Day 198: Riding the Mid-Levels Escalator System Between Food Stops
In the mornings here we’ve been doing something we haven’t done all year, and don’t really do at home: Read a physical newspaper at breakfast.
It’s delightful!
One major upside: You can read the news without feeling guilty about staring at your phone in front of your kids. They understand what you’re doing! Or, not really — they’re like, what is that thing? — but at least it’s not our phones.
James was staring at Teddy curiously at one point and asked, “Why are you being like Beepaw Jim?” The only other person he’s ever seen read a physical newspaper is my dad.
After breakfast we did school at a nice leisurely pace, then set out on another roaming adventure.
First, though, had to find a tailor to patch up three pairs of pants (Teddy 2, Margaret 1). There are so many malls in Hong Kong — it’s like the first three floors of its hundreds of skyscrapers are all malls. This particular mall was a tailors-and-seamstress-themed spot — perfect — and Eva took our shredded pants.
From there we subway’d across the water to check out Central and the Mid-Levels, two neighborhoods on Hong Kong island.
The Mid-Levels is where you have the world’s largest covered escalator system, which is a godsend when you’re basically marching straight uphill to get from one nabe to another. They’re these giant moving walkways that have dozens of entry and exit points so you can hop on and off easily if you see something you want to visit (or eat).
It’s all free, and with small kids, it’s an amazing way to see the city. Just glide along past buildings and over busy streets.
Teddy used Google Maps to find a good spot for lunch — a Korean place called (check). It was a small hole in the wall with just enough seating for the four of us. Proud of the kids for trying and liking what we got them.
We rode and wandered and walked and looked around — until we had to get in the AC again, about 45 minutes later.
This time we stopped for a drink at a restaurant in Central. We’d bought the game Mastermind the day before at Toys R Us (remember that game??) and the kids played for a while why we all cooled off with a drink.
Not willing to give up the AC quite yet, we used the time to teach the kids charades, and played for a loooong time. Tried to teach them to do things like “Lion King” or “skyscraper,” but they’re still not totally getting it. Willa tried to act out, “School is my least favorite time of day.” Needless to say we didn’t guess it (and didn’t appreciate the sassiness).
Our server was from the Philippines and told us she thought we were brave for being out in public with our kids given all the unrest/protests going on (there have been mass organized protests every Sunday here for weeks regarding the Chinese extradition law). This was a tad dramatic since we’ve seen zero sign of any protests, and the only violence was very far from town. (Everyone we’ve talked to — from security experts, our hotel and local residents we know — agrees btw.)
We got toothpicks and the kids posed with them, doing their best cool faces. James’s alter-ego “Johnny” was on full display. We were really milking this AC time.
We used the next few hours to do a little more fixing up of our wardrobes — found a J.Crew and Teddy got some new tees and a button down. I got a pair of pants. James got…a new hat! Gasp! Feels like cheating on the O’s hat — we’ll probably ship it home — but it was so cute we had to get it.
Dinner was at 7 at Chili Fagara, a spot recommended by both Anna Voorhees and Jocelyn Moore — two friends from DC who’ve lived here. It was great.
We stopped for a sweet treat at this ice cream shop and cabbed it back to the hotel for a shower and bed.
MISC:
This hotel wins the award for best view of the trip so far. Signs on their marketing stuff even read: If Hong Kong Harbor is a theater, then the InterContinental Hong Kong is the royal box. It’s so fun to just sit and watch it all.
It is very hot and humid here. You forget what serious mugginess feels like until you’re in it. It just drains you completely, and you look like total shit. The latter’s not a prob because who’ve I got to impress, but whoa, the former makes it tough when with kids.
We’ve been showering twice a day.
Another funny observation Teddy pointed out: Why is it that in a new country we’re all about eating the local food…but only for lunch or dinner? At the breakfast buffet we’re just not willing (yet?) to bypass granola, eggs and croissants for dumplings, soup or raw vegetables. True everywhere we’ve been.
