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Published: October 3rd 2007
I took the high speed catamaran from Macau to Hong Kong. It's fast, taking just 1 hour to cover 65km. I can't work out how fast that is, but it sounds dead fast.
A few mates from home were flying out to Hong Kong to meet me for a week: Mike, Gareth, Vera, the Cat and Rich (who will be guest blogging later on). I knew it was going to a different class of tourism from what I had become accustomed to. These guys were on holiday and on a holiday budget, whereas I had been living on a shoestring travelbum budget. But we managed to find a happy comprimise - They would pay for a hotel room; I would crash in the corner. They would buy a nice meal; I would be thrown the leftovers; They would take public transport; I would trail behind in the smog on my bike. To be fair, my approach to shoestring travelling is only to scrimp-and-save on these three things, ie. accommodation, food and transport. I would never sacrifice an event, trip or sightseeing for the sake of a few HK dollars. After all, that's why I'm here and opportunities don't come and
go as quickly as money.
The history of the Hong Kong island group is a tale of occupation ping-ponging between China and Britain. The imperial Chinese held the territory until the 1800's. Then the Brits took over after the Opium Wars. The Japense briefly came in during WWII, before Britain re-established control until 1997. On July 1st 1997 we handed control back over to China, though Hong Kong still holds a level of self-control as a Special Administrative Region. The 10 year anniversary was marked a few weeks ago with a massive display of fireworks. Chinese fireworks one presumes. Over these 10 years, much has changed and much has stayed the same. The Union Jack no longer flies, the Queen has been removed from the bank notes and the red post boxes are now green. But the cars still drive on the left, the 3-pin plug sockets remain, as do the English street and place names. The latter of which is most surprising given much of the world's recent craze with changing place names. Bombay is now Mumbai; Calcutta is Kolkotta; Canton is Guangzhou: and Burma decided it now wanted to be called Myanmar. I'm not sure how a
country decides it will change its name and whether they have the right to tell the world to follow suit. Or whether there is a UN place-naming committee or something. Either way, Hong Kong is Hong Kong, so I'll not worry about it.
I arrived in Hong Kong a day before the other guys and symbollically cycled the last few kilometres from the ferry port to the hotel, signifying the climax of my cross (some of) Asia bike ride. I was just like Lance Armstrong triumphantly riding the final stage of the Tour de France along the Champs Elysee - only without the screaming crowds, the decade-long battle against cancer, the constant unfounded drug slurs and Cheryl Crow at my side. In every other way though, just like Lance Armstrong.
Unlike every other country in Asia, Hong Kong is not set up for bicycles. It has no cycle lanes, so it's a game of frogger darting between the hectic highway lanes of traffic. I would have taken public transport, except bikes are not allowed on the trains, the busses, the tubes, the boats, and officially not even the roads. It's almost as if Hong Kong has an active
anti-cycle policy. It was described to me as "dangerous" and "complicated" to cycle around Hong Kong. Two words that were supposed to discourage me, but in reality only added appeal to the challenge. Fortunately not once did I hit a real problem (or car). The only incident of note was when I was not allowed to stop beside a mini roundabout cum taxi rank, where I was meant to be meeting the others 20 minutes later. The traffic police told me only taxis were permitted to wait here and I must keep moving on. So, being the pedantic type, I took him to his word and cycled round and round the mini roundabout annoying the taxis who were trying to pass by. After 5 or 10 minutes of this and the persistent beeping the traffic cop called me over. I knew he was either going to give in or beat the living crap out of me. He gently shook his head, tutted, and told me to wait quietly by the taxi rank. High 5 to pedancy. The other problem I had in Hong Kong was asking people for directions. The local culture is one of not losing face come what
Two IFC
A very tall buildingmay, so they would point me the way with an air of confidence even if they had no idea where they were directing me. Answering for the sake of answering. Remind you of anyone?
I arrived in Hong Kong a day before the others. That first night I was taken to a local fish restaurant where I could pick my own dinner from a tankful of live sea creatures swimming around blissfully unaware of their fate. The guys I was with decided to have lobster. But I remembered something a girl had told me earlier in the trip - she refused to eat lobster because lobsters mate for life (much like parrots, penguins and the odd human) and often Mr Lobster would get hauled away leaving Mrs Lobster to mourn away her days alone and heartbroken. With this in mind, I had a word with the chef. I would only eat one of his fine lobsters if he could absolutely, positively guarantee that its mate would be boiled beside him. He agreed and we consumed the cooked couple guilt free.
