meet me in mong kok

After months of planning and preparation and an uncomfortably turbulent 22-hour flight, Natalie and I finally arrived in Hong Kong. I had shot a music video for 12 hours straight and headed straight to the airport in LA like a crazy person so I was pretty exhausted when I landed in HK, but I made the trek out to Sheung Wan for lunch anyway. After all, I didn't fly to the other side of the world to sleep.

Here I am in my natural state, with a mouth full of food

By the time we made it out, it was an awkward in-between-lunch-and-dinner hour so the menus were slim pickings. I'm not much of a snack or sandwich gal. We found a sus-looking food stand with the most basic college-kid stir fry and instant ramen, but for some reason, it being in HK made it taste extra special.

Our friend Bryant was an awesome tour guide, showing us the basics of Hong Kong. Of course, he took us to all the major malls first.

We took Star Ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui and saw the breathtaking metropolitan Hong Kong skyline.

Fancy malls and designer labels are wonderful and all, but my favorite part of traveling abroad is rummaging through all the small standalone shops. We ended our first day in Mong Kok, a district full of people and Hong Kong culture (versus the more Western side of HK). It was actually named the busiest district in the world by the Guiness World Records, and I can see why. I spent hours wading through a sea of people and finding bargains at dirt-cheap prices. I love language barriers and haggling with hand gestures alone and subsequently coming home with armloads of unique trinkets.

Shopping for crystals for my BFF back home

I couldn't have asked for a better first day! We had some setbacks in the beginning: misplaced passport (luckily, we found it), completely lost wallet, and transportation issues; not to mention the fact that my camera had arrived literally right before I left to the airport and I, being in a hurry, didn't pack a cable that was needed to charge my camera's battery. The [hopefully cohesive] photos you see here are a mishmash of photos from Natalie's camera, Bryant's camera, and my iPhone. But good news--I stumbled across a little camera shop that had just the charger I needed for my camera! I'm excited to put this baby to work. Lots of fun things happening on this trip; can't wait to show you! Until then...xx

What I'm wearing:

Dailylook dress. Vintage concho belt (similar here). Capwell+Co necklace. Birkenstock shoes. Pylo bag.