A short trip to Africa

So I made it to Hong Kong for my visa run, which even seems to be working so far, so I will pick my passport up on Friday. This was after a ride on the taxi, train, bus, plane, bus, bus, and a taxi, totalling about 14 hours. The whole thing almost never happened because, as it turns out, there are no taxis on National Day. I ended up having to run back to the security station at the school, ask them to call me a taxi - they weren't able to get through - and finally hook me up with a ride with someone who happened to have their car near the school - but then they only wanted to take me halfway, so then once downtown I had to keep searching for a taxi. I only made it to the station about five minutes before the train left.

Several hours and several miracles later, I arrived at my hostel. Of course, after booking it (the cheapest one I could find on the internet) I read what wikitravel had to say:

Chung King Mansions and Mirador Mansions on Nathan Road is home to some budget hotels and many budget hostels. Among those that have a long history are Travellers Hostel, Block A, 16 Fl in Chungking and Garden Hostel, 2Fl, Mirador Mansions. These, and others like them, have been popular with backpackers for decades; bookings are generally not needed, nor usually honoured! Instead, budget travellers are advised to start at the top of a popular building such as Mirador Mansions and work their way down until they find a hostel that suits them.

When I arrived there at 9:30 that night, I found out that my room had already been given away - they apparently thought I was getting there at 11 AM - so I did as the travel guide advised me and started looking around for vacancies. Mirador "Mansion" is a very strange place - I've never really been anyplace like it. It's a 16 story building, with a big courtyard in the middle where you can look all the way down. (Unfortunately, as soon as I tried to take a picture my camera decided that it had no batteries, and I forgot to bring the charger, so there will be no illustrations.) It kind of has the feel of an apartment building, I think there are some apartments, but it's really practically a city upon itself - right now I'm sitting in an internet lab on the 10th floor, I also saw some places that look like clothing factories, also some Indian clothing stores...

Anyway, another thing the guidebook warned about is hostels catering to illegal African workers...and there are a lot of Africans around here, though I think they more often fall into the category of entreprenuers than "workers." (Can't comment on their visa status.) These two big Kenyan ladies I shared a cab with said they were in the export business, and they travelled to Guangzhou to buy goods and ship them back to Africa. This was their third trip. So as I was looking for a hostel, I came upon one of these run by Africans, and they had a room available, so I ended up staying with them last night - and, again tonight, because I was in the visa office at 11 AM, which is apparently the time for hostel shopping. (Everything is stretched to capacity now for the holidays.) It's a little bit below international standards (I'm a bit worried about my stuff just sitting there in my room) but the people seem friendly enough.

This entire area is one of the more international places I've been. Stepping out the door, there is a store with a big South African flag, Indian, Korean, regional Chinese restaurants, financial services for residents of various south Asian countries...and of course Western fare. I spent the first hour or so, having spent the last three months in the Chinese boondocks, wandering around with my jaw on the floor. Almost everyone here speaks English, which is good because I can't understand the Chinese speaking or writing (though that takes a little bit of adjustment now to remember how to do that.)

Tommorow I will go shopping for things like cereal and dental floss.