Oh wow...yeah this was a fun post and really took me back in time too!
my normal mantra of wanting to see the "real life" of a place as opposed to the fancy "touristy" spots kicked my butt and madam google was tossed out the window.
My hubby and I do this too... we like to go hang with the locals... choose the backstreets over the grand avenues, choose the working class street cafes over the touristy restaurants... immerse ourselves in local life.
When we were in Paris one year... we couldn't find anything vegetarian to eat... and the restaurants well hell pricey with no promise that anything other than escargot and frogs legs were on the menu.... so we looked at each other and were like... you know what... who do you see when you look around here.... TOURISTS. ONLY TOURISTS... but where do the locals eat then??? hahaha so we walked off the Champs Elysees and back a few streets and there we found an awesome working class diner/cafe...and we got this massive plate of food to eat... like here it would be called a sharing plate lol.... and it was like 5 euro at the time... which compared to the 18 euros minimum being asked on the Avenue, was a steal!
Another time we chose to stay away from the hustle and bustle in Montmartre...just a short walk from the Sacre Coeur... we had a little bakery on the corner and grabbed breakfast there and in the evening we went for a walk and found ourselves sat a little bar/cafe opposite the Moulin Rouge and drank G&T's til 2 am watching the windmill go round and round and the people go by... It was so chill.
So I am glad you ditched google on this occasion!!! May you ditch it forever more... as I am certain you will get a chance to travel again someday. That bus trip looked fascinating... some awesome pics of local living ❣️And it looks like you had a fabulous day in HK and Kowloon and so special to get to witness that personal ceremony up close and have the locals interact with you like that.
embarrassingly I did do a long repeated loop about three times before I clicked that something was wrong hehe... the place was like a city on it's own to me
haha, tell me about it... we had to switch check-in areas twice for one trip leaving Hong Kong and it felt like we were trekking to the other side of the world!😂
I spent some time in Hong Kong myself in the early 2000's... my hubby contracted in China from 2000 - 2007. I spent the first 4 months staying with him in a development town about 2 hours from Hong Kong by Catamaran, up the Pearl river delta (about an hour by bus into Guangzhou). But we used to go to HK once a month for me to renew my visitor's visa... and then we would spend the weekend there... for me it was always PIZZAHUT that I looked forward to hahaha... and I am now vegan !LOLZ ... but eating just Chinese style food every single day... I would crave something Western... We used to stay at the big gold glass hotel overlooking the Kowloon harbour (where the ferries would come in). Surprisingly quiet reasonably priced! On one such trip to HK we decided to go out for drinks... and found ourselves in Planet Hollywood... and there were these American Navy blokes eating there too. They caught our attention as they were loud and were clearly having a great time. Then they left... we carried on for a bit and then decided to move on to Hard Rock Cafe. When we got there and went to the bar, lo and behold who should be there but the same guys haha... Anyway we ordered our drinks and sat down at a table nearby and we were just chatting.... next thing they call us over and they've bought us drinks... drinks arrive... we all get chatting and numerous rounds later we are like best mates ROFLLLLLL... they all signed my t-shirt with marker pen .... one even drew a pic of their ship on it 🤣and they invited us on a tour of their ship too... sadly when we got to the port the next day, they had received orders to ship out so it was only a quick cheers and they were on their way... but it was a super fun time had in HK. I'm glad you got to experience it on your way to NZ.
And now I cannot wait for your NZ posts!!! I have never been there but we have friends who live there...so you never know...maybe one day!
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Hehehe……..definately sounds like we operate the same way and love the sounds of the adventures that you & your hubby have had with good laughs about Hong Kong lol.
I have heard that food prices are crazy in central Paris and would also go in search of the locals…..sounds like you scored big time by doing so.
My mind likes playing mind games with me about weird types of food and snails & frogs are definately not food bleeeeegh hehehe!
I got quite hungry when wandering around North Point and Kowloon and at one stage I passed through a live fish/ seafood market where I saw some the weirdest, never seen creatures swimming in buckets for sale….quickly gave that a miss hehe. Later I walked past a local/ non franchise takeaways shop that was full of locals (In my one photo.) There was rotisserie/warmer in the window full of bright yellow things that resembled roast chickens along with cooked dark brown small animals that I had no clue of what they were and gave that one a miss too lol.
I eventually waited till I got back to the airport and bought a cheese & tomatoe sandwich from an American franchise coffee shop there hehehe!