Hong Kong ....

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Day 1 – Hong Kong / Kowloon - 3rd Feb

Half the fun of arriving in a different city, in a strange country is the process of getting into town and getting to your accommodation. After claiming my bags and saying goodbye to the crew I started this process, the directions that the International Crew Member had given me was to get the airport shuttle bus downtown, there was but one problem with this and that was that I couldn’t seem to find it. I wondered around the airport looking like the preverbal lost sheep and then I made the decision to simply jump on the airport express train.



I ventured up to the ticket machine and looked at the map followed by the various options on the ticket machine. I wasn’t exactly 100% sure where I was going when I selected Kowloon, I literally just hoped for the best. The weather in Hong Kong was foggy and damp; some people say that all the fog is actually all the smog blowing over from the factories in Mainland China, all I know for sure is that the weather is similar to that of the UK.



Arriving at Kowloon I got off and made my way though the station building, once again looking like that preverbal lost sheep, well, that was until this guy tapped me on the shoulder and offered to help me. I explained to him that I was looking to get Tsim Sha Tsui, pointing at it on the map. He told me to get the Tung Chung line; the orange line to Hong Kong Station from there to walk across to Central and catch the Tsuen Wan line; the red one for 2 stops. I thanked him and continued with my journey at least now knowing where to go.



Stepping out of Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station was a shock to the system. There were lights everywhere, on all the buildings, all of Nathan Road jam packed with traffic and the hawkers on the streets smelling fresh tourist blood, trying to sell me there wears. I turned right out of the station and started walking, not knowing if I was actually going in the right direction at all, simply figuring it was better to be moving then standing still being a target for the street side hawkers. After about 5 minutes of walking I discovered that I was going completely the wrong way, so with an about turn, started walking in the direction of that I had just come. Eventually I found Mirador Mansions and Mansions they were not; instead I was greeted with a huge all most office block with every kind of business u can think off.



Eventually I worked out that the hostel was located on the 13th floor and after waiting an age for the lift to take me up to the 13th floor I was greeted by a foul smell, I couldn’t tell you what this foul smell was but let’s say that it didn’t agree with me. I was shown to my room and apparently small cost means small room in Hong Kong, I mean I know that people in this part of the world are smaller than that in the west but even this took the piss somewhat, I mean you really would struggle to swing a cat in the room.

I introduced myself to Mark, he was the only other person in the room when I got there and he was from Singapore and was in Hong Kong to see he could get one of his inventions made in one of the various factories here. Mark showed me the prototype; it was an invention to allow you to hold a drink carton and a fast food package all in one hand, how it worked was say you had some chips and drink from a fast food outlet, the chip packaging would clip onto the cup so you could hold both in one hand. I wasn’t sure it would ever really catch on but none the less agreed with him. Mark told me that he was going out for dinner with some friends and asked if I would like to come along, I jumped at the opportunity to join him seeing that Mirador Mansions had a distinct lack of a common room where u could meet anybody.



Eventually, we got to Joe Bananas, where the rest of Mark's friends were waiting. With a well needed beer in hand we started chatting. It turned out that me and Mark's friends actually had something in common; Ming, was an engineer for Cathay Pacific and the other one was in sales, actually selling the use of private jets to companies. We joked that all we needed was a pilot and we could have started our own airline, well we could only have had one aircraft in our fleet but it was better than nothing!!! We spent most of the night here; drinking, chatting and getting to know each other and I spent a considerably long time trying to find an ATM that would actually accept my card; this was proving a rather hard task

After finishing drinking, we moved on and went to a little noodle house for something to eat. There was a problem here, upon picking up the menu I noticed it was all in Chinese, the man who was serving us laughed at my inability to read Chinese I just ended up laughing with him and I said to Mark why don’t we just pick a handful of dished and share them. I let them pick about 6 different dishes and they ordered some Blue Lady beer, which apparently is the national beer, even though it says brewed in Germany. We parted company and decided to meet up again in a couple of day’s time for, what they called a proper night out. It was around about midnight by the time I got back to my hostel, I had a shower and tried to get comfortable in my tiny bunk bed.



