Before my poor, little, overused brain goes bad I better share with you few details about my Chinese adventure...

I let you guys, a long while ago in Brisbane, so let's recap from there.

Early rise  to go catch the plane to Sydney from where I'll fly to Hong kong: 24kg backpack on the back, another 10kg in the front bag and as many clothes as I could wear are my gear for the trip. To be fully in line with the meaning of adventure I choose not to buy any guide nor a dictionary, after all I've been travelling for the past 8 months, I trust myself I can manage it ( what a fool.........)

Again deserved praise for the australian airports and efficiency, it's really like taking a bus, hassle free. Having said this, we suffered an 1 and a half delay...Now I know pretty well all the duty free shops of the airport.

After 8,30 hours, a chat with the chap sitting next to me and 2 and a half movies, the usual meals, we landed in a rainy Hong Kong.

Immigration procedures and then onto the city via subway, following the instructions I downloaded from the net to reach my hostel.  Out of the subway I was supposed to get a bus, that I couldn't find, and there I faced the truth: we are not in an English speaking country so it's damn hard to get some information out from the locals. Then at the end an helpful guy told us ( I was with the guy from the plane) to get on a bus and told the driver where we were supposed to go.

I booked in Kowloon, the vibrant commercial and touristic area, and as soon I got off the bus I found my self among a whole huge amount of people going everywhere with tons of lights all around: welcome to the city jungle! The confusion and the noise is pretty striking.

Next task to find the hostel, after a short walk I found the building and then onto the 13th floor ( I'm not supersticious!) where I booked in a 4 bed dorm. Little detail: I booked a place with a certain name, but when i got there there was a big sign with a different name, and then on the wall a series of printouts with other ones. The place was only one, it was all a marketing technique of the ownwers to improve their exposure, part of the heritage of the famous chinese sense for trade. I must admit it works, as many people I spoke to stayed in the same place, the infamous 13th floor. The lady owner is a great caracter.

The room was ok, big enough for 4 people and the bags, but not all at the same time....if u know what I mean....The toilets were like the one u find on the boats: all in one square meter, I let u picture it! My room mates: a young scottish couple on their way to Australia.

On the streets you feel right away u are in one of the world capital of shopping: shops (billions of them) all over tha place filled with all sorts of stuff, beyond ur imagination, opened 'till late at nite and tourists stopped every few steps by some eager seller. 

One other key feature is the smog, caused by the cars and trucks, that run like crazy across town: one morning I witnessed 3 firefighter trucks with the sirens off stuck for over 5 minutes in the traffic as none of the cars moved. I wonder what happened to the building on fire....  In all this"mess" the pedestrian is definately an endangered species, that walks at its own risk: on this subject I can claim a sore foot after a car ran over it.... 

 As all the people I started with the sightseeing: The Peak, where because of the fog I couldn't see much, then the old town, the avenue of stars (the chinese version of Hollywood), and I followed all the walks on the tourist brochure, I really don't know how much I walked, but my "tyres" were pretty torn.

The real activity to do in Hong Kong though, is shopping: you have markets, shops, malls, outlets open almost non-stop. I went on the worst shopping spree of my life, and around me I could see the tourists doing the same. Every nite I was comparing with my room mates the bargains of the day and exchanging info on the best places to shop. I would suggest as a modern chinese torture: walking around Hong Kong with loads of cash and credit cards and not to buy anything! Trust me, even if u don't need anything u will end up buying something, they are good sellers and the prices are so low...

Other things to remember: u will get lost at some stage....After 6 full days of walking around I still managed to find new roads I didn't see the previous days. Fast food are everywhere, I think after the States, China is the biggest market. You can find all sort of dried food, from fruit to sea horse, ready to eat and light to carry. You will also spend lots of time waiting for the elevators, and you will notice that all the buildings have air-conditioning apparatus hanging out of the window....a pretty nice view ! The other thing that struck me was the horse racecourse in the middle of all the skyscrapers, almost like Central park in NY. 

Postato da: grecofla alle 17:16 | link | comments |
china part 1

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