Looking at my bank account, it looks like I’m getting charged for rooms I reserved and I’m not staying in, in addition to the new rooms I’m paying for nightly. I also see a charge that says I took out $20 from an ATM in a London airport, but I don’t think I did. I canceled that transaction midway through. So much for staying on a budget. It is easy to get ripped off if you don’t know what you’re doing. I’m good at not spending money, but when a hotel has your credit card number it is hard to stop them.
I think I’ll buy an audio player though. One good thing here is 0% tax and that makes things like the Apple iPod about the same as the US retail price, finally. I’ll try to get a new filter to put on the end of my camera lens too, so it will be more protected again.
Another difference here, in Europe I was able to get by with drinking tap water in every country, but here I have to start buying bottled water. Public bathrooms are a welcome return however! I ate some Dim Sum today, which is one of the big foods of Hong Kong.
I’m at the Central Library right now and they allow you to plug in your own computer to their really restricted network. It is raining quite a bit today (rainy season!), so I don’t know how much I’ll be able to see.
I was able to find some information about the fireworks show tomorrow:
- 23 minutes
- 10 scenes
- 31,888 shells
- 4 barges
- Incorporation of lightshow from 37 buildings, of which 16 buildings equipped with pyrotechnics on roof
- $8 million HKD (about $1 million USD)
Update:
I stayed at the library almost all day. They have tons of English language materials there, it is pretty nice. Had a bowl of pork and mushroom noodles for dinner, but when I finished I looked out the window and saw it down pouring rain. I had taken the wrong tram so I wasn’t exactly sure how to get back. So being dark and raining didn’t help the confusion, but I have my compass watch and I just head in the general direction I need to go.