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Published: November 10th 2009
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one crazy night, one day hungover, one full day sight seeing. managed to pack everything in apart from the buddah but im damn sick of buddahs right now its really not worth it. trying to save cash too, hong kong aint cheap!
i walked accross the border from shenzhen and it really felt like walking from, one country to another with all my bags and stuff but eventually i got my hk stamp in the passport feels good to be out of china, the chinese are fine but i cant think of anything worse than another day in the company of a chinese tourist, the americans get a bad rap but id take ten american tourists to one chinese any day. turns out i was staying on hong kong island itself rather than the touristy part near the ferry so had a bit of a mission getting there and well culture shocks dont get much bigger than this, everywhere else i have been has had space to burn but here its at a premium shown no better than the fact the shower is directly above the toilet because theres no room!!!
CARNIVAL originally i
had intended to try and catch the light show on my first night but then some guy said there was a carnival going on in the bar district near soho and that it would be ''raining vodka'' well there was no way i was going to miss out on that! finally i got myself some cider after wayy too long having to drink beer although i do miss my 20p largers now its more like english prices, at an expensive place. so i met a group of drama teachers working on the island and jst tagged along with those guys buying cheap alco pops from one of the islands billion 7-11's. i was quickly introduced to vodka jellys 2,3,4 later we moved on to the russian ice bar which was by far the coolest, no pun intended, bar iv ever been in....basically for those who dont know its a bar where you go into a room which is like below zero or something which is stocked up with vodka (a chilly 6pound a shot!) and they give you like a massive furr coat to keep warm brilliant!
the real party however was outside on the streets, still humid at
night so perfect conditions the place was full of expats and hong kongers alike and some random chinese guys dressed up as brasilian women samba dancers and one as an african tribesman? there was an acrobatics show which was awesome, this girl has skills she was holding her body up with one hand on top of 4 oddly stacked chairs and then spinning stuff with her feet!
the night ended with a coupe americans as we sat on the side of the road drinking smirnoff ice jst watching a balloon maker, funny at the time i guess, kindly they found me a bus back to the hostel as the metro had stopped working and i was on the wrong island!! lang kwai = awesome night out!
The Peak and pickpockets the day after the carnival i felt predictibly fragile so decided making it up to the peak would be my greatest achievment of the day, ended up going with an english couple jim and sharley which was cool, if not a tad wierd at a few romantic moments between the two. anyway moving on, the view was awesome and although we didnt pay extra to
go to the top of what was basically jst a shopping mall full of crap we jst sat in burger king and saw half the city then when to a terrace area outside the main building to see the rest, it was a bit cloudy so wasnt as cool as it could have been and maybe i should have gone at night because even at ground level hong kong looks awesome at night time, im starting to find for myself that im liking sky scrapers more than mud huts.
next was the night market at temple street, first of all it was as impressive as i was led to believe, markets in beijing and even xian were better and bartering was so hard because it was such a touristy place to go. unfortunatly the cherry on the cake was that i got pickpocketed, first time its happend and im 220 hk dollars down, luckly they didnt get cards or anything but still damn annoying!
Sightseeing, everything in a day so i decided i was going to knock out most of the stuff to see and do in one day. first stop victoria park which although
nto much to look at has great sports facilities and is good to watch kids attempt to play football and basketball, some wernt awful to be fair, oh and there was a big queen victoria statue big respect to hk for representing! next was the star ferry which is cheap as chips and pritty quick the sn had really come out by this point and it was blistering hot all day along with views of hong kong island from star avenue it makes you so much happier! the bruce lee statue was cool although some chinese dude wanted some sort of kung fu battle to get a photo in front of it, needless to say my drunken monkey technique won the day for the british empire! the aveneue of stars was full of random chinese dudes who id never heard of and neither had the chinese i recon as everyone jst searches out the jackie chan and bruce lee stars!
back on the island and it was across to soho and the biggest escolator in the world, pritty boring really but had to be done. back across the water again and its ladies market time, better than temple street and
i didnt get robbed lovely jubbly! the light show was kinda like any fireworks show back home it promises so much but never really delivers but to be fair it was pritty cool as long as you didnt listen to the cheesy music or commentary and im a sucker for spolights and shiney things, they blatenly needed to put the batman symbol up though that would have been awesome.
other than this, its all i can remember right now, just generally wandered around the city and spent alot of time people watching..starbucks anywhere is a good place for this sport and i get my coffee fix for the new addiction.
next up KL, a nice early wake up to get the bus to the airport. oh and btw its been so sunny the whole time, getting rather tanned...just wanted to rub it in a little bit.
much love xx ash
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