We officially ended our class at breakfast so we had the
afternoon free to do what we wanted. I didn’t
have to catch my flight to Hong Kong until 3 so we decided to be tourists and
check out the Hunpong River sightseeing tour.
The day was sunny and not completely freezing so it worked out well. I took lots of pictures.
Then I had to say good-bye to the classmates and make my way
to Hong Kong. The flight was delayed and
I didn’t land until 10pm. Hong Kong has
an amazing logistics structure. Hong
Kong was a British colony up until 12 years ago. Which means they are very
catering to the English language? I wouldn’t
go as far as to say they all speak English well, but all
signs/announcements/educated people were in English as well. Oh and unlike mainland China, they drive on
the left side of the road, like the English!
Aside from the delays and normal amount of anxiety of
traveling solo, I didn’t have much of a problem finding the hostel/apartment I
would be renting for the next few days.
They have a wonderful subway system (travels above the ocean) and among
the 3 main islands that make up Hong Kong.
The first thing I noticed once I was there was the wonderful temperature. Aww… I have decided that anywhere that palm
trees can survive- I want to be.
I caught a taxi from the subway and handed him the
instructions in Chinese to the place I want to go…after a bit of confusion we
took off. Then after a bit, he points
and tells me I am there. Uhhh….i get
out and look around and clearly I am not there.
Hummm. Now with my luggage and
probably 11:30 at night, I don’t know where to go. UGHH.
I find another taxi and try again.
Finally I get to the right place.
Then I realize in order to get inside the the building you need a
keycard and that the office is closed because I have arrived so late. After holding back panic and I stood there
for a bit, eventually some guys let me in as they are coming back to their
apartment. They took me to the common room and called someone to let them know I
was there and wanted to check in. The
problem with the situation was that hotels in Hong Kong are CRAZY expensive, so
booked this place through a hostel website because it had good reviews. Now it’s not really a hostel , but a serviced
apartment for mid to long term leases and when they have vacant rooms, they
rent them by the night. So they don’t really
have a 24 hour check in/out service.
After waiting a bit, a lady showed up and told me I had to pay in Cash….wha? I only had about 50 in Hong Kong dollars
(lucky I even had that). After agreeing
that I would put a deposit down and pay with CC in the am, she took me to my
room. Now I can finally pass out, Oh but
WAIT it couldn’t be that easy. The room
was not cleaned. So by this time, it was
almost 1 am. This is the only vacant
room and I was tired and stressed. As I
was standing there the smell of pot was filling the hallway, apparently my next
door neighbor was a Chinese stoner. When
she offered to help me find somewhere else to stay, I couldn’t hold back tears
of annoyance any longer. And if
you read my earlier post, you would know crying in Chinese is absurd- it’s just
not done. I tried not to, but the tears
came out. I think out of shock from the
crying, she offered to clean the room.
Yes please, just give me some clean sheets and put me to bed. SIGHHHH. After
all that though, the place was nice and fitting for me.
