It has taken me over a week to be emotionally stable enough to write this blog post. You see my trip to Hong Kong was multiple disasters after another. After talking to my therapist, I think that I need to write about my experience in order to process the events. (Please note that this paragraph is written entirely tongue in check.)
Anyways, I shall begin at the beginning – the airport. Stephanie and I got to our gate, and we were enjoying talking. I am a nervous traveler, meaning that I am always afraid of being late or of missing my flight. Now I have never missed a flight, but I don’t want to start. As Stephanie and I were talking, I realized that we had been waiting at the gate for a long time. I looked at the flight listed by the gate, and it was not our flight. We asked a woman who worked at the airport where we were supposed to go. (By ask, I mean we pointed at out ticket and gave her a quizzical look.) She pointed to the 16A on our ticket and pointed at the 16A on the gate. A woman who spoke both English and Chinese heard our confusion told us that we were supposed to go to 13A, so Stephanie and I went to that gate. At that gate, there was indeed a flight going to Shenzhen, but it was not our flight, so Stephanie and I ran back to gate 16A. Once again we asked someone where we were supposed to go, but they said that we were supposed to stay at 16A. After a little while a man came up to us and told us that we were supposed to go to gate 18. When we got there, we learned that we were indeed supposed to be at gate 18. I don’t know how everyone else knew that the gate had changed, but apparently the foreigners were the only ones who were running around the airport confused.
The rest of the flight was uneventful, which is always good, but when we were trying to get a taxi from the airport our taxi driver did not want to use a meter, which is not such an unusual event, but even though we eventually got him to use the meter, he still overcharged us for the taxi.
The hotel where we stayed was nice, clean, and a decent price. If you ever stay in Shenzhen, I would recommend the Green Oasis Hotel.
The next day we took a bus into Hong Kong where we sat next to a man from Portugal, and we enjoyed pleasant conversation.
When we got to Hong Kong, we went to the Hostel that we had booked. The website had given us instructions about taking a bus to the hostel, but it was not very clear about how to get from the bus stop to the hostel. We did not have a map, so we had to rely a few friendly people who gave us directions to the Hostel. However, when we got to the Hostel, we saw signs that the said that the hostel that we had booked was illegally run, meaning that it was run in a residential building. After much debate, we decided to stay there that night because we did not have anywhere else to go.
After we dropped off our stuff, we decided to explore the area around the hostel. We, of course, got very lost. (You will notice that this will be a theme of the trip). Eventually we found an Ikea where spent far more money than we should have. Right next to the Ikea there was an Outback Steakhouse, so after dropping our new treasures off at the Hostel, we enjoyed a Blooming Onion and steak. It was a beautiful thing. After dinner, we discovered that we had been taking the long way to and from this area. It was in fact just a block from our hostel.
The next morning we decided that we had to move to a different hostel, so we found another one online. Then we went to the Airport to pick up Monica. The afternoon I would like to label Visa Mafan day, and I shall leave it at that. After dealing with the Visa Mafan, we checked into the other Hostel. Now, I would like to recommend a clean, affordable place to stay in Hong Kong, The Yessinn.
After checking in, we went to go see The Hunger Games, which I enjoyed a great deal. It was a good adaptation of the book. After the movie, we tried to walk from the movie theater back to the Hostel, but we got lost, so we decided to take a taxi. I had forgotten the paper with the Hostel’s address on it (I know that it was stupid), but I had the address memorized. The taxi driver, who spoke English, did not know where the place was. We told the taxi driver that it was by a Seven-Eleven and a Luk Fook was across the street from it. At the time, we did not know that Luk Fook was a chain. So when we saw a Luk Fook, we just got out of the taxi so that we could walk. After not finding the hostel, we assumed that I had the wrong address (That was a major mistake because I am always right). We walked up and down that street for an hour trying to find the place. We even considered sleeping at McDonalds if we could not find it, but eventually we found it and low and behold, guess who had the right address all along? Yes, you should listen to me.
The next day we went to Stanly Market, which I would certainly recommend to anyone who visits Hong Kong. It doesn’t look like much when you first get there, but if you keep walking you find a huge market. If shopping is not your cup of tea, there is also a nice boardwalk and a beach where you can watch a man floating around on a mattress. There is also a temple, several restaurants, and a garden.
After shopping all day, we decided to go out for Indian food. Now I had remembered seeing a sign for an Indian restaurant near our hostel, so I lead our trio to where I thought the restaurant was. After walking for a little while, I realized that we must have passed it, so we turned around. Now, this is where you should not listen to me because the restaurant was in the same building as our hostel. I do not think that I need to say anything more about this. #Hides her head in embarrassment
When we finished with dinner, we went up to Victoria Peak. WE DID NOT GET LOST! Unfortunately, it was very foggy that night, so we could not see much of the city.
The next day, we took cable cars up a mountain, which was pretty cool. Actually, it is because of the cable cars that I would recommend the Yessinn hostel. I had asked the front desk about going to the cable cars. The website said that they were closed for renovations, but the women called the cable car place for me and found out that their reopening the next day. So we got to go on the cable with a glass bottom, which was good because once again it was very foggy. If it had not been for the glass bottom, we would not have been able to see anything. At the top of the mountain there was a giant Buddha, but we did not have enough time to climb up the steps to see the statue because Monica had to get to a job interview. It was too foggy to see anything but the base of the statue.
The rest of the day Stephanie and I did a lot of riding in taxis and buses. We got a little lost going back to the hostel because we were not sure which we bus stop to get off. When we got back to the hostel I booked my flight to come/go back to the States. After that was done, we decided that we needed to go see Mirror Mirror. After the movie we wanted to get a cheesecake to celebrate (not sure if that’s the right word) our last night in Hong Kong. So we walked about two city blocks to the bakery to find that it was closed. However, this event seemed very indicative of the whole trip.
Despite the many mishaps on this trip, it really was a fun trip. I would certainly go back, but hopefully next time it will be under happier circumstances.
