Because Hong Kong is a massive city with next to unlimited things to do

05 Aug Because Hong Kong is a massive city with next to unlimited things to do

Because Hong Kong is a massive city with next to unlimited things to do in it and new events coming along all the time, combined with me only being here for four weeks it means we have a lot to fit in, in such a short space of time.

First up, Bubble football. Two hours inside a giant inflated bubble and trying to play football. Tackling consisted of bashing into people like human bumping cars regardless of whether or not they had the ball. This was a lot of fun, we had a decent sized group and were able to move teams around and give people breaks. Which believe me we needed, it was extremely tiring playing this for any more than 10 minutes consecutively.

Cliff Jumping, this was free apart from transport and I loved it. After this amazing hike through the mountains and getting to see the real Asian landscape of mountains, sea and lakes we arrived at this secluded beach. We were definitely no longer in Hong Kong. After another minor hike up into the mountains again we came across a few lagoons and after hiking up past the waterfall stumbled upon the cliff diving spot. This was incredible; the place was packed with locals and groups of young people travelling who were all just sat around in this secluded lagoon drinking vodka and beer cans all day. I envied their lifestyle; this was an amazingly simple, happy and minimalist way of living. We stayed there for most of the day; jumped off cliffs, played volley ball with the locals and tried to tightrope walk across the lower lagoon. The boat ride back that night was on a boat which was a cross between a speed boat and people transporter. The water was choppy at the start and bombing it over big waves made your stomach jump (similar to an experience of a rollercoaster), it was an incredible experience and an impeccable way to end the day.

Today I went to Ryze Trampoline park, the equivalent of €12 will get you in for an hour on 40 trampolines, 2 foam pits, a dodgeball arena with trampoline floors and a basketball hoop with a trampoline angled at 45 degrees under it. I looked at it and thought I’d get bored after 20 minutes of bouncing up and down repeatedly. However, it actually didn’t get boring. Falling into a foam pit is a weird sensation, you don’t feel anything. When you fall into water it doesn’t hurt but you feel the water, when you fall on a trampoline it doesn’t hurt but you feel the trampoline. Foam, you feel nothing. It’s a peculiar sensation. I stayed in there for the full hour, however I did sort of reach my physical fitness limit after about 40 minutes.

We tried Karaoke another night. They put you in a room with a TV, a touch screen to select from a massive variety of songs, a drinks menu for the night and a few microphones. We arrived at 9pm and finished up well after 12. More showed up than expected so the room we had was somewhat slightly cramped, which worked way better because it resulted in people standing up and passing microphones around to each other. It made the atmosphere in our room unbelievable. Checking the other rooms it was 4 – 5 people sitting on a coach nervously singing. Our room was 20+ people stood up (on the floor and on couches) battling for control of the mic and belting out drunkenly every song that came on.

Finally, I think the one event no intern who was there will ever forget. Last Monday three of us went to Wan Chai after work, around 8 o’clock we found a bar with open mic night comedy. Watching onwards Ivan (the intern who broke the sliding glass door) decided that next Monday he would try it.

A week later, our last Monday in Hong Kong, Bar 109 was packed with Absolute Interns all there to see Ivan’s performance. It was a small back room dedicated to comedy so we genuinely took up maybe 60 – 70 % of the place. The host comedian talked to everyone in the audience and after slagging us all off a bit quickly discovered that the place was almost all interns. This resulted in Ivan getting introduced with: “And now here’s the guy that I think nearly all of you came out to see…”. Immediately, in typical Ivan fashion he unintentionally broke the microphone. The total cost of the night was nothing (apart from two pints I bought) and it was honestly one of the best nights I’ve had in Hong Kong and almost definitely the most memorable.

Their is my quick guide to Hong Kong on a budget for day trips and night activities. I aim to try everything at least once and so far I’m not regretting it.