BootsnAll Travel Network



Hong Kong!

Phew,

Finally I have made it to an internet cafe. My hostel has internet but there is always such a long line to get on so I figured I would hunt an internet cafe down.

Well I arrived on the 26th thursday at 735 PM. My flight was a whooping 30 minutes early, which took the flight down to only 15 hours and 37 minutes, but hey who was counting!

I got my oh so desired aisle seat, and got to the airport like almost 4 hours early so I could get it. I was so happy when I did, and the lady could see my smile ear to ear as she handed me my boarding pass and said 36H AISLE seat!

Let me first say that Cathay Pacific has been the best airline I have ever been on bar none. There is a reason why it was voted best airline in the world in 2006. I sat economy and it felt like first class. Granted the seats were tiny even for my extremely tall stature, and they didn’t recline all that much, the service was excellent. As soon as I sat down I had someone asking me if I wanted something to drink, they brought around all the world papers, so I picked up a times naturally. There was only one other person in my side of the row, which was nice. She was a nice girl named Jean and ironically enough was on the same air pass through Cathay as was I. She was doing a trip for 3 months starting in India, I was jealous realizing that I should have went for the whole summer, but I got over it.

So I watched a few movies on the plane like Happy Feet, Night at the Museum and Rocky VI…I love Rocky VI, while it wasn’t one of those Rocky’s where there was build up to the fight during the entire movie, I enjoyed it, I guess its the underdog in all of us that makes such a movie so attractive.

I arrived as I said 30 minutes early, went through customs, got my first Asian stamp in the passport (woohoo) and then got my pack. I was relieved when it actually made it, because hey you never know (similar to the NY lottery commercials). So I schlepped my 75 litre pack and went to get some money. Now for people who don’t know I have terrible luck with money and debit/credit cards when I travel abroad. Something always goes wrong, and I picked up where I left off as the first time I tried to get money my debit card was denied twice!

I was really pissed off because no less than 36 hours prior to takeoff I called Chase and Capitalone to tell them I was going abroad and to take the international hold off of both cards. So I had to swallow this huge pill and pick up my cell phone to call their non international emergency number on the back on my card as I forgot to take that all important FREE international number with me (sorry mom it’s probably $2 a minute). But nonetheless I got through after being bounced from department to department like a pinball for about 10 minutes.

This Spanish lady proceeded to tell me that my card was fine and that it was probably the ATM, I said thanks for nothing and hung up. Oh this was on the airport express train to Hong Kong station where I was going to meet my friend Raymond who was one of my roommates when I studied abroad in Australia. Also before I got on the train I had to exchange money using my emergency cash from the travelex place (ouch, I hate when I got killed on the rate plus the charge). Luckily though they didn’t take too much from the national rate as I got 7.2 to 1 as opposed to 7.81, so not terrible, but who likes losing money right off the bat on trip (i certainly don’t).

So I finally made it to Hong Kong station and met Raymond. It was like one of those slow motion cheezy moments from a movie where we ran to each other hugged and ran off in to the sunset (not quite, but running was involved).

I met his friends who came with him and we took a taxi to Wan Fat Hostel in Causeway Bay.

I was a little nervous about picking a random hostel in Hong Kong, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got there. Causeway Bay is apparently a big shopping and very young and eclectic area. Lights were on all over the place like Times Square in New York, but literally everywhere. I walked around with Raymond at like 11PM and the streets were bustling like it was lunch hour or something, crazy.

So I checked in to my hostel, which was a 3 person dorm, and it was tight, like a tiger. Barely enough room for my huge pack and the other people’s things…It was also steamy as hell in there but thank g-d for air conditioning, a luxury I did not remember it having when I booked it.

After Raymond left I decided I wanted to explore and take some pictures of this vibrant nightlife. Of course after walking around, everything looking the same, I got lost, ended up several blocks in the wrong direction, but because I am a seasoned veteran of traveling in foreign places, I had a trusty map in my back pocket (this is country, special sovereign and territory #21 on the list). I found my way back and attempted to go to sleep. It wasn’t working out so well due to the extreme jet lag I was feeling as the time difference between Hong Kong and New York is 12 hours!

So I popped an ambien (thanks mom) and was out like a light. I only slept for 5 hours again because of the jetlag was up at six, went outside walked around, went back up took out my computer and wrote some transfer essays I needed to get done while on my trip, which I finished so that was nice.



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