Our lovely and amazing friend, Lin, is covering for us today. We are still in our random parts of the world, not working, and she is allowing us to slack off. THANK YOU LIN! She was in Hong Kong a few weeks ago and from the looks of it, has done the city right. Enjoy! 

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Dear classy readers, Hong Kong is a classy lady.

Readers in Cambodia, you know how time is sometimes not your own in Phnom Penh? For example, you have ten minutes to get to a meeting but the tuk tuk is out of gas so you guys have to stop at a gas station, and then you are late. Or your door knob is stuck so a locksmith shows up with only a hammer…and you know it’s going to be a long few hours. Anyway, when you are on vacation in Hong Kong, your time is very much yours. This might be a virtue of most vacations in über­-metropolitan cities. But you know, this is a post about Hong Kong.

I have four things I would like to tell you.

1. The Big Buddha is so much fun.

On the gondola ride up, you can look down on the hikers doing it the hard way (see photo below, this is the kid to beat on creative selfies). You can feel the vague sense of disappointment when you find out this Buddha was actually built in the 1990s, so not the historical pilgrimage you’d thought. But hey, you can also burn some incense and make a wish for your Chinese grandma. We all had one at some point, no?

2. The walk along the Star Ferry Pier makes you feel like you’re in that Richard Gere/Julia Roberts movie that should have been set in Asia. Especially if you go at golden hour. I recommend getting a couple of Asahi’s, finding a bench you like, and sinking into the scene.

3. Little Chili in North Point was so on point. Get the dumplings in chili oil (紅油抄手) and boiled spicy mutton or beef (水煮牛肉). For the dumplings, the key is in how they execute the chili oil sauce. Nailed it.

4. Sheung Wan is that cool. Get off the MRT at the Sheung Wan station, have a look on Google Maps for how to walk from Sheung Wan station to LOF10, a “I want to live here but damn it’s hard to find” coffee shop with weird hours. Check ahead. I’d go in the morning because you walk by dudes carting around huge mounds of dried pork skin and shops with classic red Chinese character signs selling so much dried fish. Morning commerce bustle at it’s most adorable. If you see a couple doing their wedding photoshoot not anywhere near the day of their wedding ­ that’s cool too. It’s like spotting a deer in Oregon; ubiquitous but still special.

I have three requests for adventurous urbanites.

1. Please go to the Monocle shop in Wan Chai and tell me how great it was. Or wasn’t.

2. Please go to a COS shop and tell me what thrilled you. Working and living in Cambodia, you’d become quite aware of the garment industry and while not anywhere near perfect, H&M (parent company of COS)’s sustainability report is smart, coherent, and at least updated.

3. Please eat at Yardbird and report back on how hip it is. Because from everything I’ve seen, it is so hip it hurts. And who doesn’t want to hurt from being hip. And delicious. I hear it’s delicious.

Details for details people:

We stayed at Butterfly on Waterfront. It was solid in that $100 per night, small room but comfy pillows, clean everything, pretty new fixtures, and in a great neighborhood way.

Flew Vietnam Air for a steal from Phnom Penh. Booked a week ahead for $250 return. But please note that we did have a sweet 12+ hour layover in HMC with a $60 visa fee and a $80 hotel bill (stayed at the Alcove Hotel: solid).