Kowloon and the Tourist

I have been to Hong Kong some 34 times over the last 3 years and joke that I know it better than I know Minneapolis.  I am pretty good with the subway, excellent with the Ferry and brilliant with the Taxis. I have been told that I am a great tour guide around the area.  The problem is that for all the times I have been to Hong Kong, I have always been the guide and have never really just ventured around into the underbelly.  So today, for the first time, I just wondered around without purpose or direction.  I was the quintessential tourist!

                         Hong Kong Bay from the Intercontinental at 5:30am

It was an overcast and muggy day which in Hong Kong in June is roughly 90+ degrees with 80% humidity.  I think the weather channel said "feels like" 106 degrees.  Well, I can tell you, it did.  You know the type of hot and humid that you can actually taste.  That would be it.  And by the way, there is no deodorant product that can help the population with that that kind of stink.  But I would no be deterred by a couple of million sticky people

My hotel is located in Kowloon which is across the bay from Hong Kong Island which gives it a great view (see picture on the left out my hotel room window).  Kowloon has a much different feel than Hong Kong Island.  Kowloon was where many Chinese in the 1940s ended up who fled from the People's Revolution in China.  This gives it a more Chinese feel, where HK Island has a more hybrid Asian-British feel.  As you walk away from the waterfront, which is now dominated by 5 star hotels, the streets narrow and become less grid-like.  Kiosks and small storefronts sell everything from foot massages to high-end electronics with every third one selling some type of food.  Some are just simple counters selling Dim Sum and some are more established restaurants, but all feel like they have been there forever.  You can get Turkish kabob right next to Indian adjacent to a Vietnamese Pho Kiosk.  What makes it so interesting is the shear density.  Street after street of these shops and restaurants sandwiching hundreds of people between them on very narrow streets and sidewalks.  All done in 104 degree heat.  It is an interesting place to spend a few hours.

I grabbed a little dim sum from a place which was packed with people (always a good sign) and wondered off to find one of Asia's best kept secrets - San Miguel Beer!  This is the Philippines gift to world culture as far as I am concerned.   When it is hot and humid there is nothing better to cool you down than a San Miguel.  I found a little open bar on a back street corner where the stools literally sat on the street.  I pulled up a bar stool and ordered my San Miguel.  It was cool and awesome and all was right with the world.