What's up everybody? I'm Marko.
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I'm Alex, and we are the Vagabrothers, and we're super stoked to announce
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the new premiere of our television show, Basic vs Baller,
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which just went live on the Tastemade Channel on YouTube TV.
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The concept is pretty simple:
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We arrive to a new city, have a little competition,
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the winner gets to live it up like a big baller on a huge budget, while the loser
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has to scrape by on bare minimum.
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That being said, I don't think it was actually a case of winner and loser.
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It's good either way. It's informational; it's aspirational, and it's really fun to watch.
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As many of you know,
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we spent the last 6 months working with
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Tastemade to make the show as awesome as it could be.
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We're super stoked to finally get it out there in the world.
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We wanted to share the first episode with you guys and give you some more
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information on how to watch the rest of the series on YouTube TV,
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which is basically a skinny bundle.
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You get 50 television networks, plus premium content from digital first networks, like Tastemade.
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Our show Basic vs Baller goes live 9 pm pacific time on Thursdays,
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but with YouTube TV, you can save the show to your favorites and watch it whenever you want.
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There're already two episodes live, and with the link in our info box,
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if you sign up, you get two free weeks.
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Last week we hosted an intimate screening at the YouTube space in Los Angeles,
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and now really happy to share it with you.
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Please share your favorite moments on social media using the hashtag #Basic vs Baller
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and let us know what you think.
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Without further ado,
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this is Basic vs Baller Episode 1 Hong Kong.
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You might need to cut because I'm going to be making sweet sweetener to this crab carcass.
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I'm Marko. I'm Alex and we're the Vagabrothers.
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We love travelling and a little brotherly competition.
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So we're crossing the globe and putting our local trivia skills to the test
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to see who's spending 24 hours living like a baller
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and who's pinching pennies.
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This is Basic Versus Baller.
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Welcome to Hong Kong, the most baller city in Asia and
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easily one of the most beautiful.
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Hong Kong is a former British colony in China where East meets West in superb style.
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It's also one of the wealthiest and most densely populated places on earth
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where just having space is a luxury.
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With some of the best street food on earth,
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we're guarantees to eat well, regardless of budget.
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But only one of us will be the baller.
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How you doing ? Welcome to Hong Kong.
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I've been wanting to get to this city for a very long time.
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Never been here before.
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You have sung its praises.
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I've been here, but I was on such a tight budget and was not very comfortable.
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I'm assuming you want to be the baller, but guess what?
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Only one of us can be a baller and the other will be living in a shoebox.
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Sounds like it's time for a competition.
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In what year was Hong Kong returned China?
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Yes, the correct answer is 1997.
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It's all good brother. I've done the city on the budget, and you will be fine. You will survive.
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I hope they have air conditioning.
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I do too. See you later, bro.
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I just rolled up to my hotel, the Intercontinental Hong Kong.
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Not too shabby. I have a feeling my room is going to be epic.
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I've booked a standard suite at nearly a thousand bucks.
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But just when I thought my suite couldn't get any sweeter
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I heard the magical words we all hope for: free upgrade.
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Oh my god, this is gigantic.
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Now if this is not baller then I do not know what is. There're multiple stories;
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There's a gym up there; and there's an infinity pool.
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There's a private pool in this hotel room looking over the entire city of Hong Kong.
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I just got here, and I can already tell this is going to be the best hotel stay
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I will probably ever have in my life.
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The bedroom.. I'm going to get some very quality sleep right there,
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and this view is amazing.
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There's something about Hong Kong that just has tons of class.
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I'm super stoked to explore the city with a bit more of a budget than I did last time.
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This city's got 60 Michelin stars,
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and that means I'm going to eat a lot.
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But most importantly, my producer just told me
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they want me to take my shirt off and jump in the swimming pool.
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So let's just get these muscles just a little bit more toned before I do.
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Sipping champagne and lounging in my private penthouse pool high above Hong Kong.
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If that's not baller, I don't know what is.
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Weaving my way through the hustle and bustle of the concrete jungle, I'm hoofing it to the hostel.
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My name is Alex Ayling. What does mahjong mean?
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I see there're birds.
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Everywhere is the sparrow.
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Let me give you this card.
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Thank you. I see you guys won the 2017 Hoscar Award
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Best hostel in Hong Kong. Yes. Awesome. Thank you. You're welcome.
