This is a summary (part 1) of how my trip to Hong Kong (Korea, China, Macau included) went.
Flight There And Back:
I took two flights in order to reach Hong Kong (and eventually return to America), with a flight change at Korea. This time I took Korean Airlines and thus began my journey of over-eating. As many of you know, I’m not Korean and was a tad bit nervous to ride on a Korean Airlines, but to my relief the flight attendants knew a bit of English so it was not a problem when asking for food. And I must say, Korean people have such beautiful perfect clear white skin!!!!! Even all the guy attendants were so well groomed and let’s just say I’m jealous.
The airplane food was not bad at all. I had an afternoon flight and they provided so much snacks and meals that I was wondering if someone wanted to make everyone on the airplane fat. Along with the meals were little desserts like fruit, ice-cream, cake, rice cakes, etc.) They had Bibimbap (so excited to try out and ended up eating this meal wayyy too often) and all this array of different foods. But considering that I had to take this airline for a total of 4 times (2 planes there and home) I got sick of the airplane food quick so next time I’ll have to find another one.
One of their meals~
One thing I didn’t like about the airlines was that the movie selection was very limited and so I got pretty bored. BUT, you all probably already know that I’m a Kpop fan and I am glad to say they had full albums (BTS, VIXX, SHINee, WJSN, Sistar, Twice, MAMAMOO, Taeyeon, etc.)!!
Another thing was that the jet lag I had experienced was pretty bad. I actually slept on the airplane for a couple of hours which is very rare for me even flights like this one which is around 15-16 hours long. I usually can stay up the entire flight just watching movies but I guess I’m older now so I tire easier.
Korea There and Back:
The flight to Korea was pretty uneventful. My parents just brought some noodles, Korean street food (sold at the airport) and the two hours I had to stay at Korea had flew by. I couldn’t believe that I was at Incheon/Seoul and wanted to go out so bad. I was in the city where all the Kpop idols and actors/actresses and everything Korean related thing that I loved. But sadly, we left.
When I returned home, I also had to stay at Korea for 2 hours and now things got interesting. I was at a different terminal and there was a gigantic Kbeauty store that combined a ton of brands and that sold both expensive and cheap cosmetics and skincare (of course I had to stop by there!), American cosmetic brands, snack shops, etc. I don’t think the makeup was cheaper because I think it was full priced, but it was duty-free (no tax) and they had AWESOME deals on facial sheet masks.
Hong Kong Week 1:
When I arrived to Hong Kong it was around 10 p.m. I had started my trip the afternoon of July 8 (in America) and arrived late night July 9th (according to Hong Kong time). It took a good half hour to get all the luggage and then some of my family from my dad’s side had come and greet us. After that, we took a train to a city called Tsing Yi where we were going to stay at my Uncle’s apartment. It was nearly midnight by the time we settled down and slept.
For the first few nights, my family and I could not sleep long at all and woke up at 6 a.m. My uncle took this as an opportunity throughout the week to make us go jogging with him and so we did in the humid sunny weather. Tbh, I was pretty happy to do some jogging even though it was hot and sweaty, because I knew I was going to have to over-eating nearly everyday (which I did).
One of the views I got to see while jogging
This is my fourth time at Hong Kong and every trip had a different distinct highlight and this time I would say if I had to sum it all up in three words it would be: Family and Food. Throughout the first week (it settled down a tiny tiny notch the second and third weeks), my relatives from my mom and dad’s sides and their friends would always treat my family for a meal. It was getting ridiculous. Everyone would call my mom or dad and they would have to get my older sister to keep a calendar on her phone in order to keep track of all the appointments we had made. It was nice seeing everyone and even nicer how my relatives and family friends would treat us and I mean I love food, but even though I’m a food person, I could not eat so much everyday every meal.
Oh, one funny thing that I was not used to (my true American colors are being shown~) was that the breakfasts are HUGE. For a cheap price (around $25 -$32 HKD which is $3-$4 USD) you could have a giant bowl of noodles, a Chinese bun or bread, and a hot drink included!! Over here in America, I can say that I am only used to have a slice of bread or a plate of eggs and I’m good. But yeah, after weeks of eating a Chinese breakfast, I was missing my usual Western options like danishes, muffins, etc. I have a hunch that this is a reason why Chinese people are so skinny. I had read a tip about dieting from somewhere and there was this expression: “Eat like a king for breakfast, prince for lunch, and peasant for dinner.” Maybe Chinese people took the most important meal to a whole next level? I have no idea, but I kind of think it was useful. I had breakfast around 8 in the morning and didn’t eat lunch till 2 p.m. (And the crazy thing was that I wasn’t even hungry yet. My over-worrying parents wanted us to eat since we were going to walk a lot.
After one of the meals with relatives, we went late night street browsing at “Ladies’ Market”. This is a pretty touristy place where they sell goods for a cheaper price. You can also haggle with some of the shop owners and usually when it is around the time for them to close up, they even offer more discounts (I think they start to close around 9 or 10 p.m. so be sure to check them out by then!) I think if you want to get souvenirs you should totally check this place out!
And now some street views:
To sum it all up, for the first week, we didn’t do anything special besides seeing everyone again. Part 2 (coming soon) will be about weeks 2 and 3! Also, if you have an Instagram account be sure to check out @kpop9019 for some more trip pictures!
-Pls. leave a comment, like, and follow! Thanks for reading!! And check out @kpop9019 on Insta!
~CY @kpop9019
Kpop9019 