Lucky foreheads in Hong Kong

View of Po Ling town, Lantau Island.
see all photos »

RYAN....

Hong Kong is a city of bright lights, lucky foreheads, big buddhas, temples, bamboo scaffolding holding up huge buildings, bizarre signs, dodgy Indians, continuous construction and everything in-between.

"Ohhh!! your forehead is very lucky." It turned out that my palm and birthday were also very lucky.....

We arrived in Hong Kong a little dazed from the flight and still adjusting to the movements of Claire's poor stomach.  A customs official dragged us in for a search and frightened us but it turned out that all he wanted was us to fill out an evaluation form about how good he was.  Hey, we got a book mark out of it that says "Hong Kong customs - We serve with courtesy."

Everything in Hong Kong is pimped by Jackie Chan.
see all photos »

We arrived and stayed in a dingy backpacker that cost too much and was the size of a broom closet.  When ever we left the grounds we had to call the rugby shorts wearing manager to unlock the gate for us - we were locked in constantly.  Funnily enough he couldn't work out why we left a day early and wasn't very happy about it.

A man came up to us and said "Ohhh!! your forehead is very lucky." It turned out that my palm and birthday were also very lucky.  It took us a few minutes to work out that he wanted money (like they all do) ands that his guru wasn't going to pray for my name 29 times at all.  It didn't take long to realise that all the Indians in Hong Kong were pimping the same but different scam. A buddhist did the same thing but stormed off swiping the picture of his guru fom me when I said I had no money.

No one else seemed to find this funny...
see all photos »

I don't know why but it is the Indians not the Chinese who harrass you on every steet corner offering anything your heart could desire from under their coats.

We stayed at the Chungking guest house the second night.  We were having second thoughts when we let this Indian man lead us through side alleys lined with shifty Indians and Chinese men selling porn to our guesthouse.  Turns out we didn't get mugged so it was ok.

Anyway we worked out that Hong Kong is an expensive city that prices everything in the hundreds in their currency but require exact change for the buses and ferries.  Hong Kong locals carry piles of coins around in their pockets because they are constantly crossing between the islands.

And no one else seemed to find this a little wrong...
see all photos »

We went to a zoo and were depressed by the size of the cages and the obese Orangutan we named 'King Louis.' The construction is unbelievable.  Eveywhere there are buildings going up, buildings going down and mountains being flattened to make more land.  We met a man who said that 20 years ago the land we were standing on didn't exist.  Nothing in Hong Kong is more than 10 years old.  The giant buddha that looks centuries old is 10 years old.

Hong Kong is also home of bad signs.  We saw a clothes shop called 'Wanko' and a kids shop called "Kiss my Kids educational specialist."

I also worked out after a few hours of frustrated conversations using Mandarin that they speak Cantonese and are not really really rude after all.

Anyway Hong Kong is an awesome place full of surpises and I really enjoyed it.