Change of scenery

Ahead of us was an early morning flight from Santa Marta to Bogota, where we would have to wait for 12 hours before we could actually get on the plane towards Hong Kong. Buying the cheapest possible flights (around 1000 euros) meant that we would have to change flights twice, first in Houston Texas and finally in Chicago to get to the 14-hour one towards the final destination. While Ben was still recovering from the food poisoning he caught in Taganga, it wasn't the best time for this sort of travelling, but what made it even worse was that Anni caught the same thing the evening before the first flight. Great 40-something hours ahead of us then.


Thanks to the medicines we stocked up on before leaving (pain relievers, diarhhea medicine, antibiotics and everything else you could possibly need if stranded on an island somewhere or lost in the jungle), the worst of the worst, sitting on the toilet all day, could be avoided and we were able to pack our things and get on the plane. It wasn't fun though. Let's just say that we spent very little money on food during the time of travelling.

Somehow with very little sleep and very little food we made it to Hong Kong International Airport alive, even feeling a little bit better. Thinking that we deserved it, we took a cab instead of trying to figure out the metro system. It was way past sunset after all. After a stunning 30-minute drive through the shiny, colourfully lit high rise buildings we arrived at Chungking Mansions, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. We had booked the cheapest place, the prices of accommodation in Hong Kong being incredibly high compared to anything in South America. With 19 euros per person you can easily get a double room anywhere in South America, possibly even for two nights. In Hong Kong you are lucky to find a dorm. So a dorm it was then. Chungking Mansions is a chaotic mix of hostels, little shops selling everything from dildos to shoes, Indian food, dripping water, weird smells and slowest elevators on the planet. Just navigating through the ground floor and finding the right block took us a while.

Our first goal in Hong Kong was to apply for a Chinese visa. We really wanted to travel South China. Why not, since we already are in Hong Kong. You can apply for the visa independently or use an agency. Because the agencies charge for this service, we were obviously ready to queue for a while to get it done cheaper. We thought that the process would take 2-3 days with the express service we were willing to take, but when we gave our applications at the counter, we were told that it would take 4 working days, so we wouldn't be able to get the visas until monday. Suddenly we had a week in Hong Kong instead of the planned 4 days.

Neither of us is really a big fan of huge cities. They just get a bit boring after a while. You see a few and after that they all feel the same. They are expensive, noisy, busy and it is just hard to find something to do if you don't want to explore every museum or waste your money in sitting in cafe's and going out. We were very worried that after a few days we would be absolutely sick of Hong Kong and the amount of people and in addition way over our budget.

The budget thing was right. It is expensive here. Everything else we were wrong in. This city is really well designed to hold the amount of people. It is modern, well planned, and it just works somehow. The public transport is amazing - navigating trough the city is simple and cheap. It is chaotic and busy but in a nice way. What makes the city alive are two things: the waterfront and the parks. We spent a lot of time wandering along the piers, staring into the Hong Kong island skyline in the evenings. The parks are beautiful, green and perfect places when you need to calm down and relax. Kowloon park's turtle and fish pond area quickly became our favourite place for breakfast. Hong Kong island's Botanical Garden & zoo is also a fun way to spend an afternoon if you happen to be around the area, especially because it's for free!

There is a lot more fun stuff to do in Hong Kong than we thought. But we also had boring stuff to do. We needed to pick up Ben's underwater camera and Anni's scuba diving certification cards and insurance card from the main post office, which offers a poste restante service. We also needed to send the last set of warm clothes home. We had still needed our fleeces and jeans in Bogota, but from now on there should be absolutely no need for this kind of clothes. Anyone who has ever been backpacking knows how frustrating it is to carry things you don't need. Tsim Sha Tsui post office proved to be fast and kind of cheap when we dropped off a few kilos of unwanted clothes. And here started a new task: shopping. We had sent about a half or more of the clothes in our backpack home. We had very little clothes for hot and humid climate. Also, we had been travelling for 5 months. At some point wearing the same stuff every day just gets annoying. Anni's shoes were falling apart and wouldn't last more than a few days. Many tops had lost shape and colour due to constant washing. We decided to spend some money to make us feel comfortable again. It was kind of a new beginning after all.

On the first glance the shopping in Hong Kong seems impossible for normal people. Yes, the malls are huge and they are everywhere. Problem is that instead of the H&M you find everywhere back home, here the trend seems to be more Gucci and Prada. Not exactly our budget. We were sure that you can find cheap places somewhere. We were lucky to meet a nice local lady, sitting at the next table in a restaurant, who gave us a hint of a market in a place called Stanley on Hong Kong island. She also gave us compliments on our skills with the chopsticks, which was a relief after being confused with the cutlery and the different ways you can hold the chopsticks. We were sure we looked ridiculous. (We probably did and she was just trying to be nice and encouraging. We decided to take it as a compliment anyway.)

So we followed the advice to Stanley, and sure enough we found a market. With the help of our most trusted travel guide, the internet, we were able to locate a few more cheap districts around the city. We also found brand outlet stores just next to Kowloon park. The good thing with the shopping was that it gave us motivation to visit different ares of the city, most of which we would have skipped for sure if we had not been on a mission. We visited Mong Kok, Causeway Bay, Stanley and many other places thanks to this. And we were able to find the much needed H&M.

Almost without noticing the week had almost gone and it would be time to find out if we got the visas to China or not.