Around the World in 8 Days

Me and my sister in Cheesequake State Park, near our house

Five short weeks from today, I will be making my move down to Singapore. Before that happens, I will celebrate the third anniversary of my arrival in Hong Kong and also my twenty-sixth birthday. I know the time is just going to fly, but I also know it will be a memorable and wonderful finale to life in the Pearl of the Orient. Tomorrow, I’m actually flying down to Singapore for a two day mini-visit. Alan, my company’s president, and Dimitri, the vice president for technology, are in the Lion City making a final decision about our office space, and they are whisking me down to be there for the actual setting up of the office.

I’m also recently back from my shortest trip yet to the States. My Villanova roommate Joe married his high school sweetheart Nadia in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on October 13th, and although I was only in the country for about a week, I can safely say this trip was one of my most memorable.

Downtown Saint Paul

You can’t fly direct from Hong Kong to the Twin Cities. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and New York are the only American cities with direct air links to Hong Kong. Since Chicago is the only one of these I had never visited before, and as it’s also the closest to Minneapolis, it made perfect sense to fly via the Windy City and spend a couple of days there.

One of my best friends from my semester abroad in Paris in 2007, Hallie, lives in Chicago now, and I stayed at her incredible apartment overlooking Lincoln Park for the first two nights of my American adventure. I hadn't seen Hallie since the final day of our program over five years ago, when I waved goodbye as her train pulled out of the Gare de Lyon taking her and our friend Melissa down to Nice. Chicago proved to be the perfect spot for our reunion.

View over Lincoln Park from Hallie's apartment

I was blown away by that toddlin' town. I fell in love with it almost instantly, as I walked from Hallie's apartment in Old Town to her office on Michigan Avenue, just beside the Chicago River. One of the first things that hit me was the fact that it was fall in America—something I haven't experienced since I moved to Hong Kong in 2009. And I'd never realized over the past three years just how much I had missed seeing the autumn leaves. But over the next week—in Illinois, Minnesota and New Jersey—I relished the sight of the beautiful canvas displayed before me. Many people commented that the season was still a few weeks short of its colorful height, but as far as I was concerned, it was perfect.

That first night I explored Millennium Park, the Buckingham Fountain and State Street. I especially loved that fountain, with its musical light show that I had no idea was about to occur. As I walked up to inspect the sculptures more closely, "America the Beautiful" started playing while water spewed many feet into the air. There was hardly anybody else around, and it felt like the show was all for me. What a welcome home! And afterwards, I was treated to authentic deep dish Chicago pizza and drinks at a rooftop bar, as Hallie laid out an itinerary for my next day.

Reunited in Chicago

It goes without saying that Wednesday was full of fun, with city strolls, a river cruise, a visit to the Sky Deck of the former Sears Tower and dinner at Frank Sinatra’s old favorite haunt, The Twin Anchors. Hallie’s sister Katie and Katelyn, a great friend of mine from Villanova, joined for the memorable meal. Then we hit the town, stopping at an uber cool speakeasy called Barrelhouse Flat and finishing at a bluesy jazz club called Kingston Mines. Another Villanova pal, Mara, joined us for the night, and it was so good to catch up and reminisce about our college days. Of course, I was exhausted on Thursday morning when I took the “L” to O’Hare to fly to Minneapolis-Saint Paul, but the forty-eight hours I spent in Chi-town made me eager to return on future trips. I completely understand what Old Blue Eyes meant when he said it was his kind of town.

V for Villanova

Joe picked me up at the airport in Minnesota and we ran a few errands before heading to his house. There, I met Rupert, Joe and Nadia’s adorable nine-month old puppy. I grew up with dogs as far back as I can remember, and I miss having pets now that I'm living in Hong Kong, so you can imagine how much I loved the next few hours playing with Rupert, as he rolled around in the autumn leaves and ran all over his backyard.

