Monday 14th May

I didn’t sleep very well last night because of all of the noise from people outside and an ongoing battle with the air conditioning!  I would wake up too cold and turn it off then a few hours later be too hot and turn it back on and this went on all night.

I woke up as my alarm went off at 6.30am, showered and got ready to go to the visa office, which according to the map I found on google was only a 20 minute walk away from the star ferry. I walked to the ferry and took it over to Hong Kong Island at 7.30am and the heat hit you as soon as you walked outside. The humidity was also really bad. I got to the visa office after a 30 minute walk and was dripping from the humidity. There was already quite a big line at 8am, even though the doors don’t open until 9am. Luckily I had brought a book and read that until the first ten people were let in. We were given an application form to fill in and then I was part of the next ten people that were allowed into the building. I finished my form and went to the desk and I was done by 9.30am, with a slip saying to come back after 10am tomorrow. This then left the rest of the day to explore the waterfall park that I hadn’t had time to go to last time.

I got outside and I was met by the heat and humidity, along with a torrential rain thunderstorm which scuppered my plans for the day. I got a taxi to the star ferry and then a taxi to my hostel from Kowloon harbour. Once at my hostel I had another shower and sat reading my book for a while. I was interrupted by room service coming to take away my used towels and then I went out to find somewhere for lunch. It was still torrential rain and the heat hit me as soon as I left the hostel. I found a little cafe and had lunch there, then explored an indoor market. There really wasn’t much to do with the weather being so bad so I returned to my hostel and had to have another shower because of the humidity. This is when I realised that my used towels hadn’t been replaced so i had to use my combats to dry myself. I spent the rest of the afternoon in my room, with the sound of crashing and drilling from the room next door. I was also interrupted a few times by a builder wanting to measure something in my room which was very annoying.

I went out to find somewhere for dinner and it was still raining so I didn’t go far, then returned to my room for an early night. A very disappointing day really.