City of lights and smog

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We left the relaxed atmosphere of Palawan behind and headed to a very hot, humid and heaving Manila. We decided to pay a little extra for a “coupon” taxi from the airport to Melati Pension, in order to avoid the chaos and the touts outside the airport doors. The drive was surprisingly tame when compared to our experiences in Cebu City. Most of our day in Manila was spent in Robinson shopping mall, enjoying the air-con whilst whiling away the hours until our flight left for Hong Kong.

We arrived in Hong Kong late in the evening and were shocked to find the temperature was a chilly 10 degrees Celsius. This was a real shock to our systems after experiencing 30 degree heat in Manila a few hours earlier. We caught the A11 bus to Causeway Bay and checked in to the Alisan Guesthouse where we had stayed previously.

There is a very clear line in the sky where the smog rests over the city like a low cloud. The air quality in Hong Kong was bad and even on a sunny day there was a grey haze over the city from all the pollution. But despite this, the city is really clean. Heavy fines are imposed for littering or spitting and this makes for really clean pavements. The city is so busy, no matter what time of day or night you venture out. Every one of your senses succumbs to overload after spending a few hours trawling the city. It really is a concrete jungle, with high rise after high rise towering above you. Small, green parks and gardens dotted around the city add a much needed break from the lights and concrete.


On our first day we caught the Star Ferry across the bay to Kowloon and spent the day walking up Nathan Rd taking in all the sights. We battled to find somewhere for lunch and eventually settled for a make shift restaurant off the street which was very popular with the locals. Lisa managed to order something made with veges and tofu. We were kept entertained with lots of slurping from the nearby tables where the locals were tucking in to big steaming bowls of soup and discarding all their chicken bones on to the table (much to Lisa’s horror). After lunch we walked through the Ladies market and Lisa managed to bargain hard for some glass bead bracelets. Our bargaining skills have been honed during the course of this trip and Keith felt sorry for the lady at the stall as she didn’t stand a chance. From there we headed to the fish and flower markets for some photo opportunities and we weren’t to be disappointed. We really loved the buzz at street level in Hong Kong.


Our next outing was to one of the outlying islands. Caught the ferry to Lantau Island and then a 45min bus ride to the Polin Buddhist Monastery. We started off with an interesting vegetarian lunch, before looking into the temples, where hundreds of incense sticks are burning. The walk up to view the giant seated bronze Buddha is a steep climb up many steps. It is the biggest outdoor seated bronze Buddha in the world and sits at 34m. I am not sure how many other seated Buddhas it has to compete with but it is very impressive indeed. Back on Hong Kong Island, we walked on the longest covered escalator in the world and got off at Soho. The area is lined with trendy art galleries, coffee shops and wine bars. Keith was eager for a cuppa, so we settled ourselves down in a coffee shop to watch the world go by and give our sore feet a break. There were many more westerners in Soho than we had seen elsewhere in the city, so it felt more like London than Asia. Not surprising since the roads were named Old Bailey Road and Hollywood Road. The sun was setting when we caught the Victoria Tram up a very steep funicular railway track (with a gradient of between 4 and 27 degrees) to Victoria Peak, 400 metres above sea level. As you can imagine the views over the city are spectacular. Keith had great fun playing with the camera, trying to get some good pictures of the city lights. From our view point it was amazing to see just how many sky scrapers there are in such a small area. After catching the tram back down, we walked through Hong Kong Park and past the lavish Shangri La and Conrad hotels. Thinking we should sample some of the night life in the city, we stopped off at the Coyote Bar on Lockhart St for what turned out to be a very expensive drink! Hence, dinner was sushi from the “Wellcome” supermarket, eaten in front of our tv, in our tiny hotel room.


Our last day in Hong Kong was spent trawling all the malls, so hopefully Lisa managed to get shopping out of her system for a while. There are shopping malls on every corner and endless boutiques, watch shops and noodle shops. Hong Kong is definitely a shoppers paradise. Luckily neither of us are very good at shopping, so our credit card escaped a splurge. Our flight to London only left at 23h30, so we had to kill time drinking coffee and reading books before catching the bus to the airport. We are really sad that the Asia leg of our trip is over but it will be so good to see our family and friends again. We have 3 nights here in the UK before we head to South Africa for the last 5 weeks of our travels. It is freezing here and we are already looking forward to the sunshine.

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