My timing for the AEX ride into town was perfect:
I took the Airport Express to Central then went upstairs to the IFC for a coffee at Fuel Espresso. My plan was to spend the morning walking the Ping Shan Heritage Trail in the New Territories, but after visiting the first two sights I became hopelessly bored and walked back to the MTR station.
A pagoda just outside the Tin Shui Wai station.
There's a noodle shop near the Ping Shan trail that I wanted to try, Ho To Tai, but after getting lost twice finding it I realized it was closed, so instead I grabbed a pineapple bun from the bakery next door and headed back towards Central.
Walking around the New Territories
Instead I spent the morning enrolling in eChannel at the immigration office in Wan Chai.
After that, char siew (roast pork) at my favorite lunch spot in Hong Kong, Joy Hing.
I've been coming here for years—I stop in every time I pass through Hong Kong. Cheap, quick and delicious.
Inside of Joy Hing.
There used to be a fantastic coffee place in Omotesando in Tokyo, the appropriately named "Omotesando Koffee", tucked away down a maze of alleys in the area north of Omotesando. Sadly it closed a few years ago but the owner opened a Hong Kong outpost in the mean time.
The Tokyo location was practically a Zen temple to coffee, tucked behind a garden in a quite neighborhood:
The HK location, on the other hand, is 10x the size and in the middle of a brand-new shopping mall in Wan Chai. Fortunately the coffee holds up. After that, and a foot and shoulder massage at Ten Feet Tall, I headed over to the bar with the best cheap view in Hong Kong.
The Beer Bay at Pier 3 in Central, just outside the IFC and conveniently near the Airport Express station. Made some interesting acquaintances—a magazine editor and another writer of some sort—drinking local beers on the steps of the pier before catching the train back to the airport.
Next up: falling asleep in the Pier lounge