ben griffiths
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Archive for the ‘Hong Kong’ Category

Welcome to Hong Kong!

Friday, December 14th, 2007

Welcome to Hong Kong!

Huh? “Hong Kong?” you say… “I thought you were in Taiwan?”

Well yes, I still live in Taiwan - however am now on holiday - indeed there is still a large chunk of my Taiwan post missing (it’s currently still in my drafts folder - I hope to finish it on the plane) however, so I can keep more up to date, I’ll fill that in later.

So yes, I’m now in Hong Kong - and will be until late Monday night, or technically, very early Tuesday morning!

So far, it’s been uneventful - woke up this morning at 10ish as I couldn’t sleep so well. I *think* I might have been excited, though more likely, just my whole pattern is mucked up (I’ve been going to bed at 7am :eek: ) - finished my packing (had done most of it last night) and was at the bus depot by 12, airport by 1 and in Hong Kong by 4 :)

Finding the hotel building wasn’t so tricky - just as the website said “take the airport express to kowloon, then the k3 bus to the holiday inn - finally walk along Nathan Road to number 58″. Simple. Getting to the actual hotel itself though was a bit more of a challenge, the actual complex it’s in is like a labarinth - there must be litteraly thousands of individual houses here, a real sight to be seen (though ugly as sin). To make matters worse, the place is on the 13th floor - which requires queuing for an elevator for a good 15 minutes …. bah!

USA Hotel Building USA Hotel Building - View Down

 

Anyway, once I found the place, I was shown to my “Luxury Room” - as seen below - boy I’m glad I didn’t take standard!

USA Hotel - Room View USA Hotel - Bathroom

Sorry the bathroom shot is so bad, it’s just I can’t really get far enough back to get a decent view. Not sure if you can quite see from the photo, but the shower is actually above the toilet?!? I think this is a cunning plan to save the cleaners work, as basically all the effort is done for them by me just washing myself … smart!

I’d already decided today wasn’t a day to do much, so got in a quick power nap, waking up at 8:20ish to go out and find some food.

Walking along the street, I spotted a TGI Fridays and a rather tempting looking rack of ribs - “that’ll do” methinks and heads upstairs to be seated.

Well blimey that was when I got a shock (or maybe a reality check?) - they may now officially be Chinese, but got damn they still have western prices! I couldn’t believe it, £1.80 for a coke?! Even worse, the sumptuous looking rack of ribs were an incredible £12!!

Of course, perhaps all you guys at home in good old blighty might be thinking “yeah, so?” or maybe even “well, that’s cheaper than here” (is it?) - however, for little old me, used to living in a country where THE SAME MEAL from THE SAME PLACE comes in at 80p for the coke and £7 for the ribs - I WAS NOT IMPRESSED!

Top make matters worse, no sooner had I finished eating and quickly rushed to the train station - my tum didn’t feel good at all - a quick stop at mcdonalds, and I had literally just flushed £14 down the toilet … :(

On a positive note though, I did pick up a sim card for my mobile - thus any problems with the servers and I’ll be in the loop once again - and in the same area, saw some incredibly hot girls ….. a small, but nice little saving grace methinks :)

Back in the hotel now, all nice and clean in bed - will try and get a good nights kip, then be out early(ish) to go and see what cheap electronics I can purchase to sell off back home - also, tomorrow night is club night, which I am very much looking forward to - I even have some nice clothes for the occasion, thanks to Ting-Ying’s dad :thumb:

Night!