Any guesses for the English nursery rhyme this man is teaching his parrot at the Hong Kong Bird Market?
Head on over to DeliciousBaby for more travel-themed Friday photo fun.
Like what you’ve read and interested in reading more? Subscribe to the WanderMom rss feed, follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
Related Posts
[catlist tags=Hong-Kong]
Ta-da: the Chungking Mansions, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
As far as I know, I haven’t stayed in any other place that is the subject of an Economist article, a wikipedia page, and a book.
We stayed at the Chungking Mansions because we were trying to stick to budget ($150 per day: accommodation + food + entertainment for four people). This, it turns out is a tricky thing to do in a popular destination such as a large city like Hong Kong.
I searched for decent budget accommodation in guidebooks, by asking friends and trawling the internet. Hostelling International had a couple of interesting-looking properties, but, sadly, those were booked out. Every other budget-friendly guesthouse or hotel I could find that wasn’t in Chungking Mansions was also either booked solid or had enough critical reviews on the interwebs that I was suspicious of the nice reviews.
Tom’s Guesthouse in the ChungKing Mansions seemed to be the best of a bad lot and at $15 per person per night the price was certainly right.
Full disclosure: I had no problem with staying in a building described by Lonely Planet as a “crumbling block”. We were only going to be there for three nights, how bad could it be? Murph (being Murph) was positively excited at the prospect. I was only slightly worried about exposing my kids to drug-dealing and prostitution. In my very scant experience such transactions aren’t carried out in broad daylight or in front of kids – and they’re both old enough to learn about the seamier side of life anyway, right?
We arrived late at night. The airport bus dropped us on Nathan Rd. When we found the building, it felt like we were walking into a sea of hawkers, people of all colors and tribes, calling out in a half-dozen languages. Utterly disoriented, it took us a shameful amount of time just to find the right elevator. As I was checking us in, CAM berated Murph:
“Well this is just perfect. You take us to what is one of the world’s best cities and where do you land us? In the armpit. Just lovely.”
He was serious. Murph and I both played perfect parent in the face of such a diatribe. If we’d had our own room I’m sure we’d have laughed together later but the rooms…
The rooms at Tom’s Guesthouse are tiny. We’d booked a double (for Murph and me to share) and a twin (for the boys to share). There was no way Murph and I could have fit in the “double” bed. I ended up sharing with BigB while Murph and CAM shared the twin room, which Murph quipped “wasn’t big enough for both of them to breathe out at the same time”.
The photo above was taken standing at the door of the room. Immediately to the right (not in the photo) is the door to the bathroom-cum-shower, a classic example of a tiny Asian bathroom where you shower standing in front of the sink and you need to close the toilet seat and move the toilet paper out of the way if you want avoid having a soggy mess to clean up when you’re done showering. It’s efficient but definitely made for short people.
You cannot beat the location of the Chungking Mansions building. At the bottom of Nathan Rd in Kowloon you’re right in the middle of prime shopping territory and two short blocks from the ferry terminal over to Hong Kong Island. If we’d had a view I’m sure it would have been awesome – but there was construction…
(Side note: do you see that scaffolding? That’s bamboo and bailing twine 16 floors above the ground. Maybe those safety warnings were not totally without merit…)
Tom’s Guesthouse is tiny but pristine. The staff we met were friendly, courteous and helpful. The little Filipina lady who staffed the front desk for most of the time we were there could not have been nicer. She asked us about our plans for the day in the morning and laughed at our stories when we came back in the evening. She apologized for construction noise and made sure our rooms were cleaned daily. She didn’t ever offer suggestions on what we should do or see in Hong Kong – which made us wonder whether she ever actually left the building. She, like many of the people living or working in the building, was a immigrant to Hong Kong. The Chungking Mansions was her world. It was not inconceivable to imagine that she had seen no more of Hong Kong than just this building in the eight-plus years that she’d lived here.
I know that most of my friends, especially those with kids would not, ever, in a million years, stay in this little guesthouse – which is actually a pity. The Chungking Mansions are an exercise in the adaptability of the human spirit. I’ll admit, the CK Mansions freaked me out a little the first day. I couldn’t imagine letting my boys go from our 16th floor room to the kiosk on the ground floor on their own. But by day three the front-door crew waved us in as if we were part of the furniture – the only thing we were missing was a complicated hand-slap-shake routine (hard to fake). We window-shopped on the warren that was the ground floor, letting our kids roam On Their Own. The CK Mansions multi-cultural, multi-ethnic melee became our new normal, and we were all fine for it.
