As I'd started to travel yesterday, I thought I'd give the ATM one last go as having no cash could cause obvious problems. As I was typing the numbers in I'd noticed the keypad looked strange. I cleared the numbers and carefully punched them in one by one. Cash!
I'd been typing in the numbers in the same pattern as I do in the UK. Chinese banks have their keypads with the highest numbers at the top so 7, 8, 9. Ho hum. Lesson number 47 learnt.
Waist pouch filled with the wrong currency I spent over 24 hours travelling on one night train then another train from Guangzhou across the border into Hong Kong. There the nastiest hostel inside an apartment awaited. Luckily I met a 60 year old woman who was on a 4 week trip without her husband (can I have one like that please?) to travel China. She'd been here before so quickly showed me the way to the famous Star Ferry that takes you across from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island (see pic). There we parted and I caught a tram to go up to Victoria peak to catch the phenomenal views of the skyscrapers jammed into every available space.
Having done the first thing I was always do in a city, head for the place with the best views, I then plan the second, sushi. So a walk back through the amazing streets all on hills with signs vying for your attention above the crowded shops, back on the ferry. Octopus card (the HK version of the Oyster) bleeping my way on buses to the night market then conveyer belt sushi and a beer.
A perfect day. Back at the hostel I chat to my three companions and we end up having an argument wit teh Cantonese landlady. She is furious that we all nicked an extra sheet each from the cupboard as her laundry bill we go up. I try and amicably explain we didn't want to sleep on mattress covers. An argument ensues and the Romanian girl doesn't stand for it. After a heated 15 minutes we end up laughing as the landlady storms out of the room and we go to bed. I've never eperienced someone in a hostel barging in to check up on me before. It's such a rude invasion of privacy I think our giggling is more about being shocked than anything else. Hong Kong is an odd but entertaining mix of East and West.
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