Second tiring travel day, but I'm here!

I was completely shattered when we disembarked in Shanghai. We had jumped forward by 8 hours, so it was 4.30pm local time, and already getting dark! My connecting flight to Hong Kong left at 6.10pm, so I had plenty of time to transfer through the airport, despite the rigorous security checks!

The 3-hour flight to Hong Kong was smooth and uneventful. I thought I might sleep for a while, but it wasn't to be 😊.

We were served beef with rice, followed by matcha sponge for dinner. Again, it was pretty decent - and still included in my £207 😃.

I was a little bit disappointed as we came into land that I couldn't see anything of the city. We came in over the sea and there was nothing to see 🙁.

In Hong Kong, I was one of the last off the plane, but it didn't matter as they took an absolute age to get our luggage through to baggage reclaim! In the meantime, I had successfully negotiated security and passport control, and been allowed into Hong Kong for a full six months! It's a shame it's such an expensive city - I might have been tempted to stay longer. Sadly, I didn't get a stamp in my passport. Instead, I got a flimsy little ticket to keep with my passport, which I hope I don't lose!!

When I got my bag, I went through customs and got some Hong Kong dollars. I asked at two different exchange places and the rate was terrible. So I went to an ATM and got 15% more Hong Kong dollars for my pounds. They offered me 895 Hong Kong dollars for a hundred pounds, whereas I withdrew a thousand Hong Kong dollars and it cost me £97.34.

Having done my research beforehand, I went to buy an Octopus card before I left the airport. It cost me HK$170, and can be used on all public transport in the city. While I was buying the card, a lovely lady, who was clearly trying to be helpful, stepped in to ask me where I was going and where I was staying. I told her and she came up with some convoluted route involving getting the Airport Express bus from the airport and then a metro and then change to another metro. And when I said, well no, I've already used Google Maps and I'm going to go on the number 21 bus from the airport, she said, oh, but that takes a long time. I said no, according to Google Maps it takes ten minutes longer, but there's no walking. Oh, but you have to walk here at the airport, she said. Yes I did, but it was less than five minutes. So I ignored her advice 😂 and got the A21 as Google Maps advised me to. It was an hour on the bus into the city from the little I could see in the dark. The best bit was crossing over to the area where I'm staying - Kowloon. All the information on the buses was very straightforward. There were displays and announcements in Cantonese and in English explaining which stop would be next, etc. I got dropped off just outside my accommodation, so that could not have been better, even though it was 11.30pm, and I was completely knackered!

I checked into my hotel after queuing for about 20 minutes. My guesthouse is on the 16th floor. There are several other hotels and guesthouses on the floors below, and everyone seemed to be coming home at the same time! At least there are two lifts, one for the even-numbered floors, and one for the odd. Clever! 😂

My room is tiny!!! I knew it was going to be. Space is at a premium here in Hong Kong, and I'm on a budget. There literally isn't room to swing a cat 😀. But it's clean, has good wifi, and aircon, so I'm not complaining!Read more