Holy crap. Hong Kong, how I adore thee. No, really, I want to marry Hong Kong. Getting there was a bitch, but all the customs lines and confusion seem trite in hindsight. After going through customs, Raj and I found the subway that took us from Shenzhen to HK. We didn't really know which stop we wanted to get off at, but figured that the closer we got to the ocean, the better. Kowloon is beyond the New Territory of HK and is the closest district to HK Island. All signs were in English because of the British occupation for 99yrs, so it was pretty easy to know which stop was which. The HK subways are exactly like the London underground and are just as clean. It was almost 11pm and I really just wanted to sleep, but Raj and I didn't know which hostel we were going to (the ship wasnt in hong kong yet and wouldn't get there till the next morning) since we got split up from another group of kids that took an earlier flight to Shenzhen. We knew there was a hostel on Nathan Rd in Kowloon, so we picked the subway stop that had the word "Kowloon" in it and got in a cab and asked him to take us to that hostel. The driver didn't speak English, so he called his cab co. and had them translate by phone where we needed to go. We get dropped off on Nathan Rd, which is the equivalent of Times Square, except it's not a square but rather a road. There are people everywhere of every nationality you can imagine bustling past us as we get out of the cab, and some Asian dude came up to me and said "Hostel?". I nodd yes and he waves for us to follow him.
Now, this seemed sketchy and if anything had gone wrong, I don't think having Raj there would have made much of a difference since I could probably lift more than him. We wait with this dude outside of an elevator with a TV screen above the door showing us what was going on inside the elevator. That should have been our first sign that this hostel was SKETCHY. All these Nigerians (what's up with them? i run into them in sketchty places a lot, it seems) were looking at us and once the doors opened, our dude shooed everyone away and cleared the elevator for us. We get off on a floor that says "Chungking House De Luxe Hotel", but it didn't look so delux to me. Our room had two small beds with dirty sheets, random beach towels, a TV that looked nice but didn't work, and umm the walls shook like mad. Raj and I didn't care at this point, took the room, and decided to venture out for a bit. We ran into Katie, Camilla, Rus, and Chris on the street, looking for a place to stay and ended up at the same hostel as us. As we were directing them to the building, a bunch of commotion broke out next to us,and before we knew it a bunch of guys had cleared the street and set up a boxing ring right in the middle of Nathan Rd. 4 guys made up the corners of the ring with streamers wrapped around them to make a square. Two guys with gigantic blow up gloves start punching at each other, stop to let cars go by, and then begin fighting again. The six of us watched this go on for another 10min before Raj decided he wanted to go shopping, so we agreed to meet Katie and Camilla at 8am the next morning and make our way to the ship together when it came into port.
Okay, keep in mind that it was past 11pm when we got to Nathan Rd, so it was almost midnight when Raj decided that we needed to go shopping. And yes, all the shops were still open. I was amazed too. I really didn't have any Hong Kong dollar to spend since my ATM card wasn't working and all my cash was on the ship, so I let Raj go crazy with the shopping until 1am before we called it a night. I passed out right away, not caring that the sheets were dirty as long as I slept fully clothed with all body parts covered. Raj, on the other hand, could not fall asleep and stayed up all night as our walls shook to the point where he thought they were going to cave in. Needless to say, when 8am rolled around we were more than happy to get outta there. We met Katie, Camilla, and some dude BJ from the ship who we randomly ran into on the street and knew where he was going. Apparently, the ship was in walking distance from where we were staying. We picked a hostel close to the ship and didn't even know it. Funny how luck works out sometimes.
Our ship was quite the site for the people of HK, and it was a lovely sight for me as well at 8am that morning. I was smelly, dirty, and out of money, so the MV Explorer was like a shining beacon of light ported next to a mall. We had to walk through a mall to get to our ship. Odd.
Anyway, after a scalding hot shower to burn off the grossness and a wallet refill, we decided to go to the market for some cheap HK shopping. I didn't really know Camilla or Katie as this point, but they were up for anything and tagged along. We did a pitstop at Starbucks (MY FIRST WESTERN FOOD IN ANY PORT!) and walked over to the shopping area from the night before. One of our friends, Anna who had met upvwith us that morning, needed a new camera and was insistent on buying on ASAP, so we stopped in a camera shop along Nathan Rd. I kept telling her to wait until we went to the market in HK where everything is 10x cheaper, but she didn't listen and paid $500 for a camera (that was probably used) that should have cost $240.