I did not observe any tricks or drug deals going down.
Murph: “You can take the girl out of the convent…”
Be that as it may, if you’re looking for budget-friendly accommodation in Hong Kong, I’m happy to recommend Tom’s Guesthouse – so long as you don’t mind that the building where it’s located is a block-sized fire trap. OK?
Like what you’ve read and interested in reading more? Subscribe to the WanderMom rss feed, follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
Related Posts
[catlist tags=Hong-Kong]
This is a map of the Hong Kong markets we visited on a Sunday wander. We hadn’t come to Hong Kong to shop but since a number of Hong Kong’s famous street markets were right on our doorstep in Kowloon – and because that kind of meandering day is our favorite way to explore a new city – it was an easy sell to CAM and BigB.
We started at the market furthest away, the Flower Market, and spent the day working our way back down towards the end of Nathan Road. This is me reciting “Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum” to BigB and him pretending that no, he never, ever liked a story about a little girl with such an elaborate name. Ever.
The Bird Market is only a couple of blocks from the Flower Market. All of the stalls had bird cages stacked roof to floor and many cages had what looked like way too many birds in them. Space, apparently is at a premium even for Hong Kongs’ avian residents. Between the calls of the stall owners and the many birds cawing, squawing and even attempting to speak this market was an auditory assault, the very definition of raucous you might even say. And it was smelly, chicken-coop smelly. What? you didn’t know that chickens have some of the smelliest manure known to man? Well, now you do. And all those beautiful birds with colorful feathers? Just as smelly as your common-or-garden chicken.
CAM and BigB lost interest in the birds – or were too grossed out by the smell – pretty quickly so we made to leave, but not before we caught sight of this stall-owner hand-feeding some baby parrots. Too cute.
We went looking for lunch at the top of Tung Choi Street (Ladies’ Market). It turns out that this far up into Kowloon english menus are not de rigeur, who’d have thunk? We managed to do OK for our first experience of point-and-guess ordering in a chinese restaurant. Sated, we resumed our meander through the markets. Honestly, at this point I was just about coming to terms with the immense volume of people on the streets. So this was China, eh? Murph and I regressed to playing our favorite “How many Irelands could you fit in this place?” game. With the population of HK at just over 7 million and Dublin a paltry 1 million, no wonder these streets were feeling crowded to me.
Our boys, urban to the core, surrounded by familiar logos and with stores selling either electronics or sporting goods within reach on both sides of the street were in their happy place.
We had to bail before making our way through all of Ladies’ Market. A combination of just too much and your classic “bathroom, now” cry from one of our kid tourists. We detoured to the Langham Mall simply because it was nearby, not realizing that we were entering a Hong Kong shopping mecca. With 15 floors of modern shopping nirvana, it took us a while to find the bathrooms and by then BigB had also discovered the “Spiral” on the top four floors. The walkways in this section of the mall corkscrew around the steep Xpresscalators. I thought we wouldn’t be able to find out way out.
Our last stop of the day was the Temple Street Market. You may think I’m making fun when I say that this Chinatown beats all other Chinatowns in the world hands-down. I’m not. It’s huge and crowded with every single bit of tourist kitsch you’ve ever imagined on sale.
So big, in fact that if you let your children get out of your sight you will be scared that they’ll disappear into the warren of stalls and you’ll never see them again. Oh wait, maybe that might be a good thing…
Like what you’ve read and interested in reading more? Subscribe to the WanderMom rss feed, follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
Related Posts
[catlist tags=Hong-Kong]
BigB climbing into the Chu Chi Tunnels outside Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. These tunnels were a vital part of the Viet Cong’s strategy during the Vietnam War.
And just about disappearing into the tunnel.
Inside the tunnels showing how small these spaces are – even for a 10-year-old boy who stands at about 5′ tall.
Head on over to DeliciousBaby for more travel-themed Friday photo fun.
Like what you’ve read and interested in reading more? Subscribe to the WanderMom rss feed, follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
Related Posts: Thailand With Kids
This is what a crowded backpacker bus in Thailand looks like. Every seat filled with people standing and sitting all down the aisle. If you think that’s not safe, consider also that the backpacks belonging to the extra passengers were piled up behind the driver, blocking the entrance and there was no air-conditioning. Altogether not ideal but certainly not unusual for backpacker travel in South East Asia. Surprisingly even with a few grumbles about over-crowding the mood on this bus was cheerful and friendly. I guess everyone was focusing on the destination: beautiful beaches on the islands in the Gulf of Thailand.
