Hey everyone! We spent 6 days in Hong Kong taking pictures, eating foreign food and getting elbowed in the face. Hong Kong is an amazing, international, beautiful city - We had a fantastic time, but realized after even a few days of arriving that keeping your sanity in Hong Kong demanded a certain zen-like mind control.

Not to worry! We at goodfishies.com have compiled a simple 3 step program to safely get you through your trip to Hong Kong called the Goodfishies.com Hong Kong Survival Guide.

STEP 1: push.
STEP 2: shove.
STEP 3: repeat.

That’s it! Blending in with the locals is fairly easy in Hong Kong if you just keep focused on the 3 steps.

We stayed 3 nights in the Butterfly Hotel on Pratt st (no, it doesn’t get a link. it sucked. ammending survival guide: STEP 4: don’t stay at the butterfly hotel.) At least the location was good! We were right in the middle of a great area called TST (Tsim Sham Tsui) on Kowloon. Lots of food, tons of bars! Wandering TST, you’ll find (excessively) high-end shopping on Canton rd (Louis Vuitton has bouncers), Hip restaraunts, bars & lounges on Nutsford st. and a nightly (and touristy but AWESOME) 8:00PM laser light show on the south shores facing Hong Kong island!

Upon arriving in Hong Kong, getting to your Hotel is priority one. Pay the big bucks and take the airport express train to wherever you need to go, it’s simple and fast and after being stuck on an airplane for a few hours (where the pushing and shoving as already begun) you deserve the treat. The man at the ticket window can help you figure out which station is nearest you hotel (download and print the hotel’s map before leaving!). Unless your hotel is immediately next to the station, take a cab. After you’ve dropped off your luggage and raided the minibar, go get some noodles, dammit!

If you’ve never walked the streets of an Asian mega-city before (japan doesn’t count, they’re too polite) get ready for a workout. People will literally push you out of their way to get where they are going. This is especially true in the busiest parts of Hong Kong Island, or near any closing bus/tram/metro doors. It’s not rude behavior, it’s just how it’s done… It’s cultural. Just watch what others are doing, and do it too. (okay, maybe it’s kinda rude.) If you have large, heavy objects, place them in front! And it helps not to make eye contact with the person you are about to slam shoulders with. And definitely, definitely, definitely don’t carry your wallet in your back pocket, dumb-dumb.

Another thing to help you keep your sanity is to change scenery often. Okay, true - the essence of Hong Kong lies in the busiest of places: Hong Kong Island, or TST. But a 40 minute subway ride in just about any direction will seemingly bring you to a whole other world entirely! When you’re feeling tired of the crowds, go check out Lantau Island, or take a day trip to Macau. We did both! (Tai-O is INCREDIBLE. go.)

Don’t bother with the train on the way back to the airport. Unless you’re dog-tired and clawing your way out of the country, take the MTR (Hong Kong’s metro system) to Tung Chung station and take a 5 minute cab ride across the bridge to the airport, it’s half the price!

For us, Hong Kong was a heavenly mecca of foreign food: Indian, Turkish, Japanese, Vietnamese, Canadian (mmm, poutine!) and even Mexican!! Being that we’ve been living in Asia for a year and a half, we were more interested in food from OTHER parts of the world than Cantonese food, but no matter your taste, you’ll find it in Hong Kong. And just about everyone speaks either English or Mandarin (often both), so don’t worry about the language barrier either. It’s quite possibly the most international city in the world.

Hong Kong is a busy, busy city - day and night. It can be hard to keep the energy level up- even on a short trip… so do take it easy. (afternoon naps are your friend!) Either way you’ll never, ever run out of things to do …Oh! -and make sure your bank account is nice and full before your trip. Hong Kong is eeeexpensiveeee!

Just remember the 3 steps 4 steps!
Have fun in HK!

-Goodfishies