Happy Trails from Hong Kong!

After Beijing, I had a few days to pack up my apartment and ship everything back to the U.S. I spent the night of November 30th at Jessy's apartment rather than fly home immediately because, with all my worldly goods (save a suitcase and two bags) out of my hands, I had decided I would make a final goodbye to Hong Kong 💔

The pretext for the trip was a concert-slash-awards-show being held on December 1st called the Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA). That morning I bid my friends farewell and headed out!

Express airport train to the concert (it was held in an arena next to the airport)!

Waiting for people to file in

LIGHT STICKS

The show was fun! The funny thing about this ceremony though is that it's basically only Korean media, so all the awards were announced....in Korean. But they did give out some kind of lifetime achievement award to Karen Mok, who is a HK native.

Saturday, December 2nd

The next morning, I woke up pretty early and headed out to photograph my parting views. 😢 I flew out that night, so I resolved to make the most of the time I had!

The view from my hostel window.

(it was really high up)

Now let's get into the classic Hong Kong coastline--my first time visiting the island's waterfront!

The famous Observation Wheel

The weather was soooo goooooooood that day.

Also will you LOOK at that water.

LOOK AT IT

Indulge me for the next four pictures as I play with technical composition, not really focusing on anything for vicarious tourists.

I feel like this one could be really good for some kind of display.

The tide was slightly high and it delighted me.

Anyway, so that was down at an empty dock along a pier.

Your faithful photographer, squinting into the sun despite the canopy overhead.

Looking from the pier back to the island.

Makes me wanna fly!

Did I mention the weather was amazing?

That was about all I could do there without spending money I was trying to save, so I decided to head over to the Avenue of Stars at a leisurely pace.

....that is, I took pictures constantly.

If you can see a red circle near the middle of this picture, that was the metro station where I disembarked. I was headed back there.

This fish statue was displayed along the walkway to the waterfront (we're looking at the back here)

I.....thought it looked like a fun headpiece.....

I also passed this really cool shopping plaza.

More technical experiments--the lines in the hyper-developed part of the city are really fun.

There's something special just around the left-hand corner.....

BEHOLD

This sculpture is called "Above the Clouds," by artist Ren Zhe. He even gave an interview where he mentioned this sculpture as one of his favorites!

Close up on some of the rust starting to form.

It's hard to tell with the mirror finish, but the two figures are meant to be the same person.

This side of him is READY.

I'd call this photo "Height of Human Aspiration"....probably

What's a mirror without a selfie?

That admiration finished, I really headed back to the metro.

Paused to catch this view from the overpass....

....and these statues of comfort women (erected to pressure the Japanese government to make reparations for their actions in WWII)....

...AND this view of the path itself.

I actually took a few more photos but they didn't turn out well, haha.

Anyway, I finally got on the metro and headed back to the New Territories -- Tsim Sha Tsui, specifically -- to find the Avenue of Stars.

This construction (repair?) was on my way to the Avenue, and I just thought it was neat.

I got to the waterfront again (across from where I had been earlier), and wandered in the general direction of the Avenue.

Along the way I saw these poinsettias outside a hotel and was so excited to see them growing outdoors!

You can juuuuuust see the Observation Wheel on the right!

Enough stalling, where's the Avenue???

Well.

Turns out.

The Avenue of Stars was closed for renovation. OOPS.

This was apparently all part of a big revitalization project for Tsim Sha Tsui, but I....didn't know about it, haha.

Luckily, Hong Kong is a cool city, so I just decided to wander around until lunchtime.

Found THESE COOL STEPS and knew I was going to explore whatever was at the top.

Which turned out to be a sculpture garden!

I didn't take a lot of photos there, but it was peaceful and enjoyable walk.

As I left the garden, I saw this fountain.

HAVE I said before how much I love the way greenery there is in contrast to the skyscrapers?

Just before leaving, I found TURTLES.

Also probably the home of a nature spirit. Like--

I stepped out of the sculpture garden only to find....

...the Hong Kong Avenue of Comic Stars!!

In the style of my intended destination, the Avenue of Stars, this comics industry display involved large statues of famous Hong Kong comic book characters. It was meant to raise awareness of Hong Kong's publishing history, and it was really fun!

Especially because this was the first guy I saw with NO context!

Almost certainly the last face you'll ever see if you met him in real life.

Coco Chanel could never.

Unfortunately, I couldn't spend very long here, since I did need to get back to my luggage before going to the airport.

As I was going back to the metro again, I heard a marching band practicing, and came upon these festival preparations.

Also these light strings with words like "Love" and "Joy" sprinkled in periodically. I would love to see them at night someday!

I got to a metro station, but after getting inside, discovered that I didn't have bills small enough to buy a one way ticket! Frustrating! Normally, what I do in situations like that is to buy a snack so that the cashier breaks my bill for me. However, there were no convenience stores in this station, so I ended up deciding to find a restaurant, have a quick lunch, and then get my bags (the initial plan had been to eat at the hostel or airport).

I was in a fairly central part of the city, so I was sure I would find some kind of fast food place easily.

Except, instead....

...what I found was Dim Sum Icon, a Spongebob Squarepants-themed dim sum restaurant.

Let me say that again for you: A SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS-THEMED DIM SUM RESTAURANT.

Dim sum is definitely not the quickest meal, but there was no way, absolutely no way I could not eat here. So I did.

spongebob_laugh.mp3

Not sure how relevant the unicorn floaties are, but they sure were there.

I need you to understand that this venue was playing the Spongbob Squarepants movie, muted, with subtitles, and over the stereo came The Eagles' "Hotel California."

"You can check out any time you like..."

"...but you can never leave."

Rest in Pieces, boys.

Anyway that was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced.

Got my bills broken, took my money to the station, bought a pass, and got on the train. When I got off, I...took more pictures. But not many!

Neat building near the hostel.

The walking atmosphere is so fun outside the main tourist districts too.

I think this is a temple? I could smell the smoke rising up behind the banner.

Pixel art graffiti taking city streets to a new level outside my room.

For real this time, I got back to my room and picked up my bags.

WHEW folks, what a wild day! I'll let you go here, but I didn't lay my head down until I was in Tokyo that night, so stick around for the rest of this adventure next week.