Day 88 Sydney to Hong Kong

 

An early start to travel to the airport and we wait for the taxi to take us the short way to the station as the train is the cheapest way by far to reach the airport, although it involves a lot of changes between lines. Our bags suddenly feel very heavy and we are all a bit daunted about leaving the relative comfort of Australia for the almost complete unknown of Hong Kong and beyond! Mercifully the enterprising Lebanese (and frankly ancient) taxi driver strikes up a deal with David, matches the train ticket price and drives us all the way - Result!

 

Unfortunately we have tickets to fly on the day of Qantas staff industrial action - but as far as we know when we arrive this is only affecting domestic flights - it is only once we are through check in and talking to the Security Officer that he advises us that ground staff, catering and several other unions have called a 4 hour strike as part of a pay and conditions protest. No bags would be loaded or unloaded and no refuelling and cabin maintenance for 4 hours causing enormous knock on delays. We dont know how long we will be here so we hurry to the gate and make camp near a socket so we can take advantage of the free wifi throughout the terminal and catch up on last minute charging. Mercifully our fllight is unaffected and we board and take off on time.

  

  

Another "delicious" selection of Qantas in flight food - they had promised to be a worthy rival for  British Airwarys and we were looking forward to flying with them - sadly we have been left disappointed by the staff and service we have encountered on our 5 flights with them. Several mix ups and errors, not least about children's meals have not been handled well and some staff have been downright indifferent. We have passed our comments to Qantas!

The flight passes with no dramas apart from an occasional shortlived turbulence and we descend into Hong Kong. Immediately we feel out of our comfort zone! As expected the Customs Officer refuses to stamp the bear passports and we are moved in very efficient fashion along with the other passengers to belt 5 to collect our bags before negotiating our way to the loo and then the bus to take us across to Kowloon. It is mind blowingly busy, incredibly noisy and very humid. We find our bus with no problem - the signs are fortunately in Pinyin(chinese characters) and English but also have pictures! We board and wedge ourselves in alongside far too many other hot and grumpy travellers for our trip. The girls are open mouthed at their first sight of the skyscraper skyline but we are all too tired to ooh and aah too much. We count the stops as the bus progresses as we have to get off at the 6th stop. The pavements are heaving - there are people everywhere and the lights are amazing. 

Enormous electric bill boards and signage hung from every wall, across doorways and spanning the roads. Music blares from most corners and their is a smoky, steamy fug in the air. The smells range through the scent spectrum from the delicious scent of freshly cooked waffles, perfumes and garlic all the way down to dried fish, cigarette smoke and sewers. The traffic noise if unimaginably loud; engines,sirens and the constant hum of a city. The girls are obviously uncomfortable and we have somehow managed to miscount and miss our stop. We are now lost with only a very basic map and address for guidance. Amazingly, David manages to ask exactly the right young couple who not only explain in broken English how to negotiate our way to the Dragon Hostel on Argyle Street - but also take pity on us and escort us all the way to the lift lobby.

The room is on the 7th floor and can only be described as compact, with an eclectic mix of patterns and textures, an ensuite toilet/shower and an amazing view of the road - we are too tired to care!

 

Our next step is to attempt to eat something - it is now nearly 9pm and the girls have eaten very little on the plane so we take a chance on a nearby restaurant which is well populated with locals. The menu is erm... interesting but we manage to get an ok dish of rice and something which looks a bit like crab sticks and spam - yum!