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Oh yeah, this is nice.
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I think somebody might be sleeping there.
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This is much better than my last hostel.
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Two pillows, a duvet, and most importantly air conditioning.
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I'm going to leave my bag and go into town.
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Although it's tempting to lounge in my suite all day, I've got a table with my name on it, and it's just an elevator ride away.
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Let's start things off with some lunch here at Yan Toh Heen,
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the two Michelin star restaurant on the ground floor of the Intercontinental.
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Luxury comes in many forms, but here it's about pairings.
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This beautiful view with this exquisite jade colored interior
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And each plate paired perfectly with a tea
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recommended by the house tea sommelier.
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And here we have Te Quang Ninh.
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It is a oolong tea from Fujian province, and it is boiled with water from Tibet.
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Whoo, it's very nice. It's very delicate.
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What makes this tea special is how it's paired,
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specifically with my first dish, dim sum.
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Please enjoy our Yan Toh Hin Superior Dumpling.
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This is the chef's invention,
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which fuses the best of east and west cuisine.
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Did I mention that my place settings are made entirely from jade and silver and
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worth about $1,000 apiece. Not bad.
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Okay. We have the king crab.
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Oh, wow. Dim sum is one of the most popular cuisines in the city, but this is done at a level
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that is not seen in many other places.
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Got birds nests, a delicacy in Chinese cuisine.
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It's one of the most expensive ingredients you can use in a product.
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This is nice. Life is good.
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Please enjoy this Crispy Taro Nest with whole abalone.
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It's one of those dishes that is so beautiful, I don't even want to eat it.
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Given how last time I was here, I was a budget backpacker eating instant noodles,
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I like to see how my fortune has improved.
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I don't know what my brother is eating, but I'm sure this is better.
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Marko may be having a Michelin star lunch, but I've got a trick or two up my sleeve.
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I'm at Tim Ho Wan, the world's cheapest Michelin star restaurant.
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It's famous for dim sum, and I'm more than ready to get some.
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These are baked buns filled with barbecue pork and supposedly
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they're quasi orgasmic. Oh
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Wow, yeah, there's sugar on the outside of the bun, but then when you get in there, it's like barbecue pork.
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Hands down the best bun I've ever had.
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I could wake up in the morning roll out of bed, grab a pork bun, have a coffee,
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grab another pork bun, lunch break, pork bun.
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Marko...Balling? well, guess what, dude?
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Being on a budget ain't half bad here.
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Because I got baked pork buns.
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I see he's eating at a one-star Michelin restaurant.
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Well, I have two, and what does one even mean these days?
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This is obviously a superior experience with my superior dumplings.
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So enjoy your meal, Alex.
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Next up we have Har Gow, which is steamed shrimp dumplings.
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The flavors are on point..Super yummy.
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Last up we have Siu Mai.
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It's a steamed pork and shrimp dumpling.
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You do not have to be the baller to have a baller ass meal.
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This is incredible. It's budget-friendly
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Michelin star for the masses, and I am so down.
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There are a few things as baller as getting a custom-made suit,
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and Hong Kong is famous for its tailors.
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So I'm here at Simpson Sin Tailor.
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They are some of the best in the city, if not the world.
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They've made suits for Bill Clinton, Aziz Ansari, and many many more.
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And now they're going tp make one for me.
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What do you have in mind? I want something that is light weight for summer.
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And now we say you're better off with light wool.
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Sounds good. Any particular color in mind?
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I was thinking blue. You guys have tons of different fabrics.
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You prefer something maybe like this?
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As you can see it's not really solid with the kind of pattern.
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There's a slight pattern and would give you some more choice.
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This is nice, a little bit brighter. Mmm. It's kind of royal blue.
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Yes, really can see the weaving in there. The texture make it that you can use it as a whole suit.
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Yeah, as well as you can wear the jacket alone as a blazer and match different pants.
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This is exactly what I'm looking for.
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Make a nice classic trendy look, a single breast..
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Yeah more or less line mine, which has two buttons.
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Yes, skinny look. Skinny look and the backside of it to open like this, right?
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I like that. Good. Okay, go measure you up.
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Let's do it. Alright
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Custom suit, ultimate luxury.
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Just eat? I just ate, yeah,
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But you know, let's just keep that to be the standard. Okay.
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Yeah, I don't think it's going down.
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How long have you been working as a tailor?
