Hong Kong
Trip Start
Jul 30, 2008
1
40
44
Trip End
Ongoing
So after over a month in mainland China, it was time for something different. As most of you will know, Hong Kong was a British protectorate for over 100 years and the influence is still felt everywhere (even after it moved backed under Chinese control in 1997, although as an autonomous area). For one, everyone drives on the wrong side of the road. I can say wrong because the whole world (and all of China) drives on the right side of the road. It gets annoying and deadly to cross traffic and have to look both ways multiple times forgetting where cars are coming from. Ok, that's all for now. Hong Kong is an amazing city. Built across multiple islands, Hong Kong is home to over 7 million people and it sure feels like it. We were all making New York comparisons the whole time we were there. The amount of people on the streets, even at 2 in the morning is astounding. This also makes for an expensive city compared to all of the rest of Asia (still doesn't come close to Iceland, did we mention how expensive that country was...well, before it went bankrupt). What this means practically is that we were paying more than we were used to to stay in a cramped apartment in a huge complex. It also meant we were staying in the heart of the city within walking distance of what seemed like most of the 200 McDonald locations. This was not a good thing. Hong Kong's main attractions, I suppose, would be the impressive views of the city you get during the day (from Victoria's Peak) and at night during the city light show (sounds cool, wasn't really). Hong Kong is also where we faced another major crisis. While we were sleeping (literally) protestors shut down Bangkok's major airports (where we had booked a ticket for within the next few days). We were thus forced to play wait and see. So we waited and saw that the airport was no where near reopening and we worked on a plan B. Plan B turned out working our way by bus to Vietnam and claiming a credit for our cancelled flight. It worked out great, or at least I think, but you will have to read the forthcoming blog on Vietnam to see why.
