Oasis Hong Kong, or how to get to Hong Kong for under $300

Hong Kong – Lee Garden Guesthouse 3:09 am HK time


wow Hong Kong. The flight with Oasis Hong Kong was really impressive. It was a massive plane, and very comfortable, The movies were half english and all lame, I watched a Ben Stiller movie about a Museam and some of Disney's Hercules. I had preordered Hindu Vegetarian meal, and they fed us twice actually. I had basmati, chana and a paneer dish with pickled califlower and some balled melon for the first meal and the second was like an aloo gobi with basmati and saag panner. Really good plane food, I was very impressed. Mikae had chicken with rice and a vegetable lasagna.

The service was also incredible, they came by constanly with water, juice, tea, coffe, even steamy hot towels in the “morning” to wash our faces. Great experience, plus the tickets were $299 plus taxes, so WELL worth it. Might do business class sometime though, they got a lot mre room and free alchol and snacks etc. But I was impressed. Must mention, with my panic attacks.. Dr.Nesdoly perscribed me some clonazapam, usually I don't like taking medication, but it really helped. Right when we got on I started to panic, tried to figure out how to get off the plane etc, then, It kicked in. From that point on I was calm, it was enjoyable, and takeoff was not as much of a panic as it usually is. What a relief.

Hong Kong airport was nice, what we saw of it. Basically lined up, got through and booked it to the bus. Bus ride was pleasent, about 1 hour from the airport, had a nice little tour of Kowloon. We missed our stop, there was some construction and such, but some very kind english speaking Hong Kong native helped us out. She saw what was going on and talked to the bus driver, then explained to us that we would stay on the bus, go to the last stop (next stop) wait for the driver to get a drink, and then we'd be back on our way doing the route backwards, atr which point he would drop us on the side of the road that wasn't under construction. Basically, without her, we would have NEVER figured all that out. She went as far as to walk with us across the pedestrian bridge, point out some museams and local highlights, and then went on her way home in the same neighbourhood. Oh for all those times I've helped people in Toronto.

Lee Garden Guesthouse is very nice. Tiny, but nice. Both of us are basically delusional after sleeping 8 hours in 2 days, and missing Friday completely. Our room is very small, but very very clean. The owner has another guesthouse nearby called Star GuestHouse, which we didn't see. We are paying 450HKD or about $50 a night for a double bed with our own bathroom and broadband internet. The showering was an experience, as the hose is attached to the wall beside the toilet, and the head is not affixed. The neighboorhoud has expensive stores and a starbucks (whew). The backpacker ghettos here are Mirador Mansion and ChungKing Mansion. We only went in Chungking and only the shopping area briefly. I would not reccomend or want to stay at either, although it looks like they are trying to upgrade ChungKing. We had originally booked at Mirador Mansion at USA Hotel. I was up late one night reading reviews on Hostelworld and the WORST review was just posted. They were talking about how the place was a slum and the people stole his money and all this. The next Morning i go to show Mikae and mysteriously the review has disappeared off of hostelworld and it has been replaced with two glowing reviews that sound mysteriously like chinese-translated English. They also mention things that a tourist is not likely to mention, like copy off of their website. Oh, and they are apparantly posted by “Matt from Australia” etc. So I cancelled Immediately, and Found Lee Garden.

Alana would go nuts, Hong Kong is shopping paradise. We have seen Everything here in the few short hours we've been.

We wondered all the way up to Mongkok looking for some food and found a Cantonese place where noone spoke even a word of english. Seriously, I couldn't even order tea. Luckily, they had some menus with English words on them. We ordered 4 dishes, 3.5 where edible. I definately consumed bites of pork and mystery grey meat even though I had thought I ordered vegetarian. Bean Curd and those re-hydrated mushrooms I love and chili sauce and rice and cabbage yuum.. good enough for me. The bill was 81HKD or about $12. I took a photo of the place. Even at this time, there are tonnes of (young) people on the street, more karaoke than I could even want or imagine and lots of Japanese food which I am surpised. 7-11 sells YellowTail wine for 89HKD or about $13.

Mikae is sleeping, Im going to try to too. We want to do all the really touristy stuff tommorrow. With only 2 days in Hong Kong really, Touristy stuff and shopping Is I think all I can handle. To Victoria Peak!!
J.