Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Hong Kong Horrors
Where should I begin telling you about our short stay in Hong Kong? First of all, coming from Vietnam where $10 A/C ensuite rooms were aplenty and food was no more than $6-7 per meal for two – Hong Kong came as an expensive shock! Henk and I had both been to Hong Kong before (myself twice, once on vacation and another time with my school on a business trip) but we failed to remember how costly it was there. On the 10th of May, Henk and I headed to the airport (and, after a quick issue with our visa… apparently, we were not supposed to pay for the extra 3 days we paid for on our arrival, and ended up “officially” overstaying our visa by 3 days but we weren’t charged anything extra) and caught our flight to Hong Kong. I had a fish sandwich from Popeye’s Chicken and Henk managed to find something healthy at a place next door. But on the plane we got food yet again! We sat enjoying our warm bread rolls and snacks while watching an episode of House on our laptop.
Once we got into Hong Kong, we took the tourist transport bus to Kowloon Island, where we got off around 4:00 PM and ended up walking with some over-eager (read: extremely annoying) touts to a hostel in ChungKing Mansion. Although Henk found us a place before we left Vietnam online that looked decent, we decided to try and save a bit of money and picked one of the guy’s business cards, following him with our bags. God, what a mistake that was! Not only was the room absolutely disgusting (probably one of the worst we’ve stayed in on this trip, and this one didn’t even have bed bugs!) but the hostel’s name wasn’t even the same one printed on the business card we were shown. Despite almost a year of cautious traveling, we got hustled! But we were too tired to care and dropped our bags in the room, agreeing to stay there for at least 2 nights.
Now, let me tell you something about staying in ChungKing Mansion. The building is absolutely swarming with touts ready to harass any tourist as soon as you’re spotted. Henk and I would exit the elevator and walk down the covered walkway of the Mansion with Indian, Muslim, and African men screaming in our faces, shoving various papers towards us, following us to the point of stalking us all the way from the ChungKing Mansion through the streets just outside. This was beyond annoying after the first 5 minutes, and we quickly felt trapped inside our little room. Either we stay in the dirty dungeon we were paying way too much for, or we venture out to be harassed and stalked immediately upon exiting. I was beyond freaked out by this; it was virtually impossible to feel safe… and if you’re a cute girl, I would NEVER EVER suggest walking in that area alone. I think it is almost a certainty that illicit and jihad-esque activity goes on around there.
On more of an upbeat note, as I was leafing through one of our airport-acquired travel guides, I found an advertisement for a “unique experience” restaurant: Modern Toilet! Henk and I got there shortly before 6:00 PM and sat down on one of the tables, the chairs being covered toilet seats and the tables were two sinks with glass over them. We paged through the menu… each of the dishes came served in a miniature toilet, a miniature bathtub, or something else bathroom-related. Our drink even came in a miniature urinal! (And we ordered lemon soda, to boot!) While we waited for our food, we walked around admiring the décor. Strangely enough, the place didn’t have an actual bathroom in it! We had to walk outside to find one…
We retired early that night, trying to ignore the fact that we felt utterly trapped in our hostel/room. That evening, Henk ran out and brought me back some McDonalds (the few chicken strips early in the evening did not keep my hunger away!) – running there twice for me after my order came back wrong! (He’s so sweet!) The next morning we walked all around various stores, and checked out the price for Chinese visas. My God, they are so expensive for Americans! We put getting a visa on hold due to the price and continued walking through the city.
Our lunch stop was at McDonalds again – after checking out a ton of different menus, we quickly realized that the only cheap eats we were going to find in the tourist area was at fast food places. While neither of us was too excited about this, we tried to find the healthiest options. That evening Henk and I saw the infamous light show at the Avenue of the Stars which played a music and light display that lit up numerous buildings along the skyline. I couldn’t remember if I had seen the show the last time I was in Hong Kong, so it was worth it to check it out again! After the show, we grabbed a bite to eat at Pizza Hut (again fast food, due to the expense!) which was almost $20.00 for 1 salad and 1 personal pan pizza. Outrageous! We had to get out of Hong Kong as soon as possible, before we emptied our entire budget…
THUS, that’s how we ended up where we are now. In the Philippines! We booked a flight from Hong Kong to Manila, the capital, after just two days in Hong Kong. More about that in the next post!