Day 2 – Hong Kong / Kowloon – 4th Feb

It's rather overcast at the moment in Hong Kong. Grey and cloudy was the scene as I wondered down Nathan Road towards Tsim Shu Tui promenade on the seafront. Nathan Road is the tourist ghetto of Hong Kong; not what you would call exactly a sight or an attraction but it is a chaotic scrum of high rises stacked with full of seedy guesthouses and business rubbing their noses against top end hotels chains; touts line the streets trying to sell you everything from copied designer bags and watches to tailors trying to get you into their shops for a bespoke designer suit, this is even true at 9.30 in the morning. Absolute craziness!!!



Crossed the road onto the promenade and walked along the Avenue of the Stars; Hong Kong's tribute to the Hong Kong film industry. Along this part of the promenade was handprints, sculptures and information about the various famous actors and actresses; most of which I had never of heard of with the exception of Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Towards the end (or the start; dependent of which end you start at) was a big crowd gathering, after getting closer I realised it was a sculpture of Bruce Lee. After the crowds had thinned I asked a passer-by to take a picture of me in front of Bruce with a Martial Arts type pose; probably everybody does this but it did have to be done! The wind was blowing a gale off the bay and even though I had gone back home I still manage to forget my jumper; I decided to take the MTR up to Mong Kok, one of the various markets in Hong Kong and simply wonder around to see if could pick up a cheap jumper. All the stalls were filled mainly with decorations for Chinese New Year as this was coming up in the next week or so. It was packed with people fighting their way though; elbow flying across people paths. I managed to find and cheap and largely fake looking Billabong hoody to keep me a little warmer! I managed to escape the hussle and the bussle of the market by stumbling across the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden; I found it a mix of emotions because whilst it is true that the Chinese do make a big fuss over there feathered friends it was terrible to see 3 or 4 parrots being crammed into a single cage. I engulfed myself into this market for the rest of the day; sitting down listening to the relaxing song of birds and watching the old men feed caterpillars though the bars of what looked like bamboo or teak cages with chopsticks.



Eventually I made my way back to the hostel, relaxing with Mark; listening to his story of his day and how he spent it running around Hong Kong, doing presentation upon presentation to try to get his invention made in a factory in Hong Kong, we were interrupted by a new roomie; a girl called Monik who had just arrived from the Netherlands. We left Monik to get familiar with her new surroundings and walked down to the Avenue of the Stars where a light show was happening but was left feeling rather disappointed with it all, we walked along the promenade towards the Star Ferry, jumping on and heading over to Central. The views of all the office blocks on the bay was amazing, every single office building was lit up with adverts for something on top, there reflections stretching out across the water. Truly an amazing sight to behold!! It made me wonder what the energy consumption of Hong Kong is; I mean all the lights down Nathan Road and the lights here, I bet they use more energy here then a small 3rd world country!



As the small electric diesel hybrid boat pulled into the port at Central we jumped back into Kowloon on the MTR and wonder round the Temple Night Market. This was described to me as being the best and liveliest night market in the whole of Hong Kong, here you could buy all kind of knick knacks and lots of fake stuff including DVD's. I picked up a couple of DVD's, leaving wondering if they would actually work but not too worried as I did only pay peanuts for them. We walked though with the smells from the daai paai-dawng or open aired food stalls attacking our noses; some amazing some not so much! Again just as the market in Mong Kok, it was packed with people coming for everything from footwear to dresses. On several occasions Mark dragged me away having my fortune told by what would probably be rip off fortune tellers. One thing I did learn from my experiences in the market was that my bargaining skills were defiantly not as good as I thought they were!!!!!

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Photos

Nathan Road
Tourist Ghetto of Hong Kong

My Dorm Room
No Swinging Cats Here

Hands
The Mighty Bruce Lee

Hands 2'
Jet Li; Fist Of Fury

Take That ...
Striking a Pose That (Hopefully) Bruce Lee Would Be Proud of

Yung Po Bird Market
African Grey

Light Show
Over The Bay