Night bus goes okay. A bit of a slowdown on a dirt road, where a big truck carrying spools of steel has flipped on its side. I’m dropped off at a bus station, in some unknown city, so I try and get a bus to Hong Kong. The women’s english isn’t very good, but she leads me down to the street, points to the left, and then bends her hand somewhat comically to signify another left. I’m not sure if I can just walk to Hong Kong, but I set off.
Things don’t look great, so I pop into a hotel and she tells me I need to take a cab to the local station – so I do that. At the local station, it seems I can just walk to Hong Kong. So I do. Passing through immigration, of course. On the Hong Kong side, I head to 7-11 to buy a map. The clerk tells me the map has “some English”, and judging by the part I can see, it should be okay. Unfortunately once I buy it I discover that the map on the reverse, the one I need, is all in Chinese.
I still manage to find where I need to go, so I hop on the MRT subway and head there. After a bit of searching I find the guesthouse. A bit of a dive, but it’ll do for four days. The lady at the counter tells me the price of the room, and that the prices will be going up July 1st. My first thought is “Great, it’s one of those places.”, meaning that it’s a place that people live, not just visit. It’ll make me enjoy home more, I think.
After I check in, I wander around the city. Not really in love with Hong Kong yet – it’s a huge city, with mostly shopping and the occasional restaurant. I found a nice grocery store, with a bunch of interesting Japanese things, and a nice bookstore with lots of interesting graphic design books, though.
At night I head to the Temple Street Market for a look-see. A little pricey, but I may head back and buy something, eventually. I head to Harbour City next, to get some night photos of the Hong Kong Island skyline. They turn out alright, but a tripod would make things easier.
Back at the hostel, I talk to two Canadians who’ve been living abroad for years. There’s also a guy from the Philippines who has been living in Shenzen. We’re joined by a German girl, Christine, who is also heading to Macau in the morning, so we make plans to meet up in the morning and head there together.
