Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Asia

I woke up this morning and packed up my stuff and grabbed some breakfast downstairs at the hostel. I was getting a taxi at 7:30am so I knew I wasn’t going to have enough time to watch the Patriots game before I left, so I cheated and looked at the score on ESPN. It was a great win for the Pats against the Raiders, and brought us to the top of the AFC East at 3-1, tied with Buffalo (I know, crazy!) My taxi came right on time and I’d paid for the taxi with the room bill, so I didn’t have to worry about any cash changing hands. It was my last crazy drive through the manic chaos on the roads so I made sure to take it all in. The traffic here is just unbelievable, and I think it’ll be tough to find a place that tops it for just pure ridiculousness.

The driver had said it would take about 50 minutes to get to the airport, and I paid $15 for the taxi ride, which is a lot of money over here. We got to the airport in exactly 50 minutes and the driver thought that entitled him to a tip. I said he was wrong as tipping isn’t generally part of their custom here, so I knew he was just chancing his luck. He wasn’t impressed and just popped the trunk from in the car and never got out of the car. I wasn’t impressed with this, so I left his trunk open. Petty, I know, but he was very cheeky.

I checked in for my flight about two hours early and got to sit in the terminal and use the airport’s free wifi. It’s really cool how almost everywhere in SE Asia has wifi, and it’s free. The western world should really pick up on this and start giving away wifi all over the world. I used the wifi to download my friend Heather’s blog for when she travelled through China a few months ago. I figured it would be a good refresher because I read them months ago, but now they would give me a good idea of what to expect. She did a great job with her blog and I picked up a few good tips, so hopefully I won’t be as gobsmacked by some of the things I see/hear/smell when I get there.

The flight was all good and I got to Hong Kong at about 2pm, and got my luggage. It was nice coming into a country and not having to fork out loads of money for a tourist visa. Hong Kong and Macau let you in for six months without even needing a visa, jackpot! I hopped on the A21 bus from the airport and was impressed to find they even have free wifi on the busses here! I love this place already! I got off the bus at the 14th stop on Nathan Road and found the building I was in called Chung King Mansions. Make no mistake, these are no mansions.

It is a very very strange building. When you first walk in it looks like you are in the middle of an Indian market. I don’t see any Asian people in the building, only Indian and African people, and they all have their own little shops selling phones, computers, Indian food, or porn. Lots and lots of porn, it’s pretty weird. I had to find “block E” which turned out to be a set of elevators all the way to the back and at the right. I needed to go to the 7th floor, which meant I had to wait for the elevator on the right, because the one on the left only goes to even numbered floors. What a weird system! I got to the 7th floor and found Canadian Hostel, which is run by two Indian guys. Not sure how they came up with the name for the hostel, but I’ve yet to meet a Canadian.

The room is the smallest dorm I’ve ever stayed in anywhere. This room would be very small for a one bed single, never mind a four bed dorm. I met two people who were already in the room, Tom and Danielle, both from England. Tom is travelling for a couple of months overland from England to get here, and Danielle is on a visa run from China as she’s studying in Hangzhou. Danielle was running off to meet a friend, so Tom and I went off to explore some of Hong Kong. We decided to check out the Midlevel Escalators, which bring you half way up the peak. It sounded much cooler than it was. It was not one big escalator like we thought, but a series of small escalators that bring you further and further uphill. When you get to the top, there is nothing to see at all, just a wall, and no view downhill.

We turned around and started walking down the stairs and found some cool bars in SoHo. We picked one that suited Tom very nicely, called the Yorkshire Pudding. It was just like being in a pub in London, complete with a pint of Leffe, so I was very happy. We ended up staying there for about four hours drinking and chatting with some English guys who now live and work in HK. We also met up with a friend of Tom’s named Yost, from Holland. The three of us grabbed some food in a dark little alleyway, where the beer was much cheaper and the food was very fresh. We grabbed the last metro back to Kowloon from Central station and I got back to the hostel at about 12:30am. Tom decided to go out for another couple of drinks, so I came back on my own and Danielle had just come back as well. We chatted for a couple of hours until another new roommate came in, and we called it a night around 3am. It was a long day, but a good first day in HK.