Chapter 5
Day 6
Kuala Lumpur – Leaving for Hong Kong
The day started under a cloudy sky, the colors of the city turned into a less bright shade of themselves. It was hot, and the moisture, made if feel even more hot.
I woke up early, my room was tidy and it didn’t look anymore like the room that it was before I packed my bags. I wore my day clothes and I went downstairs for breakfast. This time the restaurant was a little less crowded than the previous day. Chinese looking people wearing badge and white shirt were still around and were reading at the Chinese newspapers scattered randomly on the tables. I took a light breakfast and soon, I was ready to go. I came back to my room, took shower, got dressed again, took my bags and checked out the hotel.
As soon as I went out of the hotel, the hot choking air took over me. In spite I slept nicely all the night long, I already felt tired. By good luck, I had my dear monorail close to the hotel. So, I took it and soon I was at the Sentral Station.
From the Sentral Station I took a straight bus to the LCCT airport and I left the city. The ride took about an hour, or maybe just a little less, to arrive at the airport. I turned my MP3 on, and feeling still sleepy I glanced out of the window. Kuala Lumpur slowly vanished, then there were fields, trees and single houses, and soon, again the Airport.
I entered the airport and after a short check-in procedure, I was allowed to enter the Duty Free area. As soon I stepped into the huge room that work both as Duty Free and waiting hall for the gates, I noticed that the area was covered by a Free WiFi service. So, I sat down, turned my MP3 on again and I switched my smartphone into the WiFi mode. It was time to write back home and to my friends. In the beginning, I felt like the Air-Con was chilly, but after, while typing, I felt that I was starting to sweat. Now it was turning hot, too hot. In a way to not melt down, I unzipped my sweater and then, it happened.
Damn, I smelled of sweat!
It was terrible. I couldn’t spend the rest of the day like that, especially because I needed to take a plane and sit there for a long time. I had to do something. I needed to shower. At this point, I reminded that I had a T-Shirt in my backpack. So, I went to the restroom, and I started to wash myself at the basins. I didn’t turn the bathroom into a swamp like the guy in Bahrain did few days before, but people were looking at me so bad. Most of the people that were looking badly at me were again Chinese-looking people and Westerners. Would they ever face the truth that, if they smell bad, they have to get showered? Did they ever seen some half naked guy washing himself? I also noticed that if I looked back at those that were staring at me, they’d leave.
What a shameful people.
In a matter of few minutes, I was nice smelling again, I wore my clean T-Shirt and I was again ready to go.
The next step was to get something to eat. In fact, soon I’d embark on the AirAsia airplane, and I had to take some food with me as the one sold onboard would be overpriced. So, I bought a sandwich with ham and cheese to take with me and a Latte (coffee and milk) to drink there.
Time went by fast and soon I boarded the plane and we were ready to take off. Next to me there was a old Australian man with his Australian wife. The airplane took off and we headed to Hong Kong. The old Australian man introduced himself and started to talk about his trip that involved up to that point Laos and Malaysia, now it was time for Hong Kong and then, there would be a trip to Thailand, where is the place where he met his wife. He shown me an endless amount of pictures of his staying in Luang Prabang, one looking exactly like the other. First about ten pictures of a nice view of the sunset on the Mekong river from Luang Prabang. Then, five-six pictures of a Luang Prabang pier on the Mekong river, still at sunset. A pictures of a street, I mean, the very road, with oil stains, cracks and dirt without showing what is there all around. The old Australian man said “You see, this was the road… Hey darling where was this road?” and the lady quite uninterested “That… Ah… Pub…”, and back “You see this was the road before the pub (that you can’t see)”.
It’s amazing how important was that picture for him and how long he wasted to show it to me.
Then some more pictures of the Mekong river at sunset and back to a table with beers and wine in a pub. Then some more of a sunset over the Mekong river, followed by pictures of, first they on a raft, and then they, both in separate pictures, with their feet in the Mekong water, both smiling, both near the same root of the same tree on the same river, and then, again another sunset on the Mekong river. I wondered if the sun stops over the Mekong river in a perpetual sunset.
It's astounding
Time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll...
But listen closely...
Not for very much longer...
I've got to keep control.
(The Rocky Horror Picture Show – Time Warp)
That was too much for me. I was stunned by those plain, flat, tasteless, almost-romantic pictures. It was time to change the subject before I’d pour my precious sedatives in his glass to shut him up.
I opened a small guide book about Hong Kong, which later revealed itself as completely useless, trying to spend some time trying to find some useful information. Which was a search I did in vain.
In the meanwhile, the old Australian man started again to talk about Luang Prabag. This time, he told me that while going to a market, he bought a fake copy of an Ipad. He said “Hey, it’s perfectly like the original one, but… It’s not, and cheap!”. He took it from his bag, and it looked really like the original one. Then he turned it on, and appeared on the screen “Android” Operating System. I guess that the original one would be running with the iOS 4. Then, it started and anything looked like everything but the real Ipad. I didn’t want to upset him that he had a thing that was worth a brick, so I told him that it was cool that he had already installed the Angry Birds game. He was happy to show me how bad he was playing the game, then, all of a sudden, the battery went dry and the tool turned itself off. He placed his toy back in the bag and the old Australian lady said that they bought it to read ebooks. That was interesting, I wonder if she planned to read an ebook, maybe before a sunset, perhaps on the Mekong river.
We landed in Hong Kong that it was 17.10 and the sky was getting already dark. I disembarked and I made my way to take my backpack with Mr. and Miss Old Australian people. After having taken my backpack in that huge airport I had to make a very long queue for the immigration. It looked like many airplanes just landed as the lines for the customs were very crowded. Most of the people were Chinese with a few Westerners every now and then. Then, after the customs was the time to change the Malay Ringgit into Hong Kong Dollars and to go to the city.
The best way to reach the city is to take the Airport Express. While taking the ticket, I asked if there was a special offer. The deal that I took involved an Octopus Card at the price of 2 Airport Express rides and free unlimited rides on the city metro for three days. That was perfect for me.
