Fragrant Harbour (Part 1)

On February 4th, I departed for another great adventure. Since the cruise in the Caribbean was obviously not hot enough for me (jk!), I decided to wade through bits of Asia on a two-week whirlwind. This trip was dynamite – Hong Kong, Singapore, and finally, my second homeland (pretentious enough yet?), Japan. I’m so lucky.









Waiting at the airport before embarking on what I know is going to be an epic journey is quite honestly one of the best feelings of life. Mind you, the horrid flight that awaits isn’t so awesome, so there’s that. I have my traditions at YVR though…and they involve eating at Subway and perusing the Duty Free to see if they have a better deal on cosmetics than the internets. They never do. But I always check.

The plane ride was 13 hours of sheer excitement. Some movies, some bathroom breaks, and one unexpected cup of noodles.


SO much more than a soup. If nothing else indicated we were heading to Asia, this was it.



Touch-down is always a special moment; you realize you can be free of the shackles of the seatbelt sign and the ongoing battle for legroom. However, the view is often disappointing.



Asian airports usually allow passage in as little time as one person can manage. I’m always a speedy one and before you can say “immigration, baggage, and customs”, I’m on the Airport Express train to Hong Kong station.







As we glided (glode?) through the countryside, I nearly crapped myself when I saw the Canucks show up on the train TV screens. The crapping subsided when I realized they were playing the Sharks. And they had beards. Apparently it is still last season’s playoffs in Hong Kong.



I arrived at Hong Kong station and began my search for the free hotel shuttle. Well…after going up/down/sideways/diagonal for an hour around HK station, I gave up and signalled a taxi. Whatever.



After a 10-minute drive to the eastern side of HK island to a suburb called Kennedy town, I forked over 45 HKD (~$6.25 CDN) to the driver. I immediately love Hong Kong.

The hotel was so new it was still being built on Google Earth when I tried an early pre-flight jaunt around my neighbourhood. It didn’t disappoint. The best part was when I arrived on my floor and the voice came over the intercom and announced “ah sh*thole” (which must mean “20th floor” in Cantonese??) It never failed to make me giggle.













Next order of business was to head out for some food and explore the neighbourhood for a bit before hunkering down for the night. The neighbourhood was relatively quiet (for Asia), and very local-feeling. Ugh. So awesome.




Chinese New Year offerings at a street-side mini-shrine. I have no idea what that pink foofy stuff is.

Then there those things you see where it’s like “Yeah! This IS China!”




After picking up a sandwich, water, and some Koara no Maa-chi, I headed back to watch some documentary about the colonization of Hong Kong and rest-up before the big day out tomorrow. Let me leave you with one last view of my neighbourhood:


That is all.