Hong Kong

Hong Kong was pretty cool, but I wouldn’t really rank it among my favourite places. It’s super easy travel, and because there are so many tourists and almost all the signs are in English as well as Chinese, you never really feel out of your comfort zone – unless you’re not a fan of hot and muggy and busy.
I like the Hong Kong locals, because they don’t stare at me, even though I’m head and shoulders taller than most people in the street. Maybe they think it’s rude. Or maybe they’re just well used to tourists, there are definitely plenty around. I did get a bit of grief from the Arabic looking men who hang around at the bottom of Nathan Street though, just the usual chat-up lines and whistling and crap. I learned very early on in my travels that the best way to deal with them is act like they’re not there, which I always do now, but they’re still irritating.

I was only really in Hong Kong for 48hrs. It was very hot and muggy and busy the whole time. On both days, I walked for miles and miles, through Kowloon. I totally forgot that just because it’s winter at home, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to get sunburnt elsewhere in the world. Blonde Moment. Aside from that I had a nice time. Although my hotel room was kinda weird. Or is that just me?

The first thing I did was to go to the park behind my hotel, the Kowloon Walled City Park. I figured I wasn’t going to get lost if I went one block away from the hotel. I was right.

I walked in to Nathan Street, and the main shopping district, which took 40min on the second day! My hotel was kind of a long way out of the way… BUT – I found mini Coca Cola!! I had to buy it because it was so little. Anyway, it was only about NZ$3 for it and some snack food. On the second day, I got the most amazing supermarket fruit mix, it had nashi pear and guava and weird apple and piles of different types of melon and kiwifruit and strawberry, and it was SO FRESH. That was less than NZ$2, and it was heaped full.

I walked through the Ladies’ Market, and past some interestingly named shops…

…past Park Lane Shopper’s Boulevard…

…to the Star Walk at the waterfront.

I was going to go to the Night Market on my first day, but it turned out to be just the same as every other market, and it really wasn’t very interesting considering I wasn’t going to buy cellphone covers, knock-off handbags, or cheap toys. So instead I got the Best Pork Bun Ever for dinner and went home to bed.

On the second day, I watched tv, talked to Dad on the phone, got up at midday, wandered down the road and found something to eat, repacked my bags so that the stuff I’m going to use in the short term is at the top instead of the bottom, watched some more tv, checked out and stored my bags, then walked all the way down to the ferry terminal. I got there 2hrs after I left the hotel. Although, to be fair, I did stop at the supermarket, and then sit in a park for 20min to have lunch (at 340pm).

I took the ferry across to the business district and had a wander round there for a bit. Dad was right, the buildings are pretty cool.

 

I wanted to go up the tram and look out over the city, but when I got there (530pm) (still hot and muggy) (reasonable walk uphill to get to the ticket booth) there was a HUGH (I mean HUGE) queue, so I scrapped that idea and went back to the ferry. I sat and had dinner by the waterfront (Subway – not particularly Hong Kong but I’d had an unexplained upset stomach earlier and was a bit wary), and watched the lights come on across the harbour, then figured I’d better get on a bus back to the hotel.

So I walked to the big bus terminus next to the ferry, and all around the bus terminus, but I couldn’t find the bloody bus I needed. I’d taken it from Nathan Street the night before, so since it was only a five minute walk to the start of Nathan Street I figured I’d walk up there til I found a stop that I could use. So I started walking. 45min later I finally got on a bus. I wanted to get to the airport by 10pm, and by then it was 8pm. As you can imagine, this being me, I was pretty wound up. I was imagining all these horrible scenarios where the bus got stuck in traffic for an hour and then the taxi driver didn’t understand me and drove me all over town and then I’d be horribly late to the airport and have to pay for a new flight to Moscow. What actually happened was: I was back at the hotel by about 820pm; I was in a taxi to the train station by 830pm; and it turns out that if you take the right kind of train you can check in for your flight at the train station before you even get on the train, so I was checked in and on the train by 9pm; and I was at the airport with nothing to do by 930pm. For a 1255am flight.

So here I am at the Hong Kong airport with matchsticks holding my eyes open, waiting for my flight to MOSCOW. Which is a wee bit exciting. Local time is 1130pm but my body still feel like it’s 330am, so I’m pretty darn tired, and going to be much worse by the time we get there. It’s a 12hr flight, and we arrive in Moscow at 7am local time. I have to say, Cathay Pacific was much roomier than SOMEONE (aka MUM) had led me to believe. But on the way here, even though the flight was empty enough for everyone to have a row to themselves, and nobody laid their seat back (actually, nobody!! I walked right through economy while the lights were out), I still couldn’t get comfortable enough to go to sleep. So I’m dreading this flight. Hence the massive lie-in today and the eating at strange hours.

Right, I think this edition is long enough already, so I’m going to go and… wander round the shops or read my book or something, I don’t really know… Wish me luck for Russian Immigration...