October 2016
When working on your birthday is absolutely out of the question, you fly across the world. One of the first things I learned about Rikun was that he had never and would never work October 12th. So after a raucous night in San Francisco celebrating his birthday with friends, we jumped on a 747 and flew 14 hours to the Pearl of the Orient – Hong Kong.
84 Hours Left…
Upon landing at 6pm on Thursday October 13th, we dropped our bags at the Hyatt Regency in Tsim Sha Tsui (TST). It wasn’t until we drew back the black-out curtains in our hotel room that it hit us.
We were 7,000 miles away from home. Our view looked out onto the famous Victoria Harbour. Sure, we came from the iconic San Francisco Bay, with Alcatraz Island to the right and the Golden Gate Bridge to the left. But glancing out at Victoria Harbour where your eyes dart from the blindingly neon skyline of endless skyscrapers, to a 70 year old street vendor grilling skewers of unknown meats, is astounding.
Starving from the journey, we wandered around the corner from our hotel to Yayakiya for some fresh grilled fish, wagyu beef skewers, and funky cocktails.
Eventually, we made our way to the Sheraton where we enjoyed a Malbec (we love Malbecs) at the Sky Lounge overlooking the harbour. There was a silence in the air. Was it the 14 hour journey, fresh fish food coma, and robust tannins starting to creep in? Not quite. It was the peaceful serenity you feel when you’re comfortable enough to know that words are not required.
72 Hours Left…
The next day, we ignored the jetlag and were indulging in breakfast by 6am.
Upon finishing breakfast we were on the road by 7am. First stop – Lantau Island. We managed to arrive early enough to avoid the line, and took the 30 minute cable car ride up 3,000 ft to the Big Buddha.
One of the many great things about Asia are the endless tasty eats. So we grabbed a plate of pork dumplings and BBQ pork buns as we roamed around.
Just our luck, but the train system shut down as we were making our way back to the city. With growling stomachs, we stumbled into Duddell’s for a Michelin-star studded lunch. The greatest thing about the Michelin Man are the stars that come along with his name. When you dine among the stars you’re sure to be beside the moon.
The cocktails were inspired and the crispy salted chicken was unbelievably succulent. We couldn’t leave without trying the pork siu mai and har gow (Maya’s favorite). This restaurant has an awesome terrace and even cooler drink coasters – which we stole a couple of…hehe.
Rikun always somehow ends up with the strangest looking drinks. Though normal sounding as described on the menu, they’re almost always a punchline joke to look at….and they make for a great snap.
Tired, but eager to power through, we rode the cable car up to Victoria Peak. The view speaks for itself. If you’ve ever seen an elevated view of a city skyline you’ll know a thing or two about how hundreds of concrete towers can somehow mesmerize the eyes. Victoria Peak rises among the best of them.
For dinner, we enjoyed delicious bowls of ramen surrounded by teenagers playing Pokemon Go. At first we were confused by the vast amount of people standing in an alleyway shifting around. It wasn’t until we started walking through we realized it was a real life Pokemon Gym. With around 80 people playing the widely popular proximity-based game.
The famous light show down by the harbour was nothing to write home about. Those who have been to EDC or Coachella would rate this as “no value production”, but the skyline itself was unbelievable.
We ventured around the bustling streets of TST and stopped in for some hookah and champagne at Vibes in the Mira Hotel.
We continued on and strolled into a couple of bars and were reminded of home when we found one that refused to play anything except Justin Bieber. We were about 3 cocktails deep (G&T for Maya, Whiskey Ginger for Rikun) when we realized they were just cycling through the Biebs new album – and everyone was super into it.
In 2016 Williams Formula 1 team had their car in and out of the pit stop in a record 1.92 seconds. That’s fast! We had already accumulated 20 miles on our Nikes and it was time for us to take a pit stop. We definitely needed more than 2 seconds and considering we were not in the F1 championship we decided it was time to call it a night at 2am.
48 Hours Left…
Standing tall and dressed in a black tuxedo, agent 007 drifts the wooden raft across the choppy waters littered with flaming lanterns and into the heart of the dragon’s mouth. It was a warm evening and the air was still as the darkness approached midnight in Macau.
If you’ve seen Skyfall you’ll immediately recognize this memorable scene. We woke up feeling like James Bond, and Macau is just a stone’s throw away from Hong Kong. So, with two roundtrip tickets for the ferry, a couple of pork buns, and a pocket full of Hong Kong dollars waiting to be gambled, we were off to the Sin City of the East!
Of course, we saw the famous Macau Gate and took some selfies to fit in with the throngs of tourists.
And then ventured off the beaten path to stuff our faces with chilli crab, shrimp dumplings, and toro sashimi at Tou Tou Koi. The meal literally started with us dunking our hands into the fish tank and hand-picking the crab that would be the lucky winner on our plate. Dessert consisted of the juiciest watermelon and dragonfruit we’ve ever tasted.
Downtown Macau was a sensory overload. We even won a couple hands of blackjack which covered the cost of our entire trip that day….#winning.
On our way back to the mainland, we jumped on the wrong ferry and ended up in the underbelly of HK. We followed the sounds of club bangers and bottles breaking to Central where we stopped into Amakaze for noodles, wagyu beef sliders, and pork potstickers and even graced the ongoing beer pong games with a few impressive “celeb-shots.” After washing our meal down with 2 pints of Tsingtao, we jumped across the street and bar-hopped around Lang Kwai Fong, ending up finally at Dragon-i for shots on the dance floor.
Bond would have been proud.
M, not so much…
24 Hours Left…
Craving dim sum, we had to check out the acclaimed “cheapest Michelin-star restaurant in the world,” Tim Ho Wan. The line was out the door, so after an hour waiting in the scorching heat, we sat down to a delicious meal of Chinese tea, fried BBQ pork buns, stuffed shishito peppers, deep fried pork dumplings, steamed prawn dumplings, pork siu mai, steamed chicken congee with mushroom, pork spare ribs in black bean sauce, and vermicelli rolls stuffed with BBQ pork. We ate like royalty and our bill came out to USD $19.
A short jaunt through Ladies Market was next where we picked up some gifts for our friends. Then we gussied up and grabbed drinks at the Ozone Bar on the roof of the Ritz Carlton – one of the highest rooftop bars in the world. Again, Rikun ended up with the strangest cocktail. And we grabbed some ahi tuna sashimi. Maybe it was the altitude, or the realization that our trip was almost over, but the air actually felt thinner up there and after just one drink, we were giddy.
We took in one last breath of pure O2, and then hit the Temple Street Night Market in Mong Kok where the alleyways are lined with “dai pai dong” or small food stalls and plastic chairs/tables covered in spilled beer. The noodles flow endlessly here and we were on the receiving end of some ridiculously amazing grub. We ate our weight in clay-pot hot pot rice and Cantonese style steamed fish with ginger and scallions.
4 Hours Left…
We had a quick sunrise swim and then we were off to HKG Airport. After a long journey back to SFO Airport, we were at work for our 9am meetings.
“Hey, sorry I’m late, my shuttle got stuck in traffic around Fremont.”
— “Oh no worries, I just got in as well. Had a pretty crazy 16 hour commute this morning. Woke up watching jhunk boats glide across Victoria Harbour about 26 hours ago.”
—
And there you have it – a weekend in Hong Kong. We proved it was not only possible, but unimaginably enjoyable. It was Rikun’s birthday, but we both received a gift. The gift of a priceless stamp in our passports.
