Ho Ho Hong Kong

New week and new Hong Kong shenanigans. Art Basel was all the jazz this past weekend.. Art Central also happened, same weekend. This weekend we have: Rugby Sevens (again!), Creamfields and Jim Gaffigan (on Monday!). We go through it all. Why do people pay millions of dollars to obtain squiggly lines art but don't have the same respect for guy telling jokes on stage art? How do you efficiently plan...

If you think we can't go on for an entire episode about how fun the Wednesday Horse Racing is at Happy Valley, you are probably right. We also complained about how "miserable" our lives are because of major offenses like Starbucks not knowing how to roast their coffee beans, then we go on about how fun the Happy Wednesday Racing is. Mohammed makes the case that it's probably the most fun activity...

Vivek Mahbubani is by the far the busiest standup comedian in Hong Kong. This week he shares stories of the two most recent gigs he had: Speaking at the Women Of Our Time event by the SCMP and coaching for Literacy Week at a school in Sai Kung at 7 am!  Mohammed shares his "pro tip" on how to hail a cab anywhere in the world and we bring back our TV show recommendations segment.   Get tickets for...

After 3 years of compulsory mask mandate in Hong Kong, on March 1, 2023 the mask mandate was finally lifted and we were able to walk around the city mask-free without fear of a hefty fine. Now a week later, the vast majority of people in Hong Kong still voluntarily choose to continue wearing it! In other news, Clockenflap festival took place at the Central Harbourfront and it was a roaring success...

"Hello Hong Kong" Campaign launched to promote Hong Kong around the world.  Ok great. What about that slogan though? We come up with alternative slogans while we chat about gratitude, people in Hong Kong always comparing themselves to each other, moving houses from one walkup to another walkup, Syrian refugees and comedians blaming the audience for their own failures.    Leave us a review: (please...

On February 15 2023, Russell Peters performed at Star Hall in Kai Tak in front of a sold out crowd of over 3000 people (Vivek thought it was 8000 pax, Mohammed thought it was 1000 pax). We were there for it and we give a full review. It's the first big standup touring act to come through Hong Kong since late 2019 and Russell Peters is as big as they come. Vivek also reminisces about flying into Ka...

It's valentine's day week and we are coming at you with a bunch of stories. Vivek does a couple pro bono gigs and regrets it but good news! he turned into a superhero and there's plenty of free merch to go around!  Mohammed on the other hand shares that one overdue story he has been sitting on, and of course it's another visa adventure. Strap in!  Cover graphic copyright ZONTA CLUB OF THE NEW TERR...

In 1999, Nick Willsher founded HKClubbing.com as he couldn't find reliable info on where the good parties were. Today almost 24 years later, HKclubbing grew to be the ultimate Hong Kong nightlife guide and Nick went into the music promotion business, as well as starting Entertaining Asia , an integrated event and hospitality consultancy based in HK.   Leave us a review: (please!)  https://www.rate...

We survived CNY shenanigans but not completely unscathed. Mohammed has taken his entire family all over HK for almost 3 weeks and he is "never gonna financially recover from this". Luckily for us, he gives us a full report on the main tourist attractions in HK.  Is Disneyland HK still worth a visit? What's the state of Ocean Park? What's a Water World? and why you should probably never get in a La...

If it's travel, passport or visa related, we can rely on Mohammed (and evidently the rest of his family) to make some highly entertaining bad decisions. This is probably the riskiest one so far. Mohammed's mom flew into Hong Kong just a few hours before her only passport expired. Happy year of the rabbit folks! Leave us a review: (please!)  https://www.ratethispodcast.com/hohohkpod Follow Mohammed...

Hong Kong has its borders wide open and the CNY holiday is upon us. Mohammed's family decided to visit from Egypt for the first time and he has a lot to rant about. Where do people actually go for "touristy stuff" and why is visiting the Big Buddha isn't the best idea? Vivek gives a lot of solid advice. Mohammed also got locked out of his friend's house at midnight with the dog inside the house an...

We are back to our regular scheduled programming and this week we have a retuning fan-favorite, Mr. John Buckman. John has a long history of starting, running and selling successful startups and he was the head of the EFF John is not shy about his love for Hong Kong, and one of the things he has in common with many Hong Kongers (and Mohammed!) is his displeasure with banks and bankers in general....

