We got off the train as fast as humanly possible and headed to our hotel. It was actually remarkably easy to get from the bus terminal to our subway stop which is was a miracle because we were tired, sweaty, and in desperate need of a shower. We quickly realized that in Hong Kong there are about 15 different exits to every subway all alphabetized which is interesting. Most exits are labeled fairly well, but it still creates quite a challenge. We exited the subway at Exit K. No sooner did we get to street level and we were bombarded by Indians trying to sell Gucci and Prada handbags. Jess and I were in no mood for shopping and continued to follow the directions that we had printed out. As soon as we opened the paper and paused for a second to figure out where we were going we were surrounded by people claiming that they worked for the hotel and wanting to bring us in every direction (aka to their store where we could buy every handbag under the sun). We were annoyed but ignored them and kept walking. We were even more confused when we got to our hotel, or mall, I should say. Our hotel is in this place called “The Mansion’, which happens to be an old huge building (which of course happens to be under construction) with maybe 200 venders and stalls on the ground floor selling everything from Indian foods, to electronics, to grocery and even (you guessed it) designer handbags. Confused and still annoyed that we were being bombard by sales people we continued our trek. The mansion has about 10 different sets of elevators, we needed the ones in ‘C block” which of course is the back of the building. We pushed our way through the crowd and got to the long line leading up to the elevator. After about 20 minutes we finally got on the 6 person tiny elevator, only to realize that we had gotten on the “even” side elevator and we needed to get into another line for the odd number floor. We even talked to a guy who said he waited over 45 minutes to get up to his room. It is quite interesting. I’ve never staying in a place like this before. We finally got to the reception desk which somehow happens to be the same reception desk as 6 other hotels which are located in the same building (something else I don’t quite understand) and checked in. We were then brought to our room.
This hotel room is smaller than any hotel that I’ve ever stayed in.. even in NYC! Its smaller than my close in OGT and the bathroom is smaller than the closet in my bathroom… its quite a site. The room has two single beds and about a 4 foot by 3 foot spot of open space in the center of the room. There’s a small TV on a shelf that hangs over Jess’s bed and the window sill is my night table. We were both shocked by the room, but after getting off of the train we were thrilled to have our own space no matter how small it is. Wanting nothing more than a shower I volunteered to go first. I grabbed my shower stuff and headed into the bathroom. I was shocked to see that the shower was missing. It was just a small (3 foot by 3 foot) area with a toilet and a sink. With some careful investigation I soon learned that the shower was actually the white box located above the toilet and that the there it s small hand-held shower head that we can use to shower. There is no where to even hang the showerhead- it literally needs to be held the whole time. It was quite an interesting shower, it definitely takes much longer to do anything when one hand is occupied by holding the showerhead.
It was about 4pm by the time we cleaned up and felt ready to face the world again. Since I didn’t have a single clean shirt or even a clean pair of socks I threw on my cotton dress and we headed to the ground level venders and found a laundry mat. We had three hours to kill before we could pick up our laundry so we decided to get lay of the land by walking around.
I must set some things straight about Hong Kong. Its an island and were not actually staying in Hong Kong, we’re staying in Kowloon which I consider to be part of Hong Kong even though it technically isn’t. Hong Kong is two subway stops away and easy to get to. Kowloon is just as happening as Hong Kong. As we scooped out our area we realized that we were surrounded by restaurants and shops of all kinds. We were excited that our location was so great! We next crossed the street and low and be hold found out that our hotel is a two minute walk to the Avenue of the Stars which is much like the starts on Hollywood Boulevard with the actors name and handprints.
We were both excited and really felt the rush of the big city when we saw all of the huge buildings across the river in Hong Kong. I had forgotten how big it is, and just seeing it bought back lots of excitement! We continued to walk a bit further and got to the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront promenade and checked out the Star Ferry and some of the boating options. Jess and I both have had friends who have told us that we have to see the Hong Kong light show, and when we were poking around we learned that it happens every night at 8pm. We decided that we should grab our laundry and watch it happen. We figured it was be a good way to end our first night in the new big city. We grabbed dinner at this fabulous Chinese (because apparently I can’t get away from China) restaurant right around the corner from our hotel. I had the best sweet and sour chicken of my life. Heaven. We rushed back to the laundry mat with minutes to spare before they closed for the day and decided to drop our freshly cleaned clothes in our room. Waiting for the elevator was a process, but luckily we were able to drop it off and make it to the light show before it started. The light show was amazing. Every huge building is light up with bright neon lights and about 20 buildings participate in the actual show which consists of the building turning their lights on and off to music as well as having high strength lights shine from the tops of the building looking like light-savors.
Its unbelievable. I cant even imagine how much it must cost these businesses to put on a show like this ever night. We loved it! It was so beautiful to sit right on the Avenue of the Stars with our legs dangling over the pier above the water and watching the lights in Hong Kong dance on the water. The weather was perfect, 70 degrees with a slight breeze off the water, so refreshing. The light show lasted about 20 minutes. It was still pretty early so we decided to go to a restaurant close to our hotel that specializes in crapes. Turns out the place is a small chain that started in Japanese (which makes sense because we saw crapes everywhere in Japan and never did get to try one). I had more of a sundae with vanilla ice cream, corn flakes, and chocolate syrup.
Jess and I were exhausted and headed back to the hotel to organize all of our stuff. We spent about 2 hours looking at maps and guidebooks and planed out our next 4 days in Hong Kong. We got to bed early ready for a fresh start in the morning and were ready to take on Hong Kong sites by day and Halloween by night!
Bye for now.
Love,
Katie.
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