4/18/13 -- Mong Kok seafood neighborhood and no-socks tropical hiking

Goodbye beautiful Hong Kong! It's been an extraordinary 9 days here, and i'm sad to go. But adventure calls! Tonight I fly to Han Noi Vietnam - the capital city. According to Wikipedia: "Hanoi is the cheapest city in the world for two: a one-night stay in a four-star hotel, cocktails, a two-course dinner with a bottle of wine, and taxi transport will cost $141.12 USD." By my calculations I should be able to survive on $1.37 USD a day, and officially never work again! :-)

Playing with my food at the
Mong Kok outdoor seafood bonanza

Last night we went out to the Mong Kok neighborhood in HK. I don't know how I missed this vibrant community before. Throughout most of the city the streetscape has been given over to vehicular traffic, making life as a pedestrian somewhat stressful. In Mong Kok they've closed all the streets to cars, and the entire 6 block neighborhood becomes a thriving street market. This area is known for fresh seafood and outdoor street dining. Most of the vendors hawk their food on the side of the road, letting you pick your live crab/lobster/clam/shrimp out of one of a dozen half-barrels in front of their eatery. 10 minutes later you have a delicious seafood smorgasbord in front of you - and it's DELICIOUS! Don't get me wrong - this is far from fine dining! The tables are rickety, there's no AC, and the florescent lights glare with a menacing intensity. Think you're going to get napkins with this hands-on food? Think again! A half-dozen toilet paper rolls adorn each table, providing a delightful level of charm. This is my favorite neighborhood yet!


Earlier in the morning I had decided to go for a "hike." Google Maps is usually pretty decent at giving accurate hiking trail information, and so I picked a green-spot on my phone's map and headed to a subway terminus - LOHAS park. Upon arriving I found what felt like an outpost in an otherwise rural settlement. Surrounding the subway station was about a dozen brand-new residential skyscrapers surrounded by nothing but a wide road carrying hundreds of quarry-trucks traveling at a rapid pace. The radiant heat of the concrete hit my face as I exited the icy subway car. I took a 2km walk down the main drag, the heat and humidity taking a punishing toll on me. I was quickly regretting my decision to explore on laundry day - hiking in cross-trainers with no socks while sweating profusely can be quite an unpleasant experience! Following my phone map I headed up into the "wilderness" of HK. It's a forest dominated by low-scrub brush, Tristania Conferta, and some species of pine tree. Apparently outdoor adventure is not the most popular activity in HK, as I didn't see a single person after leaving the subway station. The trail was barely bush-wacked through the brush, being lightly indicated by a series of tags tied in the trees. I had to wave a branch in front of me to clear the dense cobwebs for my passage. As the canopy became more dense, yesterday's rain caused the air to become so thick as to be unbearable. An enormous quarry on the next hill wafted a hot wind across the valley. I made it about a mile up the hill before realizing I was grossly underprepared for this adventure. I headed back down to the subway realizing that in order to hike in the tropics I may need to be completely naked, while carrying a backpack full of ice water. Oh… and socks…. always bring socks. :-)