Rupert

Joe and Nadia took me to dinner in downtown Minneapolis, where we met up with our old roommate Rusty, his new girlfriend Britney and a couple of her friends. It wound up being the only real time I spent in the famous city, but I really enjoyed soaking up the "Mini Apple." We stopped for a photo op at the Mary Tyler Moore statue before grabbing a drink at a swanky joint called Marvel Bar. Back at Joe and Nadia's, I had a pumpkin beer and watched the vice presidential debate with my new pal Rupert. 

I made it after all.

I spent Friday morning at the Mall of America before heading to Saint Paul for the wedding rehearsal. You see, Joe had asked his four junior year 'Nova roommates to be his groomsmen, so I got to don a tuxedo and escort a lovely bridesmaid down the aisle. It was my first time being in a wedding party, and it was an absolute blast. And the celebration that followed was a great opportunity to spend fun time with the newlyweds and all their wonderful friends and family.

The beautiful couple

The Saint Paul Hotel's lobby

After some obligatory Sunday Minnesota sightseeing, including a stop at Minniehaha Falls, I hopped on yet another plane and made my way to good old New Jersey. My not-quite-two days back home were mostly spent with my mom, dad and sister in Old Bridge. I visited the state park behind my house, admiring the autumn leaves and crisp air. Before heading to the airport on Tuesday afternoon, I grabbed breakfast at one of my favorite local restaurants, the Turning Point, with my friend Gretchen. My sister dropped me off at Newark nearly one week to the hour since I'd landed in Chicago seven days earlier. And sixteen hours later, I was back in Hong Kong, having made my way around the world in eight days. As I said, it was a short trip back home, but definitely a great one!

Autumn in New Jersey

Time For a Haircut

As my days in Hong Kong grow fewer and fewer, I often hear myself saying, “Gosh, I’m going to miss this” or “I’m really going to miss that.” In a way, it’s a good thing, because I find myself taking advantage of even the smallest things and enjoying what would otherwise be perfunctory exercises of quotidian life.

Case in point: in about twelve hours, I am flying to the States for my friend Joe’s wedding, and it struck me while looking in the mirror the other day that I should really get my hair cut beforehand. You see, I love the place I get my hair cut here, and just sitting in the chair, using the mirror to gaze at all the photos on the walls behind me, emphasized for me one more time, just how much I love this town. It’s gotten to the point where almost every second of every day does that for me.

Getting my hair cut is something I do about four times a year. I generally get it cut very short, and let it grow out as long as possible, until Kevin or somebody else starts pointing out that it’s really time for my next visit to the barber shop.

The place I get my hair cut here in Hong Kong is an absolute gem. It’s called simply The Barber Shop, and it’s a near-perfect approximation of a 1940s dream, out of some fantastic mixture of Raymond Chandler and Ernest Hemingway.

Back in 2009, when I first arrived in Hong Kong, Kevin almost immediately told me my hair was too long to be a serious member of the finance industry. He recommended The Barber Shop right away, but I held off as long as I could because I had no idea what kind of barbers Hong Kong would have. In fact, not only was I reluctant, I was downright scared to have a local barber touch my hair.

What a fool I was! This place is easily the best barber shop I have ever visited. I should have known right away from their website (http://www.thebarbershop.com.hk/), with a timeline tracing the history of barbering and prominent quote from witty Benjamin Franklin: "Beware the young doctor and the old barber." Now I've not only learned to muddle through an inevitably looming haircut, I’ve grown to love it and look forward to it.

You enter through a somewhat sketchy side alley off Wellington Street in Central. Making things even sketchier is the fact that the entrance is shared with that of a sex toy shop, so I always wonder what the local workers taking their cigarette break in the alley think I’m going into the building for. (Since my hair is usually painfully long, they probably assume the truth.)

After walking up a flight of stairs, you’re suddenly transported into the type of place Humphrey Bogart or Cary Grant would have gotten a cut and a shave back in the good old days. Glamour shots of William Powell, Nat King Cole and Jean Harlow watch over the staff and customers, and a jazzy assortment of music—both modern and classic—plays in the background.

