Back to Hong Kong

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Geo: 22.33, 114.18

We are no longer celebrities. No longer are Chinese families wanting to have their photo taken with us. There are photos of us dotted all around China. Now we are non entities in Hong Kong. This was the 3rd time we had visited Hong Kong but each time it seems we are in a different city. This time we stayed at the Shangri-La on Kowloon. Lovely lobby with fountain and singers at the piano. Harbour view room, which however we discovered had a horrid large damp stain on the carpet by the bed. This was level 9. We complained and were moved instantly up to level 15. Much nicer room. The nice touch is the delivery of a pot of tea and a bowl of fruit. It was already late but after hours travelling we decided to shower, change and hit the bar for a bottle of white wine and a general wind down. The bar lady kindly gave us two lemons which we have with our tea. For the first time English breakfast tea was available in the room. We had been living on a variety of green, jasmine and black tea in China. Breakfast in the hotel would have been £30 a head so we decided to have the tea and bowl of fruit. Later we headed out to the MTR or metro which was conveniently opposite the hotel. It is fairly easy to negotiate. Tickets are bought at machines and people of a certain age have to remember the hit "concessions" button and get it half price- hurrah! We alighted at Central and managed to get to City Hall via various walk ways. Inside the lower level of City Hall there are two restaurants. One is Maxim's which is international cuisine but on the level above is Maxim's Palace which does Dim Sum. It was 11.45am when we arrived but already it was packed and there was a queue to get in. You get a ticket from a machine just like in Tescos and wait for your number to be called. We were 15 and it had only got to 6 so we had 25 mins to wait before our table was free.. Advice- get there at 11.30am. Once in we picked various Dim Sum from the ladies who were wheeling trolleys around. Different ladies had different dim sum and they seemed to wheel them round in a rather haphazard fashion. However we kept choosing ones we wanted along with several glasses of white wine (they don't do bottles) and had a leisurely lunch hour. After, we decided to stroll around the city, never easy in Hong Kong as several walkways have to be negotiated before you find yourself in a normal street. We ended up in Win Loc Street, which has fascinating shops selling bird's nests and other indefinable things.. In the evening we went back to Namos bar which we came to 5 weeks ago. We could not find the same restaurant as previously and after wandering through various malls and not finding anything suitable we went back to the hotel for a club sandwich and more wine. The following day we went back on the MTR to Central to find a good restaurant for an early lunch as we had only had tea for breakfast. We alighted upon the Yung Kee restaurant,32-40 Wellington st. I give the address because if you are ever in Hong Kong this is an excellent place for lunch. The suckling pig and goose are divine as well as other dishes- you cannot go wrong. Having eaten our way round China it is now time to return home. It has been a fascinating and memorable trip and our opinion of the Chinese has increased and even though they are an ill disciplined, impatient bunch we like them.
Tips for anyone coming to China;
1. Dont go overweight on your luggage you will want to buy stuff even though China is not cheap.
2. Factor in extra days to account for all the internal flights as it is a big country.
3. Safety- normal precautions- at no time did we feel threatened.
4.Driving- expect chaotic conditions on the road and lean back and let the driver take the strain.
5. Avoid public holidays. I think Sept/Oct would be nicer weatherwise but there are going to be more westerners around. Although it was busy because of Chinese new year at least we got to see all the decorations and no other tourists apart from Chinese ones.
6. Learn to push in and to push back- they all do it and no one says sorry!
7. Take loads of chargers, cameras and memory cards as you will take hundreds of photos.
8 Facilities- do not come if you are disabled. Good flat walking shoes are essential for all the steps. The loos in the hotels and restaurants and museums are fine only the public ones are without paper and towels and tend to be "stand and deliver"
9. China Highlights organised our trip after the cruise and we could not fault their organisation.

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Comments

[Rich S.]

You & Stefan are our idols. If Jean ever decides to retire, I hope to follow at least some of your travel tracks. I followed your fantastic voyage with great interest. Rich

[roberta]

I had a late morning start today so I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with all your travel notes... saved them all to indulge on the reading them all at once :-) I loved them Tiz and yes I would love to follow on your tracks when and if i e
ver retire :-) I guess you are back in the UK ? I should be back in May for a short trip and if you are around we can catch up then , big hug roberta xxx

[Richard]

I am amazed that you find the time to write such interesting accounts of the places you visit.