14th & 15th feb 2010

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At 1015 on the Sunday the 14th Feb 2010 I set off on the trip I've been planning and trying to save for, for over a year and had booked for around 6 months. Leg one of the journey was just a quick jaunt to my sisters in lytham to visit her and the family for one last time quick bit of lunch and then on too Manchester airport. When at the airport about 2 and a half hours before takeoff quick look at the boards which between me, my mother and my sister we never noticed was that it was gate openings and not check in times that was on it so we sat round and had a drink while we thought that we were waiting for the check in desk to open. When eventually I just went and asked and found out that check I was open with around an hour and 20 before boarding ment that it was check in the bags and then a quick goodbye and I was off got through the security gates without much trouble except for having my bag checked for explosives, not the contents the bag itself, and then it was just a short wait and my first flight of the day was off.

It was only around a half hour flight to heathrow which ment that by the time I was off the plane it was around 6 o'clock and because it was a transfer I couldn't leave the deparure gates area so 3 hours to kill I walked around the shops had a quick bite to eat and then just sat round watching the deparure boards, which is definately not the best way to kill time, then at 2105 I was boarded onto the Air New Zealand flight to Auckland via Hong Kong.

The plane journey dragged on as I was only able get about ten minuites sleep during the whole 11hours 30 mins flight, luckily the in flight entertainment was quite good so it want to bad I definately don't think that I could have gone straight through to NZ though like lots of the passengers were I think it would have made me go crazy. By the time that I had followed the crowds through to immigration and then gone through my luggage which I hadn't seen since manchester was already going around the caroussel. Large backpack strapped to my back and small pack on my front and I was away as far as the onward travel desk at least anyway. Bought an octapus card (which is like a oyster card for the London underground except it's useful) and caught the airport express train to hong kong station. Got off the train and followed the crowds and the signs (mostly the crowds) and walked what seemed quite along way (but that's probly why all the Chinese use the escalators but not me I'm an idiot) underground to central mtr station. The mtr is the hong kong version of the underground/subway and is really cheap and quick trains every 3 mins. A few stops down the line at fortress hill station found the correct exit and I was finally outside for the first time since Manchester airport. Trying to find the hostel was a bit more difficult than it should have been but I misinterpreted the directions and ended up lost. Ended up walking through some pretty sketchy areas but when I eventually found it it was ok and right on the main street about 2mins from the train station.

Dumped my bags and had a quick shower and went out to get a quick bite to eat and then have an early night. As all the restaurants around here seem to have menu's in Cantonese only I decided to just go to somewhere busy and get what the locals were getting. I saw a sign with HKD20 on it so pointed to it paid
the woman and was presented with a polystyrene tray filled with a mixture of at a guess was chicken, pork, tofu, and some sort of animal insides. Anyway the majority of it was nice so I can't really complain. Upon returning to my dorm, which had previously been empty there was now an Italian, paulo so we started talking and he was going to meet up with a freind for a few drinks and so he invited me along. Neither paulo or his freind had a phone that worked so they were only in contact by email which isn't the quickest or easiest way to arrange to meet so we had a few cans in the hostel and then eventually caught the mtr to central and went to an area called Lan Kwai Fong which has lots of bars to have a few drinks. Got back to the hostel around 1 and eventually got to sleep at around 4 making it close to 36 hours plus an 8 hour time difference since I had been to sleep.

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