Our 4th of July Weekend in Hong Kong

I have to start this post off with a HUGE congratulations to our friends Erin and Ben on their engagement!!! We're so happy for you two, and can't wait to be back in Boston to celebrate with you!


For our fourth of July weekend, we did a mix of American-style things and new experiences in Hong Kong. On Friday night, Bryan and I went to a delicious Cantonese Restaurant that's listed as one of Asia's Top 50 Restaurants - The Chairman. It was so good, and the service was amazing! I forgot to take photos because I was so focused on how yummy everything was - but I think that's a good thing!

Since Saturday was actually the 4th of July, we found an American BBQ to go to in Wan Chai (an area Bryan hadn't been to yet), and it was fun! We had hot dogs, fried chicken, potato salad, pasta salad, and so much more (all of which should be a part of any good bbq!)

After the BBQ, we took the MTR (subway) and went to see Ted 2, which was hilarious! So inappropriate (as all Seth MacFarlane shows/movies are), but so funny. But only go if you like his other shows, like Family Guy, and you appreciate that type of humor, because the movie is offensive to everyone (as usual). After the movie, we met with one of Bryan's co-workers and some of her friends to have dinner at a delicious Korean restaurant called Jang. I'd never had Korean food before, and it was really good. Lots of kimchi in the different types of food, and that was definitely okay with me! For those of who don't know what kimchi is, it's a spicy/sour/salty cabbage dish, but you should just try it for yourself because I don't want to ruin it by describing it incorrectly. We ate everything family-style, and were able to try a lot of different dishes, which I love of course. We also tried a watermelon-infused soju (which is a Korean alcohol), and it was really yummy too. Everything was so good!

View From Dinner - so many narrow, colorful buildings!

After dinner, we went to a bar that Bryan and I had tried the week before, called 001. It is a speak-easy that's hidden in an alley in Central, and it's fun that it's a little difficult to find. There's just a very tiny sign that says "001", a black door, and a lit-up door bell. Once you find the door (hidden among stalls), you ring the doorbell, and they let you in. Although it's technically hidden, it's been called "Hong Kong's worst kept secret" because so many people now know where it is. The drinks are delicious and hand-crafted, but very expensive, so we just tried one. Super fun to try once or twice, but not a regular thing since the drinks are so pricey. We tried a drink called "Thai Summer" (all of them have fun names) and it was sweet, but spicy - making it easy to enjoy it very slowly.

Found the Door!

"Thai Summer"

At this point we'd already had a full weekend, but we decided to do one more big, American-style thing on Sunday - go to Disneyland!! Hong Kong Disneyland is about a 30 minute subway ride away from Hong Kong station, which is about a 10 minute walk from us, so it wasn't too difficult to get to. We wanted to get there right when they opened at 10:00am, so that we could run onto our first ride - Space Mountain of course (the original is still better)! When we got there, we were actually very surprised to find that the park never got that busy. I don't know if it was out of the ordinary for a weekend day, but none of the lines were longer than 5-10 minutes. Some of the rides were the same (Space Mountain, It's A Small World) and some were different. And yes, you're now welcome for getting that song stuck in your head! We went on It's a Small World for our nephew, Nathan, because he loves that ride. My favorite ride at this Disney was the Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. It started off fast, went backwards for part of the ride, and then sped up halfway through - all unexpected surprises, which made it even more fun! There was also a "Frozen" land, which we were really excited to see, but the park staff didn't let us go see the land without watching a 30-minute show, and considering the line for the show was 3 hours long, we didn't find that worth it. I don't agree that you should have to watch the show to see the land itself, but hopefully they'll change that for the future! The land is all inside one building, since it's WAY too hot in Hong Kong for anything to be frozen, so we couldn't see it at all - oh well, we can imagine it :)

Tram to Disneyland - with Mickey handles and all!

Hong Kong Disneyland was a lot of fun, but after 4 hours, we had been on all of the rides (besides the ones for very small children), had lunch (burgers of course!), and walked around the whole park 3 times. There aren't as many lands, and it's definitely a more miniature version of the original, but I think that's changing. This park only opened 10 years ago, and so it seems like they're slowly expanding it to be more of the size of the original park. We also decided to leave after only a half-day at Disneyland because it was over 100 degrees with 95% humidity - so maybe that's why no one else was there.

It's A Small World

Yummy American Lunch!

Overall, it was another wonderful weekend in Hong Kong! We're taking advantage of the weekends we have to explore this new place, and put in some American love this weekend in honor of the 4th of July!