Breakfast included

Well I went on a visa run for Astrid at the weekend to Hong Kong. Luckily I had Friday evening free so we took the 6pm coach there, arriving at about 10pm. We didn't take many things, just her big handbag for a change of clothes and a small one for her money so we decided to walk to look for hotels in Nathan Road which is famed for cheap hotels, especially hourly hotels! I was actually heading for Chungking Mansions which are know to be the CHEAPEST in HK, starting at less than HK$100, but as the weather was clement we walked there stopping at various hotels only to be told 'no room at the inn'...or that there was but the price was too expensive.

So Finally we arrive at Chungking Mansions, I had told Astrid that this was the be all and end all of cheap hotels in Hong Kong. Guess what, It turns out prices have gone up for the night, they wanted to charge me HK$350 for one night! I refused and said I would look elsewhere and the landlord agreed that I go elsewhere telling me that I wouldn't find any! He was right...An hour or so later we went back to Chungking to see if there were any other hotel touts around and we found one, He told us the room was HK$600 for the night and there was internet and hot showers and all this other stuff which I told him we didn't need, just a bed for the night no extras. He said well come look and then we can negotiate.

We took a look and to our suprise it was exactly the same room we saw earlier plus an extra HK$300 thrown on top for good measure.

Astrid by this time was super tired, as was I and we decided to go have a coffee and a sit down. We went to everyone's favourite 24hr joint...McDonalds! 

The first one we got to was underground but we needed food and a rest, we sat in a comfy corner booth and bought the usual Big Mac meal, Ate it and put our feet up. Then I saw a McDonalds cleaner tell some Chinese girl to take her feet down so I did the same and she saw and gave me a funny look, we stayed there for maybe 10 more minutes before going out looking for hotels again.

After still having no luck we crashed at another McDonalds. This one turned out to be much friendlier towards weary travellers and allowed us even to sleep...for 3hrs! At 5am we decided to have some breakfast and go find where our coach leaves from so we are prepared for later in the day.

...to be continued.

P.S.

We are still looking for teachers for the kindergarten, any interested teachers should send their CV to rwclarke@live.co.uk

• Hong Kong
• visa
• China
• Holiday
• Chungking Mansions
• McDonalds