Hong Kong - My gateway to China

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Hong Kong, October 3rd-5th 2010

Day 1 - October 3rd 2010

Lost in Transportation
Hong Kong is said to be a vibrant, fast paced city. A place where the cliches of working hard and playing harder meet. When I first arrived though all it was doing was playing hard to get. I had planned to get the bus from Chek Lap Kok airport to my hotel. It would be cheaper than taking the train, and it would have dropped me off closer. But when I walked out of the lovely confront of the air-conditioned airport terminal in to the humid Hong Kong morning and realised I had just missed the bus… I changed my mind. I was tired, sweaty and ready to relax. So I headed back inside to get the express train instead. Thing is I had never planned to get the train, so despite getting the high speed rail link to a stop just moments from first hotel, I wasn't really sure where I was. To be fair though this is, of course, my own fault. In my giddy excitement at the idea of travelling for the first time I had forgotten to actually work out a route from Kowloon station to my hotel. It didn't help that it took me ten minutes just to find the exit from the train station.

As I emerged from the station the heat and humidity hit me again. Hong Kong has both even in October. So I was hot, smelly and lost. Then I stumbled upon the street my hotel was in. Luck was on my side. I vowed there and then never to get lost again in China. It almost worked.

Park Life
After all that drama (and a shower) I decided I needed somewhere quiet to relax, so headed out to find nearby Kowloon Park. Chinese parks seem like a place for all age groups. Teenage girls sat about gossiping share the park with the older generation playing cards or mah-jong and people of all ages practicing Tai Chi. The park turns out to be larger than expected, with various gardens, fountains, statues and even a flamingo lake. Eventually I stumble across an Kung Fu exhibition. It sounds like a cliché, coming to China, seeing people practicing Kung Fu, but this was my first time here so I was happy to find just that. The display ranged from amazingly acrobatic displays by young children to graceful synchronized displays by seniors.

All this exercise made me sleepy. But I knew I couldn't go to sleep yet if I wanted to beat the jet lag, I thought I’d head back to my hotel anyway for a little rest. My hotel was actually pretty good , in fact it was better than I had expected. A comfortable bed and a powerful shower, exactly what I wanted. The street my hotel was on, on the other hand, looked a little less classy. It was the kind of place you see in a HK movie, the grimey backstreet where dodgy looking guys do shady deals. Until the hero turns up to kick all their butts with his supreme knowledge of kung fu. It even had a dodgy looking 'massage' parlour opposite the hotel. These places seemed to be popular all over China, and who knows maybe they really were just doing massages in there. (Un)fortunately I never went in one to find out.

2 Dinners, 1 Light show, and some Jazz.
After that (not particularly) well earned rest I headed back out. I had an our hour to kill before the famous Victoria Harbour light show, and this being my first night in China I decided to go to a Japanese restaurant. In my defence I was still feeling a little fragile and just wanted some nice safe chain restaurant food to keep me going. The staff at Yoshinoya saw through this though and decided to have some fun with me. So when I stepped up to the counter and asked for the 'Super Chicken and Beef Bowl' in my best Cantonese (read: English spoken slowly) what I got was a Chicken Bowl meal and a Beef Bowl meal. Oh yeah, very funny, you saw the silly westerner coming. Still I was very hungry, so I ate both. But not before firing my chopsticks from my bowl almost in to someone else's bowl. I'm fairly sure the locals were talking about me, but, like I say, I don't know Cantonese. That was probably for the best.

So when I finally made it to the light show after getting a little lost (it didn't take long to break my vow) I was pretty full up. The light show itself was impressive, especially for free. But more impressive was the amount of stalls set up to sell you a photo of yourself at the light show. After some pretty flashing lights and few photos of my own I headed back, but on the way I decided to visit Ned Kelly's Last Stand.

Ned Kelly's is an American jazz bar and eatery. Again not a massively authentic Hong Kong experience, but I had a reason to be there. A friend who had lived in HK a few years back had mentioned the place several times during conversations about his time there and I was curious to see what it was like. I also figured what better place to drink alone than a jazz bar. Drinking alone in a normal pub always seems a little strange, but there is always some cool character in a novel you've read that sits and drinks alone in a jazz bar. Plus I actually really like live jazz. It’s one genre I would never listen on CD, but I enjoy live. So after a few Canadian Clubs and some appreciative nods to the band I headed home around 11pm with a smile on my face. On my way back I noticed HMV was still open, that made me smile to. Hong Kong, you know me well.

Day 2 - October 4th 2010

Everyone hates a tourist
After checking out a small temple near the hotel and purchasing some necessary cosmetics from that well know Chinese beauty store ‘Bonjour’, I decided to head down to the harbour to catch the famous Star Ferry. This meant braving the many street hawkers. Hawkers seemed be everywhere in Hong Kong, but the Star Ferry harbour, being a major tourist trap, seemed to have the highest density in the city. They mostly want to sell me watches. I don’t wear a watch, and I wasn’t about to start. That didn’t stop each and every one of them bombarding me with calls of ‘Sir, sir, watch, cheap watch’, even after I had just turned down his two friends not 10 yards before. They are persistent, you have to give them that.