I took the first train for the city, which left in few minutes. I was sitting next to a mid 30s Westerner which spent most of the time playing with his smartphone trying to call somebody in the city. The train was a silver bullet shot in the dark Asian night. We were crossing bridges that connect the Lantau Island, where is the Airport, to the mainland, and slowly Hong Kong introduced herself. A proud Asian beauty in her neon and stars evening dress. Lots of boats were scattered in the sea all around and I watched them as we passed by. I turned my MP3 player on and the song that touched me the most in that moment was a song by Bon Jovi which is “Wanted dead or Alive”, as I was feeling like an adventurer riding to some thrilling place, or to some trouble.
Sometimes I sleep
Sometimes it's not for days
The people I meet
Always go their separate ways
Sometimes you tell the day
By the bottle that you drink
And times when you're alone
All you do is think
I'm a cowboy
On a steel horse I ride
I'm wanted
Dead or alive
Wanted
Dead or alive
The train arrived fast in the city, and soon was my stop, the Kawloon Station. I closed fast my MP3 player, placed it in my backpack, took the bigger backpack and rushed outside. I was in Hong Kong.
I woke up early, my room was tidy and it didn’t look anymore like the room that it was before I packed my bags. I wore my day clothes and I went downstairs for breakfast. This time the restaurant was a little less crowded than the previous day. Chinese looking people wearing badge and white shirt were still around and were reading at the Chinese newspapers scattered randomly on the tables. I took a light breakfast and soon, I was ready to go. I came back to my room, took shower, got dressed again, took my bags and checked out the hotel.
As soon as I went out of the hotel, the hot choking air took over me. In spite I slept nicely all the night long, I already felt tired. By good luck, I had my dear monorail close to the hotel. So, I took it and soon I was at the Sentral Station.
From the Sentral Station I took a straight bus to the LCCT airport and I left the city. The ride took about an hour, or maybe just a little less, to arrive at the airport. I turned my MP3 on, and feeling still sleepy I glanced out of the window. Kuala Lumpur slowly vanished, then there were fields, trees and single houses, and soon, again the Airport.
I entered the airport and after a short check-in procedure, I was allowed to enter the Duty Free area. As soon I stepped into the huge room that work both as Duty Free and waiting hall for the gates, I noticed that the area was covered by a Free WiFi service. So, I sat down, turned my MP3 on again and I switched my smartphone into the WiFi mode. It was time to write back home and to my friends. In the beginning, I felt like the Air-Con was chilly, but after, while typing, I felt that I was starting to sweat. Now it was turning hot, too hot. In a way to not melt down, I unzipped my sweater and then, it happened.
Damn, I smelled of sweat!
It was terrible. I couldn’t spend the rest of the day like that, especially because I needed to take a plane and sit there for a long time. I had to do something. I needed to shower. At this point, I reminded that I had a T-Shirt in my backpack. So, I went to the restroom, and I started to wash myself at the basins. I didn’t turn the bathroom into a swamp like the guy in Bahrain did few days before, but people were looking at me so bad. Most of the people that were looking badly at me were again Chinese-looking people and Westerners. Would they ever face the truth that, if they smell bad, they have to get showered? Did they ever seen some half naked guy washing himself? I also noticed that if I looked back at those that were staring at me, they’d leave.
What a shameful people.
In a matter of few minutes, I was nice smelling again, I wore my clean T-Shirt and I was again ready to go.
The next step was to get something to eat. In fact, soon I’d embark on the AirAsia airplane, and I had to take some food with me as the one sold onboard would be overpriced. So, I bought a sandwich with ham and cheese to take with me and a Latte (coffee and milk) to drink there.
Time went by fast and soon I boarded the plane and we were ready to take off. Next to me there was a old Australian man with his Australian wife. The airplane took off and we headed to Hong Kong. The old Australian man introduced himself and started to talk about his trip that involved up to that point Laos and Malaysia, now it was time for Hong Kong and then, there would be a trip to Thailand, where is the place where he met his wife. He shown me an endless amount of pictures of his staying in Luang Prabang, one looking exactly like the other. First about ten pictures of a nice view of the sunset on the Mekong river from Luang Prabang. Then, five-six pictures of a Luang Prabang pier on the Mekong river, still at sunset. A pictures of a street, I mean, the very road, with oil stains, cracks and dirt without showing what is there all around. The old Australian man said “You see, this was the road… Hey darling where was this road?” and the lady quite uninterested “That… Ah… Pub…”, and back “You see this was the road before the pub (that you can’t see)”.
It’s amazing how important was that picture for him and how long he wasted to show it to me.
Then some more pictures of the Mekong river at sunset and back to a table with beers and wine in a pub. Then some more of a sunset over the Mekong river, followed by pictures of, first they on a raft, and then they, both in separate pictures, with their feet in the Mekong water, both smiling, both near the same root of the same tree on the same river, and then, again another sunset on the Mekong river. I wondered if the sun stops over the Mekong river in a perpetual sunset.
It's astounding
Time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll...
But listen closely...
Not for very much longer...
I've got to keep control.
(The Rocky Horror Picture Show – Time Warp)
That was too much for me. I was stunned by those plain, flat, tasteless, almost-romantic pictures. It was time to change the subject before I’d pour my precious sedatives in his glass to shut him up.
I opened a small guide book about Hong Kong, which later revealed itself as completely useless, trying to spend some time trying to find some useful information. Which was a search I did in vain.
In the meanwhile, the old Australian man started again to talk about Luang Prabag. This time, he told me that while going to a market, he bought a fake copy of an Ipad. He said “Hey, it’s perfectly like the original one, but… It’s not, and cheap!”. He took it from his bag, and it looked really like the original one. Then he turned it on, and appeared on the screen “Android” Operating System. I guess that the original one would be running with the iOS 4. Then, it started and anything looked like everything but the real Ipad. I didn’t want to upset him that he had a thing that was worth a brick, so I told him that it was cool that he had already installed the Angry Birds game. He was happy to show me how bad he was playing the game, then, all of a sudden, the battery went dry and the tool turned itself off. He placed his toy back in the bag and the old Australian lady said that they bought it to read ebooks. That was interesting, I wonder if she planned to read an ebook, maybe before a sunset, perhaps on the Mekong river.
