Fancy going on a Hong Kong tour at your own pace, without the fixed schedule of a guide and a group? Content creator and sound editor KENN DELBRIDGE tells us about his new self-guided audio walking tours of Hong Kong and Singapore that have a bit of story-telling in the mix!
Why did you decide to start making these walking tours?
I spent decades with headphones on, mixing soundtracks for over 400 documentaries for National Geographic, Discovery, BBC and others. I know how to use sound to tell a story, but I realised the most extraordinary stories weren’t always on screen – they were right outside the door, in the streets, shops, cafés and food stalls.
I grew up in Hong Kong and I’ve been in Singapore for 30 years. I know both cities in a way that most visitors never get to on a trip, and I thought: what if I could bottle that and let visitors hear Singapore and Hong Kong the way I do? Each city has its own frequency. I’ve always thought HK has a grittier urgency, whereas SG is more reserved. That’s how Hear.Here.Asia was born.
How can listeners access the walking tours of Hong Kong?
They can download the free VoiceMap app, then just find one of my tours, and off they go – at whatever time suits them, at whatever pace they like, with no group to keep up with and no guide to wait for.
What’s unique about these city tours?
The clever bit is that VoiceMap is GPS-triggered, so the audio plays automatically as users reach each point on the route. You don’t need to tap anything or follow a script. You just walk, and the story comes to you. It feels like magic the first time it happens!
The tours are also yours to keep once you buy them, so you can do them again, share the experience with someone visiting, or revisit a neighbourhood with fresh ears.
Each tour runs between 40 and 60 minutes, which is a perfect length – enough to go deep, but not so long your feet start complaining.
Give us an example of one of your Hong Kong tours.
Hong Kong: Lights, Harbour, Action! — A Tsim Sha Tsui Walking Tour
Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) is one of those places that can feel overwhelming if you don’t know where to look. HK’s streets are narrow and the tall buildings can occasionally mess with the GPS, so I’ve picked a route that keeps listeners walking without feeling hemmed in.
Listeners start from Jordan and go through Kowloon Park and then through TST, K11 Art Mall, and across to the Avenue of the Stars and that postcard view of Hong Kong Island from the Star Ferry pier.
It’s 45 minutes of HK storytelling at its most cinematic, and the Star Ferry arrival at the end is one of those moments when visitors are face-to-face with one of the most iconic waterfronts.
How many options are there?
There are currently three tours in Hong Kong (Tsim Shu Tsui, Mongkok Street Markets, Central to Hollywood Road) and five in Singapore (Financial District, Kampong Glam, Chinatown, History of Trade, F1 Circuit).
Learn more about the tours at voicemap.me/publisher/hear-here-asia.
