Amazing vistas and visas in Hong kong

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Ni hao from Hong Kong. We landed late evening and made our way to our hostel and we're greeted by the lovely Eleanor. A quick check in and dump of the bags and we were in a bar in time for happy hour!! Result. The G and T's were flowing as we had a good catch up. Eleanor had to leave us to catch her flight and we decided it was prob best to go to bed (we had been up since 4am!)
The next morning we were up really early to get to the Chinese passport office to try and get our visas. If you didn't already know, we had an absolute nightmare in London trying to get them and gave up in the end. Numerous people had assured us we could get them (with ease) in Hong Kong. Thankfully our hostel was just around the corner from the office. So with all the paperwork in the world, every form of identification known to man and all the patience you can possibly have we began to queue. Now to say the officials needed a lesson in customer service would be an understatement. It makes me angry just typing this because I cannot put into words how rude they all were. As we were near the front of he queue we got seen quickly but both our applications needed changing. We both needed new passport photos because, get this- they couldn't see our ears. I wouldn't have minded except you still can't see my ears in the new photos. We also had some photo copying to do before re queuing again. This time our applications were accepted. Next problem- they don't do a same day service. We had to go back he next day st 10am to collect them. Slight issue- we needed to be at the airport for 10:30am to check in for our flight to China. Trying to reason or even ask a question with them was a pointless task. So we left our passports with them, knowing tomorrow would be a wild dash to the airport straight from the passport office.
Back to the hostel to drop off all the paperwork we no longer needed before heading up Victoria peek- the highest point in Hong Kong. Unfortunately it was quite cloudy when we got up there but we still managed to have a nice walk, send postcards, do some souvenir shopping and get the tram back down. Once back down we headed into the botanical/zoological gardens. They had a large display of birds in different Avery's, from bright pink ibis and flamingos to grey cranes. It was rather lovely. Then we went and had a look at the mammal enclosure, which was fully of monkeys, limas and other animals such as giant tortoise. We spent quite a long time here and both really enjoyed it. Back at the hostel it was an afternoon of planning and admin!
That evening we headed out for food. As Jo put it we ended up at Hong Kong's version of whimpy. The food was ok, but it definitely wasn't the best. I had seafood wontons with noodles and Jo had the bed noodles. We must have been a sight in this place, using chopsticks and not having a clue what to do with this bowl of brown liquid next to us! After dinner we went shopping around the little night markets and some high street shops. We both love looking at markets and shops.
The following morning we were at the passport office for 8am ready to go straight the the airport from here. I went to get coffee, whilst Jo got told off for sitting/camping out on the floor. 9am came, the office opened and we weren't allowed in. We attempted to explain our situation to what can only be described as a little hitler of a man, to no avail. He didn't even let us finish. Again rudeness at its finest. 10am came and we literally sprinted up the stairs to the office to again be first in line to get our passports. Passports back in our possession and another sprint to a taxi. It was only when we were in the taxi we stopped to draw breath and look at the visa. All this hassle for a stupid sticker!! All this hassle and stress and guess what..... the dam thing doesn't even have our photo on it!! The photos they were so fussy about us having in a certain way! The photos that needed our ears in!! So we are still none the wiser as to why we needed our photos done again!!!
We're just at the gate now about to board the plane. My only hope is that China will be worth all the stress and hassle ( I know it will be)
Visa obtained- entry granted lots of love Lauren and Jo xxx

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