And Sam, the lady who cuts my hair, is very capable indeed. She knows exactly what I want and makes helpful suggestions about length and style, once even telling me that if she cut my hair any shorter my face would look too fat! She’s delightfully chatty and extremely proficient, and I am always completely at ease when I’m in her chair.

The sad truth is that today’s visit to The Barber Shop was probably my last as a Hong Kong resident, though I promised Sam on my way out that I’d make sure to fly back to Hong Kong for my next trim instead of even thinking about trying to find an equivalent in Singapore. 

Courtney and the Mid-Autumn Festival

Hong Kong’s festivals are one of the most intriguing aspects of life here. I’d say the city plays host to at least one relatively important festival each month, but some of them are more fascinating than others. May’s Cheung Chau Bun Festival is probably my favorite, and I also love the Dragon Boat Festival in June, but perhaps the one that visibly transforms Hong Kong most impressively is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Held on the 15^th day of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar, the festival is marked by fire dragon dances and decorative Chinese lanterns festooning the streets and parks of the SAR. It’s also notorious among expats for the little “mooncakes” that are consumed during this period. “Mooncakes” are de rigueur among the Chinese here during the festival, but to a Western palate, they are quite perplexing—a richly sweet lotus seed paste encased in a pastry-like shell, with several unbroken salted duck eggs enclosed in the middle. I am very happy that I made it through the entire festival this year without having to consume a single one!

A picture I took during the Dragon Dance during the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2010

Making this year’s festival even more memorable for me was the fact that a friend of mine from Villanova was visiting at the time! Courtney was two years behind me at school, but because we were both involved in Music Activities and the Blue Key Society, I got to know her pretty well. She was only in town for four days, capping off a multi-week trip that took her from Bangkok to Phuket to Beijing and finally to Hong Kong. Her timing was pretty perfect. Hitting the Mid-Autumn Festival would have been good enough, but due to this year’s lunar calendar, the festival overlapped with China's National Day on October 1^st. So I was off from work on both Monday and Tuesday, getting to spend all my time with Courtney without having to take any days off!

Good Old Days: Me and Courtney during NovaFest 2009 

It was a blast from start to finish, a non-stop string of days with little sleep but lots of fun! I picked Courtney up at the Airport Express station in IFC and took her straight to Crystal Jade. One of her biggest goals of the trip was to really sample the entire range of authentic Asian food, from the lowest street grub to more upscale dining. Since Crystal Jade is on my short list of all-time favorite restaurants, and since she was hungry immediately on arrival, and moreover since there is a branch located a few floors up from the Airport Express, it seemed stupid not to head straight there. Dan dan noodles and xiao long bao—the perfect way to start a trip to Hong Kong!

Back at my apartment after a longer-than-usual taxi ride, we played some music on the rooftop and enjoyed catching up over a few drinks before hopping on a tram to Central for dinner. My buddy Will had a friend in town too, and he had put together a dinner at a Thai restaurant that night, which we joined. Tuk Tuk Thai is cheap and cheerful, and it’s centrally located so it makes for an easy segue into a night of revelry in Lan Kwai Fong. Naturally, we headed to Al’s Diner for some post-dinner Jello shots to kick start our night on the town. Needless to say, it was a great night out, capped off with a visit to Wan Chai, where we hit up Typhoon, Dusk till Dawn and Amazonia before finally heading home.

Lan Kwai Fong!

My friend Bernadett invited us to join her and her parents for dim sum Sunday morning. They were visiting from Germany, and I had met them last time they were out here, so it was great to see them again. Dim sum can run the gamut from humble to haut. Places like Lin Heung Tea House serve it from trolleys in a noisy, crowded dining hall and other dim sum restaurants have Michelin stars. Bernadett’s choice was on the more upscale side—Fu Tung in the Wharney Guang Dong Hotel on Lockhart Road in Wan Chai. Tucked away three floors above street level, the restaurant is a hidden gem. I never even knew the place existed, even though I walk past the hotel several times a week. Luckily, a friend of Bernadett’s recommended it. We had everything from spicy jelly fish and steamed pork buns to congee and deep friend wontons. Each time I go for dim sum I kick myself for not indulging more often, because I love it so much.

