Hong Kong!

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My room, of me and 3 strangers, was woken up at 2.30am by a phone call and subsequent knock on the door that herald the arrival of my suit, even though I had asked for them to leave it at reception!!

We were again rudely awoken by Eagle Eye Cherry at 4.15am and I headed to the shower! However I forgot to turn off my alarm so was told by a random american that he had stopped it for me.... Not wanting to annoy them anymore I dragged my stuff into the corridor and got ready there. I then headed to Jess and Katy's room to wake them up to watch the final of the 100m sprint before saying goodbye and heading to the airport.

I arrived very early so got some breakfast before waiting to board. The plane seemed to be running on time but I should have known better and we were held on the tarmac for an hour! The delay was recovered in the air and I landed at 12.30.

Kobe met me at the airport and took me to Mong Kok in Kowloon, where I could leave my bags at his grans flat and have a wonder around. It was great to see him again and catch up after 3 years! We had some lunch in the mall under his grans flat. That is something clever about HK, they dont waste any space with malls built under towers that contain office space and flats! However a weird thing was the absence of any floors with 4 in the number, due to in Cantonese "four" is similar to the word for "death".

We had a look around the many malls, as Kobe doesnt like the heat and humidity! There are also loads of mini-malls with shops in them contain lots of cartoony junk that the Chinese girls apparently love! There are also many shops that have the box system. This is where the shop rents out window boxes for people to sell their stuff in, this means that a shop has loads of different stuff in it ownedby different companies. A very interesting way to do buisness!

Kobe took me for some Mango Sago, which is a delicious mango drink with small jelly balls, or bubbles, in it! We then went back to his grans to wait for Arthur to let us know when I could meet him. I feel asleep on the sofa as I was soo tired!

Eventually Arthur called and we went to the MTR metro station to get to his. Kobe made me get an Octopus card, like an oyster card but so much better. You can use on all transport and buy stuff from all 7 Elevens and many other small shops around the city! I met Arthur at Tseun Wan and we got a minibus, another great form of transport, which stopped outside his flat.

After settling in to his flat, which is next door to his parents, we went to have some Dim Sum for dinner! It is a great form of food where you get lots of small dishes to share around. I had some great food, my favourite being Pork Buns!

We then drove around Kowloon for a bit going down Nathan Street, the main road, and seeing the amazing neon lights, Chinese characters look so much better in neon than english does! Arthur's dad Francis took me to get a phone and a HK sim card. In total it cost $225 HK which is around 20 quid! This included $120 dollars of credit, which in my trip I only used around $20, its very cheap to call in HK!

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