It’s been 10 years since we travelled to
Hong Kong on our way back to England after our working stint in Sri Lanka, yeah
I know not exactly on the way. Anyway,
we reckoned it was about time for another visit, as after a decade or so we
seem to be forgetting where we have been and what we did, getting on a bit now
methinks. In Sri Lanka many moons ago we
were dubbed ‘the oldest backpackers in town’. Who knows what we are now.
It was Emma’s half term so I also skived
off work too and we were on board another Air Asia promo flight for the short
hop to Honkers. Short hop? It is actually almost 4 hours from KL to HK! We arrived pretty late at night so bought an ‘octopus’
card which can be used on all manner of transport (8 modes I think, hence the
name) and jumped on the airport express train to Kowloon, not the cheapest way
but definitely the quickest. When we
arrived at the station we were ushered to the free shuttle service, so we
thought we may as well jump on and get off at the underground (MTR) which was
within walking distance of our hotel. Much
to our surprise the shuttle bus dropped off at three hotels in Kowloon, and the
one we had booked into was one of them. Maybe
we have gone up in the world from the oldest backpackers in town hey. Duly shuttled to The Metro Park Hotel Mong Kok,
we quickly checked in and headed out in search of refreshment.
We walked in the direction of a market area
in Mong Kok which seemed promising for some fodder and a beer. We spotted Soy Street, so that had to involve
food didn’t it? We soon found a local’s
gaff and got seated down a dirty back alley; we may do posher digs nowadays,
but we are not at the stage of paying hotel prices for food! The place was full of people shouting at each
other just about to have a holy argument. Oh no, we were back in China and it’s just a
quiet night out for these boys and girls ‘chatting’ at mega decibels. The waitress obviously guessed I would be
fluent in Cantonese so brought the local menu.
Now if it had been Mandarin, no problem, but the old Cantonese has not
yet been mastered by yours truly. Another
waiter saw us floundering and brought an English menu and we soon had a couple
of rice hot pots and cold beers in front of us. Plans of an early night went out the window as
the people watching was way too fascinating and that led to a couple of take-out
beers to have with the Porto v City game that was coming on. City won, so the end of a good first day in
Hong Kong.
Right, the plan was, we had 3 full days in
Hong Kong so we wanted to do as much hiking as possible to help with our build
up to trekking in the Himalayas and The Andes. Hiking in Hong Kong sounds like an oxymoron as
most people picture the gleaming skyscrapers and an ultra-modern city. Well, apart from the densely populated areas
on one side of HK Island and Kowloon, most of the land area, particularly the
New Territories and some of the islands are devoid of people. There are also 4 major trails, The Wilson
Trail (78km) which crosses HK Island and the New Territories, The HK Trial (50km)
which is of course on HK Island and starts at the famous Victoria Peak, the
Lantau Trail (75km) which covers the majority of Lantau Island and the
Maclehose Trail (100 km) which traverses the New Territories. We were going to do Stage 1 and 2 of the
Wilson Trail, a couple of stages of Maclehose trek and stages 2-4 up to Lantau
Peak.
All best laid plans of mice and men, when
Emma looked out of the window (I was obviously still hiding under the covers)
she provided an update on the local weather forecast. The 100 storey building across the street ‘can
not been seen and it is lashing it down’ came the report from the weather girl.
Apparently HK was in a cloud. Now, normally we end up in places at the wrong
time of the year for the best weather (see our recent Bali trip), but this time
it was supposed to be the driest time of the year. Yeah, we knew it would be cold (for us 16-20
degrees is chilly), but rain, that wasn’t in the deal. We had a few brews while thinking about what
to do then Emma declared that she could make out a vague outline of the
building opposite, so let’s go for it.