Before heading over to the Dark Side for a day of sightseeing, I took a little detour to show Courtney my old ‘hood, Wan Chai, by day. Most famous as a nightlife zone, I got to know and love ‘the Wanch’ over my two plus years living there. Although I also love my current apartment in Happy Valley, I still miss living in the bustling, colorful neighborhood practically every day.

So we headed up to Queen’s Road East where we hopped in the scenic “observation lifts” of the Hopewell Center. I still think these elevators are one of Hong Kong’s best kept secrets. Nobody seems to know about them, but there they are, on the 17^th floor of the building, free for all to use. They rise and descend on the exterior of the cylindrical structure, connecting the 17^th and 52^nd floors. And all the times I’ve ridden them, I’ve rarely had to share them with any other tourists. It’s like nobody knows this free sightseeing gem even exists.

But the view is incredible—first just over the rooftops of Wan Chai, and slowly higher and higher, as the towers of Central come into view, and—finally—the glasslike water of Victoria Harbour and the skyscrapers on the Dark Side ultimately fading into the Kowloon Hills. Sometimes if I’m just walking by, I pop up to ride the elevators, so I’m glad I found the time to take Courtney here.

We wandered down through Wan Chai’s market, past butchers and fishmongers and a bustling crowd of local shoppers. It’s not Hong Kong’s most famous market, but for me, it’s one of the best and most authentic.

As we were nearing the ferry, Courtney suggested a mimosa. Always a good suggestion. So we stopped at new place called Divino Patio to imbibe before finally catching the Star Ferry and crossing to Kowloon.

I have playing Kowloon tour guide practically down to a science. Ever since Lisa and Tak first visited me, I’ve pretty much only made slight adjustments to the itinerary whenever somebody has come out to visit. With minor tweaking, I took Courtney on the same tour as those who had visited before her. After getting off the ferry, we strolled up the Avenue of Stars, where the Hong Kong skyline is best viewed. Then we took the MTR to Prince Edward, where we explored the flower market and Yuen Po Street Bird Garden, before walking back down Tung Choi Street with its photogenic goldfish market. The goldfish market ends a few minutes’ walk from the Ladies Market, so we strolled down past some of the stalls there, where Courtney bought some cool souvenirs to bring home for friends and family. Since we had made a pit stop for a few beers earlier in Prince Edward, time mandated we take a taxi to the waterfront instead of walking all the way down Nathan Road. We arrived back at the Avenue of Stars with a few minutes to go before “A Symphony of Light” started at 8pm.

The Kowloon waterfront was decked out with really colorful lanterns thanks to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but the biggest lantern display was located in Victoria Park, back on Hong Kong Island in Causeway Bay. I missed the whole thing last year because I was back in the States for about a month, but I had great memories of my first lantern festival in 2010, and I really wanted to check it out again.

So after a quick dinner at my old local noodle joint (during which Courtney battled bravely against her soup but ultimately lost) we went to the massively crowded Victoria Park with my friends Gauthier and Hugo. The red lanterns hanging everywhere, and a bright full moon looking down from the heavens, make this a very charming spot, in spite of the ridiculous crowd. There were musical performances, puppet shows and perhaps thousands of lanterns hanging all around the park! A post-crowd chill out session on our rooftop was just what the doctor ordered, and we came scarily close to never leaving the apartment that night. But luckily, we found the second wind to leave.