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Okay that will be fine.
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Thank you very much. Thank you.
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Just 24 hours for my custom suit to be made, and my wardrobe's finally going to match my baller status.
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Alex is going to be so jealous.
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Seeing the city on foot has its charm, but I just got onto the Star Ferry.
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Taking it from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island.
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The best way to get a feeling for the city is to take a ferry,
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and the Star Ferry is the historic
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transport ferry between the island and the peninsula of Kowloon.
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It's definitely a great way to get a bearing here in the city.
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It's cheap. It only costs around one US dollar.
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It's really the local way to do it,
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and you get a beautiful view of the city. Check it out.
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My time here in Hong Kong has been going swimmingly,
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and it's about to get a lot better.
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That's because 118 floors above me is Ozone,
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one of the hottest bars in Hong Kong with panoramic views of the city and some great cocktails.
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I'm texting my brother Alex to join me,
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and we're about to turn Ozone into Brozone.
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Now this is a view.
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I'm going to put in a drink order for me and Alex.
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We'll enjoy some cocktails with a million-dollar view of the city.
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Oh my god, what a view. Yeah.
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Thanks for the invite. Getting up this
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really puts Hong Kong into perspective.
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It really is just this
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incredibly dense, enclave of urban right up against nature.
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This is it.. all the skyscrapers of finance which is making it rich these days.
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and then its port which is what made it wealthy back in the day.
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It's quite the baller destination.
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Thanks for the cocktail, man. Oh, my pleasure.
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Mmm. It's like an old-fashioned mescal with lychee fruit on top of this big ice cube.
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You can see my hotel room from here.
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There I am right there in the corner of the Intercontinental.
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You can see mine, as well.
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It's just in there somewhere over in that direction.
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Yeah, and then if you could just look through a building and then look through another wall, there would be me and
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six other people sleeping very next to each other.
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That's my pool and my private hotel room
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Okay, stop bragging, dude. I get it.
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But you know what? it's good to share a moment like this with you.
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Thanks for bringing me up here.
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Whoo for dinner, I got something special I'm eating that happy paradise is the new restaurant from Mei Chao
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She was voted the best chef in Asia for taking traditional Chinese cuisine in new directions
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She's young. She's pushing the boundaries and I'm excited to see what's on the menu
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So my first dish is a sourdough egg waffle
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This dish is a classic here on the streets of Hong Kong usually served as a street food
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But here they do it with this beautiful dip made from bottarga, which is a mullet roe
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Excellent next up. We got sous-vide chicken with fried rice
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Okay, last but not least. I have this dish it looks like an avocado
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It's an eggplant. The green is actually a puree of zucchini and broccoli. The black is a black garlic sauce
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Wow flavor combinations here are really doing it
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highly inventive and
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Am enjoying myself thoroughly. Wonder we're Alex eating
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All right, ladies and gents. I've just arrived to Temple Street Market
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It's basically a big collection of stalls vendors. There's street food
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There's all sorts of things on offer and I am very excited because I'm planning on filling my belly. Let's do this
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Temple Street Market is the biggest night market in Hong Kong sprawling across several blocks
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It has it all trinkets electronics fortune tellers and endless food stands with everything you could imagine
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Well, I've wandered around I've seen and I've sniffed my way to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant right here on the corner Hong
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Kong spicy crab a meal fit for a king on the budget of a pop. This is insane
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It's actually a two-for-one. I'm pretty sure there's two
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Crustacean carcasses just waiting for me to crack into these are peppers
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which means this is gonna be spicy as
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Babe, I can't wait to dig into this. Oh
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Wow the flavor is incredible. Oh
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They wanted Lion spicy crab, baby. It's so rich and
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Absolutely delicious. I
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Hate to leave anything on the table, but honestly, this crab has bested me. It's very spicy. My lips are on fire
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Extremely delicious. I don't admit to feed easily, but I think it's time to head back to the hostel
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Crab, you were delicious. Thank you for a good meal hasta luego
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In Kowloon Park, there are tons of locals exercising stretching and doing Taichi
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Marko agreed to join as long as breakfast was on me. You'd think the baller would foot the bill