Having made it past the watch men (not those Watchmen) I was ready for my mini cruise. The ferry I was taking connects Kowloon to Central, Hong Kong’s main island and home to a lot of big business’ and the Lan Kwai Fong nightlife district. After the brief journey across the harbour I was ready to explore, only I didn’t really know where to start. And so I gave in to the girls in the red t-shirts advertising their Big Red Bus company tours of the island. I was going on my first ever guided bus tour, I felt like such a tourist. To my surprise the tour’s audio guide was actually quite well written. Of course it filled me in on some history, including the spot where we handed Hong Kong back to the Chinese in 1997, and it pointed out some swanky sky scrapers of big business’ like HSBC. But it was the more random side of the tour that I enjoyed. We were informed that one street used to be particularly popular with British soldiers looking for a ‘special kind of entertainment’ (maybe a massage?). We were also told about an underpass where a small group of old ladies could be paid to put a curse on someone. You write down some information about your chosen target and then an old lady beats the paper with a shoe, providing a curse of anything from a week to eternity in duration. Be careful who you piss off here, I thought. Maybe I should have bought one of those fake Rolex.

The Chinese take on ‘Queuing’.
So far I hadn’t really had to queue for anything in China, the train from the airport was almost empty, my 2 dinners hadn’t been at dinner time, and there wasn’t a line of people stood around waiting to buy toothpaste in Bonjour. But that was all about to change when I decided to take the tram up to Victoria Peak.

Looking over Central and Admiralty (and further, on a clear day) Victoria Peak is a great vantage point to see Hong Kong from, and obviously a big tourist spot. So I got in line with the locals. Actually these probably weren’t the locals, the locals were probably clever enough to stay well away. You see my trip had started during the National Day of the People's Republic of China. The title is misleading though, it’s not a day, it’s a week. So this is like a week long bank holiday on which everyone in China does their travelling. I think at least 82%!o(MISSING)f them had decided to visit Victoria Peak that day. And they all got there before me. Still I had come a long way so I wasn’t about to give up. I got in line and, after a little pushing and shoving (and some harassment from staff desperate to take my picture in front of a giant cardboard cut-out version of the Peak) I eventually boarded the tram to the Peak.

Reaching the summit provided some fantastic views, despite the mist that persisted in covering the city. After taking a few shots from the viewing deck I realised that I needed to be back at the hotel in just over an hour and a half to meet my fellow travellers. That doesn’t really sound like a big deal, but I had to queue for the tram again, catch the tour bus back, ride the ferry to Kowloon, then walk to my hotel. It was like something from a particularly rubbish episode of Challenge Anneka.

Meet the gang!
Despite all my worrying I actually managed to back at the hotel with over 20 minutes to spare. I then got confused and forgot which room we were meeting in, making me late anyway. Idiot. There were 6 new people for me to meet, in a very ‘in at the deep end’ kind of way. We had two guys from Norway, Christian and Ole, Diego from Switzerland, and three fellow Brits, Jordan, Connie and Clare. I would get to know some of these guys very quickly, but right now it was all a bit awkward and daunting. After introductions and some boring paperwork we were set loose together on Hong Kong, enjoyed a quick meal and then moved on to the Temple Street Night Market. The market seemed to go on forever. Stall after stall selling a mixture of interesting local crafts and products along with some naff looking fakes of big western brands. The market was crowded and narrow, but fortunately seemed to go in a straight line. And if that failed we soon came to rely on Christian as a beacon, being he was taller than any of us, and definitely taller than most Chinese people. Emerging from the other end tired and a little confused we stood around waiting for someone to decide what to do next. After realising there were no bars anywhere near our hotel someone (possibly me) suggested we should get some beers in from the 7 Eleven and head back to the hotel for a bit.

Diego, Jordan and Chris all ended going to bed for various reasons. So it was left to me, Ole and the two girls to share a few cans of Chinese beer in my room. We chatted about various things, the usual kind of things you chat to new people about when you have a particular common interest. That was until we got on to the attaching things to your rucksack as Connie had done, and I mistakenly said I could do with some strap-ons. The conversation (d)evolved from there.

Day 3 - October 5th 2010

Evaded by a Kung Fu master
Next morning we were up bright and early. Why? Because Connie had heard Bruce Lee was buried here and we could visit his final place of rest. A few of the guys were interested, so a small group of us set off toward the harbour. It had seemed a little strange at the time the he would be buried there, but we thought we’d have a look anyway. What we actually found was a big bronze statue of the man himself. His actual body is resting somewhere in America. We didn’t let that stop us enjoying the morning anyway. We took photos of harbour and walked the Avenue of Stars (Hong Kong cinemas version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame) spotting stars for Jet Li, Wong Kar Wai and Michelle Yeoh along the way. During our trip Chris also found himself a hobby; taking photos of sleeping Chinese men. A calendar was suggested. Maybe there is a (specialist) market for it?

Soon it was time to head back. We were due to make a long journey that afternoon. Crossing the border to China, then catching a night train to Guilin followed by a bus to Yangshou. We had a busy day ahead of us, and we had no idea what the night train had in store for us.

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Photos

Kung Fu!
Kung Fu display in Kowloon Park.

My hotel room
Not bad!

Victoria Harbour
The Star Ferry terminal in Kowloon.

Aboard the Star Ferry
The busy Star Ferry from Kowloon to Central. And the back of a man's head.

The Queue
The fountain I took a few photos of to pass the time waiting for the tram!

View of HK Island
View over Central from Victoria Peak Observation Deck.

The Peak Tram
It was pretty much worth the queue.

Victoria Harbor at night.
I think I was trying to be clever with my camera. It may not have worked.

Night Market
The busy Temple Street Night Market.

Hungry?
Yummy!

A Legend! (And Brue Lee)
Not Bruce Lee's grave.