Day 10. Saturday Sept 11

Today started out a little rough. After doing laundry last night I went and met up with Matt and couchsurfing Katie at a bar. I knew we had to get up early so I only had one drink. Matt, Katie and some of her friends wanted to go and Karaoke to show us how it’s really done in Tokyo but I am Mr. Responsible and said I had to get back and pack. I got to bed a little after one am. Matt got back at about five am. The plan was to be on the train to the airport at 6:30. I jolted awake at 6:20. I hurried through showering and dragged Matt out of bed. By about 7:30 we were on our way and were making great train times and connections. We made it to the airport a little late but the first flight was full anyway so it didn’t matter. The next flight was an hour later and we made that one so we were all good. It was my first time on Cathay Pacific. It is crazy the difference between crappy US air carriers and an airline from a different country. We sat in coach and got a full meal and had the individual tvs.




After a 1,845 mile flight we arrived in Hong Kong. It took a while to make it through customs and get our bags. We made our way to bus A21 that would take us to our hostel. All the buses were double deckers and it took forever to make it to our stop because the traffic here is crazy! A million double decker buses, taxis and a few normal cars. We finally made it to our stop and our hostel gave us instructions to get there and warned us that there were aggressive people outside that are bothersome so ignore them. We fought our way through and ignored the people trying to get us to go with them and made it to our building which is absolutely full of little hostels. We got to the 15th floor where our little nine unit Ocean Hostel is located. It is really nice, a tiny place in a big old building. Photos are coming! After checking in we made our way on a walk to see what is near us.



It turns out we are in the middle of the chaos and the action. My mom would HATE this place. There are a million loud people packed into a small space. It is quite the shock after coming from the calmness of Tokyo. There are people of every ethnicity and walk of life. There are people hawking things on every corner. It is crazy. But it is also beautiful. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region consists of four areas. Lantau Island is where the airport and Disneyland are, New Territories is nearest the border with China proper and then there is the heavily populated Kowloon, across the water from Hong Kong Island. We are in Kowloon right by the water and the Hong Kong Island skyline is amazing. The view is of skyscrapers with mountains going into the clouds immediately behind it. We walked around the water for a few hours and they do a laser light symphony show at night on the buildings of both sides of the water. The vast majority of the people here speak English as well as Mandarin Chinese or whatever their native tongue is. This is truly a world city and cultural melting pot and I again can’t believe what a stark contrast this place is from Tokyo. A little too disorganized and stressful for my liking but it was cool seeing it. I anxiously await Hong Kong Disneyland tomorrow so I can be back in my comfort zone for a bit. It is getting late and we had a long day, so I’m off to bed!