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Published: June 18th 2012
Day 3 – Hong Kong / Lantau Island - 5th Feb
Another overcast day in Hong Kong; suppose I shouldn’t complain though, I mean it hasn’t rained yet. Eventually, I got off the MTR at Central and consulted the map as I was looking for the tram that climbs the peak for stunning views across Hong Kong; however I wasn’t too convinced that I would see anything. After consulting my map and more to the point directions from some helpful people, I made to the entrance of the Peak Tram. Boarded the tram and was thrown against the wooden seat as it climbed the 370 meters to the plateau at a crazy angle; apparently a 14 degree gradient. As I thought it would be, the further up towards the plateau we went the thicker the fog became making looking out of the windows impossible. We eventually got up the top to find, surprise surprise that the viewing platform was shut. Wondered around and looked in the various shops before jumping back onto the tram and heading back down towards terra firma, holding on trying not to fall out of my seat!
I was going to
look for the old Bank of China building as they also have an excellent viewing platform on the 40th floor but it dawned on me that this would be a pointless exercise as the fog didn’t look like it was going to go anytime soon.
Bored; looking for something to do I decided to get out to some of the Outlying Islands. I decided that the island of Lantau would be a good place to go and see mainly because there's a huge Buddha statue on it, the Tian Tan Buddha. The journey there included a 30 minute MTR trip that only got you as far as the cable car which took u up to the village where the Buddha was situated. The views on the cable car were breathtaking; luckily there was no fog over this part of Hong Kong. I got to see some amazing views of the bay, of the airport and some awesome countryside. All of a sudden the fog wrapped it tight grip around the cable care; completely engulfing it and cutting off my views.
Eventually I reached the bottom of the Buddha and looked up; a trip on
the MTR, a cable car and the only thing left was a 260 step climb to reach it. I looked up with a big sigh and started to climb the steps to the top; halfway up my calf muscles really started to hurt. Knackered I reached the top of the climb and stood there sweaty and in complete awe at the size of the Buddha; very impressive. It was only a quick visit as I had to get back to the hostel to catch up with Ming and the other lads. I was walking around the bottom of the Buddha when out of the blue and as I was peeling a banana this Chinese girl grabbed hold of me, span me around and her brother, boyfriend or whoever took a picture of us together. It all happened so quickly that I was rather perplexed and as soon as it had happened it was over and they were making their way down the steps. I stood there and finished my banana before leaving. Honestly you wouldn’t have thought that any of these people have ever seen a Westerner the way they behave sometimes.
Got back to the hostel
From A Distance
It Looks So Smallat half 4, quickly checked my emails and jumped into the shower; before I knew it time had flown by and it was time to meet up with the guys in Soho for some drinks; meeting up with Ringo and Ming. Ming's little sister was in one of the local hockey teams and we were going to gatecrash the end of season party. We were all getting really excited about the prospect of gate crashing their party until the second we got in there and realised that it was the men's hockey team taking out the women team; I’m not sure what the exact moment was that this was realised but I have a sneaking suspension it might have been when the men's team started stripping on stage. As a result of this we decided to hide round the corner so that we weren’t able to see what was happening on the stage. Mark got incredibly wasted and was providing us with most of the entertainment for the evening; can’t exactly remember what but it was all good fun!
We waited around outside the Melting Pot for an age; managing in the process to lose half the group
and Ming's sister. We wondered around Soho for ages, up and down streets, pushing though the huge crowds that had formed to watch people break dance in the streets all with drink in hand and no trouble; something that is unthinkable in the UK. Ming found out that his sister was in a bar called Gecko's; it was down a winding dark alley and by the time that we got there was close to closing with nobody in sight. We stayed until they kicked us out to shut up being quite drunk after a few shots of absinthe. We finished our beers outside the bar, leaning on the wall of the club next door, where all of a sudden the bouncer tried to grope me, for some reason I took offence to this and grabbed hold of Ming and left the area rather quickly without our beers.
After wondering around the streets of Soho for a bit longer with no real sign of knowing where we were going, Ming bundled me into a cab where I completely crashed out, I came round in Ming's flat, checked my watch which read 7am and fell asleep; a very good night out!!
