Shortly after returning from my National Week holiday, I called my mom and told her I just got back from Hong Kong. Her responce: "Haven't you been there before?". YES MOM! I LIVED THERE FOR AN ENTIRE SEMESTER. Study abroad spring 2009. Parents these days.
I suppose I have all of Asia in my backyard so I could have tried to go someplace new but I needed HK. Hong Kong was such a refreshing departure from Shanghai. Like most things in life, with cities I either fall in love with it right away or I never will. Shanghai and I never had that connection. Not in spring 2009 and not now. Hong Kong on the other hand, is like New York/London/any-other-urban-love-of-my-life combined. Its clean, friendly and lively.
Visiting one year later was a walk down memory lane, unfortunately one thing was missing. My awesome friends from study abroad. :( I tried to meet up with a couple girls but since my phone didnt work across the boarder, life got difficult to plan.
I did have some my new Concordia friends/classmates with me: my roommates Mike and John and Kirsti and Rob who live together as well. Even with HK taxis taking gladly taking 5 passengers, 5 is not an ideal travel number. Arranging accomomodations in this expensive city was not fun (and my responsibility). I also hate odd numbers because people will take sides and someone is always left to feel slighted. Yes this did happen and maybe it will work itself out.
The trip started off as a DISASTER. I booked the tickets online a few days earlier. We paid much more than a normal flight because it was last minute and a holiday but we couldn't give up the opportunity to travel. I had difficulties when I booked the tickets online and the agency actually called my cell phone and told me I had booked 4 tickets for the same two passengers. Well, that was more than necessary so I tried to clearly explain myself and cancel TWO. My roommate John also wanted to go so the purpose of the phone call was to cancel TWO tickets and buy one more. When we got to the airport I was slightly concerned John did not have a ticket because I never got a confirmation email for him. Well, turns out John did have a ticket, and Mike and I did not. So apparently the woman on the phone thought that I ordered 4 tickets, for two passengers, when really I didn't want any... OH HEY but this random guy John Wayne would like one. BULLLLLLLLLL. So after hurrying to a ticketing counter Mike and I bought the last two tickets for another flight at an exorbiantly high rate.
Meanwhile, John Wayne had got on the first flight and was on his way to Shenzhen. Shenzhen is a Chinese city across the river from Hong Kong and costs much less to fly into because unlike Hong Kong, it is considered a domestic flight. Well John nearly walks out of the airport while he waits for us to arrive but he decided to stay inside because he thought there was more seating there. A while later, he is shaken by some Chinese officials who say they are looking for him. Turns out he was not in Shenzhen! He was in another airpport for a layover and the flight was delayed AN HOUR as they searched the airport for him.
Kirsti also had flight problems. She got to the airport late and missed her flight! Unlike Mike and I, Kirsti was offered a flight the next day, first class, at no extra charge.
Now for round 2 of the traveling troubles. We didn't realize until we were in HK that our phones didn't work since we were technically outside of China. This was a problem because Kirsti didn't know where to meet us. We got to Hong Kong at midnight and Kirsti was on a 7am flight with no idea where she was going when she landed. I had texted her the hotel name but accidently said Sent-A-Room instead of Rent-A-Room. We tried to resolve the issues by sending her a facebook message but yet again, we made another typing/communication error. We weren't reunited with Kirsti until 9am on Saturday, when we originally all had Thursday night fights.
Once united, things went fairly smoothly. We made an itinerary at home and polished it on the plane but why we did not follow it bewilders me. We had two full days and I intended to spend a day in Kowloon and a day on Hong Kong (Central) Island. Well we did a little of both but still ended up seeing a lot of the sites, the view from the Peak (a mountain with a tram that leads to the highest point in Hong Kong), the Midlevel escalators (the worlds longest continuous escalator), the nighlty light show from Kowloon, and of course shopping and nightlife.
We had another day in Hong Kong after Singapore where I intended to go to an outlying island known for biking and seafood. Unfortunately, the weather was awful so we stayed on Hong Kong Island and shopped some more. Then, like a blast from the bast my usual Wednesday night schedule: horse races in Causeway Bay, then ladies night in Wan Chai. Hong Kong nightlife, and the races too, are a great place to meet people, particularly beautiful white western people. :) If I ever get homesick I know exactly where to go.
Exhibit A on why the Hong Kong metro, and therefore Hong Kong, is better than Shanghai.
No comments:
Post a Comment