Living in a shoe box

Trip Start Jan 02, 2008
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Trip End Jun 17, 2008


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Where I stayed
Chungking Mansion
(Hong Kong hotels)

Flag of China  , Hong Kong,
Friday, May 9, 2008

I flew from KL to Singapore.  The shortest flight ever, we were preparing for landing before we'd even taken off.  Then had to hang around at the airport for hours waiting for my flight to HK.  I arrived at midnight and hadn't booked any accommodation, so I decided to sleep on a bench at the airport.  As soon as it was light outside I caught a bus into the city and headed for Chungking Mansion, a grotty building full of budget guesthouses.  My guidebook describes it as "dirty, smelly, cluttered fire and safety hazard".  It's a fairly accurate description.  When I arrived nothing was open, so I was glad I'd spent the night at the airport.  After a 2 hour wait I managed to reserve a bed in a dorm room, but wasn't able to see it until people checked out.  I couldn't be bothered to wait around, so I went out for the day and returned late in the evening, to be told I couldn't stay in the dorm room.  But they did have a single en-suite room I could stay in for the same price as the dorm.  Great...but I should have realised that it was too good to be true.  When I saw my room I couldn't stop laughing...it was a joke...did they seriously expect me to sleep here?!  Well I did, because it was cheap (cheap for HK, but actually the most I've paid for a room on this trip).  The room was so small that I can touch both walls with my elbows.  It was about 1 meter wide and 3 1/2 meters long, that's including the bathroom.  I had a single mattress (smaller than average) on the floor, it touched the walls and I had to lift it up to open the door.  The bathroom had a toilet, sink and shower, but not enough room to use any of them comfortably.  I almost had to stand in the toilet to shower.  The room was incredibly claustrophobic, so I spent very little time in there.

I met up with a couple of friends whilst I was in HK.  I spent a day with Candy, who I met last month in Chiang Mai.  And I spent a day with Carmen and her boyfriend, Chiu.  I used to work with Carmen when I was at AX. I also randomly bumped into one of my Uni tutors, Gill, and her husband, so I went for a drink with them. I spent 2 days alone and since HK Island and Kowloon are basically just giant shopping malls, that's what I did...lots of shopping...well not really...surprisingly I bought absolutely nothing in HK! The shopping was great around Central and Causeway, but I resisted the temptation to save space in my bag for a shopping spree in cheap China. Other than window shopping and walking miles around the city I got the tram up to Victoria Peak, but it was cloudy so the view was crap and then the tram broke down. I caught the Star Ferry several times going to and from Kowloon and HK Island. I got up early one morning went to Kowloon Park, watched people doing Tai Chi, then went swimming in the outdoor pool. I loved it...been so long since I swam.

Candy gave me a great tour of Kowloon which involved alot of eating. It started with a typical Chinese breakfast and ended at a Chinese vegetarian restaurant (yes, they do exist!). I sampled lots of streetfood and Candy even persuaded me to have a mouthful of durian pancake. Durian is an Asian fruit which is said to "smell like hell and taste like heaven". I have been avoiding trying it for months, because the smell is so awful. But now i can say i have tasted it and will never have it again. It smells like hell, tastes like hell and leaves you with an after taste of smelly feet and cheese for the rest of the day. We didn't stop eating all day and I got to try so many things I wouldn't have known were veggie or been able to order myself. She wrote me a mini menu in Chinese and a sentence explaining that I don't eat meat, fish or seafood, so hopefully i wont starve when i get to China. Although i might get quite sick of eating congee and rice noodle rolls.
Apart from eating we went to Wong Tai Sin Temple, the Flower, Bird and Goldfish markets, Longham shopping centre and other shops, Ladies market, Kowloon Park, Avenue of Stars and saw the view of Hong Kong Island from Kowloon at night and watched the light show.

Carmen and Chiu's tour was great too. They drove me around all day. On HK Island we went to Stanley for the market, beach and food. Then into Central to check out the shops. Back on Kowloon side they showed me some great boutiques in Tsim Sha Tsui and then took me to the night market on Temple street. They also helped me plan the next stage of my trip, China, by giving me directions over the border crossing and where to find the best shopping and massage in Shenzhen...all written in Chinese to make asking for help a little easier.
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