Hong Kong — British History and Chinese Traditions

Hong Kong, Revisited

It had been a while since my last trip to Hong Kong, and it felt good to be back.

The first lesson of the trip arrived almost immediately.

Hong Kong was hot.

Not "nice summer weather" hot.

Not "let's grab an iced coffee" hot.

Proper Hong Kong summer hot.

The kind where you start sweating before you've even decided where to eat.

The lesson became very clear during a day at Disneyland.

At some point, a HKD 15 slushie became the best purchase of the day.

Possibly the entire trip.

Honestly, I've paid more for things that brought me significantly less happiness.

Thankfully, the rest of the week became a lot more comfortable.

Mostly because it involved catching up with old friends.

One of my favourite things about friendships in Hong Kong is that nobody really does the awkward catching-up phase.

No matter how long it's been, everyone just picks up exactly where they left off.

Like the last conversation was only a few days ago instead of a few years.

One particularly hot afternoon, we found ourselves hiding from the sun at Snack Baby.

There was excellent gelato.

There was air-conditioning.

There was absolutely no desire to go back outside.

No sightseeing.

No itinerary.

No productivity.

Just gelato and climate-controlled survival.

Sometimes that's all you need.

Most evenings were spent doing what Hong Kong does exceptionally well: eating and drinking.

Bar Leone absolutely lived up to the hype.

Great food.

Great hospitality.

And a tiramisu that I'm still thinking about long after returning home.

Avoca had incredible views and one of those atmospheres where you casually order "one more drink" and suddenly realise another hour has disappeared.

Bar Mind was probably the most visually interesting bar we visited.

The interior had this edgy, raw energy to it that felt effortlessly cool and completely different from everywhere else we went.

Dinner at Ho Lee Fook was another highlight.

The food was excellent.

And somehow, after all these years, the name still makes me laugh like I'm twelve.

One of the funniest parts of the trip was a night out bar-hopping with our friend, who happens to be a TVB actress, KOL, and host.

To avoid getting distracted by work, messages, social media, and the endless stream of notifications that somehow follows all of us everywhere, we decided to put our phones on airplane mode.

And that was it.

No notifications.

No replying.

No posting.

No doom-scrolling.

Just disappearing into the city and hopping from bar to bar for the night.

It felt surprisingly refreshing.

Almost like travelling before smartphones took over our lives.

After all these years, Hong Kong still feels very much like Hong Kong.

The food is fantastic.

The city moves fast.

And somehow every evening ends much later than originally planned.

Some things haven't changed either.

Drinks are still expensive.

Every destination still seems to involve climbing a hill, a staircase, or occasionally a hill with a staircase on it.

And by the end of the trip, my legs and my credit card were equally exhausted.

Good to know Hong Kong is still keeping traditions alive.