Unable to obtain more than a single month visa for China in Vietnam, we decided to go to Hong Kong to get new China visas. Hong Kong
was reunited with China in 1997, despite this it still holds a great deal of autonomy from the mainland and requires it’s own visa, and as citizens of the UK we were issued with a 6 month visa on arrival (note to China the
same for the mainland would be nice :)). I always thought that Hong Kong was a single island, so was surprised to find that it actually comprises of around 260 islands of which Hong Kong Island is just one.
One of the main reasons we decided to go to ’Honkers’ was because mainland China was about to start its ’Golden Week’ holiday,
an 8 day national holiday where 1.3 billion people go on vacation, with the majority travelling internally, causing gridlock and inflated prices throughout China. Hong Kong only observes the first day of the holiday, so we
would be able to process our visas quicker.
However, we weren’t going to escape the rise in costs, as Hong Kong isn’t cheap, well at least compared to the costs of travelling
in South East Asia. We had heard unfavourable stories about the cheapest accommodation in Hong Kong, but up for the challenge we decided that we would give it a go. Heading to Kowloon, we opted to avoid the infamous Chungking
mansions and chose the less well known but comparable Mirador mansions.
Our room was not much bigger than a shoe box...
The beds were so small and my feet hung over the end. The bathroom comprising of a toilet and shower was only just big enough to
sit and stand in, you couldn’t as they say ‘swing a cat’.
All that said, it was exactly what we had been told it would be, it was also very clean and well kept, very secure and the beds were
raised so that we could stow our luggage underneath them. It’s true that the mansions look a little rough around the edges in the hallways and outside.
The lifts are intolerably slow and the hawkers outside selling suits, fake watches, handbags and the like can be annoying, but the
room was nice and as a place to lay your head of an evening and it was better than a great deal of places we have stayed on the trip. The mix of ethnicities in the mansions also made it a great place to get cheap food from
around the world, with the take away Indian curry becoming our favourite, of course along with a beer or two.
On our first evening we walked down the Avenue of Stars, which pays homage to the HK film industry and some of it’s most famous
stars.
But the real reason for heading there, along with taking hundreds of skyline shots
is that it’s a great vantage point for the Symphony of Light, which was first performed during
the reunification hand-over in ‘97 and has been continued every evening at 8pm since.
We were one of many armed with cameras to catch this treasured event. I’m sorry...I don’t get it, I don’t even know what to
say about it, it was naff and not in a good, kitsch, kooky, kind of weird naff way. The lights were meant to be in time to some dodgy Chinese elevator/euro pop music, after it finished my only thought was, can I have those
15 minutes of my life back please? At least it was free, but I still think the energy could be better spent or even saved.
The next day we decided to tryout another of Hong Kong’s free activities and also one of Jo’s favourite past times, shopping,
this may not be so free after all! ‘Honkers’ is famous for its shopping and it’s easy to see why, it has an abundance of shopping centres with shops catering to all comers, ranging from the dollar shops to the flashy
designer stores. Now if we could only get our head around the money we maybe able to buy something too! Three banks, Standard Chartered, Hang Seng and Hong Kong’s pride and joy HSBC all issue their own notes for each monetary
denomination and in some cases like the HK$10 they’re not even the same colour and they even throw in a coin for good measure, good luck checking if you’ve got a fake note or not!
Hong Kong was the scene of the first typhoon warning of the trip. A level 1 typhoon warning was issued for Typhoon Ketsana, we later
found out that Level 1 meant that it was 800 km away from Hong Kong and a day later after it had safely passed Hong Kong it slammed into Vietnam killing over 160 people. Due to the bad weather which came with the typhoon, shopping became
a daily activity for our first few days, thankfully all of the shopping centres and office buildings are connected like rabbit warrens and you can get everywhere in tunnels underground, so you can keep dry when it’s raining
and when it’s hot you can roam in an air conditioned wonderland.
When the weather cleared we were able to venture outside. Not being used to the fresh air having been inside for so long, we found
it difficult to walk, but luckily there were the Mid Level escalators to help us out, which are the longest series of escalators in the world.
We were also able to get out onto the harbour on the ever popular Star Ferry
As well as getting the Peak Tram to Victoria Peak
to take a HK skyline picture from another vantage point
The weather also held out for the 60th Anniversary of the creation of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) celebrations, culminating
in a fireworks display in the evening.
Where it seemed like all of Hong Kong came out and packed the street to get a view of the fireworks and to celebrate.
Hong Kong was also the setting for one of the most stupid things we’ve done on the trip. During the biggest Chinese holiday period
we decided that we wouldn’t tell the guesthouse that we intended to stay longer until the morning we were due to leave. Of course they had no rooms available and we were then in danger of downgrading from our box room to
a cardboard box on the streets. Luckily it didn’t come to that, but the quality of our new box didn’t quite match our previous one.
Partly due to this we decided to head back to the mainland during the Golden week celebrations to get a first hand idea of how crazy
it gets, but not before checking out one of the best museums either of has been too. The Hong Kong Museum of History detailed the history from HK's geological creation to the reunification hand over in ’97 and had just the right
mix of displays, videos and interesting memorabilia.
So now we’re off to Shanghai, and we’re even getting a train!
Until next time
Ryan & Jo
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