Shortly after waking up on Thursday morning I tried to
check-in for my flight and received an error message saying online check-in was
not available and I would need to check-in at the airport. I didn’t really think much of this until I
checked the Perth Airport departure list an hour before we planned to leave for
the airport and my flight wasn’t listed, that’s when I started to completely
freak out. I tried again to check-in online and now received an error message
saying my booking could not be found. My
stress level immediately skyrocketed. I called Jet Star and their automated
system told me that my flight had left the day before. Now I was stressed and
pissed off. I waited online for a real person for what felt like forever before
being told they were experience some technical difficulties and I had not
missed my flight but they could not explain why my flight wasn’t showing up on
the departure list at the airport, they did however assure me the flight did
exist and I was booked onto it. This did little to calm my nerves and I was a
giant ball of stress the whole way to the airport.
The drive to the airport was much shorter than the drive
from the airport as there were no fires in the area so at least I didn’t have
the added stress of thinking I might miss my flight, if it even existed. There
was a bit of a detour thanks to some construction but we made it to the airport
with plenty of time to spare. Luckily the departures board at the airport had
accurate information (unlike the online version) and a weight was lifted off my
shoulders. I checked in, dropped my bags, and sighed in relief, but the hard
part wasn’t over yet, I still had to say goodbye to Jesse. We sat down in a
café and chatted for a bit in attempt to delay the inevitable but eventually the
time came and with tears in my eyes I gave him the biggest hug ever and said
goodbye. Hopefully it won’t be our last goodbye and we can continue to visit
each other in years to come.
I made it through security and immigration with no problems.
I was on a streak! 5 trips through airport security without being randomly
selected for additional screening! I normally always get picked for the weird
residue check they do to see if you’ve been manufacturing drugs or bombs, I
guess I just have one of those faces. Things went slightly downhill from here.
I need to stop booking budget airlines to save a few dollars. Especially if it
means taking an overnight flight on the most uncomfortable plane ever and being
in transit for way longer than I needed to be. I’m getting too old for that
shit!
The first leg of my journey was a 5-hour flight to Singapore
with no meals and no in-flight entertainment. All of this would have been fine
if I had been able to get some sleep but no luck there. I was actually falling
asleep during taxi and a flight attendant woke me and told me I needed to move
my pillow. Stupid jerk! After that I just couldn’t get comfortable. The plane
was so ghetto it didn’t even have an adjustable headrest, which would have been
super helpful. I spent the rest of that flight wishing I was a dolphin because
they sleep in 30 second bursts through the day and somehow manage to function.
However since I am not a dolphin I wanted to cry by the time I arrived at
Singapore airport.
Singapore airport is meant to be one of the coolest airports
around. It even has a butterfly conservatory! I had a 4-hour layover and before
boarding the plan I was hoping to get enough sleep to be able to go exploring
during that time but it just wasn’t in the cards. I found a row of chairs with
no arm rests and curled up in a ball while spooning my backpack. It was
magical. I got about two hours of sleep. I did wake up a fair few times during
that two hours but it was still a million times better than the sleep I got on
the plane.
The next leg of the journey was pretty amazing even though
it was still a crappy, uncomfortable plane. The reason it was so amazing, I had
a whole row to myself! I almost screamed in delight when they closed the door
and I knew for sure no one was sitting with me. As soon as the seatbelt sign
got turned off I stretched out over the three seats and drifted off to sleep
for about 3 hours. I woke up feeling refreshed but thirsty and since I wasn’t
paying stupid amounts of money to buy a drink on the stupid plane that feeling
lasted a while.
Getting from the airport to the hostel was surprisingly
easy. I was expecting this to be the most challenging part of the journey but
it wasn’t at all. The line up for immigration moved quickly and there was
essentially no line at customs as long as you had nothing to declare. I
collected my bag, grabbed some money from the ATM and made my way to the bus
stop outside. The bus displayed which stop was coming up next, making me very
happy. I’m always nervous about taking buses because if you don’t know where
you are it is very easy to miss your stop so I usually try to take trains
instead. I did have the option of taking a train but the bus was way cheaper so
I was glad I didn’t end up regretting this decision. From the bus it was a two-minute
walk and I was at the hostel. Fantastic because I was still pretty exhausted.
I made my way to the 14th floor and rung the bell
of the hostel. The receptionist let me and told me to put my bags down and have
a seat in the lounge and he would be with me in a minute he just needed to get
someone else checked in first. 20 minutes later I was still sat in the lounge
waiting and growing impatient. I went back to reception and asked if he was
ready for me yet and he admitted that he had completely forgotten about me. I
was not overly surprised by this news but I was surprised when he offered me a
free bottle of water as an apology. Thanks homie.
The rest of the night was pretty low-key and consisted of
dinner and sleep. I had originally planned to spend my first full day in Hong
Kong at Disney Land but I started to rethink that once I got here. It is the
smallest Disney Park in the world and it is still pretty expensive. I didn’t
want to go over budget like I did in Fiji and Australia so I decided to give it
a miss.
It was raining when I woke up so I wasn’t in a real hurry to
go anywhere. I grabbed some breakfast and started wandering aimlessly. I ended up at the Avenue Of Stars, Hong
Kong’s version of the Walk Of Fame. I didn’t see a single name I recognized,
there were a lot of Asian tourists going pretty crazy over the whole thing
though. From there I continued to walk along the waterfront until I got to the
ferry port. I slowly made my way back to the hostel poking my head into any
interesting looking shops I passed along the way.
I was not very happy with myself at this point and decided
to take a walk through Hong Kong Park to try to cheer myself up a bit. The park
was quite pretty but I ended up getting pretty lost. I kept wandering and eventually ended up at a
metro station, not the one I was looking for but I was able to get home from
there so I was still happy to find it.
Later in the evening I made my way to the night markets on Temple
Street. I love going to markets even though I never buy anything so I was
pretty stoked to check this out. I was pretty disappointed when I got there
though. No one was selling anything homemade or even unique really, and there
was no real street food. Everyone was selling phone cases and chargers, or
belts and bags. I always expect to see some of these stalls but usually the
handmade stuff makes it worth it. There were quite a few fortunetellers around
the outskirts of the market and I was tempted to have my fortune told but I decided
letting a gypsy know that I was travelling solo probably wasn’t in my best interest.
Plus while I don’t think they would have given me accurate information about my
life if they told me anything negative it probably would have stressed me out
and I’m trying to keep things light these days.
I tried to find some yummy dinner but Hong Kong is obsessed
with seafood and I live on the very opposite end of that spectrum. If it came
from the ocean I don’t want anything to do with it. A few restaurants had there
seafood in buckets on the street, doesn’t that scream health code violation to
you? So I ended up grabbing something at a grocery store and made my way back
to the hostel for the night.
This post got long fast so I think I will wrap things up now
and leave my adventures from today for my next post. Peace out boys and girls J
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