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  • Day 2

    It's On like Hongy Kong

    March 11, 2018 in Hong Kong ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Layovers can be a pain. Short ones mean you're rushing about, cautious not to miss your connecting flight and cursing that immigration won't just briefly abandon national security concerns to let you saunter through unimpeded. Several-hours ones can be just dull, resulting in aimless lingering in the airport whilst too many hours requires consideration of accommodation, sustainance and the acknowledgement your stopover is effectively a mini-break in itself.

    I think we hit the sweet-spot with ten hours in Hong Kong. This was partly due to timing; we landed just before their 7am, perfectly synchronizing the commencement of our exploration with their morning cornflakes. As the city awoke we travelled on the ridiculously-nice-when-you-compare-it-to-literally-every-train-in-England Airport Express into the metropolis.

    Though we were fairly tired, after all 'their' 7am was closer to our bodies' midnight, we also had an advantage. Woody had been to Hong Kong before so would know the most efficient way to navigate and experience the key sights. Granted command, we followed his lead and alighted at Kowloon station to head toward the harbour.

    In Woody's defence we only spent an hour or so lost in the private accommodation complex / closed shopping-mall he took us too, only nearly died when we tried to escape by walking on the motorway and only slightly wasted 10% of our Hong Kong experience by the time we got back to the same station we'd arrived at, gotten back on the train and travelled the few stops to where we were supposed to be.

    The views of the harbour were stunning and probably attached. Mark did his standard poses, I did my standard selfies and we progressed to the Star Ferry, apparently quite famous but I haven't gotten around to googling it yet. Once on Hong Kong island we traversed through the crowds of Filipinas folk socialising on cardboard boxes in the streets (a cultural weekly occurrence when the maids of Hong Kong have Sundays off) and stopped by for pictures at HSBC HQ to relieve my withdrawal symptoms.

    We next queued, and boy did we queue, for the furnicular railway up to the peak, which the locals refer to simply The Peak and thusly I've forgotten the actual name for. We were the last ones aboard so didn't get seats, but that turned out to be dangerous/awesome as the tram undertook it's steep climb and as we could each stand angularly to the floor, messing about with our sense of gravity.

    There was a vast visitors centre at the top and after a few escalator rides we were atop the highest 360 degree viewing platform in the city, looking up at the points higher than us unable to advertise a 360 degree viewing platform. Looking down we took-in more stunning views and took more obligatory pictures/selfies. It's easy to see why the platform is one of the more popular proposal locations in the city, with packages for such being heavily advertised by the venue. Neither Mark nor Woody popped the question.

    My ring-finger bandless, we visited the gift-shop where I bought fridge magnets and Mark haggled a deal for the purchase of a pretty picture print. I wasn't clear on the specifics of the deal, but it apparently involved the handing-over of his travel card as he had to buy a new return ticket before we left. We descended the peak, finding the queue to go back up completely dissipated and proving we'd definitely come at the wrong time, further damning the day's Activities-Director.

    We were hungry and, after introspective analysis of the situation, decided to find some food. Harnessing the power of Google, I assumed directorial duties and guided us toward the authentic (by which I mean how it looks in the movies) centre of Hong Kong island. Keen to locate some authentic (by which I mean how it looks in Chinese restaurants) local cuisine, our efforts were mildly hampered by the apparent local preference for foreign food. Akin to trying to find an English restaurant in central Manchester, it was exceedingly tricky to find a simple Chinese restaurant in the centre of a Chinese city however, after a little searching, we stumbled upon our Wetherspoons proxy. Unfortunately there was no kids menu, so Woody had to leave half of his perfectly standard adult meal uneaten.

    By this point, circa 6am to us after a night without sleep but with extensive activity, we were pretty exhausted and headed back to the airport. We each intermittently though thankfully alternately fell asleep on the warm, comfortable, no-reason-they-shouldn't-be-this-nice-in-the-UK train and went through into the terminal.

    We were quite early for our plane and expected to get bored, but we fortunately found an exciting mission to occupy ourselves. Mark's headphones had broken and, having forgotten to pack his spares, needed some new ones. Though the airport was vast we soon found an electronics dealer, but the headphones available were excessively priced so we moved on. Seeking a WH Smith equivalent, where headphones were positioned more as a point-of-sale convenience item than a business focus and priced accordingly, we trapsed through several other retailers in search of a decent set of earbuds costing the equivalent of around a fiver. We almost had a breakthrough when we found some Disney-branded versions at around a tenner, but these were considered unsuitable for reasons. We spied a 7-Eleven on a lower floor and tried to reach it by going down an escalator but overshot. In an attempt to course-correct upwards Mark suggested we go further down. This didn't work. We later took a lift to the correct floor but to a 'staff-only' section of said floor which we didn't enter because it's an airport and we might get shot. We never figured out how to get to the 7-Eleven floor or find Mark some suitable headphones, but at least we got this fantastic story out of the experience. Also I remembered I had a spare set of headphones and said Mark could have those.
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