We landed in Hong Kong that it was 17.10 and the sky was getting already dark. I disembarked and I made my way to take my backpack with Mr. and Miss Old Australian people. After having taken my backpack in that huge airport I had to make a very long queue for the immigration. It looked like many airplanes just landed as the lines for the customs were very crowded. Most of the people were Chinese with a few Westerners every now and then. Then, after the customs was the time to change the Malay Ringgit into Hong Kong Dollars and to go to the city.
The best way to reach the city is to take the Airport Express. While taking the ticket, I asked if there was a special offer. The deal that I took involved an Octopus Card at the price of 2 Airport Express rides and free unlimited rides on the city metro for three days. That was perfect for me.
I took the first train for the city, which left in few minutes. I was sitting next to a mid 30s Westerner which spent most of the time playing with his smartphone trying to call somebody in the city. The train was a silver bullet shot in the dark Asian night. We were crossing bridges that connect the Lantau Island, where is the Airport, to the mainland, and slowly Hong Kong introduced herself. A proud Asian beauty in her neon and stars evening dress. Lots of boats were scattered in the sea all around and I watched them as we passed by. I turned my MP3 player on and the song that touched me the most in that moment was a song by Bon Jovi which is “Wanted dead or Alive”, as I was feeling like an adventurer riding to some thrilling place, or to some trouble.
Sometimes I sleep
Sometimes it's not for days
The people I meet
Always go their separate ways
Sometimes you tell the day
By the bottle that you drink
And times when you're alone
All you do is think
I'm a cowboy
On a steel horse I ride
I'm wanted
Dead or alive
Wanted
Dead or alive
The train arrived fast in the city, and soon was my stop, the Kawloon Station. I closed fast my MP3 player, placed it in my backpack, took the bigger backpack and rushed outside. I was in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong – Riding down Kowloon
The Kowloon station, which takes the name from the same neighborhood, is something that couldn’t look less like a station. The platforms are deep underground, while all the upper floors are a mall which is the base for an extra luxurious palaces complex. Just to make a name, here is the entrance of the Ritz hotel. This place is a perfectly bright, tidy, polished and shiny labyrinth mall with indications that lead you to the main roads outside. I was heading to Jordan Road. This isn’t Hong Kong, it has never been like this, and probably it’ll never be outside the same walls of this place. But it’s a nice welcome card from the city.
I went out of the station and following many modern passageways and bridges, I arrived in Jordan Road. The way to reach my hotel, the Embassy Hotel, was really easy. I had to follow Jordan Road down to Nathan Road. At this point, the Hotel would be in the other side of the same Nathan Road.
I should start to be suspicious when things are going too smooth.
I mixed into the crowd that at night was swarming all round. Jordan Street was packed with restaurants and shops. Old buildings, which many were looking nothing better than human-hives, were on the sides of the neon lit street.
I followed all the way until I reached the crossroad with Nathan Road. It was my first taste of China and it was quite an interesting experience. Once arrived in Nathan Road, I easily found the hotel as the very dirty façade of the human hive on the other side of the street was decorated with a board with written over “Embassy Hotel”.
Now a word about that building. Once upon a time, in Kowloon, that is the name of this neighborhood, there was the so called “Walled City”. In the beginning it was a Chinese fort, that then, it turned into a civilian settlement, and then, it evolved into a large, overpopulated mass of buildings, concrete, garbage and perhaps only God knows what else. In the 1983 was calculated that within its boundaries lived about 33.000 people in 0.03 square kilometers (0.01 square miles). It was a no man’s land, law was made by the triads and drugs dealing as well as prostitution and gambling were undefeatable. The streets filled layer by layer with garbage, and were made new connections between the higher floors of the buildings as the streets disappeared under the garbage. Then, a day the government decided to solve the problem. The walled city was obliterated. Piece by piece it was torn apart and now a green park lies where once was the city. But like a Chinese fried-smelling Phoenix, it rose again from a sprout that was born few decades before its downfall, its new name was Chungking Mansion. The Chungking Mansions consists in a terrible and anonymous 17 stories tall concrete structure split in five blocks (A, B, C, D and E). Each block has two elevators, one for the even floors and one for the odd ones. Like a city within the black heart of the city. It’s known to be home of the cheapest accommodations in Hong Kong well mixed with shops, restaurants, hidden brothels and houses. Inside of it reside many communities, mainly from South East Asia. But, while the Chungking Mansion is well known, many other Chunking Mansions are around, but with different names, like, for example, New Lucky House.
I crossed the street, Nathan Road was shimmering at night with neon and sparkling lights in this Chinese night. I arrived under the building called “National Court” and I entered the small passageway that leaded in the core of the building. Some shops were at my both sides, the one that took my attention was the one with products of the Traditional Chinese Medicine. I walked it down, until I found a door on my right, I entered it, and there were what looked like uniform-wearing gun-less guardians. I asked for information about the Embassy Hotel and one of them pointed an elevator with his finger. I entered it and a Westerner young guy came with me. I pressed the third floor button and he the fifth. The elevator, which smelled of mold, firstly creaked and then, with the sound of a chain, it lifted off. During the short time that we spent together, the other guy told me that he was going to have an interview to be hired into a rock band. I wished him good luck just in time, and then, it was the third floor. I went out of the elevator and I followed the direction to reach the Hotel. The elevator gave on the inner courtyard of the block, and the so called “Hotel” was a simple apartment in this huge block. The smell of the air was bad, the doors all around looked like prison gates, and the corridors were barely lit by the buzzing neons. I found the entrance of the hotel, just next the board, with the smiling face of a cartooned baby boy that was showing the way to a two-stars hotel on the same floor. I rang at the door, and the concierge opened it from inside. I entered and I found myself in front of a old Chinese lady.
