The trip to Hong Kong started well, as on the Emirates flight, I got a free Manhattan. And had some decent duck curry. Got to Hong Kong, bought a tourist Octopus card, took MTR to my station (no problems), checked in to rather crappy hostel in good area. Wang Fat hostel in Causeway Bay.
Had McD’s for dinner again because I couldn’t find a cheap decent place to eat. It's disgusting how many times I've eaten at McDonalds on this trip because of unfamiliarity with my surroundings. I'm really going to try to stop doing that. Causeway Bay is a major shopping area of Hong Kong – so lots of shops but I couldn’t find the restaurants. Back to the hostel, met Dave from Canada – he invited me to come out with them later to watch the World Cup final (at 3 in the morning) but I declined (as I would have to head to the bank first thing in the morning).
July 10, headed to the Visa office first. I was going to get it done at the hostel, but they wanted to charge HK$850 (for express service – only option), when the visa office cost was HK$390 (two day service). Walked from Wan Chai MTR station, got a bit lost looking for it, eventually found it. Waited for a while (take a number). Then handed over my application and passport, was told to pick it up Wednesday (the 11th). So easy. Anyone getting their visa through the hostel is getting scammed bigtime. Then to the bank. Found the correct HSBC branch, made my deposit for the Mandarin program. Back to the hostel, where the desk guy tells me he won’t make a copy (even though their description on the hostel booking site says, "Free Photocopies and Faxes"). Then says he will for $2 HK. Then the copy is crappy, so it's useless. He tells me to go to the shopping center around the corner. I do. There’s no copy place there. Obviously, the desk guy was both an idiot and an ass. I walk around and find the Hong Kong main library. There, I find a copy machine, a fax machine, free internet, and AC. Spend a couple hours there getting things sorted out. It’s a really great library – New York should take notes.
Back to the hostel, then out again. To Tsim Sui Sha, one of the other shopping areas. Walked around for quite a while, eventually bought a DS Lite + one of those flash card readers filled with games. Back to the hostel. Sleep.
July 11. Dropped off laundry (thanks to Troy from Australia, who told me about the place, which was 1/3 the cost of the hostel laundry service). A quick trip to the China Travel service, where I bought my tickets for the train to Shanghai on Friday. Then I ascended the Peak. Took the MTR to Central Hong Kong, walked around, then all the way up Victoria Peak. I was COVERED in sweat by the time I made it up (it had rained in the morning and was incredibly humid). I mean really, I could actually wring torrents of sweat out of my shirt. It’s very odd, but there’s a huge mall at the top of the peak. The AC was very welcome, as was the Frappucino and free internet access at Pacific Coffee Company. Took the tram back down to central, then headed over to Mong Kok looking for trainers. Couldn’t find any in my size. They have small feet here. But I did buy an iPod nano. Heh. WASTING MONEY!!!! Crap. I am horrible at this budget travel thing. But I did need to replace my old iPod, which was stolen in Indonesia... Had a great lunch of Congee and Chinese Broccoli. Then back to the hostel again.
July 12. Me and my nano go to the Art Museum. Walked to the Convention Center, then took the ferry across to the museum. Which is free on Wednesday. They had a great exhibition on the Etruscans – apparently 2006 is the “Year of Italy in China”, which is a bit odd. Nice museum, but the building was very ugly. Walked around the Avenue of the Stars, took pictures of Chow Yun Fat’s handprint and the Bruce Lee Statue.
Found a bag for my DS and my nano. Then back to the hostel, then out again to look for trainers one last time. Success! A comfortable pair of Merrell trail runners. Once back at the hostel, I ate dinner (I had been eating food from the grocery store for a couple days at this point to save money) of ramen with dumplings. Then after waiting a while for purposes of digestion, I went for a short run to test the trainers, which fit well. That’s it for the 12th.
The 13th. Walked all the way to Wan Chai ferry pier to Pacific Coffee. Then back to the hostel where I switched rooms (surfing the internet in the meantime). Then out for another walk, went to Times Square (a big mall), bought a shirt for too much money, had more Pacific coffee, played some DS, then back to the hostel again. Spent the afternoon relaxing - it's just too easy to spend money in HK, and I didn't really feel like sightseeing any more right then.
A few thoughts on Hong Kong. Interesting place. But almost as expensive as Tokyo. I could live here for a while if I had a job… But not as a tourist. It’s a city that really revolves around shopping. The bright lights are all over here, but they are far less technological than Tokyo’s. There are tons of big, lit up signs that look like they’ve been around since the 40’s. There are giant buildings everywhere, and most of them are filthy, at least on the outside. Most places I’ve been inside of are actually nice.
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