life in hk
Our first visitors since covid bravely dropped by, to start with was my brother and his girlfriend on a 3 day stopover flying from Europe to NZ, and then for 3 weeks in February dad came and hung out, one of my HK besties who left during covid came back for a visit, and finally in May a friend from NZ (who lives in Korea) popped over. It was epic to have family and friends visiting again, I feel like we learnt so much about HK during the previous 3 years and we’re now much better hosts and tour guides.
We took my brother to walk Dragons back, eat Mango Mochi on Cheung Chau, feast on Dim Sum at Madame Fu, see the Flamingos in Kowloon, ride the star ferry across for the light show (in the strangest misty fog), and generally stroll the city streets.
My dad was here for 3 weekends and we squashed a lot in: he joined for part of Maclehose, camped at Tai Long Wan, day tripped to Po Toi, and hiked on Lantau. During the weeks I went to work and he took himself on an adventure each day, getting to grips with the public transport like a boss, reading the paper with a coffee in a new cafe each day and exploring a new part of the city. In the evenings we showed him all our favourite restaurants, went to the beach, checked out the light show at Tai Kwun, and did a couple of night hikes.
Having a visitor who has spent more time in HK than me meant I wasn’t in charge of organizing the fun when our 3rd visitor turned up, I just got to be part of it! First things first we made sure to FINISH LANTAU TRAIL, celebrated my birthday at Mui Wo and had a weekend centered around champagne at Shek O beach. It was so lovely and felt scarily normal to have her back here again.
When my friend came from Korea we just had a weekend and one whole day was a junk boat trip so we did our best to do a whistlestop tour on the other day but the nice thing is she’s only a few hours flight away so we will see her in HK plenty more!
Fitting in and around visitors was other signs of HK getting back to normal such as concerts! Clockenflap, a 3-day music festival (which pre-covid was an annual event), was back after 3 years off, it felt like the whole city was in attendance. The timing was amazing as 2 days before it kicked off the government lifted the mask-wearing rule so not only were we allowed in a huge crowd of people in public but NO MASKS! I didn’t know most of the bands or music but the vibe was amazing, everyone just seemed to be in the mood to celebrate, the weather was balmy and the setting at the waterfront was ideal.
I also resigned from my job in early May, time for a change, scary but exciting, and I will be taking a few months off before I start a new job so plan to get some bucket list travels ticked off, can’t wait!
