· Want a new watch?Hong Kong, Hong Kong · 21st Feb 2008 · Posted by Annie
We had planned to have 5 days of shopping and sight-seeing (probably more shopping than sight-seeing knowing us!) in Hong Kong. However, since we decided to go to Japan rather than Vietnam and were chewing through our savings rather rapidly, we decided to spend only a couple of days in Hong Kong and get to London a bit quicker.
Knowing very little about Hong Kong and without a guide book in hand, we thought it might be a good idea to pre-book some accommodation, something we'd become quite accustomed to not having to do. Chris found us a room that looked cheap, clean and central - the three important 'c's. So we put down a small deposit while still in Japan and with the address in hand, set off to Hong Kong.
The flight was really uneventful and not very long. It was a lot warmer in Hong Kong than it was in Japan which was very pleasant. We were however still wearing our thermals, jackets, boots, etc etc which wasn't so nice once we started making our way into town. There is a great train service from Hong Kong airport to the Kowloon so we just caught that, followed by a sweet bus service (meant for people staying at the Holiday Inn) that took us directly to where we wanted to go.
Our first impressions of Hong Kong were:
1. Crowded.
2. Very busy and hectic.
3. Kinda dirty.
4. Very unlike Japan.
Once off the comforts of the bus and with our backpacks on our backs, we set off to find our accommodation. Right from this moment we were hassled by a million people on the street trying to sell us cheap watches, cheap suits, etc etc. These people were by far worse than those in Thailand or anywhere else we've been. We walked past one guy two or three times looking for our accommodation and he asked us the same question each time. Chris (rightfully so) got rather frustrated and said back "Mate, didn't you hear me the last two times? NO!". I was getting rather hot and bothered and annoyed.
We found our accommodation eventually - in what seemed to be the oldest most run down building in all of Hong Kong, on top of some Indian Bazaar full of people trying to sell you stuff or eyeing you up dodgily. I was not impressed. Our room was the size of a bathroom and had 2 hospital single beds in it. Yup, that's right. Hospital. The type you see in sad African movies, with high metallic legs. We had a small window but it didn't open. We also had a mini bathroom which was actually quite clean. After a few seconds in our room, Chris and I looked at each other and thought... no. We are so not staying here. We don't consider ourselves posh nor stuck-up when it comes to deciding where to stay - after all we never really spent more than $15 NZD or so on our accommodation in Thailand! But really, we didn't even feel safe in this place. I made Chris go and speak to the owners and tell them that we had something a bit more 'spacious' in mind when we made our book, because we were on our 'honeymoon'. They 'understood' and let us leave... I say 'let' because that's what it felt like! On our way out we spotted a Rastafarian looking guy cleaning a bathroom... while smoking a rather large joint. Riiiiight....
Anyway, we decided to try our luck at the Holiday Inn which we had driven past earlier and looked much much MUCH nicer. They had a spare room, at like a million dollars a night, but it was about the only thing we were going to find at this point so we took it. I do not feel particularly good about spending a few hundred dollars a night for a nice but quite standard room, but if that's the price we had to pay to feel safe then so be it. These were going to be the last couple of nights of our Exploring the East holiday so it was a good excuse to splurge I guess.
Everyone goes on about how shopping in Hong Kong is so great so Chris and I set off to find the shops. We actually found it really hard to find this 'great' shopping... apart from being harassed by every random guy lingering on the side of the road trying to sell us fake stuff, all we could find were very high-class shops that were way out of our price range. We eventually found a pretty cool mall near the waterfront that had a great view of the famous Hong Kong high-rises but it was still all Gucci and Salvatore Ferragamo. Not my kind of stuff.
Over the next 1.5 days, Chris and I just wandered the streets and I eventually found a few things to buy - mainly shoes. I don't think they were particularly cheap but they actually had my size which is a miracle (I'm a size 5... i.e. impossibly small). We did find a cool communist cafe which had free Internet and a very homely feel to it, so we sat there and just chilled for a while.
It was a bit of a pity that we didn't get more time to really see Hong Kong and do any sight-seeing at all but I get the feeling that you'd need quite a bit of time to nuzzle out all the good shops and at the same time, spend too long in Hong Kong and you might just go crazy.
