On the way back from New Year's travels, I stopped over in Hong Kong. I had planned to spend at least two or three days there to experience the excitement of real city life. I was definitely craving it after being in Shantou for so long. I was looking forward to the promise of cereal, sauces, Mexican food, and shopping. Sadly, choosing the cheapest available lodging possible backfired in so many ways.
As soon as I got off the city bus from the airport, several really pushy men approached me, each trying to sell a room at their hostels. I had wisely booked beforehand, so I tried to ignore them, politely. They wouldn't be ignored and insisted on knowing which lucky hostel I had already booked. One attempted to show me around the massively confusing Mirador Mansions. Or was it Chungking? I can't remember now. Either way, he ended up leading me around in a really obnoxious way - constantly attempting to tell me the place was no longer booked, and I wouldn't be able to find anywhere to stay except his hostel. Eventually I tired of his "help" and, in no uncertain terms, told him to leave me alone, this time not so politely. I somehow managed to find my way around the labyrinth to my perfectly cheap room. It was after midnight, and I was far too tired to care about anything. Had I not craved sleep so desperately, I could have spared myself the coming annoyances. I met the hostel manager, saw the room quickly, and went back out into the world to withdraw some money to pay for this hostel. Having almost zero sense of direction, I naturally spent far more time than necessary looking for a Bank of China ATM. I finally found one, got the money, returned to Mirador (or Chungking), and made it back to my hostel through a connection of elevators and back-alley plank stairwells where the locals hung their laundry.
As soon as I got inside the room, I realized the enormity of my economical mistake. Before, when I was tired, I didn't really examine the room. After spending more than two minutes in it, I saw what I had missed the first time. The room was incredibly small, but that's to be expected in any budget lodging in HK. What I missed the first time were all the black spots dotting the bed. The other mattress in the room was turned on its side and covered in mold spots. The room smelled terrible. I couldn't figure out what the spots on my bed were at first, but then I noticed that they were flying out of the air conditioner, which had been turned on before I got there. The black spots were large chunks of mold that would spew intermittently from the machine after blocking the air flow for a minutes.
I tried very hard to ignore the mold. I thought I could just lay my towel over the bed, play some music, and eventually fall asleep from sheer exhaustion. Not so. Around three o'clock in the morning, I finally gave up. I packed up, left the room, called the manager, and only got half my money back.
So, out into the early morning I went. I was fairly certain I could find a real hotel and just eat the expense of staying there for a night. Again, not so. The only hotels in the vicinity had the gates pulled down and locked tight. So I trucked myself and my two small bags with a month's worth of laundry and gifts through the streets of HK, wondering what I would do all night. I coughed up enough bravery to pass by the special crowds that populate the areas around Nathan Road at that time of night. And then I saw it, every stranded-in-the-middle-of-the-night-in-HK-traveler's dream, the Golden Arches. I have a strange affection for McD's now that I've never had before. After spending so many hours there, watching the sun rise along with the other zombies and marathon runners, I truly appreciate the service provided by endless cups of *hot water* (one can only take so much coffee, after all) offered 24/7.
Because I was getting stir crazy, I headed to the area of China Travel Services to book a ticket home as soon as the metro started running again. After buying my ticket, I still had several hours to wait. I walked down streets, wishing I could waste my time smelling soaps in the Body Shop. Then I discovered another place that caters to the night crowds - online gaming. Where there is online gaming, there is internet connection, so, of course, I went in and caught up on emails. I have never before been to an online gaming place, and I hope never to go again. It's a strange, strange world and makes me worry about the amount of time I do spend staring at a computer, although I'm sure it's considerably less than the regulars. There's something amiss in this world of alter-realities, but perhaps for another time.
I left the internet spot and returned to the land of daylight to begin my wait for the bus. You can only truly appreciate waiting for a city-to-city bus if you've lived in a country where you speak almost none of the language, and the locals speak none of yours. Once the bus finally arrived, later than scheduled, I could only assume that I'd make it home, or I wouldn't. If I didn't, I decided I'd just have to figure it out later. There was a strange drop-off in an unmarked parking lot of an indecipherable store, followed by pointless attempts at communicating, and finally, me hopping in a fifteen-passenger van. But I eventually made it to the downtown Shantou area and got a bus back to campus. Not the ending I had hoped for, but at least I made it home.
