So my last day in Hong Kong would prove to be my worst. I've been having a really great time here, experiencing so many new things, I suppose it was time for a fuck-up. The morning started early, around 7:30am the lights in my room turned on, as did the TV singing me a song and playing the news. I love hi-tech rooms. I got up and ready and started the 3 train, 1 hour+ trip to the Chinese border. I was very excited. Before I had been overwhelmed by the sheer size of the shopping plaza and I didn't have a plan. Today I came armed with an empty backpack to fill and a list of all my friends sizes and styles to get gifts for. When I got there I passed through

immigration and headed to customs.... there I was stopped. They looked at my passport for what seemed like forever and told me that my visa was only good for one entry into the country. I was promptly sent back through a maze of officers taking another hour just to make it back to the train to head home. Finally 4 hours after I had left, I arrived back at my hotel, tired, frustrated, hungry and empty handed.

Danny offered to get me a new visa for tomorrow on a rush, but I was supposed to leave the next day in the afternoon. I made a series of phone calls, checked the London hotel prices, and decided to move my trip back. I would now leave Thursday at midnight. This would allow me to attend the famous Hong Kong Races Wednesday night and go shopping in Shin Zhen during the day on Thursday.

I quickly rushed to Danny's office to drop off my visa application. It was 3pm and I hadn't eaten anything yet, my blood sugar was low and I was in a foul mood. I sat out front, got a very small bite and went up to Danny's office for a chat. While I was there his business partner and friend JC joined us and we decided to run out for some super authentic local chinese food. I had fish balls and squid soup, YUM, at a small stand-up establishment and then we moved to another place for some garlic thin sliced pork, also delicious. We parted ways (Danny had to take Maroon 5 out to dinner, lol), and I headed back to the hotel, feeling much better about my day.... definitely nap time.

After I got up I headed out to meet up with Danny at Azure where he was entertaining some of the members of Maroon 5. We had a few drinks and headed over to Dragon-i. There Krys (the model from the LV night) and the USC kids (from last night) met up with us for drinks. The place was dead but we stilll\ spent a good hour or so there. Afterwards we walked over to Ice Bar. A very cool (literally) meat locker turned bar. There we did shots of a Russian concoction with the whole gang, it was really fun. We said good bye to the Maroon 5 crew (they were headed to Wan Chai) and we walked down to Lan Kwai Fong.We must have stopped in at least 6 other places before finally settling at Insomnia for another few drinks. It was a really great time. Finally we said good bye and I headed home.... bad start, but great finish to my day.

Posted 19th March 2008 by Josh Gray-Emmer