She welcomed into her den. It wasn't looking like the hotel that I've seen in the pictured from Italy on the website where I booked it. I remembered a room with a colorful neon lit counter. There was a dirty white wall and a counter on the right hand side packed with junk. All the room behind of the same counter was packed with garbage and paper that looked like being abandoned there for decades. The lady spoke a little English. At least I was happy, I wasn't the only one with impaired English ability, we both were in that restricted group of people that know about 10-15 words and use them in random order. Good to find another one of my species.
The lady asked me to fill the check-in form, then, when I finished she said “Iceland”, “No, I'm form Italy” I replied. She “Oh, no-no, Iceland!”, and me “Hmmm... No-no, Italy, I'm quite sure”. She looked puzzled and then she wrote on a piece of paper “Your room is Iceland”. What did it mean? Was it so cold? And then, she said “Here... Come... You loom, other... Other!” miming something tall with her hands. I guessed that she meant that it was another building. She went to the door, she took my key, her key, I took my bags, she screamed something in Chinese, dropped a paper with written in both English and Chinese “Be back soon”, and we left.
We went down to the streets again, and she told me “Be caleful, people... Haaaa...” and she mimed a pickpocket trying to pick the dirty tissues from my pocket. She mistaken, the camera was in the other pocket. What a dirty maniac fetish thief. We mixed with the crowd and we went up Nathan Road to the crossroad and we went in the upper side of Jordan Street. Here we followed the side of the block until the entrance hidden behind some road works. It was the New Lucky House. I thought “That's a good luck! New Lucky House would be a good clue of a nice holiday”.
Never trust fried-smelling good clues in China. They are cheap fakes.
We entered another alley like the one of the other building, we passed again next to uniform-wearing gun-less guys and we entered a cardboard covered elevator. It was all covered in dirty cardboard, stuck with brown duct-tape. The lady pressed the button for the sixth floor and, creaking, shaking and with a low chains rustle, the elevator started to move up. Soon we arrived to the right floor, where the lady took me at the jail-gated hotel apartment. Once inside, I discovered that the rooms had no numbers, but names of nations. Mine was the second one, the Iceland. The corridor was packed again with ageless junks, like pillows, electronic parts, paper, dolls and chemicals to clean the rooms. The lady shown my room, and soon, she closed the door behind of me and disappeared in the thin air.
I was standing in the middle of the room, thinking, wondering, appraising. I didn't know how to turn myself to drop my big backpack on the ground. In front of me, a huge poster of a Iceberg was what graduated my room to the name of Iceland. There was not enough room to turn around. Somehow, I twisted and dropped my bag on the bed. The room was so small that my bag hardly fitted between the bed and the opposite wall. The bed sheets had a strange shade of dirty white. The bed covered the whole left hand wall. On a side of the bed was the entrance of the room, with the door which doorknob was next to my face, and at the opposite side of the bed, there was a small, closed window. In the window glass there was a small fan that was spinning like a crazy pushing inside the room, straight on the face of somebody lying on the bed, the air from outside, which smelled like smoke from a restaurant. Following the wall there was the Air-Con and a small not working led TV. Just next the TV was the entrance the all-in-one restroom. Violent orange colored tiles mixed with dirty white ones formed a psychedelic chess that covered the three walls. Along the left one was the shower, and under it, but just a little further, were the toilet seat and a sink. All of this, with mold smell. I looked around quite disappointed for the price that I paid, thinking that it'd be my room for the next three days, as my plan would be the following
First night – Visit at the Symphony of Lights and food
Second day – Visit around Hong Kong
Second night – Food at the Temple Market
Third day - Macau
Third night – Visit at the Victoria Peak
Fourth Day – Visit around Hong Kong and Lantau Island
Fourth Night – Dinner at Aberdeen and clubbing and D'Aguilar Street.
I decided to shave myself, so I took my razor and foam from my bag and I entered the restroom. As soon as I started shaving myself, I discovered that the sink was stuck. No water was going down. I ended shaving with the risk to overflow the entire restroom, and just after it, I even discovered that the toilet wasn't working. It was enough. I had to complain.
I took my key and I went back to the concierge in the other building. Just outside the apartment I found a notice hanged next the elevator. It was written both in Chinese and English and it said that people were forbidden from throwing garbage down the windows in the common places as there were rats. What else was I going to face? Before leaving the place, I took the cardboard covered elevator and I pictured it. I had to show it back home.
I came back to the other building and I entered the alley and I arrived to the uniform-wearing gun-less guys and in the same moment, one of them was coming out of a small door on the opposite side of the room. A terrible stench of urine overwhelmed me. I entered the first elevator, but it was mistaken, it was for the even floors. I came back out in the urine stinking air, I entered the other elevator and pressed the button for the third floor.
The elevator slowly woke up, and with a clinging of chains, it started to move again. Soon I arrived at the third floor. Here I easily found the hotel again and I rung the bell. I rung it, and I rung it again and again, until I heard somebody screaming something until the door clicked open.
I entered and I looked for the old Chinese Lady, but she wasn't there. Now there was a Chinese man. I spoke to him, explaining him my problem with the stuck bathroom and he replied “When you sh-heck out?”, “What?” I replied, and he again “When you sh-heck out?”. He could only say that. I replied “My toilet doesn't work” and he replied, narrowing his Chinese eyes “When You Sh-Heck Out!”, and me “My toiled doesn't work!”, he quite upset “WHEN-YOU-SH-HECK-OUT!” and me, keeping on my position “MY TOILET DOESN'T WORK!”. Now, very angrily he took out a pen, which I imagine a scene from a Jackie Chan movie with some funky China Man (as that old song says), using that pen as a lethal weapon.
“You filthy Westerner pig, I'll turn you into a fried pig wanton! Yaaaaaaaaaa!” that's what I imagined.
But the Old China Man took a piece of paper on which he wrote, in capital letters “WHEN YOU CHECK OUT!”, and I asked the pen. I turned the paper and I drew a long like on his sentence, writing under it, still in capital letter “THE TOILET DOESN'T WORK!” and I drew a toilet seat with a huge cross over it. I turned the paper so he could read and he looked at me. “You sh-heck out?”, “No, not yet...”.
