Holy Crap! I’m in Hong Kong!!!
About an hour into my flight I got a sick feeling in my stomach as I remembered about the second dose of oral vaccination I was meant to take this morning. The gut feeling might have been a bad omen but, as the vaccination was meant for E. Coli, bacteria that gives you really, really bad diarrhea. Bugger.
I was soon comforted however, as being onboard Qantas you have some slight comforts that our usual airlines (garuda, Vietnam) don’t offer. Mainly your own TV in the seat in front of you, with a range of movies, tv shows, cds etc to choose from. Not just your stereotypical airplane movies, but cinema release. To make the most of it, I’d fast-forward through boring bits, allowing me to watch Superbad, 3:10 to Yuma, Michael Clayton, The Darjeeling Limited and 3 episodes of Family Guy I actually hadn’t seen before, all on a 6 ½ hour flight. Also you have a personal remote that doubles as a game controller for classic games like space invaders. So all my intentions of reading the Lonely Planet’s Guide to Hong Kong and plotting my trip were soon left behind.
I tried to beat Boonies record of over 100 cans on a Qantas flight, but only managed two and a miniature bottle of wine. The stewardesses stopped coming when I hit the call button after my second beer.
The trip to the Cosmic Guest House was a good start to the adventure. After getting off the plane I suddenly realised I had no idea how to even leave the airport. In the end I stalked the two poms that were near me on the plane until I eventually reached baggage claims. Now it’s official, there is nothing worse than waiting next to a conveyer belt on your very first solo trip overseas. Especially if your bag doesn’t turn up after 15 minutes and you start to panic. When it finally did come, I did a nervous check of the padlocks in 10 seconds that would have been valuable to Corby had she bothered. After that I bought myself an octopus card (for transport) then jumped on a train. Oh damn it I think a bus would have been easier. Shit. Wait how do I pay for the train trip? Crap crap crap. Was I meant to get a ticket? How do you use an octopus card? When the train arrived at Kowloon, I discovered (courtesy of the man in front) that you swipe your octopus and everything’s fine and dandy. Well almost, as I discovered I was at Kowloon station and had no idea how to get to Tsimsy, let alone how the hell I was meant to leave the train station. Eventually I found the streets, but stuck out a fair bit to the hustlers as I consulted the Lonely Planet Map every street corner. After a fair walk I managed to find the Cosmic, on the 12th storey of Mirador Mansion. Which isn’t like a bloody mansion at all. Quickly checked in, had a walk round the block and headed back. But in the small gift shop next to the elevator there is a variety of cards, incense, bhuddas, flags and dildos. Yes, dildos. Will try and take a picture tomorrow. Good old chinese culture.
