I had a great Friday in Kowloon for two reasons: new friends and lots of adventures.

So far on this trip I have been using AirBnB for lodging (as I have since 2010), and my hotel room here in Hong Kong is small, but just fine. Friday I took part in my first Air BnB "experience" - a tour of the island I am staying on. And can I just say that I love that AirBnB experiences, because there were probably 50 tours I could have selected from, so there are plenty of experiences to have with food and culture here - and it helps me connect to the place I am visiting.

There were 6 of us who joined Angie for the tour, and it began two metro stops north of my hotel and ended about two miles later. Angie was born in Hong Kong, moved with her parents to California when she was 3, and then moved back when she was in high school. And she was an architecture student briefly, so she did a very good job of linking us to "tall building" Kowloon.

Angie had a great, ambitious plan for us, and we walked through about 7 different neighborhoods and markets from 12:30 pm to 6 pm - it was exhilarating, and exhausting.

Gobsmacked is what I was that day. Yes, I had been walking streets in different directions and stumbling on different interesting street scenes, but I didn't know what I was looking at or why I should care until I met up with Angie. I am actually going to tell the story of the insights we all got for the many different faces of Kowloon through the photographs I took - because in this case a photo does tell more than 1000 words.

Prior to Friday afternoon I was a general tourist who saw people working, children playing, and street vendors trying to bargain with me regularly. Twenty men have offered to make me shirts, or sell me a fancy watch. But with Angie's narrative style I got the history and evolution of not so crowded Kowloon to what it is today - one of the densest places of humanity on the planet, and how everyone gets along there.

Angie said Goodbye to us at Tsim Sha Sui, which is the southern end of Kowloon, on the harbor waterfront. We had walked and observed for over 5 hours, and frankly, my brain was full. Stephanie and I went to the Intercontinental Hotel where we each ordered a very expensive Moscow Mule (with Hong Kong ginger and distilled spirits) and watched the most wonderful Victoria Harbor light show. We met the two women next to us and had fine drinks and conversation watching the most beautiful Harbor put on it's famous 8 pm laser show - and I loved it so much I am going back again tonight. Next time - A Walk among skyscrapers and nature on the Hong Kong side.