Tales of Two Travel Shoes: Discovering Hong Kong

It was 1:30pm in the afternoon when we finally touchdown in the shopping paradise, Hong Kong. With our new backpacks on our backs, we made our way to Kowloon Bay by train and bus to meet our great friend Simon Green. He was our gracious, most fantabulous host who kindly offered to share his apartment AND even gave up his only bed for the next 10 days for us (just in case you might be wondering, Simon slept on a thin mattress on the floor!). We couldn't thank him enough for the roof over our heads, warm bed and lack of a sore back.

The first few days were spent exploring the day & night markets and eating ourselves silly with all the strange and wondrous food from the hawker stalls. We didn't know what type of meat (or what part of the meat) was in most of them but we wolfed them down anyway. I believe we were even served 'fake' prawns one day, as they looked like prawns but for sure didn't taste like one - the texture was rubbery and looked a little too transclucent!

Food vendors & shops in the famous shopping district, Mong Kok

We visited the Hong Kong Museum of History (which we pleasantly found had a free admission on the day we chose to visit) and discovered new food stalls and multi-leveled shopping centres. We visited Mong Kok, Temple Street Market (once called the Men's market) and even the Women's Market. It was especially fun catching up with friends whom we haven't met in a while.

Left to right: Jeffrey Lee, Kam Kah Ken, Andy & Karen

Left to right: Karen & Andy, Simon Green, Lulu Gau, Jack Wong

This modern city is a perfect picture of hustle and bustle. Every street corner is filled with a plethora of eateries, vendors and shops. All the while, there is a cacophany of construction noise humming in the background. Here is also where double decker trams roam the heart of the city. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to ride in one!

A few adorable massive dolls were displayed in a walkway of a building and we simply had to take a photo with them. It's too bad that we couldn't take them home!

During one of our lunch outings at a restaurant we discovered cutlery drawers at the table! We were pleasantly surprised to find this practical invention. However, our travels through the rest of the Asian countries later revealed how common these contraptions were. This is a photo of the first one that we found. We quickly took a photo just before the restaurant manager kindly told us of their "no-photos" policy.