After a much better nights sleep and waking up at a sensible time this morning I had the tricky task of getting from Hong Kong to Shengzen where my next flight from was booked.
The hotel check out time was midday and as it was not much more than a large apartment in an apartment block I did not feel it was the safest place to leave my luggage for a few hours and just go walk about, even if I did have more than a few hours to kill.
The hotel owner was good enough to suggest that the best way to get to the airport was to take the MRT to the border, cross over and then get a bus, which was almost correct but I'll get to that.
With his directions, I went off in the right direction to find the correct MRT station, only its not that well sign posted so I had to look quite a bit to find it, but once I was there it was just a quick touchscreen ticket and off I went.
Arriving at the end of the line I followed the others who were all heading in the same direction and the immigration and border inspections was actually inside the MRT terminal, so I didnt have to run around or try to find it, just fill in the simple enty and exit forms again and then go through securuty.
Out the other end I asked the information desk there where to catch the bus to the airport and instead she gave me a route map and circled a different station, saying that it would be quicker and cheaper to go there first and then get a bus from there.
Realising that I had already cleared customs and was both hungry and in need of converting my remaining HK $ into CNY I bought the MRT token but then left the statoin and crossed over the road to get a bite to eat first. Having eaten I then took the train to where it was circled on my map, via a little interchange and it is here that things got a little tricky.
The woman at the Wall Street English advertising desk ironically ( i think so anyway ) didnt actually speak English, and so was no help whatsover in getting to the bus, unless her shaking her head and saying no repeatedly was her way of helping. I felt that the english speaking informatoin desk would not have sent me to the wrong statoin, so I looked around for someone else to ask and on the third attempt got a security guard to take me to the exit nearest the bus station.
Leaving the MRT station I stopped at a bank to change over some notes and had to fill in a form just to get hold of more Chinese CNY, but it was 600 worth and so was way better than a kick in the teeth. After searching around I finally spotted the bus staiton, typically it was behind me, and the bus 330 was going to the airport in just a few minutes, so I hopped on after paying my CNY 20 and that was that.
Around half an hour later I arrived at the airport where thankfully it had free wifi, a restaurant where I could charge my laptop up and a check in desk that would allow me to dump my main rucksack hours before I could in most places, so things were looking up.
From then on I just flicked on the internet, sent a few emails and updated my blog a bit. It was a shame that I arrived at 4pm and my flight was not until 9:20, but then I had no idea that getting here was going to be this quick and relatively painless or else I might have rethought about spending more time in Hong Kong during the daytime before jumping on the MRT to bound for the Chinese border.
The only minor thing at Check-in was that it would appear that my tiny mosquito clicker aroused the interest of the security guard who removed it and spend a happy few minutes clicking it and wondering what it did. I tried to explain but she wouldnt believe me, but once she realised that it wasnt exploding anything she gave up and returned it.
I reread the paperwork for my hotel, realising that I was arriving at about midnight and thus the shuttle services would have finished for the night, and was horrified to find that they suggested taking a taxi for 260 CNY, which is an absolute crime, so instead I used the Mango travel service at the airport to book me a hotel, free airport pickup service and a nights sleep for only 198 CNY, and THAT was for a hotel and not a shared hostel.
I have no idea why they thought that anyone woudl pay so much for a taxi and that is also why I hate airport taxis, cos they are such a rip off that its not even funny.
No comments:
Post a Comment