He moved his hands like saying “Follow me”, and placed the paper used by the old lady with written “Be back soon”, and then we left the place to go back to my room. He leaded the way, quite upset, to my room, through those filthy alleys, that looked perfect for a crime, like a murder, until he opened the door of my room and went straight to my restroom.
He checked it over and over, showing fiercely that he wasn't believing at this Westerner. Then, when he understood that the toilet wasn't working for real, he told me “No Work!”, “Really?”, “Me you a loom, Ahhhh! Huuuu! Hm?” miming with his hands something like pushing air away from him toward the other building. I answered “Ok, another room”. I took my backpacks and we went back at the first building.
Once back in the first apartment, in the “National Court” building, the old Chinese man went behind his counter and checked his registry for another room and once he found it, he gave me the key of the new room, a twin bedded one, which name was USA. He leaded me down the corridor until the room which had the door with the padlock hidden from a water dispenser. I managed to enter. The room was slightly bigger than the Iceland one. When I entered the room I recognized the smell of mold that was also in the Iceland room. The old Chinese man, looked at me, clearly irritated and then said “Tomorrow you back loom!” pointing at the apartment door with his finger, and then he disappeared down the corridor “We’ll see” I replied to the thin air. Once free from my backpacks I checked around. The furnishing was basically the same as the other room, with the difference that here there were two beds. The room was definitely dirty. The floor was stained and covered with hairs. The walls were stained too, but the worst was the bathroom. The missing door was replaced by a molded curtain that sheltered the sight of the restroom covered in mold too. To add a grotesque touch to the situation, the walls, to graduate the room as USA, were decorated with pictures of the 9/11 with the crumbling Twin Towers. That was definitely enough.
I packed my small backpack, took my camera, my new Hong Kong map, and I left the place, I needed to find another place as I didn’t want to get ill or to adopt a parasite spending a night there inside. I walked down the corridor and the old Chinese man looked at me and said “You sh-heck out?”.
Fuck you.
I went straight to the elevator, but then, after hearing the sounds coming from the approaching elevator, like rustling chains of some ancient ghost wandering in the night, I decided to take the stairs.
Rule number 10: If everybody prefers to take a filthy and dangerous looking elevator, reconsider the idea of taking the stairs. I missed this rule.
I easily found the staircase. Just in front of me, on the floor between the two flights of stairs, there were two full garbage boxes, next to them a cup of what should be milkshake on the floor with the content spilled all around. I went down the filthy stairs. Garbage was everywhere. I was in past in real slums, but never like this one. I mean, this place was filth, very filth. Going down first I met a nice, pretty rat and then I passed by what looked like a laboratory or maybe a laundry. Chinese people with dirt stained shirts were working into a misty place. I was glad when I arrived into the urine smelling room, and soon I was out of the building.
The National Court was behind of me, while Nathan Road was going from left to right in front of me. I turned left and I went down the street, toward the sea. I passed by many restaurants, malls, markets, Traditional Chinese Medicine shops and gold shops. I wondered how could be so many gold shops there around. I wondered how many sold cheap gold-looking metal-alloys, and how many of them were controlled by the triads. While going down I started to see lights in the sky. It was the Symphony of Lights that was going on. This meant that I missed it. I kept on my way, and I kept on asking on every hotel that I met on my way if they had a room for that night or maybe for the next ones. But everybody answered “No”. In fact, as the old Chinese man wanted that I’d come back the next morning to the room with the broken toilet, I wanted to find a safer and cleaner place. I didn’t give up, but then, there were no more buildings, only sea. I turned back, and I started to look in any street that I found. I was following a criss-cross route, like I were a treasure hunter looking for some ancient coin with his metal detector. But then, I found myself again near the Kowloon station. I was tired, very tired. I was soaked in sweat, sleepy and jet-lagged. But I didn’t want to give up to the old Chinese man, nor to give in to the choking confusion of Hong Kong. No, nothing of that.
I entered the station and I stopped a uniform-wearing gun-equipped man and I asked him if there was any tourist information near. He told me to continue to the same direction until I’d find the “customer help” desk, and there they could help me out.
I found the desk, and the young smiling people looked very helpful pretending to help me. It was too easy for me to see that they were just pretending to help me, but I wanted to be a little a bit more with them. I thought that, maybe, bothering them a bit more, they’d help me out. No, I was mistaken and we made lose each-other much precious time. It was a total failure.
I made my way back to Jordan Street. I recognized it perfectly. I followed it down, and then I took a random street heading south. A huge confusion was in my head, and I kept imaging the old China man laughing at how was looking miserable. But then, a hotel appeared before me. The Continental. I entered it and I asked for a room. The lady told me “Yes, we have one!”, I replied “Do you still have it for the next three days?”, she checked it out and she said “Yes, I have one, but only for two days, then full booked!”, “Ok, it’s great! I’m still going to love you forever!”, she replied with a “Thank you” to this bizarre Westerner and then she processed my credit card.
I went out of the Hotel that I felt so light. It was already 23.00, I landed just six hours before. I went down Austin Road until I met Nathan Road and I turned left. I didn’t need any more a map for it. I could chase the old China man everywhere, I could feel his mold smell in the air. So, soon, I arrived at the “National Court” and I went running up the stairs up the third floor. I entered the Embassy Hotel, with the Old Chinese Man saying “When you sh…”, “Shut up!”. I entered the room, took my big backpack and I went to the Old Chinese Man, and before he could say something with his narrow open mouth, I told him angrily “I check out, give me my deposit back!”. He handed me back my 100 HK$. He said “See you again!”, I answered “Fuck you” and I slammed the door of that damn place.
I went out of the station and following many modern passageways and bridges, I arrived in Jordan Road. The way to reach my hotel, the Embassy Hotel, was really easy. I had to follow Jordan Road down to Nathan Road. At this point, the Hotel would be in the other side of the same Nathan Road.
