First Impressions: No place for the weak of heart

After missing our connecting flight, we had a nice sign
just for us to guide our way. Such service.

After a 15 hour plane flight fun-filled with the man behind me who clearly did not understand the meaning of "touch-screen" entertainment on the back of my headrest causing my insomnia, a missed connection flight in Taipei, and an hour long quest for how to get out of the Hong Kong airport to find a taxi, I was overjoyed to have arrived in Hong Kong where I will be spending the next two months interning at Konew Financial Express, Ltd. and discovering the wonders of a part of the world completely foreign to me.

I was so relieved to have made it that my half-conscious sleep deprived brain could not comprehend the midget sized room I would be staying in before checking into the seemingly grandiose  apartments the next day. Hong Kong King's hotel was needless to say not fit for a king, unless you are lord farquad and like sleeping on concrete. Though my first impression of Hong Kong hospitality was thwarted slightly, I was amazed by the architecture of this truly skyscraper kingdom. The buildings are so close together that the allyways are just barely big enough for one person to squeeze through. As we wandered through Wan Chai, the area where our hotel was located, I could not believe the number of little shops selling everything from fresh pig thighs, i-phones, herbal medicine to fresh fruit and puppys/kittens. While wandering we were almost run over multiple times as the value of life for a pedestrian does not out rank the rush of taxi drivers and cars alike (no I am not stupid and know when to cross the street but it is hard to get used to looking right and then left rather than the other way around).

Even the bar's are backwards here!

After getting our cell-phones (my number : +852 9647-7846) we bought our octupus cards to be able to start getting acquainted with the amazing MTR system or subway system in Hong Kong. It is absolutely incredible. There is little to no lag-time in between trains and the trains are nothing like the SF BART system- no random puke spots and nasty smells, although on our way back from Tsim Sha Tsai on Kowloon we came across trains almost impossible to fit into with the amount of people boarding- another personally shocking detail: the amount of people on the streets outstrips that of anywhere I have seen in New York or LA.

The cleanliness of the MTR, despite the vast amount of people is somewhat a microcosm of the city itself. I have never seen a city so picturesquely placed against the backdrop of lush green hillsides and mountains and although the air is a little smoggy, the streets themselves are astonishingly clean.

The peninsula hotel

My favorite parts of the first night in Wan Chai, Hong Kong-- missing the light show at Felix and watching a movie being filmed  while touring the crazy party streets of Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) with my sister's buddy Drew and his girlfriend. After having a not-so-special dinner at Peking Garden which had been recommended by one of my tour books, we headed over to Felix, a swanky bar at the top of the Peninsula hotel but it was not as stunning as we hoped for without the light show. The view of Hong Kong harbor was awesome, though.

LKF was absolutely crazy. I have never seen so many bars and clubs in one area in my whole life, not to mention the number of party-goers. It was as if the USC row had gone wild and international times 1,000 people. I was still in a daze from my lack of sleep but the intense energy kept me awake long enough to see a Hong Kong celeb and a truck ghost ridden by 20 people all at once. Cannot wait to explore tomorrow with the rest of our group... loving every minute through the exhaustion!