Hong Kong

My time in Hong Kong got off to an exciting start. After I finally got on a plane in Sanya, I headed back to Guangzhou. I had just bought a return ticket to Guangzhou, planning to get a bus from there to Kowloon. I had no idea how that was going to work, I just knew that it could be done.



At the Guangzhou airport, I had a bit of a scare when all of the luggage had been spit out and my pack was nowhere to be seen. It turned out that my bag had got on an earlier flight from Sanya and had been awaiting my arrival in a corner of the baggage claim. Odd. After sorting that out, I went out to the airport shuttle area. There are actually a number of shuttles at the Guangzhou airport. I spoke with a lovely woman who told me that to get to Kowloon, I should take the #5 shuttle to the China Hotel and then catch a bus to Kowloon. OK. Step one. I should mention that at this point, the stress of figuring out how to get from point A to point B was starting to get to me and I had brief flashes of, "maybe I'll just live at this airport for the rest of my life."



At the China Hotel, I eventually discovered that the bus stop had been temporarily moved to the Convention Center across the street. I went over there and bought a ticket at the kiosk. Then, I settled in to wait. While waiting, I had a nice conversation about Chinese property values with a gentleman who was excited to see my Sanya tags, because he had just bought a condo there. The housing market in China is apparently booming.



I spent about an hour and a half on the bus before hitting the Chinese border with the Hong Kong Special Economic Zone. We all got off of the bus, went through Chinese Customs and Immigration, and got back on a new bus that took us 10 minutes to the HK Customs and Immigration station. After getting our visas (most people get a free 90 day tourist visa upon entry to HK), we got back on yet another bus to Hong Kong. This let me off at near the start of Nathan Road in Kowloon. Wow! Nathan Road is called the Golden Mile for a reason. I've never seen more neon in my life. While trying to get a good picture of it, I was nearly hit by a bus, so, sorry but there's no pic of my first sight of Kowloon. I took the metro to Tsim Sha Tsui 'cause it was too far to walk. Really good metro by the way.



All of this took about 6 hours. I didn't actually get to Chungking Mansions until 11:30pm, after being in transit since 1pm. Exhausting. Back in Chengdu, when I made all of my travel reservations, I ignored the advice of many people who had been to Hong Kong, including one who had lived there, and booked a single room in Li's Guesthouse, Block A, Chungking Mansions. I wanted to experience firsthand the overwhelming mass of humanity that is there. I knew that it was filthy, dangerous, stinking, and crowded and I wanted to immerse myself in it. It was only for one night after all.



When I made my online reservation, I had to specify a time of arrival. I had no idea, so I just plugged in 4pm. When I arrived at 11:30pm, I was told, by Li, that because I was late, he was going to charge me double the price. WHAT??? For 2/3 of the time using the room, I would need to pay double the price? x=y and 2/3x=2y. Does that make sense mathematically? What the hell is x? He hadn't lost any money by me having a hellish time getting to Hong Kong. Nor was he inconvenienced in any way. We argued for awhile and he seemed happy to tell me to shove off if I didn't want to pay the higher price. I couldn't understand his attitude since as far as I knew, the place was probably 1/2 empty and the building was full of other guesthouses that would be happy to take my money. I told him that this was "fucking unbelievable". That's when he lost it. Apparently, "fucking" is his trigger word. He screamed, "FUCK??? NO, FUCK YOU, Fuck YOU!!!!" Then he started advancing on me while still screaming FUCK YOU, Fuck YOU!!! I quickly retreated from the scary little man. I ran into a guy in the hallway who told me that Li is crazy and everyone in the building knows that he's crazy, and that I might want to make my escape. Wow.



Well, that was on the third floor of Block A. There were 14 more floors to this tower and 4 other towers. I had no doubt that I'd find another, better place to lay my head. I started up the stairs to floor 4. Full. There were 3 guesthouses there, with 25 beds apiece, and they were all full. How very odd. I continued up to floor 5. Full. 6. Full. Oh shit. I also started taking a look inside each guesthouse. Disgusting. The stairwell was bad enough with a big pile of garbage at each landing. The hotels were awful. The place was packed with immigrants from every part of the Southeastern part of the world, all come to Hong Kong to find work. If you are at all xenophobic, this is not the place for you. The smell was overwhelming. It was midnight and easily 90 degrees inside the building. The mattresses looked about 20 years old. By the time I reached the 12th floor, I was hoping to hear that each room was full. I was longing for an excuse to spend more money and sleep somewhere better. On the 15th floor, I finally found someone to tell me why all of these places were full. It was the Mid-Autumn Festival Eve! Crap. I'd been seeing the moon cakes for weeks and knew that it was coming up soon, but I'd had no idea when the holiday actually was. Everyone and his brother had come out to see the full moon over Victoria Harbor. There was not a bed to be had. I happily gave up on Chungking Mansions and headed back out to Nathan Road.



After a quick stop to check my Lonely Planet, I decided to try the YMCA. Score! For $250 HK, I got a bed in a carpeted, air conditioned, spotlessly clean dorm room in a gorgeous hotel, which I shared with one middle-aged Irish woman from Galway, who I didn't even run into until 3am. The lunatic at Chungking Mansions wanted me to pay $360 to sleep in his flophouse. After dumping my bag, I went out to explore the area and celebrate the holiday.



There were so many people out. It was one in the morning by the time I hit the Avenue of the Stars, yet entire families were wandering around or settled in on blankets watching the moon and eating snacks. It was amazing. The weather was perfect. Warm and balmy without being too hot. Everyone had some sort of glow stick or glow necklace. Hong Kong was right across the harbor and I had one of those moments. That WOW feeling when it's unbelievable that you are where and when you are. I was in Hong Kong for the Mid-Autumn Festival. So cool.



The next day, I took the ferry over to Hong Kong Central and rode the tram up to Victoria Peak. At the top, there was a nice, short hike up to the top of the peak. It felt great to get a little exercise and Hong Kong is amazing from the peak. It's a fabulous place to see, but I'm positive that it's an even better place to work, or at least to come on a business trip. I found the city to be even more impressive than Manhattan. It has all of the features of a giant Western-style metropolis, with the exotic flair of it being in China. Amazing.



After wandering around Kowloon for a bit, and getting another foot massage, I picked up my pack and took the ferry to Macau. My experience in Chungking Mansions was the last straw for me. I couldn't face one more filthy hostel. I checked myself into Hotel Lisboa on the Macau Peninsula to experience the casino district.

To see my photos, please visit http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/HongKongMacau?authkey=N_G8EMmBdJQ