Category: Hong Kong

I managed to make it till 4am, but I think George stayed up the entire night. His flight left earlier, so it made more sense. Since my flight left at 3:15pm, which is 3:15 EST it didn’t make much sense for me to not have a nap, so I slept till about 7. Once I was up I headed to the coffee shop to check my flight info, and make sure everything was go for takeoff. I wanted to buy one last souvenir, but the shop didn’t open until 11, so I went back to the guesthouse, showered, and check out. At 11 I took the subway to the shop, made my purchase, then headed back to the guesthouse to grab my bag and head to the airport.

Airport bus was cheap, and I had about 2 hours to kill at the airport. Spent the majority of my Hong Kong dollars, which was quite lovely, then got on the plane. Middle row, middle seat, between two sniffling Chinese guys. Not much for conversation, but all in all not terrible seat mates. I think I was a little fidgety as I tried to sleep. I managed a couple of intermittent hours, which will hopefully allow me to survive the evening when I get to Toronto.

Watched a couple of movies ( “Vantage Point”, “Definitely, Maybe”, and about 10 painful minutes of “27 Dresses” before I had to turn it off), and listened to some inflight music as well. Even read, surprise surprise.

Touched down on time in YYZ, but had to wait about 1.5 hours to get my luggage, as there was lightning preventing people from going on the tarmac. Made it unscathed through customs, and out the gate, which kinda sorta brings this travelogue to an end.

I had a lot of time to read. At some point in Australia, I decided I’d only read books by author’s I’d never read before. Here’s the list:

Red China Blues by Jan Wong
Right As Rain by George Pelecanos
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Riders by Tim Winton
Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane
The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
Love and Free by Ayumu Takahashi
A Drink Before The War by Dennis Lehane
Hell To Pay by George Pelecanos
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
Total Control by David Baldacci
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
First They Killed My Father by Luong Ung
Next by Michael Crichton
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
The Collected Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
Clockers by Richard Price
Black Cross by Greg Iles
The Girl In The Picture by Denise Chong
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris
Continue reading “Then We Came To The End”

Another rainy day.  After a coffee and some email, I meet George and we venture over to the History Museum.  Apparently the best museum in Hong Kong, and for a place with such an interesting history, I figured it’d be a good respite from the rain.

All in all, not a bad museum, and we managed to spend a good two hours or so, walking through – taking our time reading up on lots.  George was looking to chill out at the guesthouse, so we headed back that way.  I decided I’d venture through Kowloon Park, so we parted ways and I had a walk through.Some sculptures and birds (including flamingos) to look at, so I ventured through then headed to the water.  Lousy weather, so I  headed back to the bookstore I’d been in a few days ago, and flipped through more graphic design books.

In the evening, George and I set out to the Temple Street Market, determined to get some last minute shopping in.  We both leave in the morning, so we’ve decided to try and stay up as late as possible, so we’re more on schedule for EST.  We figure coffee might help, so we each get one, and spend a couple of  hours playing table hockey, then head to the guesthouse with staying up on our mind.

The rain followed me from Yangshuo, so I woke up to wet streets, and gray skies.  George and I are in the same room, but on different sleep schedules, so we planned to meet at Pacific Coffee down the road, where there’s free internet and not-so-free coffee.

After waiting for a while, I figure George is avoiding heading out in the rain (which is quite heavy now), so I head back to the guesthouse, and he’s just gotten out of the shower.  We sort a few things, then head to the Art Gallery, which is close to the museum.   We’re both a little underwhelmed – I was hoping for some more modern exhibits, but I think we’ll need to find some private galleries for that.

We head to Central, my second time on Hong Kong Island proper, but only the first time spending much time on the surface.  We take the giant outdoor escalator up to Soho, and wander around – but I think we’re both a little underwhelmed once again.

After Soho, we head to the pier to check out the water.  Hard to see much in the fog, and hard to get an unobstructed view.  They’re building a big bridge, which looks close to completion, as long as the two sides meet as planned.  Next stop on the subway (I bought an Octopus card, which is a handy way of getting around) is Mong Kok.  It’s supposed to be a bastion of electronics stores, but we don’t find anything too out of the ordinary.

We make our way by foot back to the guesthouse, passing through Temple Street Market, which is just getting setup for the night.  At the guesthouse I read for a bit, but am kinda sleepy, so I head up to the room and lie down.  George has his laptop out, so I steal a bit of music from him.

We head to a very busy (although maybe just because people want to escape the rain) noodle shop, and I have some pretty decent noodles.  Just before we get the bill, the ceiling mounted air conditioner starts to leak, so there is really no escaping the rain.  George wants fries and a Guinness, so we head to a pub, which seems to be where all the white people in Hong Kong hide out.  I want to save a bit of money, so I just get a coke, but when the bill comes, I find it’s 34 Hong Kong dollars, which is about $5 Canadian.  Yikes.  I ask the bartender if there’s been some horrible horrible mistake, but he assures me there hasn’t been.  I’m hoping to avoid going to the bank again before I leave Hong Kong, but it might prove difficult.

Back at the guesthouse, the common room, which is a big veranda, essentially, and has part of the roof exposed, is starting to flood.  Eventually the owner gets the idea in his head to clear the drain, and the situation improves, but it’s still too wet, and I’m falling asleep as I read, so I decide to head to the room and sleep.

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.