I should start to be suspicious when things are going too smooth.
I mixed into the crowd that at night was swarming all round. Jordan Street was packed with restaurants and shops. Old buildings, which many were looking nothing better than human-hives, were on the sides of the neon lit street.
I followed all the way until I reached the crossroad with Nathan Road. It was my first taste of China and it was quite an interesting experience. Once arrived in Nathan Road, I easily found the hotel as the very dirty façade of the human hive on the other side of the street was decorated with a board with written over “Embassy Hotel”.
Now a word about that building. Once upon a time, in Kowloon, that is the name of this neighborhood, there was the so called “Walled City”. In the beginning it was a Chinese fort, that then, it turned into a civilian settlement, and then, it evolved into a large, overpopulated mass of buildings, concrete, garbage and perhaps only God knows what else. In the 1983 was calculated that within its boundaries lived about 33.000 people in 0.03 square kilometers (0.01 square miles). It was a no man’s land, law was made by the triads and drugs dealing as well as prostitution and gambling were undefeatable. The streets filled layer by layer with garbage, and were made new connections between the higher floors of the buildings as the streets disappeared under the garbage. Then, a day the government decided to solve the problem. The walled city was obliterated. Piece by piece it was torn apart and now a green park lies where once was the city. But like a Chinese fried-smelling Phoenix, it rose again from a sprout that was born few decades before its downfall, its new name was Chungking Mansion. The Chungking Mansions consists in a terrible and anonymous 17 stories tall concrete structure split in five blocks (A, B, C, D and E). Each block has two elevators, one for the even floors and one for the odd ones. Like a city within the black heart of the city. It’s known to be home of the cheapest accommodations in Hong Kong well mixed with shops, restaurants, hidden brothels and houses. Inside of it reside many communities, mainly from South East Asia. But, while the Chungking Mansion is well known, many other Chunking Mansions are around, but with different names, like, for example, New Lucky House.
I crossed the street, Nathan Road was shimmering at night with neon and sparkling lights in this Chinese night. I arrived under the building called “National Court” and I entered the small passageway that leaded in the core of the building. Some shops were at my both sides, the one that took my attention was the one with products of the Traditional Chinese Medicine. I walked it down, until I found a door on my right, I entered it, and there were what looked like uniform-wearing gun-less guardians. I asked for information about the Embassy Hotel and one of them pointed an elevator with his finger. I entered it and a Westerner young guy came with me. I pressed the third floor button and he the fifth. The elevator, which smelled of mold, firstly creaked and then, with the sound of a chain, it lifted off. During the short time that we spent together, the other guy told me that he was going to have an interview to be hired into a rock band. I wished him good luck just in time, and then, it was the third floor. I went out of the elevator and I followed the direction to reach the Hotel. The elevator gave on the inner courtyard of the block, and the so called “Hotel” was a simple apartment in this huge block. The smell of the air was bad, the doors all around looked like prison gates, and the corridors were barely lit by the buzzing neons. I found the entrance of the hotel, just next the board, with the smiling face of a cartooned baby boy that was showing the way to a two-stars hotel on the same floor. I rang at the door, and the concierge opened it from inside. I entered and I found myself in front of a old Chinese lady.
She welcomed into her den. It wasn't looking like the hotel that I've seen in the pictured from Italy on the website where I booked it. I remembered a room with a colorful neon lit counter. There was a dirty white wall and a counter on the right hand side packed with junk. All the room behind of the same counter was packed with garbage and paper that looked like being abandoned there for decades. The lady spoke a little English. At least I was happy, I wasn't the only one with impaired English ability, we both were in that restricted group of people that know about 10-15 words and use them in random order. Good to find another one of my species.
The lady asked me to fill the check-in form, then, when I finished she said “Iceland”, “No, I'm form Italy” I replied. She “Oh, no-no, Iceland!”, and me “Hmmm... No-no, Italy, I'm quite sure”. She looked puzzled and then she wrote on a piece of paper “Your room is Iceland”. What did it mean? Was it so cold? And then, she said “Here... Come... You loom, other... Other!” miming something tall with her hands. I guessed that she meant that it was another building. She went to the door, she took my key, her key, I took my bags, she screamed something in Chinese, dropped a paper with written in both English and Chinese “Be back soon”, and we left.
We went down to the streets again, and she told me “Be caleful, people... Haaaa...” and she mimed a pickpocket trying to pick the dirty tissues from my pocket. She mistaken, the camera was in the other pocket. What a dirty maniac fetish thief. We mixed with the crowd and we went up Nathan Road to the crossroad and we went in the upper side of Jordan Street. Here we followed the side of the block until the entrance hidden behind some road works. It was the New Lucky House. I thought “That's a good luck! New Lucky House would be a good clue of a nice holiday”.
Never trust fried-smelling good clues in China. They are cheap fakes.
We entered another alley like the one of the other building, we passed again next to uniform-wearing gun-less guys and we entered a cardboard covered elevator. It was all covered in dirty cardboard, stuck with brown duct-tape. The lady pressed the button for the sixth floor and, creaking, shaking and with a low chains rustle, the elevator started to move up. Soon we arrived to the right floor, where the lady took me at the jail-gated hotel apartment. Once inside, I discovered that the rooms had no numbers, but names of nations. Mine was the second one, the Iceland. The corridor was packed again with ageless junks, like pillows, electronic parts, paper, dolls and chemicals to clean the rooms. The lady shown my room, and soon, she closed the door behind of me and disappeared in the thin air.
