Quick Stopover in HK

Note - The last week or so I really haven't had much time to blog, so this isn't that up to date and I'll be splitting this up into bits otherwise its gonna be a huge novel. Currently I'm on like day 10 of my trip after my week in Seoul. These posts are gonna be pretty sporadic time wise, so expect random day releases instead of the usual Monday ones.

I quite like airports and flying. Turbulence and landing is a bit scary, but to me its all quite an adventure. As long as I have something to do, then I'm totally fine. This means that the 13 hour journey really didn't feel like that since I had my laptop and there are plugs, I just spent most of my time coding and improving my projects. I'm seriously addicted!

I stopped over at Hong Kong for two days before heading to Seoul for a week. Its been really interesting to see my homeland again, its crazy super busy, transportation is super efficient, and quite frankly everything seems the same as I remember it.

HK Airport sooo massive

Outside view of the mountains

Even my mom cant help talk about how there are some great things about Hong Kong, like the "Octopus" card which is for tapping in and out of the metro, and also used as a payment system too. This being around since 1997 was a revolutionary piece of tech, putting the RFDI chips to good use and impressively manages to work inside handbags without having to get them out.

However, its now 2017 and my mom forgets that actually in London the Oystercard system as been around for a while now, and although you cannot use it to buy things, we're seeing the wireless debit cards being used to tap in and out of the tube, therefore cutting out the middle man of needing to add money to a third party card in the first place! We (London)... are more technological!

Interesting motto; "Hear dood sound, see remaining value"

Another thing I have noticed is that wifi is not as free as the UK. Most of them require a signing up, and if a location like a mall gives out 'free' internet it is capped by time! So far I have yet to find anywhere around the world that provides as much free and open internet as the UK. We're so used to it that we don't notice that its everywhere.

Food is amazing in Hong Kong. From high end restaurants, street food, or "dirty" local places (customers traditionally ask for hot water to rewipe their cutlery) they all do awesome food. A cheap place that has done a great job of making a "fast food" chinese restaurant is called "Cafe de Coral" and its awesome. I went for cheesey tomato baked pork chops with rice the first night and it really hit the spot. But of course, we cannot forget the amazing BBQ pork and duck rice.

A classic BBQ pork and duck rice!

ONWARD TO SEOUL

Currently I'm in Seoul until Monday. I stayed in Hong Kong for 2 days and then came here. Every time I go to Hong Kong, which isn't a lot I've been taking some time out to visit my good friend and hang out. Seoul is like a 3 hour flight so its not that bad, this is my fourth visit so far!

I'm gonna be here til next Monday, then I'm off back to Hong Kong for weddings and family birthdays. Its quite hectic and its been quite hard to find the time to blog/code as I've been going out quite a lot til the late nights.

Ramen snacks have a dedicated shelf in Seven Eleven cornershops in Asia!

Seoul is an amazing city,  and quite different to Hong Kong. It seems to have a New York gridlike vibe (so I assume, never been to NYC!) for its main roads, then in between them is smaller roads with hidden gem local restaurants, bars, karaoke, gaming cafes, and cafes everywhere.

Skyscrapers, gridded roads and beautiful views!