Hong Kong Culture Shock

I want to apologize in advance for all of my readers who love Hong Kong. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have become a little exhausted from traveling for so long.  I've met several people on this trip who are traveling for several months or years or around the world, and honestly I have no idea how they can do it.  After three weeks of repacking my backpack and overnight buses, I was longing for my home base in Baoding.  By the time we got to Hong Kong last Friday, after a 15 hour overnight bus ride through Spring Festival traffic, I was running low on energy and enthusiasm.  Added to that was some confusion with my debit card, the exorbitant prices of everything in Hong Kong compared to mainland China, and the unfriendly nature of our hostel.  I spent the first two days in Hong Kong watching Ellen Degeneres videos on YouTube and going to American movies in the mall across the street with my friend Katie.  Despite my best efforts to have a horrible time, Hong Kong started to grow on me, and I know I will be back someday to really see and experience the city.

Hong Kong is very different from mainland China.  It was a British territory until 1997 when it was given back to China, and it still retains some autonomy from China, at least for now.  Because of this, English is very widely spoken in Hong Kong.  In fact, Mandarin Chinese was entirely useless, and it was slightly disorienting to be somewhere where everyone spoke English.  I tried to learn some Cantonese phrases, but for some reason nothing stuck.  I kept thinking in Mandarin, and at restaurants or such places, I would immediately think "xie xie" but stop myself from saying that only to think "thank you" and stop myself from saying that only to hesitantly whisper the Cantonese "m goi " after the waiter had already gone.  
Other than struggling to master even the most basic phrases in Cantonese, I spent my time in Hong Kong eating lots of international food (Korean, American, Indian, British etc.), wandering around various markets and enjoying a few western luxuries.  I did go to Victoria's Peak one day, but I didn't get any good pictures because it was too foggy.  After a few very lazy days and way too much time in Starbucks with the free wifi, I actually started to wish I had more time in Hong Kong to explore after I had recovered from my travels.  But, as with so many other parts of this trip, that is just another reason to go back someday.