Yesterday my close friend Andrew Hayes and I took a trip to Hong Kong island, exploring the steep, well developed area SOHO (South of Hollywood St.), also known as the mid-levels. We walked south of Yaumatei towards Victoria Harbor, deciding to take the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR exit, passing the district of Jordan on our way down. I noticed an ad that caught my eye once we entered the train station, Kobe Bryant had a black sweatshirt with the numbers 2 and 4 inscribed on his shoulder. The Nike ad promoted their sportswear line, and had other athletes such as Rafael Nadal draped across the wall of the train tracks. It still amazes me how western brands have such a large influence in the retail markets here and in China.
We took the MTR beneath Victoria Harbor to Central Station. Each stop has display boards categorizing different exits by letters, I’ve seen one station go from A – H. Lan Kwai Fong is a collection of streets packed with bars, clubs, and restaurants. This area is swarmed with thousands of people on the weekends including locals, expatriots, exchange students, and other ethnic minorities. During the day it’s not as busy, but we bypassed the commotion on route to the largest series of escalators in the world.
As you have seen in my prior posts, Hong Kong’s topography includes steep hills and cliffs. This escalator system allows locals to cut straight through the meandering roads down to the Hollywood street, where most offices are located. We started this experience by walking up a couple levels of stairs, surrounded on both sides by stands selling Halloween props, graffiti covered walls, and a few small chic restaurants. The escalators are not continuous, allowing riders to casually walk off to grab some groceries at 7/11 or a few drinks at a local bar.
Once we got a few pictures in we took the time to check out some menus. There was an amazing variety of flavor, with restaurants providing cuisines including Mexican, Thai, Portuguese, Italian, French, Greek, and even a gourmet burger joint. We did not expect this many restaurants in such a small area, we got lost for a couple hours hopping from place to place reading menus and snapping pictures. The atmosphere the restaurants created brought me back to the North End in Boston, fumes of garlic and olive oil were in the air. Although those scents had my stomach rumbling we decided to eat at a Mexican restaurant called Taco Loco. I was satisfied with my chicken burrito doused in habinero tobasco sauce. After dinner we called it a night and walked down the stairs back to the MTR. This trip was a great success, as we found some hidden gems providing happy hours and gourmet menus.
