Okay, Hong Kong. I See You.

It’s 5:30 in the morning here, and I’ve been laying in bed for a couple of hours now, trying to chase sleep. It’s not working. The reason I woke up? Ezra rolled over in the room next to me and the floor shook. I legit thought we were experiencing an earthquake or that the building was about to collapse. This cracks me up.

The size difference was the first thing I noted when I hobbled out of the plane after fifteen cramped hours in economy class.

Everything is smaller here. The stairs, the signs, the people, the underground turnstiles. The taxis look almost like toys, but are surprisingly roomy. From minute one, space was a problem. I’m tall but slight, so it hasn’t been too bad, aside from bumping my head in the subway against the hand rails that other people had to reach up to access. I’m about a foot taller than most of the men. But poor Ezra is like 6’3 and built like a football player. It’s hilarious. He looks like the BFG everywhere he goes, or Gandalf in Bilbo’s home. Little kids keep stopping in their tracks to stare up at him. He’s the most good-natured guy you’ll ever meet, and takes it well, but I can tell he’s uncomfortable and hoping for more space in Ubud.

Getting into the city wasn’t difficult. Customs was a breeze, an incredibly orderly process in a weirdly quiet airport that smelled softly of perfume. We took a cab into the city and found our Airbnb without much trouble. The exhaustion was real, friends, but dim sum waits for no one. We were immediately down the stairs to the restaurant just below the apartment.

In some ways, the city reminds me of Manhattan, but cleaner, quieter, and more orderly.

The trains are fast and the subways are clean. Some of the buildings are expensive and modern, while others are peeling and old and dotted with more air conditioners than I can count. We keep finding malls and markets and temples secreted away between the high rises, stalls piled on top of each other and selling all the things you find in these little markets pretty much anywhere in the world. There are endless noodle shops and dim sum restaurants set between clothing stores and Chinese medicine stalls. I saw a shop labeled “Traditional Bone-Setter.” Nope. No thanks. Ouch.

I’ve walked a ridiculous number of miles over the past few days, fighting through jet lag and nausea and Ehlers Danlos crap. I’m rationalizing – I can rest when I get to Ubud. In fact, I already have a spa day booked for myself. But this may be my only shot at seeing part of China, and I have definite FOMO. Also, I’m in love with this place.

A few things I’ve seen:

• A temple in reds, greens, golds, and blues, full of worshipers and clouds of sweet-smelling incense. Statues of dragons twined over almost every surface and gold-scaled koi swam serenely in an enormous green pool filled with delicate lilies
• Endless noodle shops, filling the streets with steam and the rich scent of beef broth and vegetables
• A night market where intricate cards were sold, with delicate cutouts of fish and flowers in red paper
• Street lanterns in the shapes of rabbits or fish that alternately hopped and swam through the night air as the wind passed through them
• Streets full of tiny green and red taxi cabs
• The view from the top of a mountain overlooking the city, from which the port looked like it was made of toy ships and I could count all of the terrace pools in Hong Kong
• A market full of tiny birds in tiny reed cages, with picnic tables where people could sit and enjoy a drink or smoke while their birds socialized (the box of live maggots for feed was a bit icky)
• A street absolutely full of shops selling fat, luscious orchids – more orchids than I’ve ever seen in my life, in every colour and size.
• An island a short ferry ride away from Hong Kong Central, with a vibe like San Marcos in Guatemala. It was full of narrow, quiet streets, jungle flowers, a pristine beach I couldn’t believe was real, AND a wicked-looking spider bigger than my outspread hand suspended above a walkway (not today, Satan).
• About 18 different kinds of dim sum, at least. I haven’t gone hungry.

Exploring this place has completely blown my preconceptions of Hong Kong and Chinese culture out of the water. I know I should be over this by now, but it’s easy to base your mental image of a place off of other travelers’ recommendations and I’ll be honest – I had heard several scathing reviews of Hong Kong or travel in Chinese culture. And then there’s been the behaviour of Chinese tourists in my home town. They regularly blow in on enormous tour buses, pile out in street-jamming groups, and take over everyone’s public space for a couple of hours a day. Honestly, it can be hard on the locals.

Lessons Learned – Don’t let other people tell you what to expect, and please give international tourists a break.

I’m starting to get it now, after struggling to eat properly here, or riding the escalator incorrectly (didn’t know that was a thing), or failing to ease into the flow of the crowd very well. Who knows what else I’ve done without even realizing I’m being rude. Our cultures are so different – I can understand a bit better what it’s like for them to be tourists in our space and out of their own comfort zones. Luckily, people here have been kind in explaining how to go about things. Kindness makes such a difference, doesn’t it? Also, I’ll remember to try to see a place for myself before buying into anyone else’s experience.

Not much point in going back to bed now. We leave for Bali in just a few hours, after this lovely little taste of China. I’m sad to wrap up this part of the trip so soon, but also looking forward to the peace and quiet of Ubud. With so little rest and such a hard bout of jet lag (12 hours off), I’m starting to hit the wall and get sick. I’ll need to catch up on work in the next couple of days as well.

I can only share so much of my experience in Hong Kong for internet safety reasons, but for those who are curious – we have felt entirely safe here. Everything has been calm and quiet, and though you can see subtle signs of what we’ve heard on the news, the people have been kind and there hasn’t been a sense of danger. Thanks for keeping an eye out for me though. :)

Updates soon from Bali! Stay tuned, or follow me on Instagram for more frequent updates. Here are a few more photos from Hong Kong in the meantime: