TRIP + PLATE + 365 days
The Hong Kong Observation Wheel (香港摩天輪) is a 60-meter Ferris wheel located on the Central Harbourfront — the reclaimed land waterfront on Hong Kong Island, adjacent to the Central Piers area and the AIA Vitality Park. It opened in 2014 and has become one of Central’s more distinctive landmarks, visible from the Tsim Sha Tsui … Read more
Some transport experiences are purely functional. The Star Ferry is not one of them. I crossed Victoria Harbour on the Star Ferry on the third morning of my January trip — from the Tsim Sha Tsui pier to Central Pier 7 — and the ten minutes on the water gave me a perspective on Hong … Read more
Hong Kong International Airport is one of the best-connected airports in Asia — and getting from the airport to the city is straightforward once you understand the options. I used two different routes on my January trip: the A25 bus on arrival to Tsim Sha Tsui, and the A11 bus on departure from Central back … Read more
Causeway Bay (銅鑼灣) is where Hong Kong goes to shop. Not the tourist shopping of Tsim Sha Tsui’s Nathan Road or the luxury retail of Central — something more democratic and more local than either. The neighborhood on Hong Kong Island’s northern shore, a short MTR ride east of Central, has the highest retail density … Read more
Mong Kok doesn’t ease you in. From the moment you come up from the MTR and hit the street level, the neighborhood announces itself — the density of people, the noise of competing music from adjacent shops, the smell of street food mixing with the exhaust of buses on Nathan Road, the vertical stacking of … Read more
If Tsim Sha Tsui is where you go to look at Hong Kong, Central is where you go to be inside it. I moved from my Kowloon hotel to the AKVO Hotel in Central on the third day of my January trip, crossing on the Star Ferry, and the difference was immediate — the energy … Read more
If you’re visiting Hong Kong for the first time and wondering where to base yourself, the answer for most people is Tsim Sha Tsui. I stayed here for the first two nights of my January trip — at the YMCA Salisbury Hotel, steps from the harbor — and the neighborhood delivered everything a first-time visitor … Read more
Hong Kong has one of the most distinctive food cultures in Asia — a city where a bowl of wonton noodles served in a ten-seat shophouse can be as carefully considered as anything in a Michelin-starred restaurant, and where the morning ritual of yum cha (dim sum with tea) is taken as seriously as any … Read more
Seoul is one of those cities that arrives faster than you expect. You land at Incheon, take the Airport Express into the city, and within an hour you’re standing in a neighborhood where a 600-year-old palace sits three blocks from a convenience store selling the best fried chicken you’ve ever had, with a K-pop song … Read more
Bangkok is a city that operates on its own logic. The traffic moves in ways that shouldn’t work but somehow do. Street food served from a cart on a corner beats restaurants that took months to book. A massage that costs less than a coffee in most cities leaves you feeling better than anything a … Read more