Day One - Welcome to Hong Kong!

When I arrived at London Heathrow Airport at 6.50 pm yesterday I was rushed through to the terminal transfer, to get to terminal 3. Upon arrival at the terminal I was pleasantly surprised when the woman at the Cathay Pacific desk had no problem upgrading me to an exit row seat, before offering me the chance to switch to an earlier flight, but without an exit row seat. I decided not to bother and headed off to a nearby bar and had a breakfast.I then headed for the quieter part of the airport - next to the special assistance area.Whilst there, I struck up a rappor with the nice ladies that were working there, and they kindly allowed me to take a shortcut to my gate down the back way. When I reached the plane, the exit row seat's legroom was enourmous, and the two people sitting next to me were also brilliant. There was Chris, from Swindon, who is going to live in Taipei for 2 years, and Steve, from London, who is touring China. We enjoyed quite a few hours chatting, and laughing at Steve's attempts to chat up the hostess, Jenny, which involved buying her choccies from the in flight duty free. When I finally arrived in Hong Kong I had to go through the health control point, and I honestly answered the questionnaire by admitting that I had a blocked nose. BAD MISTAKE! I was escorted to one side, given a face mask and then taken downstairs to the medical check area, where I was seated and given a card with the number 78 on it. I was sitting there, sweating and expecting to be deported at any moment. When I was finally called into a booth I had a chinese woman with a full face mask stick a probe into each of my ears in turn. It turned out that she was merely measuring my temperature, and when it came back as normal, she stamped my sheet and sent me back out to passport control, where I was finally allowed into the country. I was one of the last to collect my bags, and I watched as they came round, solitary, on the conveyor belt before I grabbed them. I then haded for the nearest payphone, and after $10 and several failed attempts, concluded that it wasn't working. When I did find a phone that worked, I got intouch with the hostel and was told to get the bus from the airport. Being naive, I decided to get the Airport Express train instead, and ended up getting off at Kowloon, having to get on a free hotel shuttle bus and attempt to fit all of my luggageonto the bus. This was difficult, as there was little luggage space, and so I had to place my bags on the seat, and they treatened to crush me to death every time the bus veered left, at crasy speeds for such busy roads. When I finally got off, I still had to drag my bags 2 blocks to the Chun King Mansions, before battling my way through a maze of hawkers and people trying to sell me a hotel room. When I arrived at the right block, I was met by the owner and escorted up to my room, a 3m by 3m cell which boasts air con, a fan, a tv, a bed and a toilet/shower room. Quite well equipped for such a small room, and cheap and clean, so not too bad. And so I have arrived in Hong Kong thus far!