Almost 24 Hours....

The flight arrived early, but the bags took about an hr to come up. It didn't bother me, given I was waiting in the gweilo queue which took forever. Checking in at Sydney airport, my bag was sooo overweight that I had to unpack 7 kilos. After a very traumatic incident with my parents (yes all their fault), they managed to find a poor innocent to get dragged into our saga. So Rita (the sister of a friend of my parents) kindly checked in my extra 7 kilos. Of course being a Hong Kong National she didn't have to wait in the gweilo queue. I was worried she would have to wait around for me, but thankfully the bags hadn't arrived yet ;) Rita was very lovely and helpful, and soon she was off to Kowloon and I was off to Lan Kwai Fong.

I arrived at the hotel and went straight to sleep (OK I watched dodgy Hong Kong TV for a while - first time, I've ever watched NYPD Blue!). I woke up at 7am this morning, realised it was too early, rolled over went back to sleep and woke at 1:30pm. Much more civilised.

After testing my digi camera (which I managed to drop last night, and pictures were blurry - thankfully after a bit of a nap it seems fine), I got dressed and headed out. I found my way out of my hotel, down the many lanes and into the main drag. I have a map with my hotel circled, but I think the chances of me finding my way back are very thin!

I stumbled across a noodle bar, which although wasn't on Benny's recommended list, looked safe enough (and busy). When I got my menu (in english and chinese), I realised this wasn't a normal cafe. Hong Kong Style Cafe, serves western style food - exciting dishes like spaghetti bolegnaise and new zealand cutlets in tandori sauce served with naan bread! Thankfully they had chinese dishes too. I went for the mixed meat and rice in soup. My soup arrived with chicken, mushrooms, choy sum, duck, ham, prawns, octopus and giant looking scallops. I then proceeded to pour soy sauce on (turns out it wasn't soy sauce it was plum sauce). Add the soy - a lovely mixture of soy and plum sauce, I limited the chilli oil! I survived my first meal, wasn't bad but I avoided most of the mixed meat! I drunk the tea they gave me , tasted good, although I felt I may have been doing something wrong - when I saw the woman at the next table keeping her spoon and chop sticks in the tea. Hmmmm

I finally found the Star Ferry and took a lovely ferry ride across to Kowloon. In search of an internet cafe, I ended up in a massive shopping centre with very bad navigation. It makes you appreciate Westfield! I'm now heading down Nathan St and should run into Temple St Markets by the time it opens about 7 or 8 tonight. I'm not planning to buy much, maybe a new bag. Then I have to somehow find my way back to the hotel. Should be an adventure.

Oh and I suck at Chinese - even Thank You is difficult. Lots of room for improvement!