Hong Kong

Sorry to all about the hold up...time management skills leave a lot to be desired...am on holdiays you know!!!! Here goes


Sydney

I felt like a bit of a traitor leaving Occy for so long, so as Tony was away for 2 nights I thought he could sleep with me. A good decision for the first night, the second however you could be mistaken that I had gone to bed with a flea..jumping around, getting up and turning around, grunting and snoring ( Tony tells me that he actually puts up with that every night..yeah right).
Leaving behind what I hope to be the last of my winter, I arrived in Sydney at lunch time. Spent the afternoon doing the Manly Ferry thing. Saw Harry Potter at the Imax..fantastic, felt right in the middle of it all.

Sydney – Hong Kong

This is definitely the way to go..a roomy comfortable seat with TV- mega movie choices, selection of several cd’s and last but not least a reclining bed to watch telly by. Managed a comfortable 3 movies on the way over, as did Tone...all in all a pretty cruisey way to spend 9 hours.

Hong Kong

Arrived and found ourselves at the hotel at about 8 pm Wednesday night. We managed to catch up with Tony’s brother for a couple of hours, pretty much filled us in on what to do and see over the next few days.
Tony scored very well on the accommodation. He did the Trip Advisor thing and came upon the YMCA , right on the harbor of Kowloon, overlooking Hong Kong. Our room had a fantastic view of the Harbor, never the same view twice, day or night. The harbor itself is very busy with the daily coming and goings of passenger ferries ( a popular mode of public transport between Kowloon and Hong Kong as well as to the outlying islands), fishing boats and cruise ships. Some days it was very hard to see across to the other side. The heat and smog made the air pretty thick, coupled with the humidity , other times the days were really clear and considering we’re in the monsoon season very minimal rain. Every night both sides of the harbor light up with a laser light show, a different format on alternate nights and sometimes a pretty speccy firework display to finish it off.

Certainly it’s an easy place to get around, I have decided to do the customary method of being five paces behind Tony ( no you are NOT mistaken I did say behind. Thought if we were to get through 3 months of ensuring my mantra of “we travel well together” had any chance at all, I couldn’t possibly forge the way anywhere!) NB However I did have one momentary lapse when I was absolutely sure I knew where we were going, only to find that I set a cracking pace way too far ahead of Tony as well as in the totally wrong direction. He did finally manage to catch me, panting and sweating( the heat believe me!) He said it was like following a flashing beacon as my hair caught the sun ahead of him!! I have yet to write my lines “I will not take the lead again”

I love the atmosphere here...there is such diversity of cultures and languages. Obviously the home-grown Chinese – the more affluent and anglicised Hong Kong alongside the more traditional Kowloon and New Territories. However along with these are there is a heavy representation of Europeans –Germans, Spanish, French, English; South Americans (surprisingly few Americans and Canadians) and tourists from other parts of Asia. Walking anywhere here is such a sensory experience, listening to different languages, seeing different styles of dress; some areas are quite smelly ( a union of refuse and heat). But the smell of food is tantalising, some areas are markets with fresh food available i.e. fish, dehydrated offal and seafood, as well as stall cooked food.

In spite of the size of the population here , or maybe because of it, there is orderliness. People travel in harmony, the sheer numbers on public transport are amazing and though there is a rush when the trains etc arrive there is also order in how they go about it. The streets and public areas are clean, lots of people around with brooms and pans; lots of signage about hand washing and there are hygiene stations at the entrance of many buildings, maybe leftover from the SARS days; there is a big effort pushing anti-smoking and in fact there aren’t any butts on the street.

At night, like home in the summer time, the walkways and public parks are full of people enjoying the cooler part of the day. On Sunday we were walking back through the ferry terminal and there were whole walkways filled with families having a picnic. They lay down thick cardboard on the cement (like a table cloth)and laid down their food to share in the middle and sat on the outside perimeter. Saw the same thing in the entrance to a park in the middle of the city...a gathering of noisy chatter and food!! Much like an aussie barbie.

Things we did;
· Dare I say a trip to the tailors for shirts and trousers; Bus trip through Repulse Bay to the Stanley Markets.
· Dinner at the Peking 1 and watched the light show
· Lunch at the cricket club with a friend of Duncan’s - learned the protocol of ordering and eating Yum Cha
· Night walk up to Central on the escalators in search of the night food markets. The escalators go up the centre of Hong Kong crossing over the small streets which have food markets, antique shops and restaurants
· Caught the tram up to the Peak, walked around and contained Tony in taking video shots. Those who have seen the last lot of HK photos will know what I mean!




View over the city from Tram going up to peak




The Tourists!!!

· Ferry trip to Cheung Chu a traditional fishing island about 50 mins from HK. Beautiful. A real mixture of traditional and modern China. A Buddhist temple sits across from what seemed to be a new-ish basketball court and playground. Soccer was being played in mid-30 degree heat by a group of enthusiastic boys! MacDonald’s sits in the middle of a street full of food stalls selling dried fish and their bits and eateries- really big on seafood naturally. Public toilets for women consisted of porcelain long drops. You’d want to make sure that the aim was good :)



Dried fish sold in the markets of Cheung Chu




Check the spelling !!!!!!


· Quiet day moving hotels , to the other side of New Territories, in preparation for departure the next day. Did manage to spend a couple of hours at the DFO adjacent to the hotel though.

WE WILL BE BACK