The Bright Lights of Hong Kong (if you don't miss them!)

21 OCTOBER 2009

Arrive Shenzhen! We had to catch our last public bus in China to reach the railway station where border crossing is and guess what ... how is this for our last experience in China; the bus driver tried to charge us double for the room which our backpacks took up, even though we were wearing them and even though bus was empty! Does that not just totally summarise it?! So in a final stand of defiance I did as the Chinese do ... pretended didn't have a clue what he was talking about even though it was blatantly obvious!! In the end the traffic lights changed and we refused to budge so he had to keep driving and we jumped out 30mins later at the station just as some of the locals did so he couldn't lock us in and drive past!!

At 11am we crossed the border and entered Hong Kong - Hoorah!!

In conclusion - China had some beautiful sights and some exceptional history and culture and I feel very honoured to have to such magnificent sights; the great wall, the Forbidden City, the Terracotta Army, the Shaolin monks, the giant pandas, the Li river and many many more besides, however, the attitude and conduct of the majority of Chinese people we came into contact with has tarnished the overall impression of the country and I can honestly say, although the last four weeks has included some great experiences, Paul, Derek, Leanne and I have all sworn we would never return - there too many other countries to explore with too many other opportunities and experiences to have!


HONG KONG
Hong Kong's public transport network was mega efficient and the subway system was phenomenal. By midday we were on the express metro link, deep into Hong Kong and on our way to Kowloon (the southern part of the main peninsula). We had booked a room at Chung King mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui. Previously EVERYBODY we had met warned us about the poor quality of hostel accommodation available in Hong Kong. However, I do not think we had quite prepared ourselves for what we walked into!

We entered a building which appeared to be a dirty, cheap, tacky Muslim market selling knocked off goods. It was filthy!! The people were constantly shouting and trying to grab your arm and pull you into their shop - 'No' was not a concept or term recognised here! Still this was only the ground floor, we had to make our way to the ninth so we located a lift (had to wait over 15mins in a queue for it) and finally found the reception area for our 'hostel'. Apart from it was not a hostel. It was more like apartment rooms within the different blocks above the market that they rented out to travelers. Still it seemed much cleaner upstairs and we only needed it for one night so we handed over our booking reference and waited to be shown to our room. The lady took the reference number and then asked if we wanted to upgrade for an extra £7 - we said no. It was blatantly apparent they had not got our room available anymore and were trying to make us pay more to change rooms. When we said no they then told us they were upgrading us for free! Cheeky sods!! We were informed that our accommodation would not be ready for 10mins or so as needed cleaning. Ten minutes for cleaning?? I thought they would probably take longer so rather than waiting as it was now 12.30pm and we only had one day in Hong Kong we left our bags in a secure lock up and told the lady we would check into the room on our return later.

The accommodation was on Nathan Rd - the main shopping street, full of electronic shops, tailors, jewelery stores and fashion boutiques ... or just 'Pure tat', if you ask me! We didn't even bother walking the full length, instead we caught the subway/metro over to one of the offshore islands - Lantau.

Lantau is twice the size of Hong Kong Island and predominantly wild hilly countryside, the governor passed a decree declaring all areas over 200m a country park and subsequently disallowing any building. As a result the island keeps a certain ruggedness and is very peaceful. I wanted to visit the Po Lin Monestary, the largest temple in Hong Kong's entire territory and the Giant Tian Tan Buddha - the largest seated bronze outdoor Buddha in the world. However, they were both located high on the Ngong Ping Plateaux only accessible by cable car. When Paul saw the cable car ... boy, did I have a fight on my hands!!! Twice as high and four times the length of the Sugar Loaf mountain cable car in Brazil (after which he did not speak to me for several drawn out hours). He initially said not a chance! I practically had to blindfold him, tie his arms and legs and drag him, 'lovingly', onto the cable car. It was a 35min (totally uphill) journey crossing vast expanses of water and with cliff faces dropping off beneath you. What probably made it much worse for Paul was the fact that the cable car was 360degree glass cube so he wanted to close his eyes for the journey but we were sat with a young couple from Hong Kong and their small child who kept jumping about everywhere, so Paul daren't close his eyes in case he looked silly!!! He did it easily and even said it wasn't as bad as he was expecting (conquering that fear of heights!) I'm SO proud ... Mt Everest next stop - ha ha!

Just before the sun set for the final time whilst we were in the Far East, we rushed back to Hong Kong Island and caught the Peak Tram to the Peak Tower - a phenomenal vantage point, from the top of a 552m hill, offering panoramic views over the city and the harbour. There were a host of small trails and walks that could be accessed from there but unfortunately time had overtaken us and we had to head back to Kowloon.

We returned collected our bags from the safe lock up and were shown to our room. We had to catch a lift back down to the rough market, walk through to the back of the market and fight our way through a host of Africans and Muslims to a very dubious looking lift which took another 15mins to return to ground level before carrying us back up to the 13th floor. Paul and I looked at each other without needing to speak a word! Then the lift doors opened! Oh my!!! The scene which opened out before us would not have been out of place in the gratuitously gory film 'Hostel'. A dark, winding corridor with lighting that flickered on and off, strange yells and noises coming from one room, weird music and the smell of incense coming from another. Fire escapes locked closed with huge chains and padlocks preventing any quick escape in an emergency and filth and stains covering the walls and floors. I cannot begin to describe how horrible and dirty it was!! The last straw came we opened the door to our room and were confronted by two cockroaches running across the floor and possibly the filthiest room I have ever set eyes on - I didn't even want to touch anything!!! The poky, foul, boiling hot room had no air-conditioning, just fan which was covered in so much dirt and was so unclean that I think if we turned it on we would have been inhaling pure germs. The room had obviously not been cleaned for years!!!! Being careful not to touch anything, we backed out, had to wait over 20mins after calling pressing the button for the lift (no fire escapes and lifts SO slow the place was a death trap) and made our way back to the reception to inform the lady it would be totally unacceptable. We requested a refund of the deposit we paid over the internet prior to arriving and told her we would be leaving! Amazingly enough we got our deposit back (I thought that was long gone)! We jumped on the subway and headed straight back to the beautiful Hong Kong Island decided to stuff the budget for one night and booked into a gorgeous boutique hotel - The Kings!

This was more like us!!!!! After a well earned shower and pamper session including a good few cups of tea (hotel provided kettle and sachets in rooms first we had seen since last in a hotel back home) and utiltising every single little trial size they had provided. We left to cross over back towards Kowloon, this time on the star ferry to watch the 'symphony of lights' - where 44 of the buildings on Hong Kong Island become illuminated, whilst synchronized music and lasers supply the backdrop and provide the worlds largest permanent light show! We got there ... and guess what ... we had missed it!!! Whoops! All the stress and hassle changing rooms and then the bliss of having decent quality accommodation and a good shower had totally made us loose track of time - nevermind, its an excuse to return!! Instead we made our way back to Hong Kong Island and had an absolutely decadent meal (keeping with the flash packing theme for the night - he he) So HUGE, HUGE THANKS for that - we absolutely loved and really appreciated it!!!!

We concluded the night with a walk around Hong Kong Island and at 7am the next morning we were ready for next adventure and set off to airport!!

---

---