hong kong v1.0

i feel like jason bourne, except that i have never been to hong kong before. we are up at 5 am for the early flight, and besides our ride to the airport arriving 15 minutes late (thai time) there are no complications. i did, however, get a little upset that nowhere in the whole airport could i get the superbowl. it is only one of the biggest sporting events in the western world! it seemed disrespectful.

once we landed and cleared customs we had a planning session in the airport (note: this is not kai tek airport which is now an abandoned lot with a driving range on it, but the award winning chek lap kok airport on lantau island). i love how we just take things as they come, a kind of "no reservations tour" if we were a rock band. we settle on finding a place in kowloon somewhere as hong kong island is too expensive, and try to find a bus that wil get us there to proceed on foot. the geography is more confusing than i had thought with the city of hong kong really being in fact lantau and the outlying islands, hong kong island, kowloon and the new territories. the transit system has two rail systems (the MTR and the KCR), and a bus system that is so complicated that there are no bus maps as the buses are run by different companies. we settled on taking the a21 city bus and away we went.

wow! i had no notion of the scope and sights i would encounter. the mountains are everywhere, rising out of the fog and pollution like the little islands that poke out from the south china sea. huge loading and shipping docks block out half the sky. we cross the biggest suspension bridge in the world (tsing ma bridge). everyone and everything is in motion. the people scurry about like ants. the cars are constant. ships and transports clog the channel. rowed condos are symmetrical in position and design. i can't stop grinning that i am actually here, especially with all of the stories my dad has told me about his travels.

from inside our double-decker bus we take in all this choas. we don't really know where we are going. i keep changing from being deleriously tired to happy excited. i don't really know where we will end up, but the fatigue and happiness makes it all ok. we eventually make our way down to the first level of the bus and get the driver to suggest a stop.

all the hostels are in the same kowloon neighbourhood: tsim sha tsui (pronounced jim-saa-jeui). this is hong kong's tourist ghetto, and translated the name means "sharp sandy point." we begin our search in the southern end of nathan road, known as the golden mile. it is a warren of high end retailers, lowly restaurants and bars. blocks of run down offices and apartment buildings have become guesthouses and hostels, right beside high end hotels. you cannot walk a foot without being asked if you want a new suit or a rolex watch, and at night neon assults you from all directions. every elevator has a lineup. overload buzzers for the elevators ring out.

a woman on the bus passes us along her card for a nearby hostel. we check it out, but with our lonely planet we want to shop around first. we end up lucking out with our second stop: the cosmic guesthouse in the famous mirador mansions building. the building is a dump of a high rise, filled with hostels and temp housing for workers from developing nations. the floors are dirty, the floor numbers are spraypainted on the wall, prostitutes from india barter with their johns in the stairwells, and there is a notice in the lobby of oncoming legal action against tennants. but accommodations in hong kong cost a lot of money, and the hostel itself is relatively clean and has security. lyds barters with them and is successful. our room is so tiny i feel like i am in a space capsle or submarine. mom - you could not handle it. the bathroom/shower is the size of a phonebooth so you have to straddle the toilet to bathe. the "door" to the bathroom/shower is semi-transparent at best, and saloon-style.

but we have a view of the golden mile looking southward down nathan road, and we want to do it this way. it feels right. real. it feels like we are in hong kong.