HONG KONG VLOG | what i ate, viral street markets and shopping

I'm in Hong Kong right now. I'm very far from home. Already it feels so different. There's so many people. It's a very busy place. The buildings are so big. Indoors is AC but as soon as you leave you are just met with like such thick heat. So we shall see how I cope with that this week. I'm very excited. I think one of the cool things about travelling is that you get to experience such different worlds and this definitely feels very different from the UK. I recently bought a film camera. This is the Olympus AF10 Super and I've done two rolls of film on it already and I love how they turned out. And I actually bought this in preparation for this trip but it literally broke just before the trip. I don't actually know if it's broken. I think it might just be that the batteries ran out and if it is that then that's so funny that I thought it was broken but it was actually just batteries. So I will get new batteries today and put them in and see if it works. If it works then that's great because it means I can take film photos. I also feel like film cameras force you to be more present because you have to be more intentional about the pictures. And one thing I really want to do on this trip is be more present and take everything in. Be more like calm. We shall see how that goes. So yeah let's hope that this is just a battery issue and once I put new batteries in I have a working film camera. But if not we are in Hong Kong and I feel like this is the land of cameras. Obviously film cameras are old. You're not going to get a brand new film camera. So one thing I really want to do today is go to the street markets because there's loads of cool street markets in Hong Kong. They've got food ones, ones where you can get cameras. Lord knows if it will work or not because there's no way to test that. Hopefully I might get lucky and get a really cool camera from Hong Kong. But yeah I'm very excited for this week to explore, see different places, go to different markets, try lots of different food. I feel like the food here will be amazing. I think the first thing I need to do is have breakfast. So let's do that and then go around and explore Hong Kong. I love Asian bakeries because their bakery goods are so soft. I love the texture. It's just a sweet bun though. It doesn't taste like melon. I like it. Purely for the texture. It's just a sugary bun though. Nothing crazy. This one is a matcha croissant and it's got a bit of chocolate on the inside. Oh that's good. This is a wet chocolate. Oh I'm going to give this a miss guys. It's quite eggy. I don't think that's for me. Oh I'm so nervous because if the motor makes a noise then we're screwed. The motor's not making a noise. So basically before the motor was moving a lot and it was making a lot of noise, it's not doing that. We've got the batteries. Still don't know if it works. I'm going to put a film roll in and let's just hope that it works. By the way guys, if you're ever going to use film on travel, make sure you get them hand checked because if you take them to the scanners they could ruin your film. The more you know. Oh my god guys, this might actually work. Let's see. I think that means it's working. So it turns out my film camera wasn't broken. It just ran out of battery. That is so funny. Shall I take one of you guys? One, two, three. Wait it didn't move. It didn't go to one. No it's actually not working guys. I have come to this street market because I wanted to get a film camera because mine was currently broken. I went to a film camera store and the one that I wanted doesn't work so I'm not having much luck. I'll keep looking but it doesn't feel like I'm going to find a film camera here. We shall see. It's still a cool street market. It's just like so much going on. I will say I thought I'd find it very overwhelming, really busy but actually being here in Hong Kong, especially in like this street market, it's actually quite calm. There's more down there and that way. It's meant to be like really rainy this whole week but actually it's like really nice weather. We got a bit of breeze because I don't deal well with heat. It's actually not that hot so I'm very grateful right now. Taking in all the culture. It's really nice. I really like it. I'm very very happy right now. Despite all the cameras around me, I wasn't having much luck in this store. It seemed like all the cameras that I was interested in didn't seem like they worked and I wasn't able to try them out. Oh there's I didn't really want to drop 100 quid on a camera to only find out it doesn't work. So I decided to play it safe and got this really cheap one for 30 quid from another store. Let's put some film roll in it and see what happens. Wish me luck guys. I forgot to even mention my hotel was in a mall. I didn't realise this when I booked it but it was really cool living in a mall for a week. On top of that, the mall had a metro station attached to it so you didn't even have to go outside. Also, the public transport here is on a whole other level. It's so efficient, clean and orderly. Everything works as it should. What a wild concept. It's modern, people queue in the dedicated lines when entering and getting off the metro. Also, I've noticed that the people are very respectful of each other. They're very quiet and keep to themselves. So even when you're in a busy area, it still feels quiet and doesn't feel overwhelming. Hello, reporting live. I feel like I'm doing a news reporting right now. I have come to a place called Tian Tan Buddha. I don't know if that's right. It's like a Buddha temple. There's all these steps to get to this giant Buddha in the mountains. You literally have to take a really long cable car to get here and it's so peaceful and so nice. I say that