Francesca
Once we got into Hong Kong, we took the tourist transport bus to Kowloon Island, where we got off around 4:00 PM and ended up walking with some over-eager (read: extremely annoying) touts to a hostel in ChungKing Mansion. Although Henk found us a place before we left Vietnam online that looked decent, we decided to try and save a bit of money and picked one of the guy’s business cards, following him with our bags. God, what a mistake that was! Not only was the room absolutely disgusting (probably one of the worst we’ve stayed in on this trip, and this one didn’t even have bed bugs!) but the hostel’s name wasn’t even the same one printed on the business card we were shown. Despite almost a year of cautious traveling, we got hustled! But we were too tired to care and dropped our bags in the room, agreeing to stay there for at least 2 nights.
Now, let me tell you something about staying in ChungKing Mansion. The building is absolutely swarming with touts ready to harass any tourist as soon as you’re spotted. Henk and I would exit the elevator and walk down the covered walkway of the Mansion with Indian, Muslim, and African men screaming in our faces, shoving various papers towards us, following us to the point of stalking us all the way from the ChungKing Mansion through the streets just outside. This was beyond annoying after the first 5 minutes, and we quickly felt trapped inside our little room. Either we stay in the dirty dungeon we were paying way too much for, or we venture out to be harassed and stalked immediately upon exiting. I was beyond freaked out by this; it was virtually impossible to feel safe… and if you’re a cute girl, I would NEVER EVER suggest walking in that area alone. I think it is almost a certainty that illicit and jihad-esque activity goes on around there.
On more of an upbeat note, as I was leafing through one of our airport-acquired travel guides, I found an advertisement for a “unique experience” restaurant: Modern Toilet! Henk and I got there shortly before 6:00 PM and sat down on one of the tables, the chairs being covered toilet seats and the tables were two sinks with glass over them. We paged through the menu… each of the dishes came served in a miniature toilet, a miniature bathtub, or something else bathroom-related. Our drink even came in a miniature urinal! (And we ordered lemon soda, to boot!) While we waited for our food, we walked around admiring the décor. Strangely enough, the place didn’t have an actual bathroom in it! We had to walk outside to find one…
We retired early that night, trying to ignore the fact that we felt utterly trapped in our hostel/room. That evening, Henk ran out and brought me back some McDonalds (the few chicken strips early in the evening did not keep my hunger away!) – running there twice for me after my order came back wrong! (He’s so sweet!) The next morning we walked all around various stores, and checked out the price for Chinese visas. My God, they are so expensive for Americans! We put getting a visa on hold due to the price and continued walking through the city.
Our lunch stop was at McDonalds again – after checking out a ton of different menus, we quickly realized that the only cheap eats we were going to find in the tourist area was at fast food places. While neither of us was too excited about this, we tried to find the healthiest options. That evening Henk and I saw the infamous light show at the Avenue of the Stars which played a music and light display that lit up numerous buildings along the skyline. I couldn’t remember if I had seen the show the last time I was in Hong Kong, so it was worth it to check it out again! After the show, we grabbed a bite to eat at Pizza Hut (again fast food, due to the expense!) which was almost $20.00 for 1 salad and 1 personal pan pizza. Outrageous! We had to get out of Hong Kong as soon as possible, before we emptied our entire budget…
THUS, that’s how we ended up where we are now. In the Philippines! We booked a flight from Hong Kong to Manila, the capital, after just two days in Hong Kong. More about that in the next post!
Francesca
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