10/11 - Living in a Box in Hong Kong

I'm something of a freak among BBC's (British Born Chinese) having never visited Hong Kong before. I finally got to break the duck when we spent 3 nights visiting our friend Alison and transferring for our flight to New Zealand.

 

Highly developed and with a pace of life that rivals any of the world's great cities, Hong Kong was always going to be a rude shock to the system after our relaxing time in Yangshuo. What was an even bigger shock, however, was the quality/price of the accomodation!!! In china we'd been spoilt, staying in accomodation with hostel prices, but hotel quality.

 

Bolstered by our experiences in China, we felt confident going for the hostel option in HK. What a mistake! We arrived at Chung King mansions and were greeted by the sleazy looking manager, who proudly announced that he'd upgrade us to one of the big rooms for the first night. Bonus! However, far from being the palatial suite of our dreams, the big room turned out to be a shoebox, literally two single beds, four walls and a 3 foot gap between them and nothing else to spare. It was obviously a false promise to get us to sign up for three nights, as this was certainly not a "Big Room" and we couldn't imagine there could be anything smaller.

 

Except that this was Hong Kong and the rooms could always get smaller! The next day, we got back at night to find that our luggage had been transferred to a regular room and the world had closed in around us just that little bit more. The feeling of claustrophobia was further compounded by the lack of windows and stiffling heat (the aircon was busted), though if things got too much, we felt that help was never too far away as the hole in the wall plugged with rolls of newspaper and selotape meant that we had a direct line in to the room next door.

 

So constricting was our accomodation, that we took to wandering the streets at night, like destitutes, unwilling to return to our prison cell until the last possible moment before bedtime.

 

It was great to catch up with some dear old friends in HK, but big cities and small bedrooms are leaving us a little cold at the moment...New Zealand is calling.