Initially my plan was to get from Yangshuo to Hong Kong via train, but my hostel offered an alternative: the sleeper bus. I decided to take the bus for 3 reasons:
- It was a whole euro cheaper (and saved on a night in a hostel)
- It saved me the hassle of taking an early morning bus to the train station
- It was definitely going to be an incredibly uncomfortable but unique experience.
At around 8 in the evening I got picked up by the bus. The interior consisted of three rows of about 8 bunk beds. I quickly found out that I was too tall for these beds, and the bumpy ride made this considerably less comfortable than sleeping in a train. At around 2 in the night however I discovered that in the very back of the bus, there were 5 beds adjacent to each other, and none were taken. I claimed this queen-size bed for myself and actually managed to catch a few hours of sleep.
The bus dropped us off at the border between China and Hong Kong. The whole process went quite smoothly, except for the Chinese border guard asking me why I stayed in China so long (My visa was valid until that day). I arrived at my hostel around 10 in the morning, and could already enter my room to drop my luggage. I was very tempted to catch some sleep, but instead went straight to the Chinese visa office to get a new visa, so I could come back to Yangshuo. Afterwards, I explored the 'coast' of Kowloon a bit, and eventually did catch up on some sleep.
I spent a bit longer in Hong Kong than I would have liked (it's expensive!), but had to because my passport was at the visa office. Most of my time was spent just wandering around, as Hong Kong has an immense amount of sights, both during the day and during the night. Besides the city, Hong Kong also offers mountains and islands.
Unfortunately, in the end my visa got denied. This was a major setback, because besides having 'wasted' my time in Hong Kong, this also meant I'd either have to give up my Chinese adventure, or try to get a visa again. However, being denied once makes it harder to get accepted again. Regardless, I was going to give it one more shot, but had already booked my flight to Japan, so would have to make this attempt in Tokyo.
