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Part 10: I ❤Hong Kong....
Flying into Hong Kong did not quite hold the same apprehension I was feeling when I was approaching Manila before. Although It would be fair to say that I was more than a little excited for my first ever visit here.
I had no friends, guides or contacts in Hong Kong; just me.
The budget flight on Cebu Pacific Airlines was pleasant enough. Quite jovial in fact, as the beautiful, china-doll like Filipino air-hostesses, who smiled like their lives depended on it, began some rather bizarre in flight games.
Doing their best to involve passengers, who quite clearly did not have the same level of enthusiasm as they. I pretended to be asleep to spare my awkwardness, as they began handing out free presents to the participants.
Not surprisingly, this seemed to get the attention of most of the passengers, anyway it was a good fun flight.
I landed in Hong Kong early evening and had to get to my hostel by bus which was approximately an hour away.
They were exactly the same as UK double decker red busses, and had it not been for the stunning Bladerunner-esque style skyline, I would've thought I was travelling through Rodbourne back home. The bus driver did not speak one word of English, staring blankly whilst I poorly attempted to describe that I needed to stop near the HK fire station, by pretending to hold an imaginary firehose - this unsurprisingly did not work, basically he did not have a clue what I was trying to say.
Luckily for me two watching sweet young girls took pity on me and translated to the laughing bus driver, they even took me to the door step of my Hostel bless them.
It was right in the heart of a busy district on Hong Kong Island less than a minutes walk from Times square.
It could not have been more central - the Hostel was a tower block 12 stories high above a bank, from the outside it bared no resemblance to a Hostel whatsoever. But when I arrived I was well greeted by the staff who fluently spoke English, they showed me around and to my 14 bed mixed dorm. 4 American girls didn't waste any time in introducing themselves.
'Hey, how you doing? Wanna come to a party with us on the roof terrace' they said. I still had my backpack on.
'Huh! Sure, let me settle in and I'll see you guys up there' I replied.
The Hostel had a great atmosphere straight away - It was something I could get used to with another really good mix of accents and nationalities here.
Seriously what better way to make friends, straight away everyone made me feel welcome.
The Hostel seemed clean and the triple bunk beds were all really close to each-other. These places make it hard practically impossible for you not to interact.
It was 11.30pm by now and I needed to find food first as I had not eaten since Manila earlier this morning. So after a quick change of clothes, and a spray of deodorant, I wandered around trying to find some food.
The streets were pretty amazing and the neon lit skyscrapers were exactly as I imagined them to be. looking up, open mouthed and nearly tripping a few times with this silly fixed grin on my face I must have looked pretty silly
Gigantic space age LED screens showing adverts, huge advertising boards, trams and yellow taxis,
busy streets, shops still open, smartly dressed people orderly walking, quietly going about their business.
For those that know the famous scene, I kind felt like Marty Mcfly in Back to the Future, when he first went back in time and saw Hill Valley as he tripped and stumbled around taking in the scenery.
To be honest even at this early stage Hong Kong was blowing my mind - I'd never seen anything like it before.
All the huge Chinese signs and posters, the almost claustrophobic streets and narrow roads really gave it an intense vibe - It was electric, and what I saw so far was awesome!
I wandered up a small side street full with local food cafes, but sadly for me most looked like they were packing up, it was quite late by now. None of the menus in the window where in English.
Perfect, this is exactly what I wanted.
So I entered one and sat down at a table before a waitress nonchalantly threw a menu down at me.
Obviously I could not read Chinese and no one here spoke English - she seemed in no hurry to help me either.
I really struggled to communicate and gave up, so just randomly pointed at a soup dish and some noodles, thinking to myself, that will do as I was really hungry. It turned out to be a sweet sesame seed and black bean soup and chilli noodles - actually not a bad choice at all.
It was at this point, I noticed what must have been a doctor studying some X-rays, whilst he was eating and chuckling to himself.
He seemed to find it all very amusing when I was trying to order my food.
By now it was 1.30am and there was no let up outside, it was still buzzing so I wandered around a bit more to get my bearings.
I ended up walking in a huge circle, unintentionally arriving back near the Hostel an hour or more later. Just as well because I was beginning to get lost.
This amazing place would need a bit of research and some of my friends emailed me places of interest to visit.
When I arrived back at my hostel I completely forgot about the party the American girls invited me to, so I wandered up to the roof.
Sadly it had died down by then.
So after a bit of conversing I thought it wise to have a reasonable nights sleep.
Not a bad decision by no means.
I had a growing list of places to visit, foods to try, islands to explore.
And had 8 days to do it.
Would it be enough time?
Just try and stop me....
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