The Hong Kong Adventure

So I left Kochi on my long long journey to Hong Kong. Put it this way – I left the hotel in Kochi at 10am and arrived at my hostel in Hong Kong at 4.30pm the following day  I think I took the longest route possible!!


First I was early for my flight, then my flight was delayed by an hour. Finally I arrived in Mumbai for my 10 hour stopover. Only to find that if I left the domestic airport for the international airport I wouldn’t be allowed even INSIDE the international airport until 3 hours before my departure!! Thankfully I found this out before I transferred over there. Laura and Eleni from my tour also had the same long stopover but had taken a flight a couple of hours earlier than me so were already there. We had planned to meet up in Mumbai airport to waste the time together, but obviously I couldn’t do that as they wouldn’t be in there either – I had no idea where they were or what they were doing and I didn’t even have their phone number. I was in the process of attempting to access facebook on the free airport internet in a vague attempt to make contact with them when beep beep my phone went and low and behold – Laura had texted me – I had completely forgotten I had given her my number about 2 weeks before!!!

They hadn’t realised that they couldn’t get inside the airport so had taken the transfer and then found they had to wait in this horrible waiting room outside for hours and hours….they thank god had more sense than to do this and decided to head off for the 5* Regency Hyatt Hotel near the airport  Now I know you will all be thinking, why didn’t I want to go into Mumbai – well, after 3 weeks in mad mad cities in India, Mumbai was the last place I wanted to experience – I had experienced enough of India to be able to say no to Mumbai. I have to admit, I was thinking about finding a hotel lobby/restaurant to go and spend my stopover in, but a 5* one never occurred to me. To say it was a stroke of genius on their part is an understatement as it was the best stopover ever!! I walked in and it was like I had already left India – it was beautiful and the most amazing service ever. They had already had a huge buffet lunch and as it was late afternoon when I reached there I waited until they had their buffet dinner on. Yes, it was expensive (although not by English standards) but it was so worth it! They had the most brilliant salad spread ever – I don’t think I have ever craved salad so much as when I was in India. Totally gorgeous. Anyway their flight to Bangkok was only an hour ahead of mine so we all headed off to the airport together.

So, left Kochi at 10am, got to Mumbai international airport at 8.30pm, got on the next flight at 00.30, reached Singapore at, I’m not even sure – I think it was like 8.40 am their time, then waited an hour and board my NEXT flight to Hong Kong. By the time I cleared customs, made my way through the airport express train and then on to the bus to the nearby hotel it was about 4.30pm. I was exhausted. When I got there I had to call the hostel to get them to come and meet me at the hotel so they could walk me round to the hostel. I’m pleased I did as although it’s literally around the corner, in my seriously sleep deprived state I don’t think I would have found it.


The room, well its tiny of course, thank god I had to book a twin as they are full as I don’t want to know how tiny the single is.

So im pretty much in la la land after all that travel and little sleep but want a shower – its cold  pretty pissed off but I take a cold shower – again! So to avoid going to sleep I had heard about this bar in the bottom of the hotel round the corner where I got off the bus, it was in the lonely planet, I thought I would check it out…..it was about 6pm by this point so not toooo terrible! Anyway I’m pleased I did as its not too bad and a bit of a lifeline seeing as I think if I spent an entire evening in my hostel room I might be considering suicide. (Its not so bad, but a room with no natural light and tiny is not such a great place to spend an entire evening on your own with nothing to do).

It turns out that the bar is in the basement of the same hotel that Francesca stays in with BA when she is in Hong Kong and knows the bar well  So not much to tell, I went to the bar, was sat on my own and then got talking to the guy next to me – don’t all get excited – I do mean talking! He’s in town on business, then some colleagues of his come down, we have a chat, and then he goes off for dinner. I have dinner at the bar….then back to the hostel for a very early night!

So now to the interesting stuff (sorry I seem to have gotten my writing blagh back. I hope its not too long for you!

Yesterday I went out to explore Kowloon – the metro system here is brilliant and so easy – its even air conditioned and people can talk on their mobiles under ground (not sure I like that idea though). I headed for the central area and got the Star Ferry over to Kowloon. First stop was Chungking Mansions. I had heard so many mixed things about this place – that it was a dump, that it was dangerous, that it was a must see place. Well it was a must see place and my god was I pleased that I found my hostel in Causeway Bay as I was going to be staying in a hostel in there otherwise!!