I was standing in the middle of the room, thinking, wondering, appraising. I didn't know how to turn myself to drop my big backpack on the ground. In front of me, a huge poster of a Iceberg was what graduated my room to the name of Iceland. There was not enough room to turn around. Somehow, I twisted and dropped my bag on the bed. The room was so small that my bag hardly fitted between the bed and the opposite wall. The bed sheets had a strange shade of dirty white. The bed covered the whole left hand wall. On a side of the bed was the entrance of the room, with the door which doorknob was next to my face, and at the opposite side of the bed, there was a small, closed window. In the window glass there was a small fan that was spinning like a crazy pushing inside the room, straight on the face of somebody lying on the bed, the air from outside, which smelled like smoke from a restaurant. Following the wall there was the Air-Con and a small not working led TV. Just next the TV was the entrance the all-in-one restroom. Violent orange colored tiles mixed with dirty white ones formed a psychedelic chess that covered the three walls. Along the left one was the shower, and under it, but just a little further, were the toilet seat and a sink. All of this, with mold smell. I looked around quite disappointed for the price that I paid, thinking that it'd be my room for the next three days, as my plan would be the following
First night – Visit at the Symphony of Lights and food
Second day – Visit around Hong Kong
Second night – Food at the Temple Market
Third day - Macau
Third night – Visit at the Victoria Peak
Fourth Day – Visit around Hong Kong and Lantau Island
Fourth Night – Dinner at Aberdeen and clubbing and D'Aguilar Street.
I decided to shave myself, so I took my razor and foam from my bag and I entered the restroom. As soon as I started shaving myself, I discovered that the sink was stuck. No water was going down. I ended shaving with the risk to overflow the entire restroom, and just after it, I even discovered that the toilet wasn't working. It was enough. I had to complain.
I took my key and I went back to the concierge in the other building. Just outside the apartment I found a notice hanged next the elevator. It was written both in Chinese and English and it said that people were forbidden from throwing garbage down the windows in the common places as there were rats. What else was I going to face? Before leaving the place, I took the cardboard covered elevator and I pictured it. I had to show it back home.
I came back to the other building and I entered the alley and I arrived to the uniform-wearing gun-less guys and in the same moment, one of them was coming out of a small door on the opposite side of the room. A terrible stench of urine overwhelmed me. I entered the first elevator, but it was mistaken, it was for the even floors. I came back out in the urine stinking air, I entered the other elevator and pressed the button for the third floor.
The elevator slowly woke up, and with a clinging of chains, it started to move again. Soon I arrived at the third floor. Here I easily found the hotel again and I rung the bell. I rung it, and I rung it again and again, until I heard somebody screaming something until the door clicked open.
I entered and I looked for the old Chinese Lady, but she wasn't there. Now there was a Chinese man. I spoke to him, explaining him my problem with the stuck bathroom and he replied “When you sh-heck out?”, “What?” I replied, and he again “When you sh-heck out?”. He could only say that. I replied “My toilet doesn't work” and he replied, narrowing his Chinese eyes “When You Sh-Heck Out!”, and me “My toiled doesn't work!”, he quite upset “WHEN-YOU-SH-HECK-OUT!” and me, keeping on my position “MY TOILET DOESN'T WORK!”. Now, very angrily he took out a pen, which I imagine a scene from a Jackie Chan movie with some funky China Man (as that old song says), using that pen as a lethal weapon.
“You filthy Westerner pig, I'll turn you into a fried pig wanton! Yaaaaaaaaaa!” that's what I imagined.
But the Old China Man took a piece of paper on which he wrote, in capital letters “WHEN YOU CHECK OUT!”, and I asked the pen. I turned the paper and I drew a long like on his sentence, writing under it, still in capital letter “THE TOILET DOESN'T WORK!” and I drew a toilet seat with a huge cross over it. I turned the paper so he could read and he looked at me. “You sh-heck out?”, “No, not yet...”.
He moved his hands like saying “Follow me”, and placed the paper used by the old lady with written “Be back soon”, and then we left the place to go back to my room. He leaded the way, quite upset, to my room, through those filthy alleys, that looked perfect for a crime, like a murder, until he opened the door of my room and went straight to my restroom.
He checked it over and over, showing fiercely that he wasn't believing at this Westerner. Then, when he understood that the toilet wasn't working for real, he told me “No Work!”, “Really?”, “Me you a loom, Ahhhh! Huuuu! Hm?” miming with his hands something like pushing air away from him toward the other building. I answered “Ok, another room”. I took my backpacks and we went back at the first building.
Once back in the first apartment, in the “National Court” building, the old Chinese man went behind his counter and checked his registry for another room and once he found it, he gave me the key of the new room, a twin bedded one, which name was USA. He leaded me down the corridor until the room which had the door with the padlock hidden from a water dispenser. I managed to enter. The room was slightly bigger than the Iceland one. When I entered the room I recognized the smell of mold that was also in the Iceland room. The old Chinese man, looked at me, clearly irritated and then said “Tomorrow you back loom!” pointing at the apartment door with his finger, and then he disappeared down the corridor “We’ll see” I replied to the thin air. Once free from my backpacks I checked around. The furnishing was basically the same as the other room, with the difference that here there were two beds. The room was definitely dirty. The floor was stained and covered with hairs. The walls were stained too, but the worst was the bathroom. The missing door was replaced by a molded curtain that sheltered the sight of the restroom covered in mold too. To add a grotesque touch to the situation, the walls, to graduate the room as USA, were decorated with pictures of the 9/11 with the crumbling Twin Towers. That was definitely enough.
I packed my small backpack, took my camera, my new Hong Kong map, and I left the place, I needed to find another place as I didn’t want to get ill or to adopt a parasite spending a night there inside. I walked down the corridor and the old Chinese man looked at me and said “You sh-heck out?”.
Fuck you.
I went straight to the elevator, but then, after hearing the sounds coming from the approaching elevator, like rustling chains of some ancient ghost wandering in the night, I decided to take the stairs.
Rule number 10: If everybody prefers to take a filthy and dangerous looking elevator, reconsider the idea of taking the stairs. I missed this rule.
I easily found the staircase. Just in front of me, on the floor between the two flights of stairs, there were two full garbage boxes, next to them a cup of what should be milkshake on the floor with the content spilled all around. I went down the filthy stairs. Garbage was everywhere. I was in past in real slums, but never like this one. I mean, this place was filth, very filth. Going down first I met a nice, pretty rat and then I passed by what looked like a laboratory or maybe a laundry. Chinese people with dirt stained shirts were working into a misty place. I was glad when I arrived into the urine smelling room, and soon I was out of the building.
