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Today was my first chance to see Hong Kong.
I got to see a little bit of Kowloon by night on my way to the hotel from the airport last night.
Hong Kong has 2 very contrasting parts to it. The very modern sky scraper financial sector and the older, slightly run down Kowloon peninsula.
I had a 1/2 day tour booked Hong Kong Island. Pick up was at 8:10 this morning. It was a bit hard getting out of bed though. I didn't get to bed until after 1am and was up at 7am. So it took a bit of an effort to get ready.
I waited in the lobby for about 10 minutes. There was another kiwi couple staying in the hotel who were waiting on a different tour.
When boarded the mini-bus I was greeted with "oh know, a bloody Kiwi". The bus was full of Aussies. All from their 50's up. They were actually a great bunch of people and we had a lot of fun with the friendly rivalry often coming to the fore. Despite the banter the camaraderie (particularly when in foreign countries) is almost instinctive. One of the woman
even referred to the ANZAC's, such is the enduring relationship.
All of the Aussies on the bus (4 couples) were on their way to England via Europe to attend a Rotary conference. Hong Kong was just a 1 night stop over on the way (they were all flying out to Rome tonght). They were all from Perth and Adelaide.
Our tour guide "Norman" was a really good guy. He spoke very good English. He was another notch up on the guides I had in Japan because he was able to successfully incorporate humour into his commentary, a difficult with so many different sense's of humour amongst English speakers i.e American Humour is different to British humor etc.
Our 1st stop on the Island was to the well known Victoria Peak. It took us about 30 minutes to get there. Crossing from the mainland to Hong Kong Island requires a trip across the water, or more correctly a trip under the water. There are 2 tunnels that go under the harbor with the deepest point being around 21 feet (needs to be quite deep so that big cruise and cargo ships can pass over it without mishap).
We got a bit
of a history lesson regarding the British rule (the British occupied Hong Kong Island first and didn't obtain control of the entire country until a few years later). 95% of Hong Kong's population is Chinese. The native language is Cantonese and English. English is compulsory at school. Since the Chinese regained control of Hong Kong Mandarin is also compulsory in schools so children can often speak 3 languages.
China hasn't exerted any sort of dominance of requirement for change since it's ownership... mainly for 1 reason..... Money. Hong Kong is a very successful and financially booming economy, China now reaps the benefit of that so hasn't interfered.
Victoria Peak is the most expensive Real Estate in Hong Kong (and Real estate is expensive everywhere). During British occupation on the elite of the British gentry could live there. Norman wasn't sure what house prices were like at the peak, but he had heard of a a recent development that was costing US$5000 per square foot.... just for the land.
We arrived at the look out, it was a bit hazy and overcast so the photo oppurtunities weren't brilliant, but still a great place view Hong Kong in all it's beauty. You
can see the run way from the old airport. The new airport opened in 1998. I've heard many stories about the old airport and it's take-off and landing approaches. You literally flew in between buildings. You can see the old flight path by the developments in the area around it with high rises giving way to a small area of lower level dwellings.
Now the old runway is a tie up point for large cruise liners.
After leaving the peak we headed down to the fishing port of Aberdeen (and no I haven't suddenly jetted off to Scotland). This port houses a number of floating palaces, fishing and house boats and the famous Sanpans (small boats originally designed for fishing). The fishing industry in Hong Kong is slowly disappearing. The modern Hong Kong child doesn't aspire to fish, rather attend good schools and work in the financial sector, so fishing vessels that were once family businesses are being converted to house boats for those retired fisherman who can't bear to leave the sea.
We boarded a sanpan for a 25 minute chug around the port. This is optional to the tour and you have to pay a fee to the
boat owner if you want to go for a sail. The sanpans are all owned by retired fisherman using their old craft to make a bit of a living.
Our skipper was pretty adept at weaving in and out of the boats moored at port. While this part of the trip was interesting the port itself is polluted and there is a lot of rubbish around. The water itself has an oily slick on it. Many of the boats haven't sailed from their moorings in quite some time. The 25 min sail cost $55, sounds a lot but when you consider the Kiwi dollar is around $HK4.75 per NZ$ it only cost around $11.