as a giant van comes across. Yesterday was really in the hustle and bustle of everything and now I'm in the mountains and it's just great. I just love it. Look at this background right now. It's just so nice here. Also, I have brought my new film camera with me. I've been taking some pictures so I'm really hoping it's working because this is a great place to take pictures. I've got my cute outfit on and I'm just feeling very calm and relaxed. It's just really lovely. I'm going to try now and be as present as I possibly can. I feel like this is a good place to be like that. Let's go climb the steps. I don't know how well I'm going to be up there and see a giant Buddha statue. One thing I love about Hong Kong is the variety of activities you can do here, which I wasn't expecting. I've never experienced anything like this place. The Buddha statue was so big, yet my brain couldn't quite comprehend the size of it. For some reason, when I was looking at it, I just couldn't understand or comprehend. I don't know how to explain it. It just didn't feel real to me for some reason. Also, guys, the film camera wicked. I only knew this once I got home and got them printed, but I'm so grateful it did because I love how these pictures turned out. I think it captured the place so well. Hong Kong looks really good on film. I really like the colours in these film pictures. Again, I feel like it captured the vibe really well. We have come to Temple Street Market, which is like a food market. There's a bunch of food stalls around with different kinds of cuisines. Oh my god, there's souffle pancakes. Wow, okay, this looks really good. We've had dinner, but I thought I'd check this out to have a late night snack. This place is open to 12am, by the way. It's really nice. One grape and one strawberry. I'm going to try the strawberry one. Oh, it's so juicy. It tastes really fresh. I will say the crispiness of the sugar. Oh my god, my teeth are just filled with sugar. I don't like that texture, but the fruit is so nice. I've seen so many TikToks of people trying Tanghulu, and I never understood why people were going so crazy about it, but it's actually way better than I thought it'd be. The fruit is really good. Oh, I've got the sugar on my hair. Oh, what a mess. I quite like that things are open so late here. We have this whole market open to midnight, and it feels really safe. There's so many people around. There's kids around. It's warm, so it feels like a sunny summer evening. It's just nice to have late night activities, not just the only thing you can do late night is go out, go clubbing, because I don't do stuff like that. I quite like this way of life here that you can go to a street market at midnight. One thing I love about Hong Kong is depending on what area you explore, it's a completely different vibe. One minute, I'm in a super authentic area with lots of markets. The next, it's really modern with high rises, but one thing that's always the same is how clean the streets are. I cannot get over how clean Hong Kong is. The roads are like spic and span. Guys, I didn't know streets could be this clean. It's insane. Why is this blowing my mind so much? It's very clear that there's a real community mindset here. Everyone's very respectful and mindful of the people around them, wearing masks, being quiet. It just made me feel really safe to explore the city. I think I'm just realising what life could look like when things run smoothly and efficiently, and people are respectful of their neighbours. It's like being in a simulation. I usually find crowds really overwhelming, but I'm realising now that it's the noise aspect that I find overstimulating. Once you take the noise aspect away, I'm actually fine. So that's interesting. The more you know. Whenever I travel anywhere, I try to go to at least one viewpoint to see the place from above, and this one did not disappoint. Even though it was late at night, it was still really nice and warm and not windy at the top, so I could just really take it all in and enjoy the view. Honestly, Hong Kong felt like one giant playground for me. Everywhere I went, I was seeing and discovering new things. I'm a very curious person, and this was like heaven. I think part of the joy of travelling for me is going to places that feel so different to what I'm used to and seeing a different way of life, and I feel like Hong Kong did that for me. We've come to a spa, and it's just been really nice. I just got myself a facial. I think it's the first time I've ever had a facial, to be honest, and a deep tissue massage, which was so intense. I feel like sometimes on holiday, you can be very like It's important to rest as well, and yeah, I'm just really glad I got a massage in because I feel great. But you can't come to Hong Kong and not try the food. They're mainly known for dim sum. I had high expectations going in, and it still did not disappoint. The food here, guys, is incredible. Actually, it might be okay using chopsticks because it's all squidgy. I'm not very good with chopsticks. Or maybe not. Okay, I'm just going to use So this is the shrimp dim sum. Guys, it's so nice. The food here is so good. I'm really happy with this place. This is the soupy one. There was no soup in that. Yeah, I don't think that's what we ordered. That is so nice. I've not had dumplings this nice. It is spicy, but sweet too. That's nice. I like the bad ones. I really need to learn how to use chopsticks because this is embarrassing. These are so good. I didn't think I liked rice rolls because I used to find them really chewy, but these ones are so nice. And like they're not chewy in a bad way. They're like soft and fluffy chewy. This was my first dim sum place in Hong Kong, and I'm very impressed by the quality of food here. Like it's really, really good. I