Hong Pong

It had been a dreadful night. Constant shuffling, rejigging and leg wars hadn’t given us much sleep, but at least the train was arriving in Guangzhou and we had completed stage 3 of our Never-ending Journey. The state of the carriage in the middle of the night was amazing, with people sprawled out wherever they could find a spot. Seeds and other miscellaneous rubbish littered the aisle and there was luggage, sacks and prams wherever possible. In addition to that we had not been able to shower for two days. Nice.

Best sleep ever...

As we got off the train in Guangzhou we noticed we were greeted by an old friend who we hadn’t had the company of in quite some time. Cold. We were still dressed in just shorts and t-shirt but everyone else was warmly wrapped-up. It was just after 6 in the morning and the sun wasn’t quite up so we shivered our way out of the train station and began looking for a taxi. We would need to cross the city from the main station to Guangzhou East station to get the connecting train to Hong Kong. We marched through the throng of people trying to get us into their taxi, but we are now wise to their game and to go hunting around for the proper professionals who won’t rip us off something chronic. It wasn’t obvious where we could find one but after following the rest of the crowd out of the station we found a taxi rank and waited in line. Our go-to-guy on any kind of travel in Asia has been The Man In Seat 61 and true to form he came up with another corker. The taxi fare should be about 30RMB to change stations, and sure enough it came in at 29RMB. This guy knows his stuff!

Made it!!! 

We searched around the train station for the ticket booth and when we found one that was open she advised us to go upstairs and wait til 7:30am when they would open. That gave us enough time to get upstairs, find the booths, save a spot in the queue and go freshen up. With tickets bought for the 9:00am train (the 8:30am one was full) we waited in the waiting area and tried valiantly to stay awake til we were called for our train. We had to go through the usual security checks to get through but there were no problems (even with my bag of white powder still lurking in my luggage).

The time came when we were allowed to board the train to Hong Kong… so very nearly there that we could almost taste it! If that makes sense. So we took our seats and were sat with the group of Russians that had been with us in the queue for the tickets. As we relaxed into our comfortable chairs and sipped the complimentary bottle of water we noticed a smell that occasionally wafted around us. Body odour. Now it was true that we hadn’t showered in two days, and had slept in our clothes for both nights, but we had freshened up. We shouldn’t have been kicking out a pong like that. It seemed to be coming from the Russians, but they looked like they were a family with a few roubles in their pocket so I doubted it were them. As the train arrived in Hong Kong I found the source of the smell. A big African guy with a thousand bags under each arm, who must have been sitting in the vicinity of us on the train. Phew! The smell wasn’t us, but we sure as heck weren’t smelling of roses!

Off the train and through more passport control to get into Hong Kong. The African guy was ahead of us in the queue and there was a clear gap between him and the people behind him, with one woman covering her nose with her finger to try and sift out some of the stench. For once it paid to be further back in the line. Once we got through passport control we had made it into Hong Kong, officially. We were in need of some real food after living off crisps, peanuts, cookies and chocolate for two days so we grabbed a Maccy D’s (closest thing to us) and then jumped on the metro to our hotel.

Nom nom nom!

I had read some bad reviews of the Chungking Mansions building before we got there, but, crucially, after we had booked in their for 4 nights. Let me explain: Chungking Mansions lies on the mainland of Hong Kong (across the water from the main “Hong Kong bit”) and houses well over 20 hotels/hostels/guesthouses. It is the most reasonably-priced accommodation in Hong Kong that we could find, and there is even a movie set in the building, called Chungking Express. We will try and watch this whilst staying there. When we arrived we got a massive slap in the face. It was a brutal assault on the senses, with flashing lights, cooking smells, lots of people milling around and no idea of where our hotel actually was. You see, the ground floor is essentially an indoor market, and the building is divided up into blocks with separate elevators to get to the right places/floors. We were in Block D but could only find Block B, on which the Day And Night Hotel was listed so we went on up. It wasn’t there, so we headed down and managed to find Block D among the chaos.

When we arrived we weren’t overly-impressed, but it could have been a lot worse. Our room was the smallest one since the New York YMCA, but at least we had a private bathroom. Which was smaller than a cupboard, and was also the shower too. We made ourselves at home and relaxed, showered and generally recovered from the exertions we had endured since leaving Hanoi. We didn’t make it out of the hotel until just before dinner, so we took a wander down to the harbour to explore and find some food.

Our box room...

When we arrived at the harbour it was a truly amazing sight. A superb panoramic view of the harbour with all the skyscrapers peeping across the water at us in the darkening sky.  We took a walk along the Avenue Of Stars, which is Hong Kongs version of Hollywood Boulevard, and then went searching for some scran. We managed to find a place that seemed economically viable and we settled in for a well-earned meal. I still don’t know why James went for the pig cartilages, but it looked pretty rough to me so I went for the trusty Singapore Noodles. We got some tea with our meal (that we didn’t order, but had to pay for as we drank it) and beer served in metal tankards, which was a nice change. On the walk back home we dodged a multitude of chaps trying to sell us a “genuine copy” of a Rolex/Omega, tailored suits and handbags. Instead, we grabbed a couple more beers from the local 7 Eleven and made our way back to the hotel to try and find another English channel on the telly, but had to make do with the two that we had already found.

Wow!