One of the things that takes a bit of getting used to is the prices of things. They appear ridiculously priced. For example for a burger combo and 4 spicy chicken wings at McDonald's cost me (yes I went there again, but I needed food and it was convienient at the time) cost $41. In Dollars the most expensive McDonald's I have ever purchased. Convert it back it actually cost $8.63, so it was actually cheaper than buying in NZ.
After Abderdeen we headed to a
Jewelery manufacturer. It seems one of those stops on tours where the tour operators get kick-backs by bringing tourists to a place to buy goods. Norman was pretty good and certainly encouraged us to leave early if we didn't want to be there.
There is a brief tour to show you how the jewelery is made, all hand-crafted and quite a delicate and skillful operation. How ever the Jewelery store guide seemed to rush it throw in an effort to get us into the Jewel store ASAP. In all fairness some of their wares were pretty reasonably priced. Some nice small jade pieces cost HK$1200 or $252 NZ$. Norman ensured we knew about the free Pepsi machine and tea / coffee at the end. Some of the woman were generally interested in the Jewelery and some purchased some items. While we were waiting I spent a bit of time talking to Norman about shopping opportunities in Hong Kong. He was a pretty good guy to talk to as he didn't have a vested interest in any businesses. He suggested that Cellphones and Ipods were no cheaper than NZ. You get good deals on watches, clothing, shoes and cameras (and other
household appliances) in Hong Kong. He suggested a good suite maker and gave he his card. He suggested that Chinese rather than Indian tailors were the best and more reliable. Chinese tailors tended to be off the street front in 2nd floor or above shops. Street front shops pay the highest rent, considerably more than someone leasing on the 2nd or higher floor. The Indians often own the street front shops and pass the additional cost onto their customers. Norman gave me his card also to contact him directly if I wanted any help or further suggestions. Pretty comforting to have a line in to a local. I'm sure he gets something out of a refferal, but it's also in his best interest to give reliable advice due to the nature of his work. The tailor he suggested will make suits out of Egyptian fabric for HK$2500 (About NZ$520) and Italian shirts for HK$250 (NZ$52). This is pretty cheap. Slightly more expensive than Thailand but perhaps better quality, who knows. Having had custom fitted suits made before, they are brilliant. Paying a little more for tailored compared to a cheap off the rack in NZ is well worth it. I'll
be looking to pay a visit on Thursday. Suits are usually turned around (with 2 fittings) in 48 hours which is great as I will only have Thurs and Friday to complete the transaction.
After leaving the store we headed to the last stop, the Stanley markets.
These are your typical street markets (similar to Thailand) albeit slightly cleaner. The sell mostly clothing, with some selling toys, nick-knacks , sporting equipment, suitcases etc.
Prices are more expensive that what I've experienced in Thailand, however there is one fundamental difference. Articles in these markets are genuine articles, no copies or rip-offs, so considering that prices were actually very good.
I purchase 4 polo shirts which totaled HK$360 (NZ$75) so I think that was pretty good. One shirt along (a rip curl one) would retail for close to $80 - $100 in NZ.
I also brought a big carry-on bag. It is a backpack cum suitcase. It has wheels that can be locked away and a handle. My backpack with my luggage in it is already struggling to maintain the articles I had prior. The extra capacity will allow me a little more breathing (and shopping) space.
The tour concluded around 12:45pm
and I was dropped back to the hotel. After dropping my purchases in my room I ventured into downtown Kowloon to experience the craziness that exists in this part of the city.
My hotel is very close to Nathan Road (most well known street in Hong Kong) and downtown Kowloon.
Kowloon really is madness. There are people everywhere. Shops everywhere, neon signs in English and Chinese, car's /taxi's / buses everywhere.
I liken this region to Bangkok, in regards to the set up of the streets and shopping precints, however it is cleaner and more modern than Bangkok, also the salespeople are much less pushy and tend to leave you alone if you don't want their assistance.