Day 4 – Hong Kong / International Airport - 6th Feb
My head was pounding as I woke up; I had no idea where I was. It felt like World War 3 was going on in my head as Ming's sister showed me the time on her watch, it read midday. She apologised for Ming not being around as he had to go to work early and she brought me a cup of tea, which I slowly sipped as I started to feel a little more with it. After jumping out of the shower I said thanks to Ming's sister as she guided me down to the MTR; after consulting the map I realised that I was actually on the other side of Hong Kong and had a long journey back to the hostel. I spoke to the lady who ran the hostel and told her that I was checking out a day early; she looked at me like I was crazy and just told her that I needed to move on.
After a 40 minute journey which wasn’t made any easier by my hungover state I stumbled though the door
of the hostel. I threw everything into my rucksack before trudging off to the MTR station; I wondered around for what seemed like an age until deciding to simply jump on the Airport Express and just died.
Wondered though the airport looking forward to moving onto a new country, a new destination. I was flying out to Cambodia, to Phnom Penh and was starting to feel a little better when I got to the Dragonair check in desk to check in; I couldn’t see the desk for the flight to Phnom Penh so I grabbed hold of a Dragonair member of staff and asked where the desk was for the flight, she looked at me and told me that I had missed the flight. I looked at her unbelieving and said the flight was at 1600 I checked it before I left London, she explained to me that today flight was at 0925 in the morning; Dragonair rotates the times of the flights to Phnom Penh, one in the morning and then the next day in the afternoon.
Bollocks, Bollocks, Bollocks. Not my best day; after spending a couple of hours in the airport drinking coffee
and using the free internet I decided that I needed to go back to the hostel instead of spending the best part of 24 hours in the airport. I didn’t have any money left so I got some out and jumped on the Airport Express. When I got back to the hostel, the owner was not pleased to see me; at first she tried to get rid off me, I refused say that I still had paid for that bed then she was like “You back, you want bed back you pay 30 Hong Kong Dollars” I was told her that I wasn’t going to do that and then she was like well no dollars no bed. This exchange lasted for about 5 minutes when I handed over the money rather disgruntled. What a bitch!! I spent the rest of the night relaxing and sleeping.
Day 5 – Hong Kong International Airport – 7
th Feb 2010
I'm not making much progress so it was good to finally get onto an aircraft and away from Hong Kong. I arrived at the airport having defiantly making sure that the flight left at 1600 and was over
the moon when I had my Dragonair boarding card firmly in my hand. I had one last job to do before going though security and that was to post some postcards; after some searching finally find the post office tucked away in a corner. With these posted I went straight to the gate, didn’t want anymore mishaps to happen; wasn’t going to take anymore chances!
The weather had taken a turn for the worse and was absolutely pissing down; typically English weather, as the aircraft was located on a remote stand we were all given some disposable rain macks to keep dry. The flight was pleasant enough; really nice crew but more importantly a really nice lunch; chicken noodles! I managed to get a window seat and as we came into land in Phenom Pehn I watched as the landscape changed; from rural meadowland to the built up city that was Phenom Pehn.
The first thing I noticed upon leaving the airport in Phenom Pehn was the heat and the humidity, hailing down a taxi I made my way to the hostel. One of the things I noticed along my journey was that the
high rises of Hong Kong and in particular Nathan Road was that most of the buildings were single story and slightly crumbling; this might be explained by the fact that Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in South East Asia.
When I arrived at the hostel I was surprised and not in a good way; I was showed around by the owner and it turned out that my bed was a mattress on the floor and the air conditioning was provided by a couple of fans standing up in various places around the room. It turned out that the hostel had just changed ownership and was far from ready to take guest but the owner needed the money to come in whilst it was being refreshed.
Checking in alongside me was a French Canadian called JF, he too was slightly unimpressed at the state of the hostel but we both decided that we couldn’t be assed to find somewhere else; we threw our belongings onto the bed, sorry mattress and started talking to a couple of English girls that were already staying there. We walked down to Tonie Sap and had something to
eat at one of the local restaurant. I tried some of the local food; Fish Amok, which is some of the local Khmer cuisine, basically Fish Amok is fish mixed with a coconut curry sauce and its steamed in a boat made origami fashion from a banana leaf. We waited for the food to be prepared with drinks overlooking the river, when my Amok did arrive it smelt amazing and when I tried some; well it tasted as good as it smelt! The rest of the evening was spent drinking and chatting, mainly about languages and travelling but the conversation covered many other topics. The tourist riverside bars and restaurants seem to close fairly early so we headed back in land and found a local restaurant called 9999 where we stayed drinking and throw peanut shells into each other drinks until the early hours of the morning!
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