Hong Kong is loud, energetic, and busy, but I like it a lot. It’s full of foreigners, all craning their necks and staring, like me, at the profusion of blinking lights and sounds all around. There are neon signs everywhere. The signs advertise everything, and I mean everything.

 

There’s lots to eat here too. All possible types of food are represented. Some of it is appealing, some of it not so much. The level of choice is impressive though. The prices are a lot higher than China’s, but contrary to what some people have told me, I found the quality is better.

Tonight for dinner, I had some stir fried fish and broccoli at a very typical little Hong Kong eatery. It was delicious. The restaurant reminds me of the old places in Chinatown back home, which were obviously modeled after ones like this.

My hotel reaches new heights of budget hilarity. It’s situated on the 13th floor of a very elderly building on Nathan Avenue, right in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui, the nightlife and shopping centre of Hong Kong. Even though the website has disclaimers about the size of the rooms, I actually laughed when the maid showed me the room. She said, “Hong Kong small,” in explanation. Hong Kong small is right. The room is the exact width of the twin-sized bed, which takes up 75% of the room. The bed is raised a couple of feet off the ground, so that you can store things underneath. Otherwise there’s no storage at all. To get to the bathroom, you have to close the door to the hallway, because the bathroom door is behind it. The only electrical socket I could find for my laptop is tucked up behind the ceiling-mounted TV. I had to unplug the TV to use the socket. I took the photo of the room with my back against the tiny bathroom sink. The room is actually smaller than it looks in the picture because of the 12mm lens. There’s a picture of me looking a little worse for wear after all of today’s traveling. My arm is bearing the scars from my battles with mosquitoes. The mosquitoes won.

The tiny room doesn’t bother me too much though. I’m in the heart of the city, paying about $30 per night for a room that’s reasonably secure and clean. The staff is quite friendly and helpful too. I asked about wireless Internet when checking in. The woman at the desk said it’s not free, but gave me a card with a code so that I could access it for two hours. By logging in and out, I should be able to stretch that out over the few days that I’m here.