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Published: February 28th 2007
Waking up on my hard bed I could feel vibrations going through my body, as well as a muffled but repeated sound - ... ... ... Each thump threw ripples on the surface of the glass of water standing by the bed, much like that effect from Jurassic Park where puddles of water would vibrate from the approaching T-Rex. A polite note from the hotel staff announced that construction work continues in a nearby block, and the whole building keeps shaking from the pounds of the piledrivers next door. Oh well, since I am on the 25th floor I would be reasonably high up in the pile of debris should the building collapse. Better take a rain check on that 2nd floor restaurant.
Ivy had taken the day off and decided to begin my introduction to town by taking the ferry over to the Kowloon side. To put it simply, downtown Hong Kong is spread out on two sides of Victoria Harbour. In the south is Hong Kong Island, a crowded hilly island with several settlements along the coast. The northern side of the island holds the major economic centre of town, stretching itself in a western
We are all beginners...
A rare shot of a hapless chap wielding the chop stick like as if it were the first time.to eastern belt of skyscrapers, beginning at Central in the west, passing through Wan Chai to Causeway Bay in the east (The centre of the island holds the hills, and beyond them you will find the smaller towns such as Aberdeen, Repulse Bay and Stanley). North of Victoria Harbour the remaining section is connected to the mainland and is known as Kowloon. Kowloon is busy in the south, and gets more peaceful as you venture North towards the provincial border to Shenzhen Economic Zone.
Getting around downtown you have a number of options.
Mass Transit Railway (MTR) in the form of underground trains, commuter trains, buses, taxis or on Hong Kong Island the slow tram. The two sections of the city is joined by the Cross Harbour Tunnel, and separate corridors for the underground train. You can also choose ferries that shuttle people from one side to the other from several locations. The most famous of these of course being the Star Ferries.
Ferry was the option Ivy had in mind when she walked me to the bus and ferry terminal just a few minutes from my hotel. It is not uncommon to see these small ferries having to queue
Departing North Point by ferry
The spiffy yellow facade of my hotel in the background. up at the pier, so you rarely need to wait for very long. You can easily pay with your Octopus card and pass through a turnstile. The ride across the harbour clocked at around 25 minutes and took us right past some of the anchored ships which had captured my interest. Ivy explained that most of them are floating casinos. In the evenings they will receive passengers, and the ships then venture out at sea to escape provincial regulations on gambling (I could monitor this activity from my hotel room by seeing some of the ships disappearing in the evenings and returning in the mornings). We have similar arrangements in my home country, where large ferries will take people on a quick spin through international water so that the passengers can buy their precious tax free liquors...
Other sights along the route includes the famous and now sadly closed Kai Tak airport. The spectacular location of this airstrip can easily be verified by a random picture search on one of the internet search engines. The airport closed in 1998 when the traffic was moved overnight to the spacious
Chek Lap Kok Airport over on Lantau Island. As much as I like the
Harbour Patrol
The police monitors the heavy traffic in the harbour regularly. new airport I feel a big hole in my heart as I never got the chance to experience or even watch a wild landing at Kai Tak. I am sure a lot of aviation enthusiasts across the world feel the same way. Anyway, moving on... Another spectacular sight from the water are the flashy residential towers with their expensive apartments. Of course speculative projects such as these are not without victims, and construction companies have been bankrupted in the process of building these monsters.
The ferry dropped us off at the low key pier at Ma Tau Kok, in a typical residential part of the city. from here we continued a bit on foot through trademark Hong Kong city streets with their signs and billboards reaching out over the street from both sides. Among the various colourful company names were also smaller a bit more discrete yellow signs, announcing the presence of nearby love hotels. We took a double decker down towards Tsim Sha Tsui, using the Octopus card once more to pay for the journey. This part of town is a major commercial area, with shops, eateries and markets everywhere. After dinner we ended up on the waterfront,
a popular hangout area where you can gaze at the mighty towers on Hong Kong Island, illuminated in flashing neon colours.
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