don't feel greasy. I don't feel like full or bloated. I feel satisfied. The flavours are good. The texture's really nice. It's like good quality food. Apparently, the bubble tea in this place called Silk is meant to be really good. And judging by the fact that it's like really popular, I'm feeling quite hopeful. This one is called Matcha Glow. I mean, just look at that. That's insane. Then we have this one, which is Smooth Sesame. And when you stir it, it's all black. I've never seen that before. And then I got the regular bubble tea, which is what I like. This is a Smooth King, and it's really big. And it's got like chunks of, I'm not really sure to be honest what's on top, but it looks really good. I must say the packaging is so nice. I feel like I could like take this home with me. Let's try them now. That's the main thing. I hope they're nice. I'm not really sure what the blue is, but let's try out through the process of taste testing. Oh, that's such a rookie mistake. I should have shaked it before I did that. My bad. I need to mix a bit more. There's some jelly in there. I'm not really sure what flavour it is. It's throwing me off. The matcha isn't that strong. I can't really taste the matcha that much. I don't know what this is. That's a weird one. I can't even describe the flavour to you other than, you know, sometimes when you're in the sea and you accidentally swallow the water. That's what it tastes like. I feel like I've just offended the entire culture. I apologise. Now we're going to try the Smooth Sesame, and this one has cream cheese on top. Or maybe this one has cream cheese on top. Or maybe they both have cream cheese on top. Hot out now. It's got something on top. Should I shake it first this time? Okay, don't do that because that goes everywhere. Oh my god, I'm making a right mess. Okay, I don't have tissue. Also, I haven't seen cups like this where you open it like that. I'm so confused with how you're supposed to have it. I guess you just drink it from the top like this. That's just cheese. Oh wow, that looks so strange. Explain to me in the comments if you believe I've done it right. Oh, I like this one. It tastes like the sesame snacks you can get with honey. It's quite sweet. It looks really cool. I've not seen anything like this in the UK. This one's good. I like this one. And this is the third drink, and this is just like your regular bubble tea, I think. Who knows? It's from Silk. It could be something wild. Again, I don't know if I'm mixing it properly. That's really good. Honestly, I get the hype with Silk. They have interesting flavours, so much variety. They're very fun and cool to look at. I like the branding. I wasn't crazy about the Matcha Glow. The Matcha Glow was a weird one. The sesame one was really interesting and different, and this one is the regular flavour I go for, and it's really good. It's really, really good. Honestly, Silk come through. I get the hype. I feel like we need to bring Silk to the UK. I'm really glad I tried it. They have some really cool, interesting flavours. If you're in Hong Kong, I would highly recommend getting bubble tea from Silk. I really like it. Look how clean the streets are here, guys. It's so clean. It's been like eight cockroaches since we arrived here. Eight cockroaches. I think Hong Kong might be the cleanest place I've ever been to, but at the same time, we have seen three cockroaches, so I don't know how that works out. The thing is, you can see the cockroaches even more because it's so clean. They stand out like crazy. Anyway, that's my update. It is such a nice day today. There's a slight breeze, a bit humid. Welcome. I'm Taz, your weather report person. I love how to get to the convenience stores. You have to go through the alleyways like this. For anyone curious or interested, Hong Kong feels incredibly safe. I'm going around solo, and I feel so safe. Is anyone watching that's not sure? Sorry. Oh, and you just finally come out to a street market, which is really fun. I am hungry, though. We should probably go for breakfast. It is nice just walking around to places and just seeing things along the way. Let's go get breakfast. I think this is where you sit down and eat, and this side is where you pick the goods up to take away. Let's go to this one. I'm in the less touristy area of Hong Kong, which I personally like because it feels more authentic. If you're going to travel this way, you want to experience the culture. I think the hardest part is it's a lot harder to find English stuff. I don't understand where ... Oh, I found it. Okay, I found something. You can get the pineapple bun with butter. I think that's the one I want to get for $13, and I want to get the egg tart. Basically, the first two. They're clearly the most popular products here. Can I get one egg tart and one pineapple bun with butter? Takeout, yes. Perfect. Thank you so much. I've got to pay. Okay, I'm going to pay by cash because this is very overwhelming. $30. Do I have $30? $10. $20. $40. Thank you so much. Oh, $20. