Hong Kong

Seeing Hong Kong in six hours before an 8 hour flight after a 12 hour flight was hard labour, however it was worth it, and I managed not to miss my other flight! Which I am amazed at, most people on my flight stayed in the airport - losers!! However, when I discovered that I didn't even know the PIN to my MasterCard the prospect of staying in the airport was beginning to seem very real. Had no cash and couldn't use my Cirrus card. When I finally found a cash machine where I could use it, it would only let me take out $200 HKG dollars which sounded like alot at the time (but turns out it was actually £15). So I saw most of what I wanted and had dinner in Hong Kong for just 15 quid, not bad!

Hong Kong at night (when I got in it was 7pm) is a real spectacle! It was good to get off the damn plane after a 12 hour flight stuck between some fat asian dude who made Hurley from the TV show "Lost" seem like a welcome prospect, fortunately for me he didn't smell, and on my other side a mad German couple. The german woman nearly killed the woman in the seat in front of her when she shifted in her seat about 20 times to try and find a more comfortable spot (which was futile) and knocked this German woman's cup of coffee all over herself. It was quite bad as she looked like she had, had a major accident and can't have been pleasant having to sit there like that. Her response was only what I can imagine a female version of Hitler to act like. The whole of the plane were looking and staring. I managed to get some regularly interrupted sleep no thanks to a kid behind me who after one warning to stop kicking my seat I nearly throttled!



Once on the Airport Express train and on my way to Hong Kong island, I got the Star Ferry over to Kowloon (which passes through the Victoria dock, which when lit were spectacular - see photo). At 8pm I was told they do a grand lighting up of the harbor buildings, but nothing much seemed to happen. (Photo of me with harbor behind).


Then went into to downtown Kowloon which was mainly neon signs, camera shops and people trying to sell massages of EVERY body part you can imagine! I was also given the hard sell by a bloke who offered a "genuine" Hugo Boss suit for just £20! When he wouldn't take no for an answer I told him that my whole reason for being there was to avoid having to wear a suit and asked him what practical reason he thought I had for a suit backpacking round Australia. This got rid of him very quickly! The rest of my time was spent walking round what I think was the ghetto of Hong Kong, and probably not advisable to do alone. I spent most of my time trying to find the tackiest t-shirt I could find with something like "I heart Hong Kong" on but they were all surprisingly very up-market.



Not wanting to risk any disasters I returned to the airport to spend a further 8 hours on a plane. Although I did watch "40 year old virgin" on the plane, which had the whole plane cracking up.