Welcome to China: Which way to the lou?:

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Well it hasn’t been even 24 hours in mainland China (in Guangzhao) and my intestines are on strike. A few minutes after eating last night Richie and I watched a group of locals come in and thoroughly wash their bowls and chopsticks in boiling hot tea before eating. Whoops. Looks like I’ll delay that 10 hour bus to Guilin and stay in my hostel for long enough to give everyone an update. Yay! The good news about that place was that the wait staff were so surprised to see us there that we immediately directed to a table, past what must have been a 50 person line. Hmm, I could get used to that.

Hong Kong:

Here’s Richie and I’s graceful entry into Hong Kong: after a surprisingly enjoyable 13 hour plane ride (really, it actually was okay) out came the lonely planet map and the address of our hostel. We took Hong Kong’s incredibly clean and efficient subway, called the MTR, to the closest metro to King’s Street and headed what looked like the right direction. Turns out that way is directly up the mountain and, despite being the middle of night, its 30 degrees and we are carrying 60 lbs packs. Exactly 3 buckets of sweat later we give in and hail a cab…who promptly takes us right back down the hill. We think maybe we know where he is going, but what he is really doing is stopping at every Hotel in the area and going “Yes? Yes?”. To make matters worse, our hostel is called the “Yes Inn”, which understandably sounds like “Yes right here”. After the help of one of said hotels, we end up at the right place: literally across the street from subway station. There’s no sign, its an apartment building and the street’s different but hey, we’re here maybe. A sketchy doorman yells the code at us for 10 minutes, but no matter how many times he says “aayyro” we will never understand that he means the letter “R”. A 2 foot by 2 foot elevator that holds us and our 5 new chinese friends and we are there. Welcome to Hong Kong.

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Comments

[Jenn]

Thanks for the story, guys... man, I laughed, and I laughed... so true. Sounds like you guys are doing well and sticking it out, despite the mishaps! So proud of you. Take care of yourselves. Love, Jenn

[Chelsea]

you rock
such a good idea! even if you can only update once in a while, it's awesome to read about your travels. tell rich i say hi!

[kelly]

wow!
sounds like you are having fun and i am so proud that you are there checking it out! i would never be able to do it. MTL is missing you!! have fun!!!

[Katie]

Wassaaabe!!!!
Hey! I expected to get an email in September saying "we're coming back, can we crash with you?" not an invite to blogs and connections to the vagabond travelors! Pictures look great, love the looking for the "Yes Inn" story. Sounds hilarious, I can picture your fabulous language skills being of great assistance! Life here is same old - no exciting news from the West :) Read you soon, Katie

[Jason]

Hey
Looks and sounds amazing... keep me posted!

[Kim]

Ahhahahahhahahha
That was ASOME!! Missing traveling myself, and enjoying finding out about your trip (As delayed as it is). I hope to hear from you/see you soon johnny. Kim