In the mood for Hong Kong

Given Hong Kong’s proximity to the Philippines, it’s not surprising that it’s typically among the first few destinations people go to when they first take trips out of the motherland. My seventh birthday gift wasn’t a big party like most kids have; it was my first international trip — to Hong Kong. I’ve been back rather frequently ever since.

Despite returning practically every other year, though, I realize I haven’t really seen much of the place. In my mind, Hong Kong is where we go every July (my birth month — how convenient that it falls on annual sale season!) to shop and eat in Kowloon. Sure, we’ve done the touristy bits — Victoria Peak, Ocean Park, and Disneyland — but we never really veered more than a few kilometers away from the general area of Harbour City. In all these years, I never even managed to make it to Central. Just to illustrate my ignorance of the other aspects of HK: “You party in Hong Kong?” I once asked a friend incredulously. Her reply: “Girl.” (But what happens at Lan Kwai Fong stays there, so none of that here.)

I didn’t think a trip to Hong Kong was in the cards for me this year, until I received an invitation from Cathay Pacific and the Hong Kong Tourism Board to see it from an entirely different point of view than the one I was accustomed to. Hong Kong, during sale season? Only an idiot would say no.

We took a morning flight from Manila on Cathay’s Business Class — bumped up from their Premium Economy, which we were originally supposed to be on, with more comfortable seating and fewer seats. It was different from many other Business Class sections I’d been seated in previously because there were only four to a row, and each seat was like its own little suite. Glass of bubbly in hand, book on my lap (which ended up forgotten because I decided to watch True Detective instead), I was ready to get down to business.

After offloading my half-empty suitcase (you know what this means) in my room at the OZO Wesley — a quaint little boutique hotel in Wanchai with a decorative focus on sleep, as well as crazy comfy beds — we headed out to The Coffee Academics in Causeway Bay for an afternoon snack. As a recovering caffeine junkie, there is no smell more lovely or more agonizing than freshly brewing coffee, and the beautifully decorated interior of The Coffee Academics was suffused with it. Brick walls and visible fuselage blended perfectly with elegant, antiqued chandeliers and decorative mirrors to create a truly gorgeous space. It’s unlike many of the coffee shops that have sprung up in Manila of late (though EDSA BDG’s still a fave, but I digress).

I loved that, since they brew their own unique blends of coffee there, you can actually order your own custom blend (for a special occasion, like a wedding giveaway, or just for kicks because you’re classy and you deserve it) based on a checklist of flavors you enjoy. That day, though, we tried their Hong Kong Blend, a blend created with the locals’ preference for sweetness and mildness in mind. Even taken black, sans cream and sugar (sorry, I love caffeine but I’m not a purist), the blend was delicious.

Sufficiently reenergized, I hit the nearby Sasa to stock up on more cosmetics I really didn’t need — it is virtually impossible for me to see that big pink sign without entering — and then the HMV across the street to finally, finally give in to the longtime urge to get started on a proper record collection (“Homogenic” and “Siamese Dream”).

Pockets a little lighter, we walked to Times Square for dinner (at the Modern China Restaurant, where we were fed enough Chinese cuisine to feed a small country), where I spotted a familiar figure keeping watch atop the clock tower: Batman, the love of my nerdy life. (Okay, maybe not the love of my nerdy life — that’s a toss-up between Nightwing and Loki.) Just my luck, we happened to be in Hong Kong in time to catch the 75th Anniversary Batman Exhibition in Times Square, with a giant mock-up of the original cover of Detective Comics #27 (a special edition of which they gave away last weekend) and a bunch of Batmobiles (and then some) on display.

Shopping Central

Everyone goes there to shop, but my prior experience of Hong Kong shopping has been limited to any store within Harbour City that doesn’t go over HK$300 an item and the H&M across the street. I knew that Hong Kong was full of small boutiques packed with all sorts of interesting things; I just never ventured to the other island to check them out.

Charlotte Hwang of accessory store The 9th Muse took us on a walking tour through the steep streets of Central, where we checked out every single shop that caught our eye — and they all caught our eye. Gough Street’s windows were dressed up in kitschy tchotchkes, and the stores we went into made me wish I had more money to spend — Goods of Desire, with its Hong Kong-inspired clothes, accessories, and housewares; Visionaire, with cool home accessories that reminded me a little of our own Bleach; Callixto, with an assortment of great rings that I needed on my hands yesterday; Homeless, which was like Quirks on crack and where I wish I could shop for everyone’s Christmas gifts. I hit up the high street stores when I’m in Hong Kong, but these were the ones with real character. (Or maybe I’m prematurely nesting, hence my obsession with home décor for a home I don’t even own yet.)

Just a short walk away: PMQ, another unique shopping experience. Formerly the Police Married Quarters, the individual spaces in the complex have been converted into restaurants (like Tai Lung Fung, where we had old-school Cantonese), coffee shops, cupcake shops, exhibits, pop-up shops, design studios, and assorted stores selling what seemed like everything under the sun. It’s a homegrown creative hub that reminded me a little of The Collective in Malugay, but on a much bigger scale. And we lucked out, because the World Wildlife Foundation’s 1,600 pandas were paying PMQ’s courtyard a visit while we were there. (They were crazy cute, but there to illustrate precisely how many pandas are left in the world today: not nearly enough.)

The best way to recuperate after a huge Thai/Indian dinner (at a restaurant called Spice) and one’s first foray into the utter chaos that is Lan Kwai Fong on a Friday night (utter chaos is an understatement) is definitely a morning bumming on the beach. Here’s something I didn’t know about Hong Kong: They have beaches! And their beaches are just a 30-minute MTR-plus-shuttle ride away from the city center. A well-deserved nap on the sand of Shek O, the sound of waves crashing on the shore — a perfect way to recharge for a final afternoon of shopping.

With pretty much every last dollar spent and all my purchases from Cos (keeping my fingers crossed that they never bring the brand here because I’m selfish like that) packed into my now-full suitcase, we set off for the Hong Kong International Airport — among the world’s best — to do our last Hong Kong tour: a tour of the five Cathay Pacific Business lounges, where one (The Wing) had a noodle bar with the best dandan noodles ever (according to everyone I know who had those; I chose to have udon) and a coffee bar, and another (The Bridge) had showers that were much, much nicer than those in some hotels I’d stayed in (you know, for freshening up in the middle of long-haul connecting flights because few things feel as gross as being in the same clothes for a full 24 hours). For the use of the lounges alone, I’d shell out for Business (or beg my dad for the upgrade).

I’m pretty sure Hong Kong is always going to be a practically annual destination for me, whether it’s for a birthday shopping spree or if Radiohead (or another band I love) flies into the region and doesn’t swing by Manila (because the best ones never do). So it’s not a far stretch to say that I’ll be going back. But next time I go, I’ll be ready — with more on my list of things to see of the Hong Kong I only discovered this time around (it’s bigger than Harbour City, who knew? Not me!), and more importantly, much, much more shopping money.