Everyone, that is, except one American girl. She and her three friends were among the unfortunates who boarded the bus last and ended up sitting in the aisle. As the bus pulled away from the stop, when all of the aisle-seaters were arranging themselves as comfortably as they could, she started to panic. She became agitated: “I can’t do this. I can’t do this. This is claustrophobic” . Honestly I was afraid she would become hysterical which would have been unfortunate for her but also possibly dangerous to the people around her – including my two children who, at this time, were calmly sitting (on seats) reading their books.
As this girl became more upset no-one moved to help her. To me this was an interesting sociological scenario. Ideally, I’d support the Good Samaritan principle: help others when you’re not obligated to do so. However, in this case all the budget travelers on this bus had been equally swindled. This journey wasn’t going to be comfortable for anyone.
Then BigB stood up and offered her his seat. She grabbed it as if it were the last place on a Titanic lifeboat, thanking him profusely while I fumed (inwardly) at her selfishness. BigB beamed at the praise heaped on him by the kids seated around us. Murph and I piled on “Well done Buddy”‘s too. All the while I was thinking: “What a princess! She shouldn’t have come on a backpacker trip if she can’t handle the stresses budget travel sometimes throws your way.”
So, here’s my question to you: What do you think? Am I being too harsh on this girl? Was BigB’s charity appropriate? What would you have done?
Like what you’ve read and interested in reading more? Subscribe to the WanderMom rss feed, follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
Related Posts
[catlist tags=Thailand numberposts=-1]
The Hoan Kiem Lake is a peaceful spot in central Hanoi – a little less peaceful the day we visited. Kids. You can’t take them anywhere 😉
Head on over to DeliciousBaby for more travel-themed Friday photo fun.
Like what you’ve read and interested in reading more? Subscribe to the WanderMom rss feed, follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
Related Posts
[catlist tags=Vietnam numberposts=-1]
We walked along the river in peaceful Luang Prabang, the old capital of Laos. It was a peaceful amble, not even a stroll. There was a cool breeze coming off the river and the punters at the riverside cafes were quietly sipping their tea or afternoon cocktails. We turned a corner and above our heads, like birds chattering in the trees, we heard the giddy laughter of this group of young monks perfectly camouflaged between the yellow parapets, terracotta pots and flame-colored zinnias.
Head on over to DeliciousBaby for more travel-themed Friday photo fun.
Like what you’ve read and interested in reading more? Subscribe to the WanderMom rss feed, follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
In Chiang Khong, Thailand, open boats ply the broad, muddy, mighty Mekong all day ferrying people from Thailand to Laos and back again. When we arrived we were winging it with respect to knowing anything about the border crossing, passport control and even how much the boat across would cost. BigB got a little frustrated waiting for us to find out this latter and went off to find out for himself. It’s good to be 10 and independent – even if you don’t speak the language 
For more on this area of Thailand, check out Golden Triangle Asia and Drugs.
Head on over to DeliciousBaby for more travel-themed Friday photo fun.
Like what you’ve read and interested in reading more? Subscribe to the WanderMom rss feed, follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
Related Posts
[catlist tags=Thailand]
We’ve been snowbound in Seattle this week. There’s been snow, sleet, rain, a very unusual ice-storm and general weather mayhem. All of which led me to think about where we were a year ago: in a warmer, gentler Bangkok. Here’s BigB and I taking a moment out of a busy day sightseeing exploring the many temples in Bangkok.
Please check out my Thailand with kids: Essential Information short guide.
Related Posts
[catlist tags=Thailand numberposts=5]
Head on over to DeliciousBaby for more travel-themed Friday photo fun.
Like what you’ve read and interested in reading more? Subscribe to the WanderMom rss feed, follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
Related Posts
[catlist tags=Thailand]
As we left Kashgar for Osh in Kyrgyzstan I expected a long but fairly uneventful travel day. The reality didn’t deviate too much from my expectations but even with that the experience couldn’t have been further from mundane.
It started when the Chinese taxi driver dropped us at the China-side border post. The broad two-story building looked like an architectural joke, like someone had been designing a building for downtown Urumqi and then, on a whim, had placed it instead in the mud on top of a mountain pass.
The soldier gating the entrance checked out passports and waved us inside. That was Passport Check #1.
