Cecilia, Mike and I left first because Will and Deena were running late as usual. We grabbed a bite to eat on the way, in my case a REAL sandwich and a carton of REAL chocolate milk!
We eventually found the visa office and found it filled with foreigners of all nationalities, we had definitely chosen well because the place was packed! We got to the front only to find that the forms we had already filled out were useless, instead we were given a two sided form which only required the most basic of information. We were told to put down 'Manager' as our occupation in China, not strictly true but then again TTC sold us as 'language students'... We also got told to 'make up' a company name to work for... Visas here seem so legit... We met this guy called Ryan, he was from the North of England and had been in China for 3 years and like us was here to have his visa renewed; he had set up his company called 'Crack Learning' but the visa place wrote it down as 'Crack Trading Company', needless to say that implies something quite different...
Anyway after getting our pictures taken, they needed a blue background, Ryan invited us out to get a FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST, it seemed to good an opportunity to turn down! After getting lost a couple of times and Ryan asking directions in fluent Mandarin (jealous), we made it to a quaint English pub. We ordered our breakfasts and Ryan began to talk about his life. He has done so much and got into a fair few sticky situations! He was working as a teacher but has left to set up his own language learning company. Its really interesting! Many stories were told and we were suitably impressed! Our breakfast arrived accompanied by BROWN SAUCE!!!!! It was amazing!
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| A legitimate sign saying 'No Gangnam Syle' |
After breakfast we bade Ryan farewell and decided to get the Star Ferry from Wan Chai to Tsim Cha Tsui (the ferry port nearest our hostel). The star ferries are amazing, they only cost about 20p and you get to see all the skyscrapers, its much nicer than the metro! We then went for a wander through the expensive quarter. There were shops such as Prada, Gucci, Armani and then randomly a H&M... Not quite sure whether it fits in...
After a while Will became restless so him and Deena went off exploring independently, which was more than fine by us! Cecilia, Mike and I went for a wander through Kowloon park, the park was lovely and green and complete with wild birds! Not bad to find surrounded by skyscrapers.
After the park we made our way to the hostel to plan our afternoon; we had to pick our visas up at 2pm so we had the rest of the afternoon to spend doing what we like and without Will and Deena! We decided on heading back to Hong Kong Island and going to the Mid-level escalator and the Man Mo Temple.
It soon was time to pick up our visas and there was no problem! We all now have Single Entry, 3 month F visas for China! YAY! Now lets just hope we get back in the country no problem!
Anyway we headed back to the hostel to drop off our passports and then headed back to the Star Ferry and back to Hong Kong Island! We reached Central and began our wander towards the escalators. Now one of the cool things about Hong Kong is that there are all these elevated walkways for pedestrians and these walkways quite often cut through the hearts of Hong Kong's most impressive buildings. Its just a really pleasant and easy walk! We eventually made it to the beginning of the Mid level escalator, now some back ground about it, it is the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world, it covers over 800m. and there are 20 escalators in total. Pretty impressive eh? Well we traveled half way up the system and then exited to walk towards the Man Mo Temple. It was a very small temple filled with incense smoke and shadows but it was quite nice! Then we walked back to the escalator and up once more! We reached a supermarket and had a look around and guess what we found real CHEESE! We also found brown sauce and cider! We were very happy! I bought some red leicester which I was quite happy eating chunks of, I also got some brown sauce!
We continued our ascent until we reached the end, sadly there was nothing much at the end of the escalator so we began our descent. However the escalator only went up so we had to take the stairs... It wasn't too bad though, we stopped at a bar called 'Yorkshire Pudding' and Mike had an ale while Cecilia and I had cocktails (it was Happy Hour!). I got a Russian Belle (vodka, triple sec, orange juice, lemonade, midori) it was lovely but very strong! We also got Cecilia to try her first ever Yorkshire Pudding! She wasn't too impressed... The Swedish have no taste! Haha!
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| Cecilia- Yeah they are nothing special... |
We continued our descent although the cocktails had made us a tad wobbly! We then got the ferry back to the Tsim Sha Tsui and headed to find something for dinner. We all wanted Chinese food so we found this great little restaurant, Mike got a noodle soup with meat balls, Cecilia got the amazing seafood noodle dish. I wasn't so lucky. I ordered Chicken with lemon sauce and got served deep fried chicken nuggets lathered with lemon curd. DISGUSTING. Very disappointed!
We then headed to the harbour to watch the light show. Every evening at 8 o'clock there is a light show performed by the buildings on the Hong Kong Island skyline. It was incredible! I loved it! It shows how amazing Hong Kong is that they have done something like this!
We then met up with Will and Deena (I guess it was nice while it lasted), they were planning on going to see Iron Man 3 so we all decided to come with them. I wasn't overly keen but then again it was better than sitting in the hostel. The movie was pretty good but Will was his usual over vocal self about how awful it was. Notice how I didn't say 'he thought it was', with Will his opinions are fact and widely recognised as being accepted by all, at least that's how he sees it. We just see it as rubbish.
We all headed back to the hostel and to sleep. It was an amazing day and I am definitely falling in love with Hong Kong. I seriously implore you to come and explore this amazing city!
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