We walked to the MTR stop which was only 10
or so mins from the hotel and we were whisked underground to Tai Koo station, where
hopefully we could find the end of stage 2 or the Wilson Trail, which we
planned to walk backwards. Well I have
to come up with new ways to slow Emma down as she has wised up to my putting
rocks or telephone directories in her bag, no, I mean we were going to start at
the end of stage 2 and walk to the start of stage 1, get it? The cunning ploy behind this was that this
meant that we would trek over HK Island and finish in the quaint (well it was
10 years ago, so probably a huge megalopolis now) village of Stanley for some
pub grub by the sea. Not sure why I’m
telling you all this, as the reality was, we got out of the rabbit warren of
the MTR and found the start of the trail, to only find ourselves in an almighty
deluge. We beat a retreat to the local
‘sitting-out’ area to join the old boys playing mah-jong and reading the daily
rags to suss out plan B. We couldn’t see
the peaks or even the top of the buildings so we guessed it wasn’t worth
getting soaked to spend the day tramping through a cloud to see diddly squat. We hit on the idea of getting the old tram
back to Central and have a look around the city, you know, maybe take in a
museum or an art gallery and have a frapalattochino whilst discussing politics
or some such high brow discourse.
Well, we did the tram bit. This is actually a great way to see HK,
especially if you are a cheapskate, only HK$2 and you can travel as far as you
want. Emma’s spirits were lifted at this
point as she thought it would be a grand idea to travel the entire length of
the tram system from one side of HK Island to the other. I pointed out that we weren’t quite at the end
of the line but we would get to do most of it, this was deemed ok so we jumped
on the next tram. Turned out Emma might
get her wish, as due to my poor map reading skills we had hopped on a tram
going in the wrong direction and we were soon at the end of the line, the wrong
end mind, but it is my job to make Emma’s dreams come true on our little
jaunts. We soon got on a tram heading
towards Hong Kong and we shaked, rattled and rolled along the streets through
the grey drizzle. It was really good to
see the city at this pace as everyone else, and there were a lot of everyone
elses, were rushing about all over the place. The neon lights glowed on the rain-soaked
streets and we were glad to be viewing it all from our vantage point. We didn’t make it all the way to the depot at
Kennedy Town as by now it was getting to late afternoon, though it was really dark
so felt much later, so surely it must be beer o’clock. We disembarked in Wan Chai which was supposed
to have plenty of food and drink options. After wandering around for a while we
spotted a pizza joint with a slice and a beer offer, never one to refuse a
slice (just for you Dan, if you can ever be bothered to read this drivel), we
headed in. Was great pizza and as it was
still raining (would it have mattered if it wasn’t?) we decided on another
beer, spotted the Old China Hand, and look it’s ‘happy hour’. The Old China seems the kind of place that
attracts expats who forgot to go home, Chang victims we called them in Bangkok,
hang on, haven’t we forgotten to go home too? Anyway, it was a bit down at heel, not really
a place for the likes who stay at the Metro Park, and Emma was moaning about the
quality of the inn keepers ale, so we had to try next door, The Queen Vic. Did we really give Honkers back to the
Chinese? Not in here mate, same sort of
clientele, but with slightly better decor. Another ‘happy hour’ and the lager passed
Emma’s delicate palate and ‘happy hour’ merged into ‘mad hour’ and at only HK$20,
that is a paltry 8 Ringgit, we were helpless.
Managed to make it back to Kowloon on the
iconic Star Ferry, you are supposed to get one of the best views of any
cityscape in the world from the boat. We
had an incredible view of cloud. We
walked up through the seething throngs on Nathan Road and stopped off at Temple
Street Market for a more Chinese experience than our afternoon adventures. There are a number of restaurants spilling out
onto the street, a bit like Petaling Street or Jalan Alor in KL, we soon bagged
a spot and scoffed some tasty food. It’s
a bit touristy but we enjoyed it and headed back to the hotel. Never did get to that museum or do our hike,
there is always tomorrow.
We awoke to another cloud enshrouded Hong
Kong day so we had to come up with plan B, no make that about plan G by now. Doing one of the walks over the peaks or
travelling out to the New Territories seemed unlikely, so we decided to get the
bus over to Stanley on the other side of HK Island and if the weather cleared
up, we would walk back over the Wilson Trail. If the weather stayed miserable, at least we
could potter around Stanley, which we had enjoyed on our previous visit.
We eventually found the express bus to
Stanley in the bus station at Central and we were soon zooming through the
tunnel to the coast. Don’t remember a
tunnel last time; think we weaved our way around the coast. As we emerged, the weather was still grim but
at least you could see the coastline as we passed Deep Water and Repulse Bay. Some mad fools were even swimming in the sea! As we got off in Stanley the rain was
reminiscent of the famous Manchester drizzle, you know that fine rain that wets
you through. There were quite a few
tourists knocking about and they all seemed to be English which made it feel
even more like a seaside town in England. We needed a brew to warm up but baulked at the
ridiculous prices in the sea front cafes. So hate to say it; McDonalds was the answer. To be fair they do have their purpose in this
world, a brew and a loo, would never bother eating the rubbish they pretend is
food.
