The Real Hostel Experience

Remember how I said we stayed at a hostel in Japan?  Yeah, no.  We stayed at a guest house.  I realize now that it wasn’t until we spent three nights here in Hong Kong at the Apple Hostel that I got the true hostel experience.

When we booked the hostel online as we sailed from Japan, the place sounded great.  It was relatively cheap, located in the heart of the Kowloon district where the ship would be docked and had great reviews.  It wasn’t until we were stuck in the Shanghai airport waiting for our delayed flight that I started to wonder if we had made a huge mistake.  As we waited, I spoke with one of the Unreasonable at Sea entrepreneurs, Catlin, who is from Hong Kong.  She asked where we were staying and I told her at a hostel in the Chungking Mansion.  Her reaction, “Oh, you’re brave.” 

I should clarify that calling our 17 story building a “mansion” is a perfect example of the saying that names can be deceiving.  The Chungking building was like going to a foreign country without ever leaving China.  Here are some highlights from the Wikipedia page describing it:

• Chungking Mansion features guesthouses, curry restaurants, African bistros, clothing shops, sari stores, and foreign exchange offices. It often acts as a large gathering place for some of the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, particularly South Asians (Indians, Nepalese, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans), Middle Eastern people, Nigerians, Europeans, Americans, and many other peoples of the world.

• Peter Shadbolt of CNN stated that the complex was the "unofficial African quarter of Hong Kong.”

• The age of the building, the diverse ownership and management structure are causes of the building's reputation for being a fire trap.

•  CUHK anthropologist Prof. Gordon Mathews estimated in 2007 that people from at least 120 different nationalities had passed through Chungking Mansions in one year. Mathews also estimates that up to 20 percent of the mobile phones recently in use in sub-Saharan Africa had passed through Chungking Mansions at some point.

It was a scene to say the least.  It turns out that it even had a movie made about it a few years back called Chungking Express.  When we arrived from the airport at around 1AM, our cab was immediately swarmed by four guys trying to sell us something.  I yelled, “Get back” in a forceful tone and it seemed to work for the time being.  We made our way into the lobby through a door cutout of a steel fence to see all the shops closed off by thick steel garage doors.  Our reservation confirmation letter warned us not to go with anyone claiming to be from the Apple Hostel and to immediately come to the 16^th floor.  In reality that should have been a clue to what was in store.

Despite all of this, I would stay there again if given the chance.  It was a place like no other I’ve ever been.  Watching the different groups of people interact with each other and among themselves was fascinating.  Of course I could deal without the constant offers of a “copy watch, tailor suit, hashish.”  By day two I learned to just ignore them and they became white noise of the city like the birds chirping or traffic whizzing past.  

 Our room was a great example of the bare essentials you get when you rent a room in a hostel.  About the size of a large bedroom, the two double beds were so close we had to take turns walking between them.  We shared the room with our fellow SAS friends Dan and Nicole.  The bathroom in our room, having a private bath is often not included in a hostel, was about the size of a closet.  The showerhead was located right above the toilet which is great if you need to go to the bathroom while showering but a pain if you don’t want to get water all over the bathroom.   Putting on my clothes while standing on a wet floor was like trying to hula hoop while hopping on one foot.  

 

When we checked out early Thursday morning to come back to the ship I was glad in many ways but also a little sad.  During the time we spent at the Chungking Mansion I never felt unsafe and the experience is one I’ll be talking about for years to come.