Bonjour everyone, greetings from Hong Kong! It's been an absolutely crazy couple of days. So much has happened but at the same time, there is still so much more to come.
The adventure started on Wednesday night. I stayed up all night packing (last legs as per usual!) and then headed off to Meadowhall early hours of Thursday morning. The bus was supposed to get in at 2.20am but didn't actually turn up until 2.35, so as you can guess, Pierre was panicking a little bit. I think the reason why it was late was our mental coach driver. He was making really stupid unfunny jokes to everyone while he was loading the bags and when he finally set off he decided to sing his own little Killers Medley to himself. Normally, I would've joined in with his lame attempt at a sing-a-long but at 3am all you really want to do is go to sleep. I thought I was in luck when he swapped places with a lady driver when we got to Nottingham; turns out she was worse than him! Can you imagine; it's the middle of the night, you're just drifting off to sleep for the third time and all of a sudden a giant shemale bus driver yells out "COVENTRY!" at the top of her manly voice. It was so annoying!
Incidentally, from my brief glimpse of Coventry, I can say with confidence that it's a place that I never want to visit (Rougher than Rotherham!).
I do have to give National Express their props, the coach driver must have known her shizzle because she got us to the airport half an hour earlier than we were scheduled; which would've been great under regular circumstances but it did mean that I had two hours to kill before I was due to meet up with the rest of the group. Luckily there was an epic trek from the coach park to the terminal to contend with plus I had to go deal with the Travelex people for my currency, so that killed a good thirty minutes. Next came the quest for the Cathay Pacific desk where I was meeting everyone else and fortunately one of my fellow passengers, Michelle, was already there waiting so we chatted and waited for everyone else to arrive (As a side note, I wouldn’t wear bright pink and then introduce myself as a hugger. The other person is likely to think you’re an evil strawberry bear in disguise for the rest of your trip) When everyone did get here we sort of created a bit of a fire hazard in the airport. Thirty-odd people plus some parents/friends/relatives in what is actually quite a small terminal was causing some major traffic jams! Everyone was there relatively early except for the Bunac representative, Emma. She arrived at nine o'clock on the dot, handed out our tickets, set up our own check-in line and then pretty much left us to it. It hardly seemed worth her bothering to turn up! As there were so many of us, we got VIP escorted through to security and then we pretty much continued to wreak havoc on the departure lounge. It just wasn't large enough to accommodate thirty rowdy young people so we kind of split up into smaller groups but still, ten noisy twenty-somethings sat on the floor in a big circle in the middle of Heathrow was probably a bit of an annoyance to our fellow passengers.
I was so excited for the airplane. I squealed when I saw it though the window. My very first jumbo jet! Fact: Double decker planes are automatically twice as cool as the regular kind. Obviously I didn't actually get to go upstairs as that was first class but the fact that we were on a plane posh enough to have first class on a whole other floor made me really happy. Our group was actually sat right at the back of the plane so we got to board first (Woop woop!). I was sat in the middle section with Vicky, Ben and Heather who all seemed really nice whilst we were sat waiting for takeoff, however having had hardly any shut-eye for over twenty-four hours I ended up falling fast asleep by the time the plane had taxied to the runway. I didn't even stay awake for take-off! I slept for almost four hours; not including two times the blooming air hostess (AKA evil wench) prodded me awake to see if I wanted tea or some food. If I said no the first time you woke me up and went straight back to sleep, don't wake me up again five minutes later with the same question. It's just rude and a sure fire way to turn me into a grumpy dinoSarah!
Another way to turn me into a grouch is to give me Tetris to play on the screen in front of me but change the buttons around from how they should be on a GameBoy. It’s really frustrating when you press the button to change the shape around and it sends it to the bottom of the screen yet when you press down it frickin' rotates the shapes. Whoever designed it needs a good telling off for getting everything so muddled! At least I got free apple juice throughout the flight to keep me happy and a really nice warm bread roll with breakfast helped quite a bit too!
I was really glad to get off the plane because eleven hours is just way too long to be on a flight. It's a mixture of the air-con and the cabin pressure and the uncomfy seats and the limited leg room; it all just messes with your entire body so you feel super drained. Luckily I'd had loads of mammoth naps so I was raring to go when we touched down in Hong Kong. As soon as you step off of the plane and into the terminal, the heat and the humidity hit you smack in the face and take your breath away. Airports in this kind of climate should really invest in air-conditioning!
The arrival into Hong Kong went really smoothly and I got a cool new stamp in my passport. Our tour guide Dennis (tiny Chinese lady with a big blokey name) met us after we'd collected out luggage and took us to our pretty pink and green coach. It looked like Elphaba and Galinda had had a Sleeping Beauty style battle over how to decorate the bus! Absolutely awesome!
Stepping out of the airport for the first time to get on the coach you realise that the heat in the airport is nothing compared to outside. 29*C before 8am is just overwhelming. The coach journey was rather uneventful. Dennis kept trying to point things out and tell us funny anecdotes but she spoke so fast and kept laughing hysterically at all of her own jokes so everything just got a little bit lost in translation. Crazy or not, Dennis and our no-named bus driver got us through Hong Kong traffic and to our hotel safely. The Imperial Hotel is in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Kowloon, which is mainland Hong Kong and for quite a touristy area it definitely has a shady edge to it. The streets are crawling with people no matter what time of day or night, and at least a third of them are clearly into dodgy dealings! One of the guys in our group, Iain, he looks like a proper stereotypical hippie, dreads and all, and guys were coming up to him all the time offering to sell him every drug under the sun.
