As it turned out Hong Kong was the perfect international destination for my first mature aged solo travel adventure. The city whilst bustling and noisy has these perfectly signed air-conditioned underground walkways between all of the city sites. As a result of British colonisation all the signs to those landmarks are written in Cantonese and English.
The MTR (Mass Transit Railway) is the most efficient, fast and clean railway I have ever travelled on. It made it really simple for me to navigate my way around all of the major tourist destinations.
I had organised to be away for 5 days and bought a Lonely Planet guide to Hong Kong at the airport. This leaving Australia with little knowledge of the destination I was going too and buying my guide book at the airport upon departure has also somewhat unfortunately become part of my travel signature. This is reflective of the jump in the deep end and find out how deep it is when I land personality that I have.
In Hong Kong I stayed for the first night in Nathan Road, Kowloon. But after wandering around the city for a day I moved to a boutique hotel with a view of Victoria Harbour where the nightly sound and light laser show puts the rest of the world who are still burning fireworks to shame.
Hong Kong has surprising attractions like the Big Buddha sitting high on a mountain top reached by a stunning journey up a mountain in a cable car and even a boutique sized Disneyland.
As a white western woman travelling alone there weren't many tourists who looked like me. The pace of this international city meant that the locals were too busy in their own hectic worlds to notice or care what I did so I didn't draw attention anywhere I went. If I did I didn't notice. I ate in the hotel for breakfast, bought lunch and dinner in cafe style places and avoided eating alone in restaurants. I carried that MTR map with me everywhere I went.
Within 48 hours I had my bearings and was moving between Tsim Sha Tsui station on the MTR and all the local attractions like a somewhat tentative seasoned traveller. I had lots of moments where I thought I was lost and as I don't speak Cantonese I had to rely on my maps and street signage.
In the hotel where I stayed I was the only white western woman and the only woman travelling alone. This experience at the outset was daunting and initially left me with a fish out of water feeling. I did not know at this time that as my solo travels continued it would be a feeling that I would come to embrace for the personal growth that stretching myself out of my comfort zone would give me in abundance.
The flight home was a disaster. I was on a standby ticket and couldn't get a seat on the plane and ended up having to change airlines and flights in a last minute panic to get home. It's when your alone in a difficult situation away from home that you could most use a travel partner to confer with.
At the beginning of my travel experiences I was fortunate to have a husband and a sister who both worked for an airline and could navigate me by phone and sms through the type of decision making that can happen when plans and reality collide a long way from home.
I came home from this trip unsure of whether or not I would ever travel overseas alone again. What I did know for sure was that I was going to return to the excitement and experiences of Hong Kong at the earliest opportunity. #lovestotravel
