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Asia » Hong Kong » Kowloon
October 22nd 2009
Published: November 16th 2009
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So this is the long awaited first blog of my 6 month travels. Despite the fact I have already been away nearly a month I have decided to back track and test my memory to see what I can remember.

We are arrived in Hong Kong tired, smelly but in good spirits and were ready to get our travels underway. Sadly British Airways had other ideas and despite the fact that we arrived safely...my rucksack didn't! Ok, ok....breathe....it's absolutely fine...I'm sure BA know where your bag is at least?! Nope! Basically not a clue. The lovely guys at the HK baggage department said that this happens with BA all the time apparently! My bag had been labelled wrongly and no one was really sure if it was in HK somewhere, Heathrow or somewhere entirely different. Good start! Next problem was that as we didn't know where we were going to be staying so I would have to make the very expensive phone call to the baggage people once we had found some accommodation so they would know where to deliver the bag to once it actually arrived. But since I am embracing a new travelling personality and am not going to let the small stuff (see how I am classing this as small stuff?!) get to me we left the airport feeling fairly upbeat. Yah...go me!

We used the HK Express Airport train which I must say was awesome. This is one thing that HK does very well...transport! London should really take a leaf out of HK's book as it is so clean, fast and efficient and very reasonably priced. Not knowing exactly where we were going we got off the train at Kowloon and I suggested we get a bus to Nathan Road where all the hostels are located. Good idea, right? No not really when Nathan Road is one of the longest roads in HK and we of course ended up at totally the wrong end. Oooops! So back on the UTR (underground) and finally we find ourselves in the right area called Tsim Shu Tsu where the cheapie hostels are. We find ourselves at the notorious Mirador Mansions...duh duh duuuuh! A huge scummy block with lots of guest houses within it. The first one we looked at on the 11th floor was a no-goer, especially for $200HK/night. Dirty, tiny and very questionable sheets...little did I know how many more sets of questionable sheets would follow! Yuk! So we decide to look at another and we find ourselves stepping from the scummy corridor into the haven that is the Lily Garden Guest House. Located on the 5th floor it was compact to say the least with the shower over the toilet, but clean and felt mucher safer than the previous. So with a bit of haggling I got him down to $160HK/night so about 7GBP. Pretty much a result! Woo hoo!

So here we are in HK in and despite lack of clean clothes and all my possessions we decide to hit the town! We had a bit of a headstart as we had a lovely flight attendant who as we left the flight gave us a huge bag of miniature bottles of spirits and wine so we were set for a cheap night, or so we thought! We find ourselves wandering around in HK aimlessly looking for SOHO, but can we find it, no! So we decide to eat in this little local cafe. Not totally sure what we are ordering we make a decision and actually have a amazing meal...still not sure exactly what it was. A beef broth noodle kind of thing! Very tasty though and a total bargain. That is really the best piece of advice for anyone travelling on a tight budget...eat local foods, even if it's unidentifiable. That just adds to the fun! We then head onto Lan Kwai Fong...not to be confused with Kwai Fong where we ended up first which is at the end of the UTR line. This is like Kavos, but for the older crowd...bar and clubs line the streets. We decided to try to use our miniatures at this point so subtly order 2 diet cokes at the bar which costs us the sum of 8GBP!!!!!! Note for future, drink alcohol, it's cheaper or so we thought. But no a beer will set you back pretty much the same so with our HK budget pretty much already blown we have a few more beers and get chatting to a lovely American Matt who is working in HK. After sharing the HK knowledge with us we arrange to meet again the following night, but I think my emails never got through so sorry we didn't get to meet again Matt, not that you are reading this, but you never know,...stranger things have happened this trip. More of that later....!

Over our next few days in HK we saw the Peak on the tram where we did the circle walk around to take in the amazing views, a local market which was a total assault on the senses...sights, sounds and especially smells. There were fish sliced in half down the middle, but with their hearts still beating! How does that even happen?! Trekking Dragons Back and other trails around Shek O is a must do as well. It is a bit tough to find, but once you do it is totally worth it. But make sure you have worn your shoes in first...I made a very basic error here and still have the scars nearly 4 weeks later! We also ate in a restaurant near the market where we had an amazing, but totally unrecognisable meal. The English menu wasn't much use so we just pointed at a few things to get a selection and then when we saw our neighbours food we did the whole signing thing of 'we want what he's got'! Turned out pretty well with us only not finishing one of the dishes...some kind of very chewy, fatty pork possibly? Still not totally sure, but may be better not to ever find out. We spent an evening at the harbour wandering on the Avenue of the Stars...not that I really recognised any of the 'stars' except Jackie Chan! The views of HK from here are pretty awesome though. Our evening out in Wan Chai was a bit of a flop with very inflated alcohol and food prices and very cheesy bars (this of course is my idea of heaven...it was Bon Jovi all the way, but not for Caz and it was way over-priced so we left pretty early!)

For me HK was a good start to the travels but I think it is only a place to go if you have lots of cash available and aren't on a backpackers budget as the things you will be after are expensive...maybe even more than UK?

Then we were headed onto Bangkok! A-woo-hoo!

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