 
I made my way northwards towards the Jade Market and battered hard with my well earned India skills for a bracelet. Then came Ladies Market on many recommendations but particularly Francesca’s and her tips about the fake designer bags. Unfortunately all the bags I wanted they didn’t have! (have to be a little bit practical with what I’m carrying around after all. I did however manage to get a nice purse which I wanted. I also found a good top which actually fitted although the bloody women wouldn’t let me try it on (its market, no trying - they kept on saying) and I kept on saying….no trying….no buying. I kept trying to walk away they kept pulling me back, but still they wouldn’t let me try it on! Eventually I got my way!!! It fitted but I had no idea what it looked like – but I only paid about £5 for it….thank god when I got back to the hostel and put it on it actually looks quite nice. Found a few other nice bits and pieces too. I managed to get up to the Temple Street Night Market after that – but it was still too early – about 5.30, so there were a few stalls but not much – I was so tired by this point being out all day that I decided to call it a day and head back towards to the ferry…had to wait a while though as I wanted to go on it after dark to see the lights of Hong Kong Island – what a sight! It really is AMAZING!

Today was exploring Hong Kong Island day – slightly less to see and do so I started later and finished earlier but still a tiring day – so much for relaxing in Hong Kong. I have to admit today was a shopping day as yes – as you all told me, I packed faaaar to lightly – I knew that anyway but I didn’t realise quite how lightly I had packed!!!

Of course, Hong Kong doesn’t generally cater for the larger lady although I did find a couple of nice tops…..but someone told me there’s a Marks and Spencer here!! So after visiting the HSBC and Bank of China Tower off I trotted and got myself well equipped!

I generally spent the day wandering around – I did have an aim, and managed to achieve them all but more by luck than judgement. I went to see a bit of Hong Kong park which was a bit of an oasis but ruined by the noise of all the traffic still.
 
I managed to find the Central Escalator – a very bizarre thing to see in the middle of a city – its 800 metres long and runs in the middle of town up this huge hill with shops all around it. In the morning before 10am, the escalator only goes downhill so all the commuters I guess can get down easily, but the rest of the day it goes uphill (thank god!). I managed to do quite a bit more shopping today as well and found a cool bag which is made out of recycled Chinese newspapers  I nearly forgot to mention in here that there was a guy in the shop that was asking the owner all sorts of questions, so me being me, and being nosy, i asked him if he was some kind of travel writer or something, anyway, we chatted a bit, he works for an italian lifestyle magazine, and in the end he took my picture of me looking at the bag with the owner of the shop and took a few details down about me!

 

I also found a place I read about in my guide book which does foot massages and pedicures. Today I only had a pedicure but a woman in there sold me on the foot massage when she was nearly asleep during hers…It’s a very nice place with a room filled with these enormous leather armchairs with lovely big pillows and you are so comfy!

 

So continuing on from this but I’m writing in past tense as I wrote the above bit a few days ago but didn’t post it yet! That night I went to Dickens pub which is in the basement of a very nice hotel round the corner from where my hostel is. I ended up getting chatting to a guy at the bar….a 70 odd year old guy! No….i wasn’t chatting him up – or vice versa – before you all start! We chat away and I ask him what he does so he tells me he is the concierge at the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong (very posh!) – he’s like the head honcho there, very nice guy and we chat for a couple of hours and he supplied me with some very nice red wine. Anyway – it’s a funny story more because the next day I was flicking through my Hong Kong guide book and there in the middle of it is Giovanni – the Concierge from the Mandarin Oriental being interviewed in the Lonely Planet!

So on my last day in Hong Kong I decided to take it very easy – I got up late and went up to Victoria Peak (I couldn’t NOT go) and it was well worth it – the views are AMAZING!

I made my way back down and found a nice place for a good western burger (I needed bland western food all of Hong Kong after 3 weeks of curries!) then found the place for the amazing foot massage. Talk about relaxation, I nearly fell asleep – I floated out of there!

So i'll leave this posting on that note and with the view I had from Victoria Tower - i made it to the airport the next morning so nothing more to say :-)