Day 23 - The end (Hong Kong)

This is it – the last day of my trip.

It’s not even a whole day as I left for the airport at 5pm.

I organized and packed pretty much everything last night.

Normally packing isn’t so hard but somehow I’ve accumulated enough souvenirs along the way to require a 3rd bag to go along with my backpack and my daypack.

Of course, there was also the little matter of wrapping up my bottle of booze with the snake in it as air tight as I could so it wouldn’t leak on the trip back home.

I wrapped the seal with a ton of masking tape and then place the bottle in a plastic bag and then another and another. I then wrapped a towel around it all so it should be good to go for the flight home.

This morning when I went to do the final pack I was thrown another curve as the backpack I had picked up two weeks ago at the Beijing Silk Market was most definitely a North Face knock-off as the zipper on this relatively new bag broke.

Sigh.

This bag that I’ve been using to transport all my souvenirs now had to be replaced.

Luckily I knew just the place to go – Sham Shui Po where you can find anything and everything being sold on the street.

I quickly popped over there and picked up a cheap little plastic carrying bag that zips up for 24hkd ($4).

Good enough.

Now, what to do today?

How about a free walking tour?

Free walking tours are definitely my favorite thing to do when I visit a new city but so far this trip there haven’t been any offered in any of the cities I’ve visited.

Unlike my tour yesterday that got cancelled, this went as planned at 10am.

This particular tour was about the history of Hong Kong with it’s challenges with China, Japan, and the UK and how they persevered.

Hong Kong is unique in that it’s not truly a country on its’ own but it kind of is in that they have their own government, currency and taxes.

Hell, they even speak Cantonese as opposed to China where they speak Mandarin.

Hong Kong runs under “One country. Two systems” philosophy which was a compromise that China and Hong Kong came up with when China regained the territory from the UK in 1997.

Anyway, we toured around for a couple of hours and I gotta say that taking a swig of cough syrup before the tour started was probably not the smartest thing.

Plus it was hot out unlike the last couple of weeks of this trip.

I was drowzy. I was sweaty. And somehow I had a sunburn on my forehead.

And I couldn’t wait to get back to my hostel and relax for the rest of the afternoon before my flight.

I stopped at a little restaurant that was full of locals and went in for lunch.

Remember, always pick a restaurant that is packed full of locals – there’s a reason it is.

By 2pm I was back at the hostel and that was it for me.

I took a much needed shower and repacked my souvenirs into my new bag.

At 5pm I was off to the airport with my backpack on my back, my daypack slung on my shoulder and lugging a heavy bag full of souvenirs.

It was exhausting for sure and, man, was I happy to find trolleys waiting for me as I reached the airport.

Ahhhhhhhh!

After a quick checkin I went for some dinner. Another meal of goose – this time with sausage and rice.

Yum yum yum!

Perfect last meal and at an airport of all places!

At 7pm my Air Canada flight began boarding and, once again, like the flight I took over here they have a ridiculous boarding procedure where they have 5 lines with some people just standing there for an hour.

Naturally I just sat in a nice comfy seat and watched the stupidity from a close distance until the line had all dissipated and I was one of the last to board.

No unnecessary standing in line for this boy!