The National Court was behind of me, while Nathan Road was going from left to right in front of me. I turned left and I went down the street, toward the sea. I passed by many restaurants, malls, markets, Traditional Chinese Medicine shops and gold shops. I wondered how could be so many gold shops there around. I wondered how many sold cheap gold-looking metal-alloys, and how many of them were controlled by the triads. While going down I started to see lights in the sky. It was the Symphony of Lights that was going on. This meant that I missed it. I kept on my way, and I kept on asking on every hotel that I met on my way if they had a room for that night or maybe for the next ones. But everybody answered “No”. In fact, as the old Chinese man wanted that I’d come back the next morning to the room with the broken toilet, I wanted to find a safer and cleaner place. I didn’t give up, but then, there were no more buildings, only sea. I turned back, and I started to look in any street that I found. I was following a criss-cross route, like I were a treasure hunter looking for some ancient coin with his metal detector. But then, I found myself again near the Kowloon station. I was tired, very tired. I was soaked in sweat, sleepy and jet-lagged. But I didn’t want to give up to the old Chinese man, nor to give in to the choking confusion of Hong Kong. No, nothing of that.
I entered the station and I stopped a uniform-wearing gun-equipped man and I asked him if there was any tourist information near. He told me to continue to the same direction until I’d find the “customer help” desk, and there they could help me out.
I found the desk, and the young smiling people looked very helpful pretending to help me. It was too easy for me to see that they were just pretending to help me, but I wanted to be a little a bit more with them. I thought that, maybe, bothering them a bit more, they’d help me out. No, I was mistaken and we made lose each-other much precious time. It was a total failure.
I made my way back to Jordan Street. I recognized it perfectly. I followed it down, and then I took a random street heading south. A huge confusion was in my head, and I kept imaging the old China man laughing at how was looking miserable. But then, a hotel appeared before me. The Continental. I entered it and I asked for a room. The lady told me “Yes, we have one!”, I replied “Do you still have it for the next three days?”, she checked it out and she said “Yes, I have one, but only for two days, then full booked!”, “Ok, it’s great! I’m still going to love you forever!”, she replied with a “Thank you” to this bizarre Westerner and then she processed my credit card.
I went out of the Hotel that I felt so light. It was already 23.00, I landed just six hours before. I went down Austin Road until I met Nathan Road and I turned left. I didn’t need any more a map for it. I could chase the old China man everywhere, I could feel his mold smell in the air. So, soon, I arrived at the “National Court” and I went running up the stairs up the third floor. I entered the Embassy Hotel, with the Old Chinese Man saying “When you sh…”, “Shut up!”. I entered the room, took my big backpack and I went to the Old Chinese Man, and before he could say something with his narrow open mouth, I told him angrily “I check out, give me my deposit back!”. He handed me back my 100 HK$. He said “See you again!”, I answered “Fuck you” and I slammed the door of that damn place.
Hong Kong – The First Night
Soon I was again in the streets. I started walking down the street when I heard a noise behind of me. It was my Hong Kong guide book that fell off the backpack. I picked it up and I discovered that I had an open side-pocket of the backpack. Probably I left it open when I left the first room. I closed the side pocket and started moving again. This time I made my way back to the Continental where I took my room. It was a very good room, it looked like a small apartment and it had a wonderful sight on the Kowloon Park. Hong Kong at night is beautiful. Far, between some high buildings the sea was shimmering with the light from Hong Kong island. For a moment, I felt in real peace.
I unpacked my bags and I took my key, I looked at it, and I went out of the Hotel. I smelled quite bad, but I didn’t want to lose more time. I wanted to find something to eat, but it was past midnight and all the places that I found were closed. So, I headed to the Knutsford Terraces. This place is quite famous for the clubs and I imagined it like the core of the nightlife. No, nothing like that.
I found easily the Knutsford Terrace as I passed by it earlier the same evening. It was just a small area, a terrace between two tall buildings, which was dead quiet. I guess that after midnight it started closing everything up. None of the places was selling food, but in the end, I bargained with a girl to have a huge draft beer and a dish of fried chicken wings as a snack. I was so hungry that I barely noticed the football match on the TV and I eagerly drunk all my beer. I wasn’t drinking since I landed.
Slowly I came back to the hotel in the Hong Kong night. Few cars were passing by, and few other people were wanderer companions in those empty streets. I never felt alone, but looking back, I see that I did much that day. I guess that this shows that I’m quite stubborn too.
Soon I arrived into my room. I took a wonderful shower in the beautiful clean restroom, and then I collapsed on my very comfortable bed forgetting to set the alarm clock. I fell asleep hugging my pillow, she, Hong Kong was watching me through the window of my room.
Good night Hong Kong.
I unpacked my bags and I took my key, I looked at it, and I went out of the Hotel. I smelled quite bad, but I didn’t want to lose more time. I wanted to find something to eat, but it was past midnight and all the places that I found were closed. So, I headed to the Knutsford Terraces. This place is quite famous for the clubs and I imagined it like the core of the nightlife. No, nothing like that.
I found easily the Knutsford Terrace as I passed by it earlier the same evening. It was just a small area, a terrace between two tall buildings, which was dead quiet. I guess that after midnight it started closing everything up. None of the places was selling food, but in the end, I bargained with a girl to have a huge draft beer and a dish of fried chicken wings as a snack. I was so hungry that I barely noticed the football match on the TV and I eagerly drunk all my beer. I wasn’t drinking since I landed.
Slowly I came back to the hotel in the Hong Kong night. Few cars were passing by, and few other people were wanderer companions in those empty streets. I never felt alone, but looking back, I see that I did much that day. I guess that this shows that I’m quite stubborn too.
Soon I arrived into my room. I took a wonderful shower in the beautiful clean restroom, and then I collapsed on my very comfortable bed forgetting to set the alarm clock. I fell asleep hugging my pillow, she, Hong Kong was watching me through the window of my room.
Good night Hong Kong.