Also, in that half day I was in Hong Kong prior to the others arriving I had enough
time to be shown the whistlestop highlights by a know-it-all local Hong Konger with a few inside tips. Then when the others arrived, I was able to act like Hong Kong was my second home. The first night I proudly led them to a car park. Hong Kong's finest car park, I told them. Even Stan Collymore would agree. (Its the car park above Harbour City mall, if you're interested). In fact, it's the best viewing point for the nightly Light display, where Hong Kong's skyline puts on a fantastically choreographed spectacle of illuminations and "LASERs". The tallest building in the Hong Kong skyline is the International Finance Centre (IFC). I estimated this to be approximately 264 metres high, taking into account it claims to have 88 floors and each looks about 3 metres apart. You do the math. But according to the guide book and Wikipedia it is an "unbelieveable" 415 metres high. This suggests that if it was laid flat, Roger Black would be able to run alongside the stricken building in just under 50 seconds. But by my calculations he could cover the distance in approximately 28 seconds. I remain convinced that this is another example of
Chinese media management trying to let the world think their buildings are taller than they actually are (my other doubt is the alleged 88 floors - as visitors we were only allowed up to the 55th floor. From here there was nothing to indicate any more floors were above us. No lifts, no stairs, no viewing platform to be able to look upwards). Don't believe the propaganda, I tell you.
A week in Hong Kong is more than enough time to see and do the touristy bits - the Golden Buddha, the markets, the theme parks, the outlying islands and beaches, Happy Valley races, and climb Victoria peak for a view of the skyline similar to the one from the secret car park, only from a different and more expensive angle. However our experience of Hong Kong was more about the nightlife than daylife. More about sleazy clubs than city museums. More about Ring-of-Fire and other such drinking games than fine wine and conversation.
The time in Hong Kong leaked away quicker than custard in a collander and come the last day I had done next to nothing about selling my bike - which was meant to be
the first thing I did. Laziness doesn't alway pay, it seems. I made a token lame effort to offload it to a bike-hire company, but the price they offered would have just about covered my journey back to the hotel. So instead I took the bold decision to take it with me to Australia. Well, not so much a decision as an imposition. Not so much bold as imposed. I phoned Qantas airlines about taking a bike onboard. No problem they said, so long as it is boxed and my total baggage weight does not exceed 20 kilos. So, that'll be 2 problems then. As it was a Sunday, the Post Office and cycle shops were closed, so I couldn't buy a proper bike box. Instead, we improvised and patched together a load of supermarket cardboard boxes, messily bound together with reels and reels of parcel tape. Indestructible. Just so long a no-one tried to move it. The other issue was the excess baggage. With fingers crossed and a slight pang of guilt, I told Qantas I had cycled across Asia for charity and anything they charged me for excess weight would be taken out of the kitty for the
poor kiddies. They bought it. Though I do feel obliged to make a contribution to UNICEF or something now.
On that note, let me pass you over to Richard for his take on a week in my life.....
"Hello there. I've managed to blag my way to a guest appearance on Tim's blog. I, as I assume you (reader), have enjoyed reading this blog for the past nine months and felt I'd like a piece of the action. To ensure you all feel at home I will attempt to keep this to the same tried and tested blog formula as Tim does, ie. fact, fact, fact. joke, fact, pun, fact.
So anyway, we flew with OASiS, Hong Kong's new low cost airline. According to Wikipedia the 747 we flew on was 4th hand and first flown in 1989 which makes it 18 years old - I can only assume these things are designed to live forever! Twelve hours flying was pretty depressing and watching the little plane on the progress map felt like you were going nowhere fast. They serve both Western and Chinese dishes during the flight, and the beef noodles we had for lunch
were excellent. They even served a freshly baked roll with it (really). Some might say it was a little cramped but you cant really complain when it costs £280 to fly half the world away. Wonderwall.
Our first full day was 11th September, so what better to do than visit Hong Kong's tallest skyscraper, Two International Finance Centre. Security in the building was tight and to travel up to the 55th floor viewing level required one to have some form of photo ID (passport, drivers licence). Unless that is if you didn't have any with you, when you could just write your name on a piece of paper. The building was completed in 2003 and is 415m tall or the length of 15 basketball courts (though some dispute that). Apparently the building has double-decker elevators - which is fine as long as the people on the floor below want to travel to the floor below your destination... Two IFC takes part in the daily Symphony of Light laser show that the Hong Kong skyscrapers put on. Given its size, one would have imagined it would have had the biggest laser, but surprisingly it has one of the puniest. The show itself is pretty impressive with each building lighting up in various ways to the funky Chinese beat. I have to say I did duck-and-cover when the massive laser on The Peoples Liberation Army Headquarters fired into the night sky.