After warming up we ventured out to be blown
along the sea walls and we meandered through a nice seaside park for a while. The weather wasn’t getting any better so the
Wilson Trail would have to wait for another trip. As we headed back to town we did however spot
a wild boar which seemed quite incongruous even in the outback town of Stanley.
We took advantage of the lunch time
specials in one of the cafes along the front and it was pleasant to sit and
watch the rain, could have been in Rhyl.
We got the bus back via Aberdeen, which we
remember as a small town with lots of junks in the harbour. Thought it would be nice to wander around but
it is now a mass of huge high-rises. So
quickly back on the bus to meet our mate Andy, to catch up and a have a few
beers and some food in Temple Street.
On our last full day we had to do something
even though the weather wasn’t improving at all as Emma was going stir crazy in
the city. We knew we couldn’t do the
Lantau Peak walk, but at least we could go and see Lantau Island. I’d picked up a leaflet on walks in HK at the
airport and it had a coastal walk on Lantau in it. Reckoned we could do that even in this
weather, at least it would be a walk, if not quite the kind we had hoped for. We met Andy at Tung Chung MTR station and soon
found the trail at Hau Wong Temple which would take us along the coast to the
small fishing village of Tai O. Unfortunately,
a huge group had started the trail as we arrived so we shuffled along much to
Emma’s annoyance trying to get by. Once
we did, it was a pleasurable walk as we went through rural Lantau. We couldn’t see much as even at sea level we were
in the clouds, but we heard the roar of the jets taking off at the nearby
airport. The leaflet said the trail was
about 15km and we arrived at Tai O in about 3 hours. The village is quite lovely even in the rain
and fog, and probably one of the last few old fashioned ones left in HK. The houses are built of stilts over the water
but they seem to be replacing the wooden ones with metal now, not a bad call in
a place that gets regular typhoons. We
had a brew in a small cafe overlooking the waterway and meandered along the
small lanes. You can take boat tours
here to go and see the very rare Chinese White Dolphins. This would normally be
right up our street but the weather was getting worse, shame really as at HK$30
a head, a bargain in these parts (the coffee was HK$36!).
After a spot of lunch in a locals gaff we
got the bus up to Lantau Peak to see the Tian Tan Buddha. Now at 32m high,
which is apparently the tallest seated bronze Buddha in the world, you think
you might spot the fella from a distance. As we approached the temple along a cobbled
street it was more akin to a scene from Victorian London than a temple in
South-East Asia as the mist swirled about us. We started to climb the steps to the Buddha
and still we couldn’t see him. Finally,
right at the top a vague outline appeared through the haze. One thing for sure was we had made the right
decision not to trek up here. You
couldn’t see a foot in front of your face. Oh well, back to the hotel before a last night
out in HK. Easier said than done. Most people normally travel up and down by
cable car from Tung Chung, but this was out of order due to a technical
problem, so everyone was waiting for the bus. You would think we were the only people daft
enough to come up on such a horrible day, but no there were plenty of other
fools. We joined a queue; it could have
been for anything, as you couldn’t see very far at all. We could hear buses so reckoned we were in the
right place. However, we might’ve ended
up with some dim sum, you never know. But
no, we got on the bus and headed back to Tung Chung and then our hotel.
We rounded off our trip to HK in Wan Chai
at Joe Bananas pub before having an early night as we had an early flight in
the morning. So, the trip didn’t quite
gone to plan, but it was good to catch up with Andy and we enjoyed the trip to
Lantau. I reckon there is some great
trekking in and around HK, especially for such a big busy city. However, I would go in the typhoon season next
time, you never know you might get better weather than we did.
Travel
Info
2 great sites for hiking in Honkers
http://www.hkcrystal.com/hiking/Trails.htm
http://hkwalkers.net/eng/index.htm
For travel around HK
http://www.mtr.com.hk/eng/homepage/cust_index.html
