All play and no work Downunder

Even after missing out on sleep on a 10-hour flight and stubbornly refusing to cave in from the jet lag and humidity for the rest of my first day, I only managed about five hours of sleep - the reason being that I switched off the air conditioning at some point the previous afternoon, so after waking up at around 4:00am I clumsily felt around the wall in the dark for the AC ON and hoping that I wouldn't flick on a light switch and wake my roommate, Alex. I eventually dropped off at around 6:00am, waking up at around 9:00am and hurriedly rushed to the Japanese restaurant Ootoya (in the same building as the Imperial Hotel) for the free breakfast.

I can't really comment on the place for its afternoon and evening fare, but I wasn't impressed with breakfast at Ootoya. Arriving late, I missed out on the assortment of dishes to pile my plate with, so I had to settle with cok black and runny scrambled eggs.

I hung around with a few group members - Ashley, Nanami, Karen, Heidi, Jennifer, Lewis, Adam and John - who were interested in a ferry ride to Hong Kong Island, after I told them it cost only HK$2 (at home that would be less that 20p!) We made it as far as the Central Star Ferry Pier on HK Island and lingered around the harbour shopping mall, where I got an ice cream which promptly melted to nothing once we stepped out of the air conditioning.

We got back to the hotel in Kowloon in time for the group excursion by coach around Hong Kong. Our guide was a local who was very apologetic about her "Chinglish". Other observations included that b) she was very showy with her iPhone, and c) she was very insistent on us dining at McDonalds, d) assumed we had dined at McDonalds, and e) asked us if we enjoyed our McDonalds. It became hard to tell if she was perhaps plugging Hong Kong as a progressive and Western city, or perhaps she didn't rate Western food and seemed to make assumptions that we were an unadventurous bunch and McDonalds was part of her repertoire of jokes that were just lost on us. Our coach went to Hong Kong Island via the tunnel and as we made our way up to Victoria Peak, the guide explained to us how the Cantonese tradition of burial became problematic as the city expanded and burials had to be made on higher ground, pointing out to us some tombstones obscured by the vegetation. Victoria Peak was probably about 5 °C cooler than the urban jungle below it, but it presented us with great photo opportunities (although I would have liked to go there at night).

We then made our way to Aberdeen Fishing Village, which is came across to me as its name suggests, although the sight of the cluster of fishing boats on which people lived or made their living was ominously dwarfed by the sight of gleaming high rise buildings and expensive yachts as the area was being redeveloped rapidly. I felt intrusive being there, almost as though I was in a zoo watching an endangered species, as it was clear these peoples' livelihoods were threatened.

We then went to Stanley Market, which if I'm honest I was a little underwhelmed by. It was pretty average as far as touristy markets go, small and didn't offer much of interest aside from the tacky souvenirs. I got my name interpreted in Chinese (was it Cantonese or Mandarin? They didn't tell me!) for about $200 in the form of an ink stamp encased in china.

This was followed up by the final destination of the tour, which was the group meal. I really shouldn't have expected much, given that it was free, but it consisted of my least favourite Chinese fare - a buffet, and the food was commercial as you get. The staff seemed to find it hard differentiate between delivering courses and dishes which compliment each other, and I had to ask for boiled rice. More baffling to me was the sight of more exotic and interesting dishes on display as we walked in and out of the restaurant, such as the roasted pigeon which sat cartoonlike on its plate. However, I enjoyed the occasion as it allowed for plenty of banter with other group members. I felt I would miss some of the group members that were headed to New Zealand. The guide (who if only she knew how unimpressed I was with the commercial fare she lauded as the best her city had to offer!) told us where to go to be able to watch the "spectacular" light show we were excited about. The light show turned out to consist of a few strobe lights waving around from buildings on Kowloon, and lasted for all of 10 minutes.

After taking the ferry back to the Peninsula, we got ready for our last night out in Hong Kong. I accompanied most of the group to the Whale pub on Chatham Road for our first drink - I tried one of their own cocktails - before we descended on the nearby UFO bar after we learnt from word of mouth that they had all-you-can-drink offer of £220 (costing half the amount for women). We were all keen to take advantage of this, although once inside I was put off by the amateur set-up of the bar, the lack of a menu and the ineptitude of the staff, who it became apparent were completely out of their depth in keeping up with the demand from us Western patrons, and responded to our complaints by hurriedly putting together drinks for us that could have consisted of anything. After knocking back several drinks my amusement wavered between my rowdy crowd and the locals, whom it seemed could not cope with excessive alcohol intake perhaps by virtue of their ethnic group, and it almost seemed that an epidemic had broke out in the club. It seemed to translate to an epidemic of a zombie kind, once I finally left the club at around 4:00am and saw locals attempting to find their feet after a heavy night out.

As we stepped off the plane onto the ramp, I felt an ever so slight murmur of the humidity that would await us, before we continued into a cavernous terminal that felt ominously cool. We were met by our local guide before being led outside to the coach, where the sticky warmth wrapped around me like a blanket - I was expecting it, and felt the conditions were as bad if not worse when I was in Malaysia and Singapore.