At the Lantern Festival in Victoria Park

Myles, one of my local Hong Kong friends, invited us to join him and some others on Repulse Bay Beach. It’s sort of a Hong Kong tradition to gather with family or friends on the beach on the night of the full moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and this popular stretch of sand was crowded even when we arrived after midnight. There were glow sticks everywhere, and families even had little children out with them. It’s too bad there aren’t more nighttime gatherings on the beach, because the buzz of the crowd, the gentle breeze and the pale glow of the lights made for a great ambiance to spend a very chilled out night. I won an impromptu jump-roping competition, Gauthier made some friends from Venezuela, and Courtney got to see a Hong Kong beach, so the evening was a success in the end.

When we got home, we booked tickets to go to Macau on Monday. Because it was so late, we actually only had a few hours’ sleep before our ferry, but I definitely think it was worth it! Gauthier joined, and so did my friend Sarah, who you may remember from my post when Jackie came to visit. You see, Sarah had such a good time out here in Hong Kong, that she went back to England, quit her job and decided to move here. She actually had to go to Macau anyway, in order to re-enter Hong Kong with her new working visa for a brand new job that she started this morning!

In Macau, we had to cram a lot of things into a short amount of time, but I think we hit all the important points. We had a beautiful, Sangria-filled lunch at Portuguese favorite Fernando’s on Hac Sa Beach. We had to wait a little longer for a table than usual, owing to the public holiday. But some Sangria and chorizo in the garden made the time pass quickly.

Fernando's serves delicious Portuguese bread.

After lunch, we headed to Senado Square to stroll Old Macau’s tiny streets and alleyways. I will always love it here, and I’m so glad we found the time so Courtney could experience this little slice of colorful Portugal hanging off the southern coast of China.

Senado Square

Gauthier, me, Sarah and Courtney in front of the Ruins of Saint Paul's

Colorful Macanese side street

Before we knew it, though, we had to head back to catch our ferry. The boat ride flew by, Sarah re-entered Hong Kong and got her visa stamped, and the National Day fireworks were less than an hour from starting! 

Journey Completed!

Not many people get a fireworks display to celebrate their first day of work, so obviously champagne was in order! We popped into CitySuper! and bought the goods, headed up to the public rooftop of the mall and watched the fireworks commemorating the 63^rd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

It was Courtney’s last night before returning to New York, and there was no way I was letting her leave Hong Kong without going up to Victoria Peak. As you know, I’m firm in my opinion that the view from the Peak is simply the greatest city view in the entire world, especially at night. You just can’t leave this city without seeing it. So, after the fireworks, Gauthier, Hugo, Courtney and I caught a cab to Hong Kong Island’s highest point and took the one hour circular walk. We made it just in time to see the former British colony in all its glory, just a few minutes before some of the city’s most iconic towers turn their lights off for the night. And then we continued the walk through the lush forest-like setting of the Peak. Courtney must have gotten annoyed with how often I kept saying “Gosh, I’m going to miss this place.” But I really am.

Figuring the crowds would be in Wan Chai, we took a rollercoaster of a taxi ride down to Lockhart Road. Unfortunately the bars were relatively quiet, but a quiet evening in Wan Chai can still be a good night out, and in the end, we wound up staying out pretty late, aided by several live bands (Spicy Fingers and Dusk till Dawn) and, finally, a jukebox (The Old China Hand).

Yesterday, a public holiday, felt just like an ordinary Sunday. Courtney woke up and packed, and I slept in a bit later than usual. Rich woke up eventually, and so did our second houseguest, confusingly also named Courtney! She had been travelling around the world for several months, so this was the first time I’d seen her since August, and it looks like she’s thinking about taking over our apartment when I move down to Singapore, so it’s good to know it will stay “in the family,” so to speak!

The four of us wound up at a local pub, The Jockey, for an al fresco brunch, and like everything else so far this trip, the time just evaporated! I can’t believe how fast it all went. Rich and I caught up with Courtney after her months of travel, Courtney and Courtney got to know each other, and I just enjoyed being with great people in such a great city. 

Before long, we hopped a cab to the Airport Express station in Central, and Courtney headed off on her way back to New York. Hope your trip was a success and you had as much fun in Hong Kong as I did! Be sure to come back to Asia when I've gotten myself settled in Singapore!