Hong Kong

13th August 2009
HONG KONG

We left Yangshuo at 10pm heading for Guangzhou. The sleeper bus wasn’t quite as spectacularly comfy as the last sleeper bus and the driving was a little erratic, but it was still a huge improvement on the drugs bus from Laos. The Chinese passengers were remarkably quiet but we were a little scared by the trio of drug dealers that lay across the back beds of the bus.

We couldn’t sleep, so I read to Lizzie in a loud whisper, using my glamorous head torch. As the journey was 10+ hours, we had cleverly pre-ordered a pizza to stave off hunger. Cold pizza is a great idea IF you have time to let the pizza go cold, before you wrap it up in a polystyrene box. In our case it was soggy and disgusting.

At 8am we arrived in Guangzhou bus station, hungry and tired. We were told there were no buses to Kowloon. After a bit of a struggle and much pointing at the mini phrase book, we got a taxi to drive us to the train station.

The driver kindly dropped us ‘nearby’ so we had a 15 minute walk with our massive backpacks, in the heat, to the train station. At the ticket counter we were told: “Sorry, we only go to Shenzen. Go to the other train station.” Arrgggh! We walked for 15 minutes back to the main road, flagged another taxi to the other train station.

At this train station we not only managed to get a ticket to Kowloon, but also found a Starbucks! We headed up to the platform for our train. Our ticket stated – floor 4. Every sign we could see had a ‘4’ on it, which was not helped by the fact we had no idea what floor we were on. Everything was written in Chinese and there was no point asking anyone for help, because they would not be any.

Finally we found the entrance to our platform only to be told: “Sorry, too late, no more boarding for this train.” We had missed the God Damn Train. This was a bitter pill to swallow after the hours of effort it had taken to get there. The train was still on the platform, but they wouldn’t let us through.

The guard told us in broken English that basically it was tough shit and we needed to buy another ticket. Before we could do this, we needed some more cash. We were on floor 4. Cash machines were floor 1. By this time, I really was not very happy.

I marched off down the gazillion escalators to the cash point while Lizzie guarded our bags. Back on floor 4 we attempted to book another 2 tickets to Kowloon. Whilst I was being served, THREE Chinese people, one after the other, pushed in front of me to speak to the ticket attendant! Totally disregarding the fact I was part way through being served.

The ticket attendant even had the audacity to respond to them. I have found shouting WAIT and putting my hand in there face definitely gets the desired reaction.

After what felt like 3 weeks, we finally boarded our lovely double-decker train to Kowloon. I had pre-booked our hostel using the free wifi in Starbucks.

After a quick bite to eat, we got a taxi to the hostel. The driver spoke English and drove us directly to our hostel, no messing. We were deposited outside what appeared to be a large smelly market selling clothes, suitcases, electrical items and food. We were a little confused, it didn’t look like a hostel. We walked through the market and found a lift. Once up in the lift, every single floor had a multitude of guesthouses behind large sliding metal prison bars. Each looking as horrifying as the next.

Our hostel was recommended on various websites including STA travel, so we were hoping for something decent. Cosmic Guesthouse is the most awful place you could ever stay, akin to a prison. But by Hong Kong backpacker standards, it is pretty good. We should have stuck to our China motto – Have no expectations and you will not be disappointed.

Cosmic Guest house:

The lovely smiley lady on reception told us: “I give you beautiful room for 2 beautiful girl”. The room is dire – so I’m not sure what she was implying. The beds are about 18inches wide. The room is wide enough to fit both beds, with about 18inches between them. That’s it. The bathroom is the smallest yet. Although it feels like we are living on the set of Bad Girls, it is perfectly adequate for 2 nights, especially as it is only £7.50GBP each.

Hong Kong is not much of a surprise, it is exactly as you imagine but with more immigrants. For every second step you take down Nathan Road, you are accosted by African and Indian immigrants offering a suit or a massage.

For our first evening in Hong Kong we went to Victoria Harbour on Kowloon’s southern coast, to watch the infamous light show over on Hong Kong Island. It is called The Symphony of Lights and is credited as the world’s largest light and sound show. It occurs every night at 8pm and is free,For our first evening in Hong Kong we went to Victoria Harbour on Kowloon’s southern coast, to watch the infamous light show over on Hong Kong Island. It is called The Symphony of Lights and is credited as the world’s largest light and sound show.

We tried to get a good shot of us with the office towers and gigantic apartment blocks and attracted the attention of a lovely three fingered photographer, who took one for us. He told us he had gone for dinner the previous night and it had cost him £10 for a bowl of plain rice and then whole dinner came to over £200, for 2 people – which is pretty astronomical for Asia!

For dinner we happened upon a lovely little place which sold meat by the skewer, like a street seller but on fancier plates. We sat outside and the meat was cooked fresh on a bbq inside. We ordered some amazing tenderloin and I introduced Lizzie to pigs’ cheek, which tasted gorgeous. After that meal, we now can’t afford to eat for the rest of the trip, so luckily it was pretty good!