One of the main things I was looking forward to was the Chinese cuisine that we managed to eat on numerous (two) occasions. I had previously been told that Chinese food in China (or its Special Administrative Regions) is not like the Chinese we'd have in the UK. And they were right. What kind of Chinese doesn't have Prawn Crackers, Peking Duck or Crispy Seaweed? Having said that, I think duck with head and feet still attached, 'Deep Fried Stinky Bean Kurd' and 'Strange Taste Chicken' could take off back here.
Hong Kong is a very multicultural place. We visited Australian pubs, Irish pubs, English pubs and I even saw a Swiss pub. We all quickly became fans of the local brew Tsing Tao, though in hindsight I think the fondness may have been down to the heat and humidity rather than the quality. A few good places to mention:
* Joe Bananas - This is probably the only Joe Bananas in the world which doesn't feature any carpet, let alone sticky carpet.
* Kangaroo Bar - Its popularity on our trip was probably more due to its proximity to our hotel than anything, but they did show sport and have a dart board. Oh, and during happy hour you could preorder your post happy hour drinks at happy hour prices. Nice!
* Sticky Fingers - This bar had porn on the walls, an awesome live rock band and enough pros to satisfy one of Cristiano Ronaldo's parties. Beat that Wetherspoons.
We visited Ocean Park, one of two theme parks in HK (the other being Disney). It's a mix of rides and mostly sea-based animal exhibits. It's set on a peninsula in beautiful surroundings with views of the South China Sea - so whilst the dolphins perform tricks, at least they can see what they're missing. The park is split into two areas, connected by a cable car over the top of a mountain. What I liked best about the park is that one can jump straight onto any of the rollercoasters without any queuing. The rollercoasters themselves are pretty good but, like OASiS' jumbo jets, feel decidedly old and creaky. Rather than go on the thrill rides, the locals seemed more interested in looking at the fish tanks in the marine attractions. I assume that's why they have so many fish tanks in the restaurants in this part of the world. Overall a pretty good day out - and only £12ish to get in.
Before we went we'd read up about the HK health situation. The main concerns were SARS, Dengue Fever and Hepatitis A. SARS hit HK in 2002 and caused the deaths of at least 299 people according to official statistics. And with China being totally honest and open one can only assume this to be an entirely accurate figure. Dengue fever is the other big health headline in HK. It's spread by mosquitos and causes fever, headache, joint pains and rashes. Apparently once caught it may not take effect until six months later. So here's looking forward to March! According to the health advisory we studied before we went Hepatitis A "is acquired directly from infected persons by the faecal-oral route or by close contact, or by consumption of contaminated food or drinking water". As precautionary measures I drank only bottled water and insisted on eating as much western food as possible (surely that couldn't be contaminated). I also remembered not to lick my hands after taking a dump.
Apparently some people don't have a favourite airport. I have to say that as a result of this trip, I now have a new favourite. Hong Kong International Airport (or Chek Lap Kok Airport to the locals) replaced Kai Tak airport in 1998 which was apparently infamously difficult to land at given its geographical location and weather conditions. I say apparently, I never had any such problems on Microsoft Flight Simulator. HKIA was built mainly on reclaimed land - and is considered one of the top 10 construction projects of the 20th century. Inside the airport, its bloody enormous - nothing like the cattle herding environment one would find inside a BAA airport. HKIA has been voted No. 1 airport in the world for 6 of the past 7 years. Well done to them.
I've known Tim for some time now - since his twenties in fact - and getting an insight into his traveller lifestyle was quite an experience. I mean I wouldn't usually drop down to a Ramada level hotel, but I felt I coped ok. The good thing about travelling anywhere with Tim is that he's not afraid to mix it with the locals. For me that's very handy as I wouldn't usually dream of talking to them, and with Tim around, there's little need to. However, I did note the stress Tim goes through (such as with the Bike dilemma) and realised that I'm quite comfortable travelling during my holiday time, rather than as a lifestyle.
So anyway, thanks for listening. Normal service will be resumed shortly.
Au revior, or as they say in Hong Kong, "see you rater"."
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Mike
non-member comment
That Mike sounds like a cool dude