November 13, 2025

To sum up Hong Kong in short, WE DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH TIME!! It was such a cool city. Hong Kong was just a stopover on the way to Vietnam, but I quickly realized I wished we were staying longer.

I was meeting my sister in Hong Kong, who had already been in China for a week on a work trip. The hotel we were staying at was in Central, so once I arrived, I immediately went on a late-night adventure to find some dim sum. I had no clue what I was doing or how to pay for anything in China, nor did I have any cell service. But when dumplings are on the line, you somehow just end up figuring all those little details out.

I wandered until I found a spot that looked popular with locals and non-intimidating. I got some shumai from this little gem.

As I continued my stroll, eating shumai as I walked, I wondered... is this socially acceptable here?

The area felt extremely safe, which is truly all a girl can ask for when wandering alone. Going into this trip, I was very nervous because I had never been to Asia, and I hadn't traveled like this in a while. Right when I landed at the Hong Kong airport, I felt safe, and the entire process was pretty seamless.

As I walked around the neighborhood, I couldn’t help but notice how quiet everything felt. I also noticed there were a lot of young people walking around. I got myself a boba milk tea to end the evening and went back to the hotel to sleep after a long day of travel.

November 14

The next morning, I woke up feeling like I needed to plan out every minute of the day to see everything we wanted to see! We started the day walking from our hotel to the Soho neighborhood. We stopped for breakfast at a cute cafe called Elephant Grounds. The cafe felt very western and was full of students working on their laptops.

Next, we continued to Antique Street, which is exactly as it sounds! Antique shop galore. We popped into a shop called Select-18, which had all sorts of cool antique items. I got some vintage buttons for a clothing item I will eventually make in the future, and Hannah got a Beatles record, the 1st record in her collection. Basically, we both got some super useful items we will definitely use.

Then we popped into the Man Mo Temple and took a quick look around. After that, we continued to bop into random stores until we got hangry and ended up at One Dim Sum, a casual walk-up dim sum spot.

Post-lunch, we wandered into "PMQ" — something I kept seeing on the map, but wasn't sure what it was. Basically, it was heaven for Hannah and me. It was a huge venue filled with small, local, artisan shops with all kinds of items. Most of the stores focused on sustainability and sustainable fashion, so Hannah and I had an absolute ball. It was really cool to see local people's work in a space we are so interested in. Everything was so unique and crafted with such care. We could have spent multiple days just in PMQ, but we eventually had to leave if we had any hope of reaching Victoria Peak for sunset.

We did not make it to Victoria Peak for sunset.

We tried our very best, I swear. PMQ just really held us up. But we also weren't expecting a line as long as it was. I think even if we had gotten there at 4 pm, we wouldn't have made it for sunset. So, disclaimer: the line to get to Victoria Peak is very long.

Once our fate was decided, Hannah led us to try to find our way to the Wan Chai ferry pier, which would take us to Tsim Sha Tsui. After lots and lots of wandering and a bus ride later, we found ourselves at the pier, with 2 minutes to spare!

Hannah’s coworkers recommended we take the ferry at night, and it was a great recommendation! The ferry ride was short, but gorgeous, and an easy way to get from the island to TST. However, once we got into TST, we were instantly overwhelmed. It felt like we had just gone from Brooklyn to Times Square. Hong Kong really did feel like New York City in many ways.

I had wanted to go to the Temple Street Night Market and Sneaker Street, but we didn't make it that far into TST. We did end up trying this amazing soup dumpling place called Cheung Hing Kee Shanghai Pan-fried Buns. It was a casual walk-up spot with nowhere to eat, but the dumplings were delicious.

After that, we both looked at each other and decided we needed to go somewhere to sit down, preferably back in Central. We found our way to a place we had walked by earlier in the day called Call Me Al. This place was also pretty western, but it was a good atmosphere with tasty drinks. Then it was time to head back to our hotel to get some sleep before our 8 am flight to Vietnam!