Musings of a Solo Traveler...

This was my first “solo” out of the country trip; that alone makes it memorable. 

Interesting graffitti in one of the posts in Kowloon. These are public announcements on temporary closures, renovation of  places in the next few blocks from the said post. 

My first out of the country trip was as a chaperoned minor and the rest were accompanied by college friends and colleagues. Needless to say, I had the convenience of companion and everything that came with it in all my previous of out of the country travels. Even my domestic trips had always been in groups, and this Thanksgiving itinerary was definitely an exciting but somehow frightful venture. 

Plans, Maps, and Google. With a little help from a friend, I came up with an itinerary with two things in mind: visit as much places and interact with people .I wanted to be away from signature shops as much as possible, my budget in this trip definitely is not within the “Hermes buying people” scale and I didn’t want to waste my time having pictures taken in front of signature stores and monograms. On the contrary, I wanted to be on the streets, wander, ask directions from people, take the cheapest public transport possible and just be spontaneous. 

"Charlie", resting in one of the fire hydrants in Austin Road.

Nathan Road. Midnight after Thanksgiving.

I arrived in HongKong a little over midnight the day after Thanksgiving. Between booking a hotel and lounging around the airport cafes until the first ferry to Macau, I chose the latter. Of course, I took spontaneity to the next level and jumped on the first train I saw out of the airport. That gave me around 5 hours of productive time between me and my backpack “Charlie” in the streets of Kowloon without a plan on hand. 

Instead of getting out of Exit E in Kowloon, I found myself exiting in a flyover and walking on the highway.

Me. Alone. Subway. Midnight. Lost. Picture. 

 After almost and hour of walking, going in and out of subways, I found myself getting lost... This is where is the real fun begins... (to be continued... )