What can I say about Hong Kong airport! Well it's big, really big, no bigger than that. It seems to go on for miles and miles. If it was much bigger then it would need an internal airline to service the terminals. Ok perhaps not that big but you get the idea. It has an internal train line but in IMHO it does not service enough points. Customs and Immigration went well enough with the exception of a couple of confusing signs. They have people with light blue jackets running around guiding people who look lost. Given the number of people who look like that at a airport it means that they had plenty of work to do. The one I got closest to had a jacket about six times to large for him which gave him a bit of a comical appearance but he did his job well enough.
No problems with my UK passport the only slight surprise was that I got a 180 day visa when I was expecting a 60 day one. As I will only be here for three days seems a bit of a waste.
After a bit of walking it was out to the public area for me. Like most airport it was a large area with lots of people milling around looking for one another. I had hoped that there would be somebody with a sign with my name on but no luck. I looked around, went near some desks which mentioned "transfer hotel" and words like that but no luck. Considered making my own way when after about 15 mins somebody turned up with a list and my name was on the list. He seemed disturbed that I did not have a certain kind of voucher but in the end took me to a side area and told me to wait until collected. I was told I was group D. As he walked away I noticed a group of people with D on their stickers forming up behind a guy with a D flag held up in the air so I tagged along hoping it was the right group. After quite a walk and some resorting me and about 10 others were on a bus so things were looking up.
It was a 25 min ride to the hotel. Hong Kong seems very packed and not that packed all at the same time. I know that's confusing I guess I mean there is plenty of space between the tower blocks at the same time the tower blocks as packed together in groups. Each block must contain about 400 families and each group of blocks must contain between 20 and 40 blocks. That's a lot of people. I could not really tell where I was at first in relation to previous visits until we were crossing one of the new bridges that points directly at Tsim Sha Tsui.
Quite smart modern 3 star hotel with nothing outstanding. Reasonable double bed room but very small bath only just larger than a shower stall. Room safe so everything goes in there.
Out for a evening walk, it's very humid, I should have realized that but it still came as a surprise. There seems to be fewer street vendors than before though I was attacked by several people giving my vouchers for foot massages. I suspect what gets massaged is dependent on how large the "service" tip is. There was no street food which was a disappointment. There were restaurants but I don't like those places on my own unless desperate. I only got a bit lost once like an idiot I had forgotten to pick up a map from reception but as I had been there before I was able to sort myself out without to much of a problem. The shops are a bit disappointing with the mainly being the same Branson and styles at home. Seems to be mainly cloths shops here, all very boring. I did get a chance to buy an iPad but decided to wait until NZ.
By 8 pm I was starting to feel the effect of jet lag so I returned to the hotel. I was so tired and the food places so unappealing that I skipped food and decided to have a very large breakfast tomorrow.
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