Hold on a second, Mr Ken is at the door inquiring about the status of Ryan's suit fitting. Mr Ken is one of the helpful street gentleman that will bend over backwards to line you up with a suit, a restaurant, lady's handbag excellent price, all of which can be found at the Mirador Mansion where we are staying.
Just down the street on Nathan Rd. is where we spent last night, at the Chung King Mansion. As we stepped out of the cab, the driver encouraged us towards the scariest looking building ever and told us we'll get the best price at one of these "inns". A gentleman so conveniently saw us step out of the cab with our giant luggage with fresh airport tags and whisked us up to his guest suite on the 11th floor where we could stay for a special price for $300 HKD ($39 CAD). And so, exhausted and so over it, we accepted and stayed in the scariest establishment I have ever seen in my life:
After our sleep/ semi-coma Aussie and I got on the mission to find a new nest pronto. After going through the Lonely Planet guide and striking out at a dozen different hotels, we decided to take to the streets. We started at the top of the Chung King Mansion and worked our way down from the 15th floor to the 8th, also striking out at every floor. Shit.
We then decided to go get breakfast, as that tends to fix most things, and sure enough it did. On the street we met Mr. Ken - a slight Indonesian (?) man who speaks great English, Mandarin and Cantonese and is probably a pimp. At least the pimp of the Mirador Mansion. I suspect he wears a wig and right off the bat he kind of reminded me of Norman, one of my favourite customers at the bookstore. Mr. Ken asked us if we were looking for a room and took us upstairs to a suite - cleaner than the one we were in but still not that great. After stopping at a few different spots he took us to the Satisfy Guest House, where I am now writing from:
Clean, glorious clean!!!! Air conditioning!! A view!! Doesn't look like a murder scene!! We negotiated the rate with the owner, Miss Lee, down to $550 HKD ($70 CAD) per night and will happily be staying here for the remainder of our time in Hong Kong. Phew!
So after getting nested, we walked around a bit, talked to a few different dudes about getting a suit made for Ryan, checked out Kowloon Park and the water front - all is well!! Making plans to check out Central tomorrow for views and brews. Everything is so busy, so fast, so jam packed with people it's nuts!!! Considering this is his first go in Asia, I'm very happy to say Aussie is doing just fine, joking around with everyone we meet and way into it. And I got a new dress at H&M for $7 Canadian dollars. Eff yes. :-D
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