HK

I made it to Hong Kong! The airport is a little far away from the city center (it's connected to Lantau Island), so then I had to take a very fast train to the Kowloon station. At the station there was a bus that took me near the Lee Garden Guest House. I walked about 8 blocks to get there, and luckily there was a sign because the building is less than a fathom from one wall to the other and I might not have noticed it. At the end of the long hallway lobby, there's an elevator that looks about as old as Victoria Peak. Lee Garden Guest House is on the 8th floor. I watched the little light flickering behind the column of numbers as it slowly descended, and then finally stopped at the first floor. For a little while nothing happened; the elevator door has a handle but it was locked. Then through the translucent glass I saw the inner door start to open. When it was two thirds of the way open, the door swung out and I was almost squashed against the wall as two South Asian men left the elevator.

After some to-do with the lady behind the desk about a confirmation number, having correct change, and a few other things, she showed me the room. The room is actually a bed with four walls around it, but it's private and I have my own bathroom! She said the room doesn't normally come with a bathroom, and since I only booked one night I'll have to change rooms if I want to stay for the same price. For $30-$50 these rooms are still pretty reasonable, but I think I'm going to walk over to Chungking Mansions (nearby) and see what they have to offer. But first, I'm going to try to take the MTR (they switched the last two letters just to throw off people from Taiwan) to Hong Kong Island and have dinner at a vegan restaurant Brian told me about called the Loving Hut.