Hong Kong - An impromptu adventure

With no solid plans of how long i will be spending in hong kong (Thanks to buddy pass from a friend in American airlines & i shall thank her always and keep doing so until she keeps me on the buddy pass list :P) this was my only sole trip of 2015 and one which i shall cherish for a long time.Travelling alone backpacking had always been on the list and that is exactly what happened, Almost 4 days in a city with no planning in prior or mobile networks (Yes no network means, no data, no maps and no possibility of browsing about places to visit). I know i can loose the liitle bit of brain i have quite often but these 4 days was more like i had lost it completely. If you are reading this, by now you would know how much of a narcissist i am and so i shall try my best to keep it short on bragging part (which is unavoidable) and try explain my experiences

Day 1 - Landed at 7pm local time after 17 hr flight, looked out for few back packers hostel downtown with the airport wifi connection, took the local train and reached the happening Patterson street (Hub for tech gadgets) first of three back packers hostel places i had looked up. A small door between two huge malls leads to an elevator & as per the address on trip advisor the hostel was on 10th floor, i take the elevator and voila its a residential complex with four apartment on the 10th floor. I take elevator back down hoping the other two hostel addresses i have are correct atleast or i shall end up spending my first night on the streets of hongkong. The elevator stops at second floor and couple of europeans get in with backpacks loaded, yes the address was correct just that floor was wrong. I get a good deal for 12$ a night (SE Asia you beauty).After freshening up and finding some local street food (another must in SE Asia) back to my bunk bed wide awake wondering what i shall do the next day. Past midnight i hear other roommates coming in and i thought it was best time to sneak out for a smoke, i had lost my lighter and i could smell alcohol from people who came in and so i ask this asian looking guy for a lighter and there starts the crazy night 1. He was a american born/raised asian travelling from taiwan and as one thing leads to another we were in a bar having beer discussing porcupine tree and psychedelic alternate rock. As it was his last night he had been partying since evening and he had come back to drop his friend who had passed out and so we decide to go back to the place he was partying but with no idea of what the place is called.
Yes i decided to go out and party with a drunk stranger in a city i just landed in a cab with the driver who doesn't understand English. The cab driver somehow understood that we wanted to party and took us to some other party street some 20 mins away. As we got down we realized the pubs were either too full or about to close, thanks to my sixth sense in geography i knew we were close by to the famous Hongkong bay and so i convinced this guy to grab some beers from 7/11 and sit by the bay somewhere calm. After walking for 20 mins through concrete jungle we realized there was no open space near the bay to enjoy our beer and we were already mellow.
" So we found a locked down construction site close to the bay , i convinced him to sneak inside and we sat on top of a construction crane right next to the bay with a beautiful view of hongkong downtown drinking our beer until dawn "

There you see the construction site and the crane on the left, Since my phone was dead couldn't take any pics but thanks to google found the exact location on street view.

view from the point , Courtesy - Google street view

Day 2 - Which is basically after we came back to hostel at 6.30am, i took a shower went for a morning walk around near by park and sat by a cozy coffee corner with Mr.Thomas (cat) in the hostel lobby to map out my day (All thanks to jet lag i was no where close to sleep). I decided to take the local bus tours which had three different routes covering different parts of the city. To start with i had to take a ferry ($2 US) across the bay to other side of the city to Kowloon from where my tour for the day started.
I met an elderly australian couple at the counter to get the same city tour tickets this was kind of converstaion we had

Aussie Couple - hi, isnt it a nice day to explore, Wht's your name?

Me - Yes indeed, Ram.

Aussie couple - Where are you from?

Me - "India, US, India ##$$33## random explanation "

Aussie couple - What are you doing today?

Me - "No plan" take the tour and go with the flow where ever my legs take me"

- Woah did that just come out my lips, never in my lifetime have i ever thought i would have the luxury to say such words and here i was doing the hippie talk to white people in one corner of China. That just made my day.

So i took the same tour as the couple, As the tour started i realized how the city was a melting pot of cultures for its international migrants and the local Chinese, Street food and crowded markets on one side and high end shopping brands lined up on the other. One can see ancient temples on the streets followed by seamlessly interwoven modern neighborhoods with packed matchbox flats followed by malls with luxury brands lined up all in the same street. Literally a concrete urban jungle with culture deeply embedded in every corner. We stopped at ICC (Tallest building in HK ~ 1500ft) for lunch and views, with bruce lee's image on the top level and a 360 degree view of the city one could literally see how jam packed the 5 million plus people were staying adapting to the resources available, the best of western and eastern cultures mixing like bruce lee's philosophy of fluidity in martial arts (waah i am getting good with metaphor's now :) ). As we continued the tour , i got bored as the bus kept going around the concrete jungle, the couple kept me interested with their recent trip from Bruges - Paris on a Barge/cycle tour (14 days) Details here. I decide to end my day with one of the famous and tallest view points "The Peak" on Mt.Victoria. Out of all the crowd on top waiting for the fog to clear to get a good view of the city my ears could fine tune to a unique sound, two guys conversing in Tamil (That எங்கயோ கேட்ட குரல் moment). After observing them for a while from a distance to ensure they aren't the usual assholes i got along with them , we spent sometime had dinner and made plans for next day and parted ways. I shall continue the next two days of craziness in next blog and yes they have beautiful trams operating across most parts of the city.

Breakfast discussion @hostel lobby
Mr. Thomas - “I have an idea for a movie I want to pitch to Pixar. It’s based on my life, It’s about a cat who lives in Hongkong.”
Me - “And then what happens?”
Mr.Thomas - “That’s pretty much it. I figured that would be enough.”