I was pretty annoyed that my morning was being slowed down by naive shoppers, so Katie, Camilla and I dragged Raj and Anna to the mecca of bargin shopping... Ladies Market. It's this street of vendors in Kowloon that sell everything. Clothes, accessories, shoes, fake gucci/fendi/prada, wigs, toys, everything. And you get to bargain! I got a pair of Vans for $9USD. Yep. And they are actually right from the factory. The electronics market runs parallel to Ladies Market, but my hands were too full to buy much more, so we went back to the ship to drop stuff off. Katie, Camilla, and I wanted to go look at the sites, so we went off on our own to the best part of HK.. the Island. We took the Star Ferry, which costs like 50cents, for a 10min ride to the island and decided we wanted to ride the world's longest escalator. We weren't too sure where it was, but the doorman at the IFC mall walked us halfway before asking Katie for her email (sooo random, apparently he likes to talk to people from the states). We found the rest of the way on our own, passing a crowd of over 100 women randomly sitting in an underpass. They were just chillin' there, but they didn't look homeless. We still have no idea why they were there, because they weren't there when we came back the next day, but they didn't bother us so we didn't bother them.
The world's longest escalator is not actually one long escalator, but rather a sucession of one escalator after another. It actually makes sense now that I think about it, because it goes up the mountain that is HK Island right through the city... and how could people get off at the level they wanted if it was just one continuous escalator. I had a blast anyway, enjoying the view of tons of different areas of HK Island, especially SoHo. It's so cute and has all kinds of shops and types of food... you pass a billion bars where happy hour starts in the middle of the day. Once we got to the top, which took half an hour, we realized there was no escalator going down. So we walked. This was actually way more fun than going up, but I would never walk up since it's actually pretty steep. Halfway down we got "tired" and stopped in one of the bars, Spotbar, for a 5pm beer to refuel for the rest of the walk down. Katie and I got Stellas, and they came in gigantic glasses as big as my face for the same price that a small glass would get you in the States. This made me very happy, almost slightly buzzed, and full of energy for the Star Ferry ride back to Kowloon. We grabbed some AMAZING sushi at Geisha House, and then went to the YMCA hotel to watch the light show that goes on every night across the city.
One of the girls on SAS lives in HK, and her dad owns the YMCA hotel. It's SO nice and has a GREAT view of HK Island. Most people watch the light show without the music because it's only available to certain ppl, but we got HOOKED UP! Rooftop view, free food, free ponchos (it started to pour, but who cares... we're in HONG KONG!), and the English music version of the show. It-was-spectacular. I was giddy it was so good. All the buildings in HK coordinate the lights on their building at 8pm to fit some music for 15min. This got the three of us off to a great evening, one that I will cherish FOREVER!
We walked toward the ship to get some better rain gear and ran into Rachel (who had just gotten back from Beijing) and Maggie. The five of us found a random bar with a bunch of people who didn't speak much English and caught up on life. Katie and I ordered Hoegaardens, which to our pleasent surprise came in glasses we could practically swim in. After the first drink, I knew Katie and Camilla were my type of people. We all stayed at the bar until midnight, but we had no idea where to go next. The bartender couldn't speak English, but DREW US A MAP of a club that was a mintue away. It was a really great map, but we still couldn't find the place. There were a bunch of guys eating some food from a street vendor, so we ran up to them and asked them where this club was. Luckily, they spoke PERFECT English and knew exactly where the club was. Unfortunately, it was closed. Fortunately, they knew another bar to go to and even though they were about to call it a night, they took us to another bar close by.
Charleston and Wilson and their friend who couldn't speak English turned out to be AWESOME! Actually, awesome doesn't even capture the awesomeness that is them. This bar was pretty small and the kareokee was so outdated that "My Heart Will Go On" was the best choice (oh, and we sang it like nobody's business), but it's all about who you're with. Wilson, who was Hong Kongian but lived in Austrailia for awhile (so his accent was reallllly off), tried to teach Rachel and I some weird drinking game but gave up when I started to teach Charleston a lovely game called Kings. Some of you may be familiar with this game, but if you have been living under a rock for the past two decades... it's the best drinking game ever and Wilson agreed. He made us write out a copy of the rules and he plans to spread this wonderous game of kings across Hong Kong.