The hotel rooms weren’t ready yet as it was just after 10am and check out wasn’t until noon so we had to dump our bags and all get changed in one tiny room before going to kill time in Hong Kong. A lot of people were complaining about the rooms not being ready and as a former hotel “deceptionist” I wanted to smack them all around the head! Give housekeeping a freaking chance to clean the rooms, guys! They’re doing the best they can!
Anyways, in the end we went to see what we named the “Big Ass Buddha,” also known as Tian Tan We managed to navigate the underground with no problem at all and made it over to Lautau to catch the cable car up to the Buddha. We were a little miffed at having to pay over $100 for the cable car as it looked like it only went across the bay and over the hill but we queued up any way. What we couldn’t see is that behind the hill the cable cars turned and went up a steep incline and over about five beautiful mountains, giving us spectacular views of the lovely green country surrounding Hong Kong. Then out of the mist emerges a 35’ giant bronze Buddha, it was just breathtaking!
The cable cars dropped us off at what was advertised as “a traditional-style village.” Really? Traditional Chinese villages have Starbucks and Subway? To me, building things like that around a temple is cashing in on the tourists a little bit too much and the whole village just gave me this weird feeling that I was back in the Epcot version of China, complete with hourly shows and a scattering of cute characters to take your picture with. It was bizarre. I didn’t like it at all.
The Buddha and the shrine on the other hand were amazing. From the edge of the village, guarding the path to the Buddha, were twelve stone statues of scary Chinese warrior guys to represent the twelve different Chinese astrological signs. The one for the year of the tiger (i.e. me!) was definitely the scariest, most bad-ass statue, waving his sword over his head, about to charge the other stone dudes. I’m not so sure I like what that implies about me! From there it was just a short hike up 250 steep steps to get up to the temple. At this point it was one o’clock in the afternoon and 36˚C so by the time we’d climbed to the top of the steps I was absolutely dripping with sweat. Disgusting, yes, but totally worth it. Big Ass Buddha was amazing. It was a weekday so not too busy and we could take our time, soaking up the atmosphere and the stunning views. I think that the way back down from the Buddha was worse than the way up. The heat and jet lag made me a little light headed so I had to concentrate really hard on each step so I didn’t trip and plummet head first to my doom.
After visiting the Buddha we all went back to the hotel for a nap, with plans to meet up later in the Irish pub next door for tea. I ended up sleeping through our supposed meet-up time and only woke up when the room phone was ringing. Two of the girls, Katie and Faye, had been out for tea and decided to call a random room number to see who was around. Luckily that room number was mine! We went across to the Irish bar where they gave us a free drink each for being guests at The Imperial. It’s a good job too; the prices in Hong Kong were crazy, even for a Sprite! There ended up being quite a big group of us in the Irish bar and because of the jet lag none of us were ready to go to sleep so we all squished into one hotel room for a mini-welcome party. We were lucky no-one complained that we were too rowdy! Even after we’d left the “party,” Lynsey (my roommate) and I were too hyper to sleep and ended up staying up until about 5am just chatting about nothing.
Needless to say, we slept through breakfast the next morning and woke up about 12.30. I ran over the road to McDonald’s to get us some lunch before we met up with the others for our tour. The first stop was Victoria Peak so we could get a good view of Hong Kong Island. I was a little disappointed with it as we didn’t get to take the funicular up the hill and basically they’d just built a huge shopping mall/tourist trap at the top of the mountain so it the view was kind of tainted. After that we went to the Aberdeen fishing village where some of The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed. It was basically a big warren of scruffy little house boats and we could pay to go on a boat tour around the village but most of us opted out. It was just too hot and humid to be going around a smelly fishing village. We than went to Stanley Market where Dennis made us stop at who we assume was her friend’s stall for a little while, trying to make us buy these stamps that said your name in Chinese. I don’t think anyone took her up on the offer! We had a little wander around the market but it was all either designer knock off clothes or cheap tourist souvenirs so I didn’t buy anything. Last stop was Hong Kong Island where Dennis took us to a local restaurant to sample a typical Chinese eight course meal. I did not eat a single thing! Bean curd and seaweed anyone? Yuck!
The tour was over after that so the group split up into smaller sections and we went to go see the light show over the harbour. It was pretty cool but nothing uber-spectacular. If you took away the fireworks and the globe from Illuminations in Epcot you’d be left with the Hong Kong light show (lasers and cheesy music). Most of us then headed over to the bar street for the night. Dennis had warned us to check the names of the bars before we went in as a lot of them were strip clubs disguised as bars. Playing it safe we went into a Mexican themed bar where it was happy hour and the drinks came in cactus shaped glasses, followed by a bar which was blasting out cheesy tunes where some of the girls were enticed into dancing on the bar. I guess it’s pointless to say it was another late one in Hong Kong!
Miraculously, Lynsey and I did actually make it to breakfast the next morning. It was supposed to be Continental breakfast but it was chicken and noodles. The only thing continental was the one croissant that was left! As it was our last morning in Kowloon, Lynsey and I decided to explore the local area...which ended up in us getting lost in the biggest shopping centre I have ever seen. All in the quest for finding Toys-R-Us!
Dennis picked us all up again about 2pm. She took us on a mini tour of Kowloon which included the jade market and a Buddhist shrine but the weather was absolutely ridonculously hot so we cut the tour short and she took us to the airport, leaving us just a measly seven hours to kill...
Now you know why this entry was so long!
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