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Published: January 10th 2014
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I arrived at Chiang Mai airport at 4am and it was all closed up. The lady who owned the hostel drove me there out of kindness as there was no tuk tuk. My flight with Air Asia left at 6am. Air Asia turned out to be the Asian equivalent of Ryanair but luckily I slept for the whole two hours so no problem! My seat was comfortable.
I got a very modern train from the airport into town which gave me a chance to get some amazing views of Hong Kong and Kowloon. I got a bus which drove me at top speed through the traffic which is pretty aggressive here and beep their car horns all the time.
After spending a day here the only positive thing I have to say about this city is that the Hong Kong dollar has some very colourful notes and some interestingly-shaped ten dollar coins. However, it is hard to breathe when walking through the streets because of the smog, the traffic and people are quite a lot more aggressive than in London and ‘thankyou’ doesn’t exist here.
Everybody seems to be tuned in to
the capitalist motto ‘Time is money’ attitude and rush around without enjoying much. It just looks like a bigger version of London to me. Everybody talks money, and knows how much their dollar is worth but they live in very basic ‘China’ conditions. People eat alone and generally seem very unhappy. I imagine the rest of China is this way, that there are very few Buddhists here, very little kindness or forgiveness and no wonderful king to keep the country united unlike Thailand. For me coming to Hong Kong is a bigger culture shock than going to Laos or Thailand.
However after one day and just having being in one area of Hong Kong it is far too soon to judge. In every dark pit there must be one gem. Indeed, everything is well signposted in English and most places can give information in English. In my neighbourhood in Causeway bay I’ve visited Victoria Park. There was a boat lake where some Chinese men were racing miniature speedboats around it, people practising martial arts moves alone and a jogging circuit. I’m realising parks in Asia are generally very different to the ones in Europe. The ones in
Europe focus on the names and beauty of the flowers whilst the ones here and in Bangkok are purely functional places where people escape from work or get exercise.
I walked past the world trade centre and made my way to the central library of Hong Kong. I walked up all seven floors, it was a spectacular building. It is modern, has amazing facilities and the top technology and a vast amount of both books written in Chinese and English. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a modern building, but yet useful at the same time. I was fascinated by the intricacy of the Chinese symbols written in the books. I ask ‘how can a human being think of something so intricate to just convey a basic meaning such as ‘Pick this up here.’
This morning I didn’t dare brave local food in Hong Kong, I tried a Big Mac meal from Mcdonalds and a coffee from Starbucks. However this afternoon I ambled back to the hostel looking for some local food. I’ve decided to eat local food as this is what I’ve been doing since I arrived in Asia. I’m sure it
saves me getting sick, it saves me money and it’s healthier and fresher if its not been imported. I can’t understand a word of Chinese so now I just point at something on the menu and pray that I haven’t ordered cat, dog and rabbit. So far so good, plus its really nice to wait for something without having expectations.. It’s exciting and exhilarating at the same time not knowing what will happen next ……………………………….. but if one day a dog arrives on my plate perhaps then I will alter my view on life a little bit.
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