Yes, I may have started a revolution that night.
Katie and Camilla went back to the ship earlier than us because they wanted to see the Buddha statue the next morning, but Maggie, Rachel, and I hung out with Charleston and Wilson a bit longer. Charleston is 25 and went to school in Vancouver, but just came back to Hong Kong and is living in Kowloon. He was super chill, and after Rachel passed out on the couch bench, he put us in a cab back to the ship. As we drunkenly stumbled out the door of the bar, we told Wilson and Charleston to meet us at 6am by the Star Ferry because they wanted to go to Victoria Peak with us the next morning and they both said they would be there. Even though it was 4am and that meant they were get no sleep.
Blah, okay, sooo I'm not gonna lie. I was pretty shitfaced. Sorry, Mom, I know this isn't supposed to be a drinking trip, but it was just one of those wild wild nights that had to happen in order for the amazingness of the next day to happen. When we got back onto the ship that night, Rachel and I went with Maggie to her room to find Jackie, her roomie. Somehow, this guy Tim from Colorado ended up in that room with us and we had all piled on top of Jackie to wake her out of a drunk stupor she had fallen under at another bar in Hong Kong (we had lost her earlier that evening). Tim and I thought the room was a little full, so he grabbed a blanket and we went up to the 7th deck by the pool to look at the skyline of HK at 5am. I was determined to just stay up all night until we had to go to the Star Ferry (which was literally right next to our boat) and Tim was really trying to keep me awake and sober me up since all of the crew was up on the deck with us for some strange reason. The crew is super awesome, though, and probably was wasted as well... so after an hour of struggling to stay awake, Tim walked me back to our hall and I guess I passed out on my floor. The reason I say this is because at 7am I woke up to Mandy tripping over me on her way to answer our door. Yes, she really almost ate it because our room was pitch black and she had no idea I was laying there. She opened the door, and Rachel said, "Nancy, ready to go?". I was still in last nights clothes, but I just got up and walked right out the door, still drunk.
That morning is kind of a blur, but Rachel and I did not think Wilson and Charleston were serious when they said they were going to meet us at the Star Ferry. Well, Wilson wasn't there but Charleston was there waiting for us, backpack on and ready to go. I was totally caught off guard by his presence, and all he could do was laugh at me - I'm sure I was a sight, not having looked at myself before leaving the room. We caught a ferry to the Island, and Charleston got us a cab to the tram station that took us up to the peak. The tram goes almost completely vertical up the mountain, all the way to the top. Charleston had only gone to the peak once when he was a kid, so he was just as excited to go as we were. Then, it started to monsoon like mad. We figured we would wait it out in the cafe at the top for awhile, until the rain died down. The three of us passed out on the couches in the cafe for an hour. Flat out passed out. I think I slept on Rachel's butt, which is quite comfortable and squishy.
After we all woke up, me with my developing hangover and Rachel with her groggy eyes, we realized the rain wasn't going to die down. So, we walked out of the cafe onto the trail and just grinned and beared it. The rain poured down on my head, but I barely noticed. From where we were, we could see the entire Island and Kowloon. The coolest part was that it wasn't even raining in Kowloon and you could actually see the border where the rain started.
I thought Charleston was going to go home after the peak. I didn't think he'd want to hang out with 3 strangers all day, but oh how wrong I was. We hung out with him the entire day. He showed us all around Hong Kong, took me to the electronics market where I bought a WD Passport external hard drive for half the price I would pay in the states, took us to a sketchy place with the most amazing fish balls ever (10 hong kong dollars for lunch, which is about $1.50), introduced me to rice rolls (which he's been getting from the same vendor since he was in elementary school), and went on the escalator with us (yes, I went again) where Wilson met up with us. We stopped at a bar on the way down, this time on another street, had a drink, and then headed back to Kowloon. Charleston had to stop by his dad's office, so Wilson came back with us for dinner by the ship. He's kind of a bag full of wacky, talks a million miles per hour about random stuff, but it's okay. He's alright. Charleston graced us with his presence once more, right before we had to get back on the ship. The four of us got a picture together right quick, and then it was time to go. The guys walked us to the security gate where we shared a heartbreaking goodbye that almost brought me and Rachel to tears, because we both knew it would be awhile until we had enough money to come back. But never fear, I can keep in touch with them through FACEBOOK and it'll be like we never left them.
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