The coach journey provided a good photo opportunity, although only those sitting on the right were treated to the sights of the Hong Kong Island skyline as we crossed into Kowloon Peninsula. It took half an hour after arriving at the Imperial Hotel (by which some of us had already dozed off on the lobby sofas) before we were told that our rooms were not ready, meaning I had to squeeze my luggage into one of two already overcrowded rooms that I wouldn't be able to re-enter until later in the afternoon. But a stroke of luck (or rather, heat) changed matters, as after I realised I would never be able to keep up with the other group members (who were either taking a ferry ride or a cable car ride) in my slim jeans and hi-top trainers, I returned to the hotel where I was told my allocated room was ready and I was given the key to be able to change into shorts and espadrilles. I went for lunch just down Nathan Road in a small restaurant called 98 Degrees, where I had Hainanese chicken with boiled rice - served its purpose, and worthy of the $58 price tag (about £5 back home...)

I then took a ferry ride to Hong Kong Island, of which I had taken many photos of from across the water beforehand, but once arriving there the humidity and jet lag was really taking its toll on me and halfway across the overpass towards the Central district, I decided instead to walk back. After spending most of the afternoon either resting, trying to write in my journal amongst the mess of clothes on the bed and air-conditioning on full-blast and meeting the odd BUNAC traveller in the corridor outside, we spent the evening in PJ Murphys directly next door to the hotel - just your average commercial Irish pub with its tacky decor and music, if you ignore the Australian Channel Ten news showing us that the riots back in the UK still hadn't subsided.

The harbour of the peninsula was only about 10-15 minutes walk from the pub/hotel, where I took the most impressive photos of the Hong Kong skyline (from my Galaxy S, no less):

It always seems the case when I'm travelling that I remember very well the actual journey, and the journey towards the journey... or flight. So I thought I'd bore you with this. I took the time during my four-hour train journey from Hicktown to Heathrow (well, Euston then Heathrow, which justified the cheap ticket) to write my first entry and to reflect a little on what I had left behind, which if I'm honest isn't a lot. None of it what I was about to do would really sink in until I would get seated on Cathay Pacific flight CX252 (speaking of which, is it really pronounced Cathayyy or Cathy?!). As I was writing my first entry I felt the only saving grace of actually doing some handwriting for once was that the actual journal was light as a feather, quite beneficial when you have a 7kg limit on hand luggage!

The journey to Euston was smooth as, and taking the Tube to Heathrow was equally so. The setback was when I went to look for the shuttle bus at Terminal 3, where a rather unhelpful staff member at the Central Bus Station abruptly referred me to "Terminal number one" when I asked him where to get the shuttle bus to the hotels, leading me around in circles until I found out when I enquired at the Tube ticket office that a red double-decker bus would take me there for free. Upon arrival at the Ibis at around 16:00, I met two of the girls on my group flight (we would fly with BUNAC and had met and talked on a dedicated Facebook group set up for us). I spent most of the evening at the hotel bar, only drinking a couple of cokes, and occasionally when I would leave for my room and return I would find that more people on our group had joined us. Dinner was a mediocre deep-pan pizza fetching back £10.95.

I woke up at 6:45 before re-setting my alarm for 7:15, giving me just enough time to get ready and have a quick shower. We arrived at the airport way before the scheduled time of 9:00, but my nerves from the previous night settled when I got the chance to talk to and meet more group members. Lunch at Heathrow was yet again dissatisfying and overpriced (a cheese and ham toastie fetching back about £6). There were some interesting new security/frisking methods that I was mostly oblivious to as we got closer to our departure gate, but as we got on the plane I was annoyed at not having a window seat, as I usually am. The flight as I remember took off later than the scheduled time of 12:35 and took about 10 hours and 45 minutes. I hate the claustrophobia and restlessness of long flights such as this one, and no vast array of in flight entertainment was ever going to change that (although Rango was quite entertaining). I was in no hurry to return to my seat and hung around for the best part of an hour towards the back near the toilets while stretching my legs and even reading a newspaper, and got to speak to and meet more BUNACers, including a girl named Becky who sadly it turned out was New Zealand-bound.

Surprisingly, I didn't even sleep.

It's high time I switched my entries to electronic format, given that the last time I wrote an entry was back on 20th August and I remember my hand being numb with pain after completing it - I just don't do cursive handwriting. This had long been my intention, and I had taken more than enough photos to accompany my entries in a travel blog. Although I don't regard what I'm doing as travelling, as I'm currently on Working Holiday Visa and as it currently stands I'm too worried about work, or rather the lack of it, to get too excited about my upcoming travels up the East coast of Australia.

But, here I am. I arrived in Sydney on August 15th and much of the situation remains unchanged to back then, including the cold weather (although there were some warm spells somewhere between). Overall I've enjoyed myself so far - work permitting - I've seen some amazing places and met some great people. I intend to keep updating this when or if I go on to see more interesting places and do some interesting things, and as long as I have work to subsidize it. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, my next entries will detail where I got to so far and what I've done.