I packed light, both as a challenge and an opportunity. I only have one carry-on suitcase and my CPAP. In that suitcase are four outfits, a universal outlet adapter, voltage converter, water bottle, toiletries, iPad, power cables, travel documents, and a collapsible backpack, plus a few things I’m toting for my sister. The trip is almost two weeks, to Hong Kong and Thailand, with my older sister, Stori.

I didn’t expect to go to Thailand so soon. I’ve only been interested in the country for a few months, ever since Netflix recommended a Thai TV show to me and I fell hard into the Asian BL rabbit hole. I started learning to read the alphabet so I could correctly read characters’ names, but I wasn’t really planning on learning the language until my sister asked me if I wanted to accompany her during spring break. If left on my own I would’ve probably taken another year or three before feeling confident enough to try booking a visit, but my sister is currently living in her third Asian country so if anyone can help me survive a vacation without knowing the language its her.

I got to the airport a little over four hours before departure. I hadn’t expected to take the fast route, but traffic wasn’t bad. So I grabbed a salad at the Denny’s across the street to waste some time. Back to the airport and through security. They double-scanned my suitcase, but didn’t end up opening it up for a manual inspection. I bought some compression socks at Stori’s recommendation, then waited for the flight to board.

This was certainly the longest flight I had ever taken. My flights to and from Europe a few years ago stopped in Iceland and maxed out around 9 hours. This one was a little over 13. From Seattle it followed the coast up to Alaska, over to Russia, then down past Japan and Taiwan in to Hong Kong. It left at 1am, took 13 hours, and we never saw the sun. With the 15 hour time difference it was 5:45 am the “next day” when we landed, but my phone said 2:45 pm, until it connected and got the local time.

First sunrise on the other side of the world. It was still dark under the clouds.

The flight itself was cool. I went with “premium economy” which got me a slightly better seat and probably much better food, though I don’t know what either of the other classes got. I didn’t want to add an extra $3000+ for the little business class cubicles. I’m saving that level of splurge for when I can do proper first class extravagance (e.g. Qantas Airlines). The food was pretty awesome. We had dinner at 2 am Seattle time shortly after taking off, then breakfast around 3 am Hong Kong time, shortly before landing. I had a window seat, which was pretty boring for most of the flight except when I noticed Japan below us. I managed to finish two movies: Mirai and The Travelling Cat Chronicles. Both were really good, and the cat chronicles got me softly crying and then didn’t let up for ten minutes.

The sun was finally starting to rise as we landed, so while everything was still lit up during the descent, by the time I got out of the airport it was daytime.

First glimpse of Hong Kong.

I got through immigrations and customs very fast, despite having to backtrack to fill out the landing card. Compared to my attempt to enter the UK, this was a piece of cake. I’m almost disappointed they didn’t ask me any questions. I had all the right answers this time…

I promise, eventually I’ll get decent at selfies. We looked around for a background that could signify Hong Kong. Stori said these signs were good enough :)

I met Stori and we headed for the trains. She had to get to work and we had to travel to the other side of Hong Kong to get there. She had picked up an “Octopus Card” for me to use getting through the metro turnstiles, but my first attempt went very wrong. Stori went through first, but I was pushing my suitcase in front of me, so it pushed the bar that was supposed to be me. And since obviously only one person can go through per swipe, I was now stuck on the wrong side of the gate. And double tapping isn’t allowed either. I kept trying but it wouldn’t budge. We think of getting me a normal ticket, but I don’t know what destinations or lines to request, and the machine on Stori’s side of the gate wasn’t responding to the card. Eventually she tried tapping my card going the opposite direction, so it would count me as exiting the station. But the turnstile still didn’t want to let me through. Before things got any crazier, though, she had me try the “priority” gate for bigger things like strollers and wheelchairs. And it opened up for me. So the moral of the story is this: don’t push your suitcase ahead of you or it’ll steal what’s rightfully yours.

Riding the trains and buses across Hong Kong got me my first taste of the country. We were ahead of rush hour so nothing was painfully crowded, but the humidity instantly reminded me of Hawaii, and it was great fun riding the bus along winding roads on the left side of the street with cliffs on both sides of the road.

Lush green flora, high humidity, low clouds, and mountains? Are you sure this isn’t Hawaii?

