So… Hong Kong! I got here on Friday morning after an almost
sleepless twelve-hour flight. The movies we’re pretty good though! I watched
Superbad (on Oliver’s recommendation), The Bourne Ultimatum and Into the Wild
(Best film I’ve seen in ages); I guess it was no wonder I didn’t get any sleep!
All I can say is that this place is totally alive! The first
thing that hit me was the sheer abundance of colours. Everywhere you look there
is massive bright signs with Cantonese letters on them, 60ft advertisements
screaming at you to buy some detergent or go to see some play!
As well as this
the real variety in the people came to me as a shock. The teenagers and
twenty-somethings are all so so fashionable, all with completely different
senses of style and cool; the middle-aged people (the few of them that you see)
are the studious ones in ; suits with briefcases in tow who you see on
their way home after 9 o’clock (yeah pm!!); and then there is the older generation, who in
general seem a world away from the rest. They’re the ones bustling around the
street markets with bags filled with fresh cuts of meat or fish that has just
been killed at the stall in front of them! The divide between young and old seems huge.
We arrived early on Friday morning and after a 45 minute drive across the many suspension bridges and tunnels that connect the 200 or so islands, we arrived at the South Pacific Hotel Hotel on Hong Kong Island. After checking into the room, a few of the group went for a walk around the area and to get some dinner (UK time).
Twelve of us walked through the busy morning streets in the Time Square area. We eventually found a local noodle bar and got forced into chairs by the frantic hostess. I ordered a manly, "very hot" bowl of Singapore noodles and slurped them down, making quite the mess. The locals gave us funny looks for eating a dinner meal before eleven o'clock in the morning but we were still on GMT and wanted some local food. Once we had all slerped our way to satisfaction, three of us wandered around the area, just to get a feel for the place before returning for the jet-lag antidote of four hours of sleep and a lot of water!
Later that night, those who could drag themselves away from their pillows, drearily got the "Star" ferry boat across to Tsim Sha Tsui and watched the laser display that happens every night at eight. It was pretty cool to see but we all couldn't help thinking that it was a total waste of electricity! We went to Spaghetti House for dinner (cliché white people, I know!) and then just headed back to the hotel.
Next morning we had our "Western Style" breakfast bright and early at eight a.m. and got the MTR from Causeway Bay to Admiralty to feel dwarfed by all the sky scrapers and walk around Hong Kong Park. Some of the buildings were higher than 80 stories, I just couldn't stop looking up and walked into quite a few suits!
Hong Kong park was pretty cool. The surrounding area was so built up, I guess it's good to have a bit of a green break in the middle of all that stress! There was an big botanical garden with cacti and orchids and just about every plant you could ever think of and an aviary with parrots and the like!
We got the MTR back for two so we could join the others for an organised tour of all the 'big sights'. In spite of the monsoon rain we went up Victoria Peak to see the classic view in all its misty glory. And then out to Aberdeen (yeah actually) fishing village for a quick rainy boat ride.
I always find it weird to look at people living their own lives as I glimpse it briefly. Like there were loads of families living on the river in house boats and our guide told us that up to ten people can live in the tiny things! Most of them are fishermen but are facing the government evicting them and changing the area completely as demand for housing rises further (along with the buildings).
We then went to Stanley market which had all the usual knock off crap. Nike trainers with the swoosh the wrong way round, SQNY diskmans etc... (I'm exaggerating). I got a patch for my rucksack and a Guardian from an international bookstore (lack of internet=no current affairs).
We finished up the day with a traditional Chinese meal in a restaurant on the 65th floor of a building! The glass front of the elevator was pretty terrifying and when the weight alarm went off I was out of there the instant the second the doors opened! The meal was pretty strange but unlike most I waded through it and actually quite enjoyed the purple bean-soup for dessert!
We all went out for some drinking and bonding yesterday night. Clearly someone misses home already as we ended up in an English pub called the Old China Hand, who luckily served a good pint of G.
This morning pretty much everyone lay in late and lounged around the hotel all morning! Every one of those four pints were out to get me apparently! We checked out and headed to the airport via a Taoist temple in Kowloon which was packed out because of new year apparently, and disgusting bird and flower market. And so here I am waiting in the airport...