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Well, it definitely is not Tai Chi but we did find a group that let us join in
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Even though we clearly had no idea what we were doing
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Next stop breakfast egg noodles and pork pickles anyone
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I'm treating Marco to mock man ki another of Hong Kong's affordable Michelin star restaurants
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Noodles breakfast of champions
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We try the pork knuckle
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Find it a little intimidating. This is like, you know, definitely not back on. No good. God did okay
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so I mean the positive is this real no still eating I
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Think I still prefer bacon. Yeah, totally but it's interesting travel
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Stocks pounding your horizons. We are expanding our home. They are expanded. It's like the Big Bang right now. I
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have never eaten this for breakfast before nor have I
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But I think that we've got a good start to our day and I feel very confident that we're gonna have a great second day
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Definitely have the energy that we need to take Hong Kong on. Nothing says carpe diem like Pig Trotter for breakfast
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Nothing says breakfast champions like Mack. Manki, I'm gonna be brother. Thank you for breakfast. You're very welcome
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Right now, I'm at the Victoria Peak Tram
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I'm at the bottom and I'm gonna be taking it to the top up to Victoria Peak
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this tramway was built in the late 1800s and it's definitely the best way to get up to the mountains above Hong Kong and
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Really take the city it
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Usually I would prefer to walk
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But in the climate here were pretty much in a jungle
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And it's so steep. The funicular is by far the best way
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For a tramway built in 1888, it's surprisingly quick and only took about five minutes to get up here we've gone
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368 meters up. It's about 20 degrees cooler up here. It's so nice and breezy and a view it's priceless
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Everybody thinks that being a baller is about buying things. Haha. No help assay. It's really about breaking things. Yes
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Today we are at an IKE re centre where they're only a hundred dollars you get half an hour
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Breaking as many things as you want, so I've got myself a helmet
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Sledgehammer and access to a room full of stuff. That's just waiting to get broke
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I've got this sledgehammer, and I'm ready to rage
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Ever thought yourself. I really need to smash something right now
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There's Akari a place where people come to release anger and stress with something called
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Destruction therapy now being the baller. I really don't have that much to stress about but sure feels good to break some stuff
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My tailor-made suits ready I wouldn't trade this for all the tea in China
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Because you can never have enough million dollar views of Hong Kong Marco and I decided to end the trip high above the city
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Where is this guy? Just because you're a baller doesn't mean you can be late
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Sorry, I'm late brother. Well when you look that flat you get an extra five minutes salad doesn't wait should we do this?
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Dude you look spectacular
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That is an immaculate suit. I'm not gonna lie. I'm a little bit jealous
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There's a few things that are as baller as a custom-made suit Hong Kong is the city you get one
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So, you know, I think advantage of it having been on a budget they come back as a baller
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I really have seen both sides of the city and I like it even more having done that
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Definitely. This is just such a scenic city and it has like a real big city vibe
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But the fact that you have the water right here really kind of chills it out
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So no matter how hectic you can feel you can always make it back to the waterfront and kind of you know
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Regain your your Tai Chi for sure. I mean the hotel was insane. It's hands-down nights of hotel ever
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I had my own private swimming pool. It was really really really nice Hong Kong is a few City
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Yeah, it's the ultimate foodie City. I really loved the fact that the Michelin Guide is really opening itself up
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so even on a budget I was able to dine at Michelin star restaurants and
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Experience the best of Hong Kong cuisine without breaking the bank the food here. It's not expensive and it's world-class totally
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Well, brother, I think this has been a great trip. I'm glad that we both got to experience two sides of this wonderful city
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We basically just scraped the service even though we did so much we're coming back
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Thank you so much for watching episode 1 of basic vs. Baller
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We hope you guys enjoyed it
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Want to check out the rest of the episodes click the link in the info box to go check out the tastemade channel on YouTube
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TV if you're tuning in from overseas, don't fret you can still see the show by heading over to the basic vs
23:52
Baller Facebook watch page. We'll link it in the description of this video
23:58
It'll be available there for free with a one-week delay
24:03
Yeah, just hit the follow button and it comes up in your Facebook watch feed
24:06
Anyways guys if you like this video give a big thumbs up and share with your friends and subscribe to vagabrothers
24:11
And also the taste may check out tasted a check on taste made travel will be giving updates and behind-the-scenes clips
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Across all those different social media for the next few months. And lastly. We just want to say a huge
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Thank you to all the Vagabuddies out there
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Thank you so much for helping us achieve this milestone, and we really hope you enjoy the show.
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So as always stay curious, keep exploring and we'll see you guys on the road. Peace
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