6 Days in Hong Kong

Arrived in Hong Kong on the night of Monday, September 11th - out of all the places in China I'm about to visit, I was least prepared for Hong Kong. I had pre-booked accommodation in Tsim Sha Tsiu, which is on the Kowloon Peninsula.

The accommodation was inside Chunking Masions, which I later found out was possibly the most dodgy place in Hong Kong. It was apparently the main setting for a famous Hong Kong movie called 'Chunking', which exposes the 'underground' life of Hong Kong. My first night I was attacked by bed bugs and my second night I had a visit from four men, banging on my door and screaming 'Aussie, Aussie, open the door Aussie, we want your money, we know you're in there'. As you can imagine - I shat myself.

Thankfully they went away and I made the decision to move to a different place of accommodation - good move Garth!

Hong Kong (apart from Chunking Masions) was full on. The place is consumerism gone MAD - shops selling almost ANYTHING are squeezed in to every nook and crany. Walking down Nathan Road, it's like some sort of computer generated scene, with a Sony shop, Nikon shop, Sanyo shop, Panasonic shop and Toshiba shop repeated (in this combination, no joke) over and over and over again.

I went to Disneyland on Thursday which ended up being a really cool day - SpaceMountain was the best - I haven't laughed so hard in so long.

The city's fusion between East and West is amazing and seems to have a lot more identity and atmosphere than Singapore. Getting around was cheap, easy and comfortable and I didn't have any problems getting directions from the locals.

I also enjoyed reading the English translations of the signs and information boards. In the bus from the Airport to the City the sign reads 'Please Consider Wearing Your Seatbelt if necessary' (it's probably too late if it's necessary). Also 'the pheramones will tantalise your nostrils'????

I've now arrived in Kunming and I'll post more about my first few days in Mainland China when I next have Internet access.