This was our last stop before flying out to London, the place we thought might be our 'home' for the next few years. I will miss Asia and I'm so glad we got to see as much of it as we did. Missing out on Vietnam and Laos this time round means that we have a great reason to come back to this part of the world! :)
Knowing very little about Hong Kong and without a guide book in hand, we thought it might be a good idea to pre-book some accommodation, something we'd become quite accustomed to not having to do. Chris found us a room that looked cheap, clean and central - the three important 'c's. So we put down a small deposit while still in Japan and with the address in hand, set off to Hong Kong.
The flight was really uneventful and not very long. It was a lot warmer in Hong Kong than it was in Japan which was very pleasant. We were however still wearing our thermals, jackets, boots, etc etc which wasn't so nice once we started making our way into town. There is a great train service from Hong Kong airport to the Kowloon so we just caught that, followed by a sweet bus service (meant for people staying at the Holiday Inn) that took us directly to where we wanted to go.
Our first impressions of Hong Kong were:
1. Crowded.
2. Very busy and hectic.
3. Kinda dirty.
4. Very unlike Japan.
Once off the comforts of the bus and with our backpacks on our backs, we set off to find our accommodation. Right from this moment we were hassled by a million people on the street trying to sell us cheap watches, cheap suits, etc etc. These people were by far worse than those in Thailand or anywhere else we've been. We walked past one guy two or three times looking for our accommodation and he asked us the same question each time. Chris (rightfully so) got rather frustrated and said back "Mate, didn't you hear me the last two times? NO!". I was getting rather hot and bothered and annoyed.
We found our accommodation eventually - in what seemed to be the oldest most run down building in all of Hong Kong, on top of some Indian Bazaar full of people trying to sell you stuff or eyeing you up dodgily. I was not impressed. Our room was the size of a bathroom and had 2 hospital single beds in it. Yup, that's right. Hospital. The type you see in sad African movies, with high metallic legs. We had a small window but it didn't open. We also had a mini bathroom which was actually quite clean. After a few seconds in our room, Chris and I looked at each other and thought... no. We are so not staying here. We don't consider ourselves posh nor stuck-up when it comes to deciding where to stay - after all we never really spent more than $15 NZD or so on our accommodation in Thailand! But really, we didn't even feel safe in this place. I made Chris go and speak to the owners and tell them that we had something a bit more 'spacious' in mind when we made our book, because we were on our 'honeymoon'. They 'understood' and let us leave... I say 'let' because that's what it felt like! On our way out we spotted a Rastafarian looking guy cleaning a bathroom... while smoking a rather large joint. Riiiiight....
Anyway, we decided to try our luck at the Holiday Inn which we had driven past earlier and looked much much MUCH nicer. They had a spare room, at like a million dollars a night, but it was about the only thing we were going to find at this point so we took it. I do not feel particularly good about spending a few hundred dollars a night for a nice but quite standard room, but if that's the price we had to pay to feel safe then so be it. These were going to be the last couple of nights of our Exploring the East holiday so it was a good excuse to splurge I guess.
Everyone goes on about how shopping in Hong Kong is so great so Chris and I set off to find the shops. We actually found it really hard to find this 'great' shopping... apart from being harassed by every random guy lingering on the side of the road trying to sell us fake stuff, all we could find were very high-class shops that were way out of our price range. We eventually found a pretty cool mall near the waterfront that had a great view of the famous Hong Kong high-rises but it was still all Gucci and Salvatore Ferragamo. Not my kind of stuff.
Over the next 1.5 days, Chris and I just wandered the streets and I eventually found a few things to buy - mainly shoes. I don't think they were particularly cheap but they actually had my size which is a miracle (I'm a size 5... i.e. impossibly small). We did find a cool communist cafe which had free Internet and a very homely feel to it, so we sat there and just chilled for a while.
It was a bit of a pity that we didn't get more time to really see Hong Kong and do any sight-seeing at all but I get the feeling that you'd need quite a bit of time to nuzzle out all the good shops and at the same time, spend too long in Hong Kong and you might just go crazy.
This was our last stop before flying out to London, the place we thought might be our 'home' for the next few years. I will miss Asia and I'm so glad we got to see as much of it as we did. Missing out on Vietnam and Laos this time round means that we have a great reason to come back to this part of the world! :)
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