Happy 2023 everyone! We are back. We made it through, well .. kind of. This is more of a #yolo episode but hey we are back with a stacked episode, catching you up on everything that happened in Hong Kong over the last few months, as well as catching you up on our updates as well. So many news stories, fun moments and ridiculous HK shenanigans to get through. It's good to be back!   Subscribe to ou...

The city seems to be opening back up for real! Quarantine for inbound travelers continues to be only one week (3 days if you're flight crew!), restaurants are allowed to run up to 10 pm (yay!?), some stand up shows are back. We have a classic episode discussing it all, we catch up on the standup gigs we did recently did, from Sai Kung to Soho House, the upcoming CE "elections" and the new Batman m...

Shanghai is still under arguably the world's most strict Covid lockdown since the pandemic began. Some residents have been locked inside their apartments for over 50 days. Amid news of food shortages, internet censors taking down posts of frustrated citizens, Shanghai residents are keen to have their voices heard.  We talk to Jorge Castellanos, standup comedian based in Shanghai. Jorge owns two bu...

Family drama alert! Vivek's sister made it to Hong Kong literally a few minutes before her PR expired, we take the opportunity to catch up with her with one simple goal in mind: Understand what she does for a living. Dr. Krishnaa Mahbubani tries her best to dumb it down to us, and before you judge us, here's one of her bios: Krishnaa completed her PhD in Chemical Engineering at Cambridge Universit...

We made it to episode 100! Yup, we can't believe it either. For the 100th episode, we pack our equipment and head to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park in Sai Ying Pun. We riff on everything happening around us at the park, chat to a couple of people, Vivek gives an update on his sister's dramatic journey to come back to HK from the UK before her PR expires, and we launch our YouTube channel!   Check out T...

You get a ban, you get a ban, and you get a ban! This week on HK shenanigans: The government lifted the flight ban on 9 countries then immediately banned Emirates Airlines far a week. Everyone in HK is getting a "goodie bag" from the government, Vivek's sister might be able to come back to HK after all. We try and fail to not about the Oscars and we have an announcement about next week's 100th epi...

As of April 1, Quarantine for travelers coming into Hong Kong will be cut to 1 week, which means we can probably start making plans for some summer travels! We chat about our favorite travel destinations, share some fun traveling stories and what would our first trip ideally look like. Leave us a review: (please!)  https://www.ratethispodcast.com/hohohkpod Follow Mohammed on Instagram:  https://ww...

HK CE "feels" like Hong Kongers' tolerance for the harsh anti-epidemic measures is "fading" .. after more than 2 years. So she said they would review the policies and ease up some of the harsh measurements over the next few days. We try to jump the gun and predict what would the new "relaxed" HK be like. Spot Mohammed's dog on HKFP Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbJ9lvNOsWw/ Leave us a rev...

This week on HK shenanigans, the government decided to use their swanky emergency alert system (which reportedly costed 150 million HKD) to send everyone in the city an emergency alert to their mobile phones. Was a rogue Russian nuclear missile on the way to kill us all? Did someone escape their 5-star staycation at the luxurious resort of Tsing Yi isolation facility? Is there a hamster on the run...

It's week 3 of no-guests allowed in our studio thanks to Covid precautions and restrictions, and we go all out on this one. We discuss everything from bananas to weird fruits that no one is buying, the new "The Batman" movie (no spoilers!) and HK hitting a new high of over 50K Covid infections in a single day to the lady who decided to give the MTR door a nice wipe with her tongue*, a cool hack we...

Hong Kong just saw the highest number of its residents ever leave over the course of a week, over 27,000 residents, locals and expats left with one-way tickets with no plans to return. With the government doubling down on its Covid zero policy, mass testing is about to roll out, we're still here trying to deal with whatever is coming our way. Vivek's sister is trying to come back from the UK with...

Under the current restrictions, it's illegal for us to have a guest in our studio (Vivek's living room), so we take this opportunity to discuss what went wrong with Hong Kong's handling of the pandemic. There has been a lot of frustration and confusion in the community about how badly the Covid situation is being managed, we try to understand why that happened, how we got there and our insane ways...

Photographer Justin Lim has been featured by Instagram as a "Suggested User", and his work has been highlighted by VSCO, 500px, Flickr and more. As a result, he has collaborated with numerous brands on their social media branding, Influencer/KOL content creation and visual identity. Clients in this space include Omega, Tumi, MR PORTER, DJI Global and many others. Across his various social media pl...