Also the shopping precincts seem to be very definitive. In one block or area all shops seem to be shoe shops, in another all camera and electronic equipment, another bathroom amenities and fixtures. It seemed very deliberate. Prices really don't vary too much shop to shop, often the difference is variety. Bartering isn't common, however savvy shopping will get you a good deal. Don't be scared to play off one shop against another. For instance I was looking at Ipod touches (I never
brought one as they are cheaper in NZ as Norman suggested). All shops were offering them at HK$3100 (around NZ$652) for a 32 gig. I asked one shop as the price wasn't listed (many items aren't priced, especially more expensive items, so you make an inquiry to a salesperson which I'm sure is a tactic to get a sale). He quoted the same price. I said no thanks as it was the same as everywhere else. He immediately offered me a discount of HK$70 (about NZ$14) and I would have been paying by credit card. Now it's not much of a discount overall, but I know the margins in Apple products are very small so any discount is worthy of noting. So it's important to seek deals on bigger ticket items.
I wandered the streets for a good 3+ hours, getting lost many times in the shopping jungle. I walked through another couple of street markets, some clothing items at these markets were copies, but at least they tell you that from the outset, they don't try and pull the wool over your eyes).
Towards the end of my walk I stumbled across the local food market (which is quite
well known internationally).
It's quite an eye opener. Meat is butchered out in the open ear. Most parts of the animal are butchered to order or were butchered that day.
There were a number of fish stalls. Most had live fish flapping around in small buckets of water. 1 even had live frogs.
I watched small turtles get hacked up to be taken away from a local delicacy. I don't think my palate extends quite that far. Definitely worth a look, but I wouldn't recommend it if you are a member of PETA or WSPA as some things you will witness are not what we would classify as humane.
I was getting tired and looking forward to getting back to the hotel. I really had no idea where I was. I gave myself 10 minutes to get back to the street the hotel was on before hailing a cab. My spidey sense must of kicked in and I somehow managed to get back to Waterloo street (unaided). I got back to the hotel around 4:30. I was pretty sweaty from the walking as well as the quite high humidity (temperature range was around 28 - 30 degrees) so had a
shower before updating the Blog.
The hotel had given me a number of discount vouchers to use at the hotel restaurant when I checked in so decided to use one for dinner.
For HK$208 I got a set menu dinner. A soup starter (3 choices), 2 mains (from a choice of about 8) accompanied with either bowled rice, flavored rice or Szechuan noodles, a sweet rice soup and a fruit platter to finish.
I had Chicken and corn soup, Lamb rack (which was battered and deep fried. Nice, but no my way of cooking lamb), pork spare ribs in a strawberry sauce with szechuan noodles, followed by the dessert. I had a beer with dinner.
The food was good without being outstanding, but there was more than enough to eat. I couldn't finish the noodles or the sweet soup. Normally a 10% service fee is applied, but this was waived as part of the deal. Also they applied a $50 off deal offered to hotel guests. So overall it cost $213 with the beer instead of $258. Total cost in NZ$45, pretty good value for money considering the volume and type of food.
The waiters were a little overbearing. As the restaurant was quiet I had the attention of 3 waiters who kept tripping over each other to serve me. I overheard one of them talking about up-selling. No use trying that with me. I worked at KFC many years ago. So i'm very familiar with the concept.
I returned to the room about 8pm. I'm looking to get a earlish nights sleep tonight as tomorrow I'm off to the casino island of Macau. A full day tour (about 9 hours) which takes in the former Portuguese colony. I need my passport as it is still operated as a separate territory (similar to Hong Kong) even though it is now part of China. Pick up is early with a 7:30am start.
So if you hear nothing further from this traveler I've either had to sell my possessions to cover gambling debts, swimming with the fishes se or negotiating the purchase of Google with my new found fortune (yeah right).
Till then Ciao.
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Jacob
non-member comment
KFC
Who knew your KFC work experience would come in handy in Hong Kong ah? Sounds like you're having a great time!