Jet Setting in Hong Kong

At an outdoor meat market. No ice or refrigeration. Just fresh stock every day.
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Fish market. Same info as above. This is why I like living close to water. Fresh food.
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Evening in downtown Central.
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An Egg vendor displays his fresh duck eggs. Mmmm, looks good.
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Two shots of the skyline. The first looking over the stadium in Central HK island, the second looking over Kowloon on the mainland.
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Indulging my shopping side, a bag worth as much as the camera I shot it with at a display in Louis Vuitton.
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Lunch hour near the stock exchange. People everywhere.
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The mysteries of Asia are one degree less mysterious, after having spent the past two days in Hong Kong. It was a quick trip, with the main goal to attain my working visa.

I flew out of Hangzhou on Sunday night. Thanks to a typhoon in Hong Kong, my 6:30 pm flight turned into a 10:30 flight. This put me into HK airport at 1 am, an hour in customs, 20 minutes to sort out transport to the city and one expensive 40 minute cab ride and I finally made it to my hotel at a little before three am.

I awoke at 7am after a wonderfully short 4 hour sleep so that I could go stand in line at immigration. I was there at 8:30, doors open at 9 and at the longest point, there was close to 500 people all waiting to get a visa. Luckily the vast majority of them were behind me.

I am not going to say too much about the acquiring of the visa, as it is simply a tale of paperwork and endless lines.

I will talk about something though that most males just can't get into, Fashion.


I thought Toronto has a booming fashion scene. And for all intensive arguments, in North America it does. It, however, can't come anywhere near the magnitude of Hong Kong. I spent much of my time in the shopping district near Central. Here you can find street markets with famous brand knock-offs for pennies on the dollar. Pick a brand, the more costly the original, the more prolific the fake.

For those with money to burn, a quick jaunt to IFC and any of the connected buildings, you will find the mecca of fashionista styles. A quick run down of the stores reads like the credits of Fashion File with Tim Blanks.

From the well known like Dolce and Gabbana, Louis Vuitton and versace to the more underground brands for the die-hard label followers.

In the end, I walked away with some new shirts from the street market.

As many people know. I like watches. I like all sorts of watches. What many don't know is that I have a bit of a fetish for watches. I have a box of them in Canada. Some designer, others run of the mill. Nothing really that great other than a nice Philippe Starck.

Add to that now a killer Tissot. Automatic winding, mechanical, big and not cheap. I indulged. I had to. I was in HK and the mood just got to me.

Two days is HK is not nearly enough time. What I did learn in that short trip is that HK is probably my favorite city in the world at this point. I look forward to going back with more time and more money...