Hong Kong Foooey (Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting)

After trying to find immigration (which was around 15 minuts drive from the bus station) and getting on the subway finally we arrived at the hostel which was less than impressive but it was Hong Kong and space is money. Man we knew were out of mainland China straight away. NO spitting on the streets, shouting and everything seemed pretty clean. The people obviosluy had more money too and the place had a real English feel to it that I loved- it felt a little close to home. Gabrielle showed up two hours later and we were all so wrecked we slept till the early evening and headed out for dinner(the best EVER after all the fried food in China) and drinks. It felt really holidayee. Gaby really hated China and her and Gar spent hours comparing horror stories for the night. We were all pretty wrecked so we headed back at around 1 to get some sleep for our big Hong Kong day on Tuesday.

Woke up on Tuesday ready to take on Hong Kong. Again I had no idea what was here which is always good cause when I know too much about somewhere I get really stressed about missing out on sights and stuff which is really stupid and probably defeats the whole purpose of traveling fro 10 months!!

When Gary woke up he did not look or feel well. I think that China really took it out of him and ,without either of us noticing it had taken its toll on him physically and ,to be fair, mentally aswell. It’s pretty shit to be somewhere you don’t feel comfortable for an extended period of time when you are meant to be on the holiday of a lifetime. China didn’t affect me that much cause I have a knack of blinkering out the shit stuff and I think that when I am those situations I feel like I am really traveling. To be fair though we had enough of China when we left and I don’t think I could have stayed there any longer either.

Gaby was leaving for India the next day and shitloads to get done and there was no way was Gary getting out of bed so I went to the shop that sold Locozade(the first bottle in 5 months) and bougth Gar litres of it, sambos, strepsils and crisps and me and Gaby headed out to explore the shops of Hong Kong.
It was deadly we even found a H and M!! It was like being back in Europe or something and we were both loving it. Gaby was a great laugh and real do-er. If something had to be done she just done it. I had been going on about getting my eyebrows and lashes tinted and stuff ( I know, I know really vain but I have a thing about them) and she would not rest until we found somewhere that would do them. I booked an appointment for the next day and before we knew it it was 5.30. Garys would be wondering where we were by now so we headed back after taking some pictures of the amazing Hong Kong skyline.

We headed back and got tarted up and the three of us headed for the Star Ferry to Hong Kong island for what was about to be an epic night. We started by getting a bottle of Scotch at Gaby’s suggestion and putting it into Coke bottles for the subway and the ferry. By the time we landed on Hong Kong we were all a bit tipsy wispy. Found an Indian for dinner (we were coaxed in by a Sri lankan Elvis impersonator-I kid you not) and the food was amazing again. After that we headed to the main night time area in HK and found a cool bar to have a few bevies. I went to the loo and when I came back theres a bong on the table- deadly!! Just tobacco though mind you but it was really nice. After that we headed to a few other bars but we just couldn’t seem to find the right spot. We were wlaking down the road when we passed a 7 eleven with some foreingers drinking outside got chatting to them and next thing you know we are drinking outside a 7 11 with people of all nationalities in the middle of HK. At 3 oclock we were going to head home but some of the guys were heading to a club further on so we headed there- bad move. The place was actually a prostitute den- it was pretty disgucting. I really had no idea but Gar had met this Candian man who came over to our table with hid “girlfriend” from the Phillipines. She was actually really nice and felt sorry for her but the guy was an absolute sleaze. In my drunken stupidness I got into a bit of row with him ( he basically kept assuimg that Gaby was a Columbian prostitute and made a few lewd comments to me) so we headed further afield. All was going well and we were having a great ol time..but… there was an English guy who had had a few too many in the bar as did Gar and a barney broke out. We had to run for it…I was shtiing myself..when we got outside it was bright it was bloody 7.30!! The guy caught up with us and there was another “altercation”. Man I was livid, drunk, bawling and bloody panicking. To top it all off we got into the getaway car and went to the 7 eleven across the road from the hostel to get some water - Gary dropped in and the whole thing sprayed all over me- it didn’t get one other person. It was like the closing scene of a bloody episode of Benny Hill. We got back home and all fell into the beds.

