In our (next to) last episode we were following Steffen to the elevators of the Chung King Mansion. Let’s see how the dangerous journey continues…

Chung King Mansions consists of five blocks, we’re in block E. Here’s a plan of floor 12, our floor. Our room is marked, so you can follow our way on the map, as well as on the pictures.

After we leave the elevator again, we see a surprisingly bright and neat hallway directing us to the Maple Leaf Guest House. Room 23, our room. (Hail to all our paranoid friends around the world.) So, how does it look from the inside? Let’s have a look.

That’s it? Yes, that’s it. Amazingly clean twin bedroom with a toilet/washing/shower-room (all in one). We even got a TV (mostly Chinese), three kinds of air cooling and free hot and cold water in the lobby (well, a part where the corridor is about twice as wide). Fresh towels and prolly some room cleaning every day. Quite nice in here. You just shouldn’t leave the room to destroy that impression… or open the curtains. View outside the windows coming up another time, whenever I get Hugin to stitch those photos.

What, we kept you waiting for this post two days? Well, yes. But you know, we’re in Hong Kong. Even computer freaks got better stuff to do here than hang around on the internet all day.

When Hong Kong refers to itself as “Asia’s World City” it means the well-ordered worldliness of big banks, fine hotels and a philharmonic. The local tourism board would probably prefer that you didn’t think of the worldliness of Nepalese sex workers, Bangladeshi hash dealers and Nigerian men trading used PCs by the container load.
» Read more at time.com

Take this little excerpt from the Time Magazine as a starter to the description of our hostel in Hong Kong, the Maple Leaf Guest House in the world-(in)famous Chung King Mansions complex. (It’s a good thing not all people @Home are fluent in English 😉 .)

While it might sound scary, it’s not that bad. Sure, you see some strange characters here and you get “helpful” offers all the time, but aside that it’s quite nice and interesting here. But we let the images speak for themselves (if they seem small to you, just click on them and yes, I ignored all my skills for taking great photos).

The first one is from Wikipedia, a nice start.

But don’t worry, that’s not our front. Here, lemme show you where our room is from the outside view.
Now, regarding the entry, there’s a main one.

But we usually take the side entrance, which is the alley you see on the right.

Let’s follow Steffen, as he makes his way through the various shops (for example, the very first one offers sex toys among other things).
Finally, the elevators. One goes for the even floors, the other to odd floors. They are not very clever (who’s this traveling salesman anyway?) and sometimes have to be reminded to open or close the doors. On the screens you can play Big Brother with the people in the elevators.
It’s late, so this post will be continued tomorrow. Hopefully we survive long enough to do that….. if not, we didn’t manage to fight off the vermin army long enough… or you will find Steffen (The Junkie) “working” for a C₈H₁₀N₄O₂ dealer (dunno what the Chinese call it who offer this) and me on some foreign slave market…..