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Published: September 5th 2008
Hong Kong airport 08/08/08
Craig delighted we caught the end of the Olympic opening ceremony on the big screen.You know how relaxed you are about your holiday when, after leaving Perth, you land in Phuket. Hmmmmmm, Craig and I scratched our heads. "Where does it say we have a stopover before Bangkok?" "Oh, here it is on the itinerary". "Oh, so it does". "Well, here we are!"
Craig and I had been planning this trip since December when we were both living and working in Perth. After attending the 'Railway Stakes' at Ascot in late November, Craig and I discovered our shared interest in the horses. So then we naturally attended a trots meeting. The next step snowballed from 'let's go to a equestrian event some time' to 'let's hit Hong Kong for the Olympics'! And the rest is history.
So, after travelling most of the day, we arrived at Hong Kong airport late on the 08/08/08 in time to see the official opening of the Olympic games live on a big screen at the airport. Just on an hour later, we arrived at our less than salubrious accommodation in Mongkok, Kowloon.
As a seasoned backpacker, it is always important not to expect too much when an establishment calls itself a 'serviced apartment'. Well, there was
no service at the 'Embassy Hotel' but we did have a place to lay our heads in the evening and just enough room to store our bags without tripping over them or each other! The rooms were 'themed'. In our first stint, we were in the 'Hong Kong' room complete with red and white bathroom, red feature wall and plenty of poorly photocopied prints of the Hong Kong handover! The second phase of our stay was in the 'Italian' room. Simple to imagine this one - small prints of the leaning tower, the Colosseum, Mussolini (with Hitler no less) and the cover of a fashion magazine?!? The other interesting fact about our accommodation was we on the the same floor as a karaoke bar. In Mongkok, 'karaoke' can so easily be substituted for 'brothel'.
We spent our first morning exploring the local surrounds and then caught up with a former work colleague of mine, Steve Gillett, his wife, Susan and daughter, Amy, for dinner. Steve had moved to HK only a few weeks earlier and was happy to introduce us to the more upmarket area of Lan Kwai Fong on Hong Kong Island. The amusing part of this reunion
Stall 96 in Mongkok?
Coconut milk was for sale everywhere but this stall ALWAYS had a queue just, my fellow dimmyrollers, like Stall 96 at the South Melbourne market! was that I do not believe I'd seen Susan since we had caught up with each other in Athens in August two years earlier! Same time of year, different continent.
The rest of our stay in Hong Kong was punctuated by attending Olympic equestrian events and a 2 day trip to Macau (see separate blog entries).
We managed to fit in heaps of shopping including two trips to Stanley Markets on Hong Kong Island, the Ladies Market, the Temple Street Night Market, Flower market, and the Men's Market. Whilst I did manage to buy a few items, like a new compact digital camera, Craig easily out-shopped me. He must have seen each floor of the majority of shopping centres in the entire city of Hong Kong as evidenced by his need to purchase additional luggage for our trip home!
We also did all the standard touristy things I had done on my trip in 2006. We went on the Peak Tram to Victoria Peak, watched the nightly Sky Show overlooking Hong Kong Island from Tsim Sha Tsui, saw the world's largest seated Buddha at Ngong Ping and were endlessly hassled about 'copy watches' and 'tailored suits' particularly
Goldfish anyone?
It continues to amaze me that this is the way in which one purchases fish in HK. when wandering along Nathan Road.
I had an interesting night out with Steve in Lan Kwai Fong and Wan Chai. After watching the showjumping qualification in Sha Tin, I returned to Mongkok with Craig and then jumped on the metro to get to Lan Kwai Fong. By the time I arrived at the 'Whiskey Priest', it was 12:45am and Steve and his drinking buddies were well oiled. Whilst I thought I had a chance to make up for lost time with a few carefully selected single malts, it was an impossible task particularly given it was difficult to drink quickly when one of Steve's buddies happened to be a whiskey salesman keen to argue the merits of Highland over Islay whiskeys. As if I could let that one slide! After increasingly expensive rounds, we jumped in a cab to Wan Chai - the seedy nightclub district of Hong Kong. After a few games of pool, at a quiet bar which was trying to close its doors, the remaining drinkers, Steve, Dominic and myself headed to a club. Well, I was clearly out on my comfort zone - lots of improbable pairings around me. Hmmm, I thought, this is not
for me. I left after one round and I suspect this resulted in Steve and Dominic attracting much more attention!
The only real lowlight of our stay was a tragic fatal fire just one block down Nathan Road from us. Two residents and two firefighters died as a result of a fire that started in a karaoke bar on the first floor. The building was severely damaged and that terrible stench of charred furniture, carpets etc remained for the length of our stay. The site itself became a memorial to the firefighters, one of whom had only been in service for 12 months.
On a much brighter note, Hong Kong is always a lively city and the Olympics only intensified this feeling. Whilst the Olympic Piazza was a little tacky, the fuwa (Olympic mascots) were everywhere, it was a great place to visit to see up to 6 different events live on the screens. It reminded me of being with my Dad in the Korean pavilion at World Expo '88 (Brisbane) when Duncan Armstrong won gold in the pool - an odd place to be watching live Olympic sport.
During the time we were in Hong Kong,
Craig and I managed to keep up with a few of the Olympic highlights. It was difficult given the majority of the coverage naturally focused on Chinese athletes - and I do not wish to see any diving, volleyball or table tennis for another 4 years - but we did see Usain Bolt and his countrymen blitz the sprinting and Sally McLennan winning her silver in the hurdles.
Hong Kong was really a great place to be during a such a special time.
Next stop....four nights, three days in Bangkok.
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