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After a long day’s travelling, we finally arrived in Hong Kong last night. It’s always a bit of a shock arriving somewhere new (perhaps I ought to call it a ‘challenge’?), especially after a long flight. I suppose in some ways, I find it more difficult in Hong Kong, as I lived here for a couple of years a lifetime ago and therefore feel as if I should know what I’m doing, but everything changes so quickly here! Having said all that, we managed to negotiate our way onto the Airport Express, the MTR train to Hong Kong, and from there to our hotel fairly seamlessly (and more importantly, painlessly!). We even managed to get ourselves into a local restaurant for a meal before collapsing in a heap having lost 4 hours some time during the day (careless I know, but I did what I always do in these circumstances and blamed John!).
This morning we were up with the lark (probably a mistake in retrospect) and 9am saw us on the hotel shuttle to Star Ferry. You can probably imagine John standing on the ferry clicking away on the camera at one of the world’s most famous sights -
the Hong Kong Harbour with its multitude of high rise buildings - several of which were new from the last time I was here 10 years’ ago. Two were particularly noticeable as we couldn’t actually see the top of them as they were literally in the clouds! John did make a pertinent observation that whilst the skyscrapers were a sight in themselves, there wasn’t a particularly iconic building such as the Petronas Towers or our own beloved (!) gherkin.
Arriving in Kowloon was a bit of a shock as we were inundated by tailors trying to persuade John he wanted a new suit, and a whole flock of younger people trying to do a questionnaire and get us to take scratch cards (we’ve still got to work out what the wicked wheeze is on those). We also had several people who seemed to think that my life wouldn’t be complete until I owned a Gucci bag or, failing that, a Rolex watch ... now after 5 months travelling around without much access to a mirror and a suitcase full of clothes which have frankly seen better days, I can honestly say I don’t know why they were bothering to
waste their breath!!
I led John through the chaos and pointed out the sights as I recalled them, the station clock tower which is the only remnant left of the colonial station, the Peninsula Hotel, which is stuck behind a carbuncle of an Arts Building (goodness only knows how that got past the planning committee, but they should be shot), and onto Nathan Road. I pointed out Chungking Mansions, where we used to have the most fantastic curries, but which used to be a blot on the rest of the upmarket area, but I have to say that the area has changed somewhat - the gilt seems to have flaked on the Golden Mile, once THE shopping street in Hong Kong - I assume that those with money to burn prefer shopping in the plethora of air conditioned malls.
I decided that now was probably a good time to try out the MTR (before John decked one of the hawkers!) and we went off to the flower market, the bird market and the goldfish market - all of which were a lot calmer! We also stumbled over a street market (like you do!), which I thoroughly enjoyed ...
which made one of us!! The flower market was interesting not only for the variety of flowers and plants, but also the beautiful arrangements on sale. Interestingly, I was chatting to a Chinese lady who was purchasing an aloe vera leaf - they use the gelatinous jelly inside the leaf for stomach problems, eating it raw (I’ve always used it for sunburn!).
We then went on the MTR back to Hong Kong, found the Central bus terminus (not where it used to be, I’m sure!) and caught the bus to Aberdeen Harbour to look at the floating restaurants. Now this is where I got a real shock - 30 years ago the typhoon shelter was full of ‘boat people’ - boats crammed in together that were home to a multitude of people, living in very basic conditions. Nowadays the boat people have gone, moved into the high rise buildings that now circle the harbour, and the marina is home to a huge fishing fleet and the yachts and speedboats of the wealthy. The water is now so clean that we saw people fishing - whereas before it was filthy and none too fresh on the nose. Part of me
felt a pang of guilt for wishing those poor people back into squalor - but it really was far more interesting way back when ... !
After a sampan trip round the Harbour, we went to visit the Jumbo Floating Restaurant, now one of only 2 in the Harbour. It really is an impressive sight (if you don’t look at it from the back!), and we looked around the various dining rooms and fish tanks before making our way back to Aberdeen itself for a drink and to watch the locals relaxing in the square after a hard day. Aberdeen is far more built up than I remember - there are the numerous high rises housing the boat people for a start. There is also quite a lot of development underway (as there is across Hong Kong). A very impressive apartment complex looked almost complete - our sampan driver told us the apartments were outrageously expensive and would probably be bought by rich Chinese from the mainland (and bear in mind that Hong Kong real estate was already some of the most expensive in the world!).
The journey back to Central was interesting as we had Mr Burp
on the top floor of the bus with us - a chap sitting just two rows back who just didn’t stop burping for the entire journey - we were in fits of laughter by the end, but he was completely oblivious! When we got back to the hotel we discovered they’d upgraded our room. We went out for a meal and then had a drink in the hotel bar on the 28th floor, giving spectacular views over the Harbour. And then to bed ... we realised we’d been on the go non-stop for over 12 hours ...
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