We got to Stori’s house and she gave me the quick tour before heading to work. I showered and took a little nap, but woke up when she came back to prepare lunch during her break. We chatted a little more about hot water and inductive cooking and what we might want to do tonight. I said I’d probably sleep a little more, but after she left I caught up on some internet. Then a little after noon when I could have gone to sleep again instead I kept thinking, this is my first chance to get outside on my own. So after triple-checking that the key would let me back in I left the house.

I immediately found another tiny bump. My sister lives in buildings owned by the school where she teaches. Access is gated (she gave me the code), but what I hadn’t expected was you have to enter the code to leave. This makes perfect sense when you think about it. But I didn’t know how to open the gate and wondered if I would have to go the other direction and into the school itself in order to leave. But I looked around a bit more and saw a keypad on the wall nearby. Freedom!​

Look who’s wearing shorts for the first time this year.

I backtracked a little bit until I reached Stanley Plaza, where I was immediately approached by a few students (I’m guessing 8 years old or younger) and their teacher. The kids were holding an iPad and explained (I missed a few words so I’m assuming) that they were learning about different tourists and wanted to ask me some questions. They asked where I was from, why I came to Hong Kong, what I like about the city, and if I’d like to come back sometime. The teacher helped them check off my responses, then they thanked me and moved along. As I continued my stroll I enjoyed seeing all these kids approaching other people and asking them the same questions. I only had the one group talk to me, though.

I eventually made my way around the little bay to the other side where people were climbing on the rocks and taking pictures. I sat and savored the breeze for a bit, listening to people talk.

Next I wandered through the market. Tons of options for clothes, art, and souvenirs. I didn’t stop to look closely at anything, partly because just then my goal was to quickly absorb atmosphere, but also because I haven’t got any local cash yet and I would rather come back with Stori than haggle on my own.

I decided to grab some quick food to tide me over until dinner. So that ruled out a sit-down restaurant, and I didn’t want to try something like a street vendor (which I didn’t see nearby anyway) without cash. There was a little grocery store, but I decided it wouldn’t be a dreadful sin to have my first meal be at McDonald’s, especially since I followed a group of students in so it’s suitably local, right?

First Hong Kong meal. I’m claiming the difficulty in ordering at a purely Chinese kiosk makes up for the fact that it’s American food.

I stood and watched everyone for a bit to try and figure out how to do everything. They had the kiosks for self-order, but also a line for talking to a person. I assumed that the kiosk would have some support for English so I picked that option.​ But once my turn came I couldn’t find any button, and none of the menu options had English subtext like the big menus did. At least I knew what I wanted and the pictures were suitable for me to pick it out. The real scare came when it came time to pay. I knew I could tap my phone, but which of the four buttons do I press to make that happen? Happily the first button I pressed triggered the “please complete this transaction using the keypad below” dialog and I got my receipt.

I’ve become a big fan of bubble tea recently. I had to order this as “black tea latte with pearls,” a sentence that I would not even understand a few months ago.

Then to finish the outing I grabbed a thing of bubble tea and sat at a table to people watch. Pretty quickly the students filed off. A few other tour groups or clumps of tourists meandered by. And at one point a wild boar moseyed out of an alley and into the nearby bushes. If Stori hadn’t warned me about the pigs I might have been as confused as the people around me.

I returned to the cottage and wrote up what you’ve read so far. By the time I was almost done Stori had returned and we discussed plans for the evening. Did I want hustle and bustle or calm beach vibes? We settled on both and left to catch a bus.

We rode a few stops down to Repulse Bay, a name which will forever amuse me. We joined a bunch of people on the beach, almost none of which were actually touching water. I took my shoes off and stepped in so waves could lap against me and bury my feet an inch deep. I took a few pictures and a quick video, then we picked up and walked down the beach to my first temple of the trip.

I got a chance to read some Thai since several of the plaques were written in it, though I didn’t know what any of the words actually meant. We got a few selfies which often got accidentally photobombed by the only other group of people in the area.

After the beach and temple we got back on the bus to Causeway Bay for dinner and shoe shopping. We both got some sandals for getting wet in Thailand, then looked at a bunch of food options. We ate at the Hungry Korean. Before my food arrived I thought about taking a picture, and when I had about five bites left I remembered that thought. But between those two points there was no thought of photos. When it came time to pay Stori remembered that this place was cash-only, and I just happened to have pulled some from an ATM at the beach. I also ended up paying for Stori’s check since she had left her wallet at home. We joked about casually paying for a $104 dinner, but that’s actually just $13 USD.

The food looked good before I ate it. I promise.

Catching the bus back home.