We left Beijing for Hong Kong and it was a breath of fresh air.  Quite possibly because it literally was fresh air compared to mainland China.  Blue skies, white puffy clouds, and the sun shining.

 

Hong Kong is PACKED. Tons of people, cars, tourists everywhere!  Many hostels and hotels are located in things called ‘mansions.’  Unfortunately they are anything but what comes to mind when you think of a mansion.  These ‘mansions’ are actually high-rise buildings with all sorts of shops, homes and hotels located inside.

Some of the mansions are not bad, others are dingy and downright scary.  Our hostel was not in a one of these aforementioned mansions, but it was located in a high-rise building of sorts.  Before arriving to Hong Kong we had heard hotel rooms were notoriously small.  By that point we stayed in all sorts of accommodations; private rooms, shared rooms, camping, single beds, sharing beds, sleeping on air-mattresses, on the floor, in a tent, you name it.  We had seen it all.  The only hotel room we could find in our price range and in the area of the city we wanted to stay just had child-size bunk beds available.  We laughed a bit at the idea of bunk beds but thought, no problem.  Totally doable, we reasoned.

We arrived at our hotel after a long day of traveling and were shown to our room.  It felt like a joke when I opened the door. Our room was the size of a walk-in closet and had one little, teeny-tiny bed.   It was a bit bigger than a single bed.  The first thing out of Julia’s mouth was “I don’t know if we are even going to fit on that thing let alone sleep.”  I kindly reminded the hotel that I had booked us a room with bunk beds.  They kindly referred me to the booking information that clearly said the room I had booked was a double room-one bed. I think it was their mistake, but in all likelihood I could have messed up the booking.  Don’t tell Julia.

We decided to make the best of it.  Sure, there was nowhere to store our luggage other than in the “hallway” aka the 2×2 foot space between the bathroom and the bed.  Sure, the shower was really just a nozzle in the bathroom where the water sprayed into the toilet and drained into the floor.  Sure, there was no seating other than to perch oneself against the wall of the ‘hallway’ with feet up on the bathroom door; we were going to make the best of the situation regardless.

The first night we did just that.  We laid like statues.  Unmoving unless absolutely necessary and then only in the slowest and most well thought-out easing of the body from one position to another so as to not disturb the slumbering sister.  It was doable.

The second night however was a different story.  We, again, were lying like statues and I accidentally coughed on Julia.  I tried to shied the cough but it’s difficult to miss someone when their face is less than 3 inches from your own. “Theresa, you are coughing in my face.”  “Ooookay,” was my snotty (but actually just out-of-it and tired) response.  I rolled over and by “rolled over,” I mean made the equivalent of a 3-point K-turn to face the other direction. Now my face was 3 inches from the wall. Julia thought I was being rude.  I thought she was overreacting. It was 3 am and I said NO MORE!  The Wetherhold girls can have a flair for the dramatics, so I think there may have even been the statement “I can’t live like this anymore,” uttered into the darkness.

The next morning we booked a different hotel for the rest of our stay.  It was a bit further outside of the city, but one of the many things HK excels in is public transportation.  I just read an article citing HK with having the best metro system in the world, and although I can’t vouch for that extensive of a claim, I can say it is FANTASTIC!  Cheap, reliable, easy to navigate and always on time.  It was downright wonderful. With a good transit system why did we need to be downtown in a cramped little hotel room, coughing on each other all night?  Answer:  We didn’t.  We upgraded baby, and still for a bargain price if I do say so myself.

Hong Kong just has a cool feel to it.  The city seems to vibrate on a completely different frequency.  Julia and I noted numerous times that we felt we were in New York City.  It’s bustling, vibrant and exciting, while still maintaining a friendliness and accessibility.  By the end of our stay we felt like we “knew” where we were going and what we were doing.  It doesn’t hurt that having been under British control for many years, everything is written in English as well Chinese!

We spent a good amount of our time walking around the city, eating dim sum, and riding the metro to all the sightseeing spots

 

.

---