4 Mar 2016

HONG KONG BY NIGHT



After I had a great afternoon exploring Wang Chai in Central Hong Kong I headed to the famous Nan Lian garden. I arrived after sunset so the whole park was illuminated. Being in such quite and peaceful place by myself  in a big and noisy city was an unbelievable feeling. I could still see the impressive skyscrapers looming into the dark sky, surrounding the whole garden, but I didn't hear anything apart from the rush of the park's small lakes, waterfalls and streams. The whole garden including the water features, plants, bridges, temples and walkways has been designed after specific rules and methods and was built in the style of the Tang dynasty (like many other parts of Hong Kong). There were also some restrictions I had to follow. So for example one is not allowed to turn back and walk the same way.


The Nan Lian garden put me in a very good mood and I started to actually like Hong Kong. My nap I had in the afternoon also gave me enough energy to not stop exploring so instead of going back home I went to the busy district Mong Kok. It was exactly how I expected HK to be by night. Thousands of colourful blinking lights advertising for restaurants, clothing brands and massages,  steaming exotic street food at every corner and small shops with people in front if them trying to sell the weirdest stuff. If you are looking for strange toys, bizarre underwear, colourful souvenirs and everything else nobody actually needs in their life but still kind of wants - the Mong Kok street market is the right place for you! While I was making my way through the crowed streets I saw a few monks wandering around and asking for money. It kind of surprised me how nobody was willing to give them any donations for their temples but later I was told that those are fake ones since real monks would never beg for anything. I also met a few nice local people who just came randomly up to me, wondering where I am from and what I was thinking about Hong Kong so far. Some of them even offered me to show me around in the next couple of days, leaving me with a very good impression of Hong Kong's inhabitants. 

I finally went back to my hostel after having dinner at Mong Kok. In the elevator of my accommodation I met a guy from Australia and after a nice chat he invited me to join a pub crawl. At the beginning I was't too sure if it would be the right thing to do since I felt very sick in the morning and it isn't quite safe to have drinks with a bunch of strangers in a huge and crazy metropole like Hong Kong but after meeting some of the other people who were about to join the pub crawl I finally decided to come along. And I didn't regret that decision for a second. Many interesting people from different parts of the world attended and we made our way to Soho. After a few craft beer pubs with surprisingly good tasting beer (as a German I am quite picky if it comes to that) and crowed bars we went to a night club. To enter, you had to take an elevator to the top of the building and once you made it there (after staying in a line which seemed to last forever) it was one crazy experience. Asian girls dancing on poles, confetti everywhere and locals being very exited about a group of foreigners showing up. We danced until the next morning. I took a taxi to get back home and while if was looking out of the window at the other cars and motorbikes  rushing past us I had the brightest smile on my face.
 
(view from my hostel's roof top)