The next morning ( or should I say 4 hours later) me and Gaby woke up and we were screaming laughing over the carry on the night before. It was just unreal…scotch in Coke bottles,Sri Lankan Elvis’s,bongs, drinking at a seven eleven, prostitutes, English crackpots and Gary “Claude Van Damme”…what a night. When Gary woke up man was he in absolute ribbons and he was trying to defend himself over the night before but we were having none of it and just ripped the piss out of him.

We headed out for burgers before Gaby left for India and it was crap to see her go. The day before I had checked my e mails and got an email from the company that I had ordered a bottle of Champagne to be sent to Carrie and Kyle for their big day- they mailed me THE DAY AFTER the wedding to tell me they were out of stock. I was so pissed off I was nearly in tears. I hadn’t even called her cause I was thinking that the Champagne would get there with the note and that she would know I was thinking of her on her big day. I was really pissed that I couldn’t be there in the first place but now it looked like I was off fannying around China not giving rats arse about missing the biggest day of her life. I couldn’t really go on about it when Gaby was there cause she really wouldn’t be intersed in listening to me harping on but now that she had left I was starting to get worked about it again. Then I got a text from Michelle to say she had had a liitle girl that morning. That coupled with the fact that I felt Carrie thought I didn’t value our friendship or give a shit about her and Kyle getting married, Gaby leaving and general drink depression led to me feeling really pissy and “friend sick” more so that “home sick”. Its really hard to keep in touch with people when you are away and two really big events were happening for two out of only 3 real friends that I have in the world and I just felt really out of touch with them and out of control. I had a little cry for the first time since the raw egg incident in Tokyo and headed out to get a phone card to call the lads.

Gary was starting to detiorate by the minute and we made a plan to move to a comfy hotel the next day, get our visa for Vietnam and book flights for the day after. Woke up the next morning all rearing to go only to be greeted with a Typhoon!! I have walked to school in worse weather to be honest with you..it was just heavy rain!! We soon found out that when there is a Typhoon warning of 8 that all government offices,shops and public transport closes so we had to book another night in the craphole hostel and headed to the Irish bar for some comfort food. We couldn’t even arrange flights or our visas cause everywhere was closed…bummer. Poor Gar didn’t think we were ever going to get out of China!!

The so called Typhoon has subsided by the next day ..we got our visas and booked our tickets to fly to Hanoi the next day. Gar was still sick so he tried to get some sleep for the day while I ventured out alone into Hong Kong armed with nothing more than my iPod and shite sense of direction I was ready for the challenge. I was having a major eyebrow crisis- and went to get them done in THE most expensive place in Hong Kong. It was all going great and I really felt like the girl was doing a great job - I was having big visions of looking like Angelina Jolie by the time I was finished and then I looked in the mirror. I looked like Herman Munster…it was ridiculous I don’t know how I didn’t cry on the spot. How she could have thought that she done agood job was beyond me. I went straight to McDonalds and got a cheeseburger meal to cheer myself up and it kind of did until I saw my reflection in the window and I nearly fell of the stool cause I thought there was a bloody caterpillar on me forhead-agahgahag. Why can’t anything go straightforward here!! I decided not to be so vain bought a tweezers and put on me iPod and headed around the centre of Hong Kong in search of my new camera that I was determined to buy. Then despite the crap eyebrows I had a moment of clarity where I felt so lucky to be traveling. It hits you every now then - Here was I in Hong Kong shopping for a new camera and I was winging about eyebrows- what a dope. I headed back and Gary nearly fell out of the bed when he saw me- he thought he was hallucinating from the Vicks fumes and that Ming the Merciless was in the room. Nope it was just me with a dodgy eyebrow job.

I bought me camera on the last day and am delighted with it…hopefully you can tell the difference from some of the pics. When we got to the airport they had the Olympics on the TV so we caught the opening ceremony- it looked amazing but we just couldn’t wait to get to Vietnam.

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