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, that was $20. Guys, I don't know. I'm getting overwhelmed. I think she's got me the goods. That was super quick. I have a pineapple bun and egg custard tart from this place. Now, I think I'm just going to walk around for a bit, take her all in, and then try this back in the hotel. Oh, so much stimulation, but it's great. Oh my God, guys. Sometimes, I feel like I'm living in a simulation. I've just gone through a warp hole and just transported to another world. I cannot believe I'm here right now. I'm just in a completely different world. Look at my surroundings. I feel like traveling around the world and traveling solo in particular has such a huge impact on my mind. I've grown so much in confidence. Even though I'm in a country where I don't speak the native language, I'm able to speak to people, interact, go by myself, explore. This is not where I thought I'd go. Yeah, just thank you for making me the happiest human. Really, you guys are just the best. Oh my God, look at this, guys. This is crazy. Just got lots of fishes in bags. Oh my goodness. Oh my God. Wow. Look at it. One thing that is cool about Hong Kong is that different areas have a completely different vibe, and there's so much variety. The area I'm staying in, I think, is more like the hipster side or the more authentic side. I mean, it definitely looks authentic from the buildings. There's also the central Hong Kong, which is way more modern. It reminds me more of London. I quite like this side. It feels more authentic. The people here feel like they live here. This is their local place. Personally, I prefer experiencing travel like that. I mean, I spoke to friends about this, and they were saying they like to stay in the more modern areas. They feel a bit more safer, more comfortable. I don't know why. I just don't feel that way. I prefer to be in areas like this, and I feel super safe. People are so friendly. Can you tell I'm happy? Because I'm happy. Travelling really makes me happy. I feel very lucky that I get to do it. Anyway, I'm going to stop talking and yapping now and go have my pineapple bun. I don't know what state they're in right now. Oh, surprisingly, intact. It's literally shining and glowing. It's crispy on the top, which is going to be great for the texture. Then it's like a soft bun at the bottom, and it looks really fluffy on the inside. I'm not going to lie. It doesn't really smell like pineapple. Oh, maybe pineapple is a filling. No, that's cream. I'm really confused. Then here, we have the egg custard tart. Surprisingly, in very great condition. Oh, this one smells good. It almost smells a bit lemony. She is glowing. The crust on the outside is like really flaky. Not even flaky. Oh, I don't know how to explain it. It's like soft crumble. I will say, smell-wise and texture-wise, we're already off to a great start. I think I'm going to start with the egg custard tart because that looks the most exciting to me. Oh, it's quite dry. That was way more eggy than I was expecting. I really like the pastry. Very flaky, very buttery. I've had it while it's still warm. Oh, that is lovely. I don't know about the egginess. There is such a thing as too much egg. I would have loved this as lemon flavor. I think in the UK, when they make tarts, the base is so hard. It's like shortbread biscuit. I don't think that's great. I would much rather have it like this. This is quite nice. If there was a little less egg, I'd give it a 10. I would say that's a solid 8. I think what's made at a higher rating than normal is because it's warm and it tastes really fresh and that really does add to the experience. Let's get to the pineapple, the pinnie apple bun. Good morning, pineapple. Looking very good, very nice. Opens up like a Pac-Man. Should I just go for a big girl bite? Oh, the butter is so good. I love the crunchiness at the top. When I first tried it, it tasted soft, it tasted buttery and salty. Like the butter was like salted butter. So that was lovely with the sweetness and then a bit of I'm assuming pineapple flavoring comes in and it's like, oh, that's a new sensation and then it just goes, which is so funny that it just comes and goes like that. But I love the saltiness of the butter, the crispiness on the top, the fluffiness of the bread and the sweetness of the pineapple. Wow. This is a 10 out of 10. I'm a big fan of this. This hits all my spots. Texture, flavor. I'm a happy, happy girl. I do think that the bakery goods on this side of the world is just a whole nother level. It's just more soft and fluffier and I think I prefer that. So yeah, big fan. These are two of the like most recommended things to try when you're in Hong Kong and I totally get the hype. Totally worth it. The food here is just on another level. Everything I've had in Hong Kong has been incredible. Also, I didn't even mention this. The spice here is no joke. I'm known for liking spicy food and in the UK I always feel like spicy food isn't that spicy. So I ordered spicy noodles here just for my breakfast, which shows my decision making skills. The spicy food here is on a whole nother level. It's too much. Like I was literally in pain and it was incredible. It tasted so good, but it was just too much. Like my body, I don't think I can handle it, which is crazy. I've never been anywhere where I was like, this is too spicy until I came to Hong Kong. I think I'm at my match. If you really like spicy food, like really intense spicy food, you're going to love it here. And what better way to end the trip than with Disneyland? This was on the day of our flight. We had like eight hours to spare, so made the most of it by spending it at Disneyland because it's actually really close to the airport and it was so worth it. I had so much fun. Wow. That was the best ride. I love that. I am now in the airport. I'm just like sorting out my luggage and removing some things and packing some things. And I'm going to go on the flight in a few hours. I also finished my film camera roll. I'm hoping I've done everything correctly. And when I get home, I can get prints. It's kind of wild. I spent my last day here, the day of the flight in Disneyland. But yeah, that's basically the end of my trip. It's been so great. I love Hong Kong. It has so much to offer. Great vibes, great time. Can't wait to edit this vlog. I hope you guys have enjoyed watching it as much as I have enjoyed being here. Thank you so much for watching. I love you, love you. Please know... Please know that you matter and I shall see you guys next time. Thanks for watching. Bye.