Hong Kong

I arrived in Hong Kong around 11 PM local time and deciced to overnight in the airport as I was uneasy about finding a room at that late hour. I found some comfortable plush chairs in the Departures Area and used my backpack as a footrest to grab maybe an hour or two of fitful sleep underneath the terminal floodlights. I caught the first bus in the morning at 6 AM and made my way to Tsim Sha Tsui where there are cheap accommodations and a plethora of travel companies offering visas and transportation coordination to mailand China. It took me several tries at 7:30 AM to find cheap accommodation, but I eventually settled in at Traveler's Hostel in the Chungking Mansion building complex. I plan to depart Monday to the Shenzen border crossing and then catch an overnight bus to Yangshuo.

So far I've managed to stay up until 1AM after not sleeping in any significant sense for 48 hours. Walking around the streets of Hong Kong is quite an experience and a tourist attraction unto itself. Small shops and street stalls are de riguer. The Chinese eat every animal in creation and leave little for the dogs (which they also eat). If walking around Hong Kong doesn't convince you to become a vegetarian, nothing will: on nearly every street and back alley there'll be a small stall with a bubbling pot of brown liquid and sundry body parts beyond recognition all ready to be served over top of rice noodles. Personally, I've stuck to an Indian stall on the ground floor of Chungking Mansions where I'm staying, fruit, and snack buns.

I went to a night market full of crap (tack as described by my English backpacker acquintances). Carpets, table runners, fake Rolexes, cheap watches, sex toys, bracelets, anklets, novelty lighters that seemed to melt when ignited, T-shirts, skirts, and more were all availble for haggling over. I'm told a good rule of thumb is to offer 25% of the asking price. After watching a few transactions take place I'm convinced that 10% of the asking price is still more than what a local would pay. I've yet to try my hand at this activity as I found not a single item in the entire night market of interest to a backpacker save for perhaps the lighters were they of good quality and lighter fluid. I have however gotten shopkeepers to reduce pre-posted prices by pulling about 1 HKD less than the asking price out of my pocket and claiming this is all I have, thus saving perhaps fifteen American cents.

The half hour of internet I paid for at Traveler's Hostel is coming to an end; cheers and goodbye.