively being on the dancefloor all night. This is sad news for the club yappers, but as someone who routinely loses his voice by attempting conversation over 110 decibels, I wasn’t mad at this. The owners evidently know what kind of club they want, and they executed it well - maybe the lack of a smoking area was intentional, and not a side-effect of high rent prices.

Hiking

Hong Kong is placed in a curious place geographically, with a modern city right next to the coast and mountains. I did two small hikes, which were great in their own little ways.

First, the Victoria Peak. This was an urban hike reminding me a lot of Namsan Tower in Seoul. The views of the city from above were stunning.

I also did the Dragon’s Back hike. This is the most popular hike in Hong Kong, and sadly, I couldn’t find a good time to do it with the weather forecast saying that it’ll rain every day. I risked it when the odds of rain seemed low.

Once I got to the trail, there was an older Hong Kong guy at the entrance saying something to me in Cantonese and pointing at the trail map. I was afraid he’d tell me that the trail was shut, but instead probably told me something along the lines of “why are you attempting to hike with a typhoon looming, stupid white boy” and let me through.

The views right away were great.

The trail was pretty rich in wildlife, with me passing some of the largest wild spiders I’ve ever seen, and a few brightly coloured butterflies.

My luck quickly ran out, though, and I ended right in the middle of a downpour for much of the rest of the hike. I still enjoyed the hike with the sounds of nature around me, despite effectively walking through a river. It felt very primal and meditative.

Junk Boat Party

When I hiked in Vietnam a few months ago, there was a girl (or should I say lady? She’s in her early 40s) in my group. We got along great, and spent a lot of the hike talking, being in the English-speaking minority. I sent her a message before coming to Hong Kong, and she was keen to show me around and even invited me to a junk boat party.

I didn’t know about these parties before, and was a little afraid that it would be the sort of boat party where people dress up fancy and drink while on a boat. It turned out to be much more casual than that - Hong Kongers frequently rent a boat in the summer, fill it up with people, and spend the day hanging out in the water around it. It sounded great to me.

Most of the people on the boat were either from Joyce’s work’s dragon boat racing team, and were a fun bunch. Everyone I talked to was really cool, and it was easy to find something common to talk about. I was a little worried initially as I was one of the youngest on the boat, but talking to so many people who don’t know about 67 or skibidi toilet was exhilarating.

We spent the day swimming, banana boating, snacking, and just hanging out. There were also some people wakeboarding around, and sometimes people from nearby boats would swim over to us. We even had a proper lunch served on the boat. Amazing.

I spoke to the organiser about how we sorted this, and apparently he has various contacts from wakeboarding. A family was living on the boat who organise these sorts of events, and it was just a matter of inviting enough people and pooling the money for it together.

It was a super fun day; I’m very grateful to Joyce for inviting me.

Bits and bobs

I loved my time in Hong Kong. I also lucked out with a friend from London, Andy, and a friend from primary school, Matt, being in Hong Kong at the same time. After nearly 6 months of travelling, having a routine and reconnecting with old friends was very grounding.

Hong Kong was also a very easy place to travel, with English being one of the official languages here. That manifests in strange ways, like going through places called “Aberdeen” and “Jordan” to get to “Wong Chuk Hang” or “Shek Pai Wan”.

After this reset, I’m ready again for a life of packing my bags every other day and meeting people in hostels who live their lives in new and insane ways beyond my comprehension. Hopefully the 3 phrases of Mandarin I know can still impress the aunties in Taiwan.