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Published: October 3rd 2008
A man apart
"Maybe traveling with six girls wasn't such a good idea...."Our night at the hostel was less than comfortable. We were supposed to have a five person room, which I imagined would have something like two sets of bunkbeds plus a single. Instead, we had one double, two singles, and a foam chair that folded out into something one could sleep on. And we had to rearrange the furniture to make room for it. I slept on the foam thingie because I figured it would be more comfortable that the mattresses and no one else seemed too keen on sleeping that close to the floor. The AC was very efficient, so much so that we froze our patookies off (we had only sheets, no blankets). I will say this: I did not see any bugs. Still, I'm not sure the Chung King Mansion and all of its hostels will ever see me again. Day two started with another walk down to the Star Ferry. After the brief ferry ride we took a bus to the tram and then took the tram straight up the mountain to The Peak. Basically, The Peak is a mall. But it's at the top and has some amazing views of the city and you get to
take a neat tram to it. There is a trail that runs around the peak and it took about an hour to walk the whole way around. It was nice to breath somewhat fresh air, be surrounded by trees, and to not see buildings towering overhead. After our refreshing walk, we took the tram back down, took the bus back to the ferry and took the ferry back over to where the museums are (and not far from our illustrious hostel). Nearby were the art museum and the space museum. There was also a cultural heritage museum and a history museum. Some wanted to see the art, and others wanted to gain some history, so we split up. Kim, Cara, Allison, and I set off for the history museum and Shauna, Brendon, and Mariam headed out to the art museum. (Chelsea, before you guffaw, I wanted to see the art museum too but thought I'd save it for when you come to visit) After my group got about a block and a half away we realized the history museum was quite a bit further than we originally thought and none of us were up for another trek. We went back
Waiting in line for the tram 2
Jackie Chan was there trying to get attention. It was sad really.... to check out the space museum but it was packed with kids and didn't look all that interesting. So we ended up at the art museum with the other group. There was a really nice Roman exhibit, but there was an entrance fee and I had already spent so much money (mostly on transportation) that I skipped it. But I did see some amazing ink drawings and calligraphy and took a coupla pics of old Chinese stuff. By five o'clock we were all beat and headed back home.
A funny thing happened while in Hong Kong: we all realized that we kinda missed Shenzhen. I also realized that after a month or so of being surrounded by Mandarin speakers, Mandarin doesn't sound so foreign anymore. And when I was in Hong Kong and everyone was speaking Cantonese, I was frustrated because I couldn't understand any of it, whereas at least in Shenzhen I can function at a low level with my broken Mandarin and minimal understanding of it. That made me feel pretty good. And it felt good to be home again, even if home is a room at a school just a few feet away from my classrooms.
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michael purdy
non-member comment
experience
take it form me girl, no metter how weird or nasty the experience its probably one you'll never have again.... and like they always told you sign on the lign you do the time hahahah now teach dem dar kids english oh and Ombama is laeding the poles at this point incase you haven't heard Take care Michael