Advertisement
Published: November 1st 2006
Nathan Road in the early evening
Kowloon's main drag. Photographed on my way to down to Vic Harbour.I felt like I had stepped into the set of 'Bladerunner' when I got out of the airport bus in Kowloon in the early evening after a long flight from Cairo via Dubai and Bangkok. The place was buzzing and I was just trying to find the obscure little hostel that I had pre-booked. Lots of walking in the wrong direction, then asking for directions, resulted in me finding my place only about 300m from where I started!
For my first full day in Hong Kong, the task was to find a sports bar showing the AFL grand final - much more difficult than I expected. I was with a fellow traveller, Simone, from Holland who was on her way home after a 10 month trip that included 8 months in Oz. We did a little sight seeing, a little shopping, and eventually found "Bulldogs" (an Aussie/Brit pub) in Lan Kwai Fong. Not only was it showing the AFL grand final but the NRL grand final, too, the next afternoon - my kind of place.
Had a great burger and a few glasses of good Sauvignon Blanc (it came at a premium, of course) and enjoyed the game with
Victoria Harbour - daylight
Not a bad place to sit and eat breakfast really.... Simone and a huge crowd of holiday makers and ex-pats. Pity about the result. I was willing the Swannies on.
Next day, off to the races at Sha Tin. I was concerned that it might be expensive and busy because it was the start of a full week of Chinese celebration with the National Day public holiday and there was one group race (that is, for good horses only) on the card. However, the transport to the track was efficient, entry only HK$10 (less than AUS$2), the crowd was small, and I found it to
Victoria Harbour - evening I
Early evening fron Victoria Peak be the most beautiful course I have ever attended! It was so clean, had a fantastic parade ring, it was easy to access many areas of the track, great food hall, etc - only problem for me was there was very little form in English and my Chinese is a long way short of reading the racing form. So, when all else fails, back the Aussie jockeys - Brett Prebble, Dan Nikolic, and, in one race, even Shane Dye! Well, not a winner amongst them for the day. When all looked lost and it appeared that my overseas racing treble (Kentucky, Ascot and Sha Tin) was going to be "collect free", I had a winner - in Japan! Aussie sprinter, "Takeover Target" (who incidentally won at Ascot when I was there) came through for me. At last!
Left the races and headed to "Bulldogs" again. More expensive food and wine and yet further disappointment - Melbourne Storm (my team) lost to Brisbane Broncos in the NRL grand final. Had the company of a few Sydney-siders and they agreed that "we was robbed". Oh well, lucky it is only a game.
That night, there were fireworks on Victoria Harbour
Victoria Harbour - evening II
Back on the Kowloon side after the laser light display..... to celebrate Chinese National Day. Unfortunately by the time I finished with the NRL, got back to the hostel to pick up my good camera, and then tried to find a good vantage point, I really struggled. I did get to see some of the higher fireworks but the low level ones were hidden behind a building for me. The crowd was very impressed (lots of 'ooohhhs' and 'aaahhhs') and sizable.
Next day, the giant seated Buddha in Ngong Ping. I really liked it and was pleased that Simone and I got there early. The longer we were there, the busier it got (it was a public holiday afterall!) We came back down via the new cable car. It was only opened last month and the news reported that they had 9,500 passengers that day, a record. No wonder the queues looked long.
Next day, Happy Valley racecourse. The races were not on but the racing museum was quite impressive for a freebie and the track looked fantastic.
Later that afternoon, I travelled on the world's longest escalator, although, I was disappointed that it was actually a series of escalators rather than a single continuous one!
Sha Tin Parade Ring
Absolutely magnificent At the top. I decided to traverse across to the Victoria Peak cable car so I could go up and get a reasonable view of the city. Unfortunately, my internal GPS was not working effectively that afternoon because I clearly missed a turn and ended up walking up to the peak. This would have been fine if it was not hot and humid and I was not wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a heavy day pack. Needless to say, I was very hot and very sweaty by the time I reached the top and, as I saw no one else on the track, I was the only idiot who had not taken the easy option of the cable car. I did get a few strange looks!
The view was ok. The whole time I was in Hong Kong is was overcast and foggy/smoggy so the view was not spectacular. As the sunset, however, the lights from the city buildings seemed to overcome the mist and it was lovely.
After a cable car ride down, I crossed the harbour on the ferry to watch the light and music show on either side of the harbour. Many of the
Sha Tin Big Screen
The largest in the world high rise buildings on the harbour were part of the display - some with laser lights off the top, others with colored lighting within the building etc. Lots of people watching a great nightly show.
Next day, I took the train to Shenzhen, the first city across the border into mainland China and started my real Chinese adventures.......
Advertisement
Tot: 0.213s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 27; qc: 120; dbt: 0.1137s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Honkie
non-member comment
Hi Merryn, Nice pics. I suppose you went to the public stand of the Sha Tin race track. Most aussie punters go to the members stand with nicer facilities.(hk$150 entrance fee)