Day 228: Vanilla Coke

I phoned Ailish this morning and we decided to make plans to hang out for the day. I hadn't seen her since the airport when we first arrived and her plans sorta overlapped with mine anyways. On my way to go and meet up with Ailish I popped into a 7-11 to pick up some snacks for the day and was THRILLED to discover one of my favourite treats - Vanilla Coke!!!

Now I have to say that I'm a Pepsi boy at heart through and through, but I absofuckinglutely love Vanilla Coke! IT'S SO DAMN GOOD! And, amongst the great tragedies of all tragedies, it is not available in Korea. But there it was, available for my purchase in Hong Kong, just beckoning me, calling me, seducing me, teasing me, from behind the glass of that 7-11 fridge. SOLD! There's actually been plenty of great treats that I've found in HK that I can't get in Korea, including Snapple, Crunch bars, non-gross gum, a variety of sweetened iced teas (Hong Kongians seem to love iced tea almost as much as I do) and a plethora of other delectables that I had not laid eyes upon since leaving Canadian soil. Hooray for foreign travel!

I met up with Ailo, her Mom, and sis at the MTR station near their hotel and we decided to go and check out Stanley today. We hopped on one of those uber-cool double-decker trolley cars and rode through the crazy streets of Hong Kong to Central, smiles on our tourist faces and semi-tropical breezes blowing gently through our hair. From there we caught a bus (double-decker again!) that took us up and over the mountain of Hong Kong island. It was an absolutely breathtaking bus ride (who knew that city bus rides could actually be breathtaking?) that awarded us with spectacular views of first the forest of skyscrapers in Hong Kong, and then the beautiful beaches, coves, and hillside villas of the island's backside.

We arrived in Stanley which is one of the many 'villages' that lie scattered along the backside's ruggedly gorgeous coastline. It was truly a world away from the rest of the city. Only minutes ago we were surrounded by skyscrapers and crowds, and now we were in a garden oasis surrounded by lush green mountainsides and bright blue waters. You'd never believe that all that HK chaos lay just behind our backs...

Stanley is known for its market so we cruised around there for a while browsing all the little shops and stalls. After lunch we wandered down to Stanley Beach. The sand was really soft, and the waters a vibrant aquamarine colour, but it was unfortunately full of bits of garbage floating on the surface. A real tragedy considering how beautiful the rest of the surroundings are, but I guess a reality considering its location next to a city of 7 million people. On the beach I actually ran into Marianne again, who was chillin' at Stanley with another fellow traveller - Richard from Wales. Us four kids chatted for a while and then made some plans to meet up later for drinks.

After Stanley we briefly checked out Aberdeen - another coastal 'village' (full of dozens of 40-story apartment towers) - before concluding that there wasn't a whole lot to see there and it was in our best interests to head back into the city. Today was the beginning of Mid-Autumn Festival which is the second-biggest holiday in China and there was supposed to be lots of cool festivities going on that night.

We bussed back into the city and made our way to Victoria Park to check out the Festival. The Festival turned out to be 'just alright' as it was mostly just a few lanterns, some not-so-talented local talent performing, and about five billion people crowded into one little park. It was still hot and humid and were were all tired and hungry so we made an early departure. We cruised on over to SoHo which is a very funky neighbourhood full of trendy restaurants. Italian was calling our name so we chowed down on some chicken parmesan at a really cool restaurant called Fat Angelo's. Yum!

After dinner Ailish and I met up with Marianne and Richard and headed over to Lan Kwai Fong to grab some drinks at one of the many bars. We picked a place and went on in, parked ourselves down, and ordered a round. It turned out to be a really fun night, sharing travel and life stories with our two new friends, doing a little dancing, and enjoying quite a few drinks. Next thing I knew it was after 3am and I was ready for bed. Marianne and I chose to MTR it back home while Ailo and Richard went on to another bar for another round. Rides on the subway are always fun when you're drunk and we were back at the glamourous Mirador Mansions before we knew it. My last full day in Hong Kong had sadly come to a close...but at least it ended on a high. :-)