Travels around the world – Hong Kong

Our first glimpse of Hong Kong was from the air, even though we were on the wrong side of the Plane we could still see the skyscrapers and the way the plane seemed in danger of some kind of contact. I have never been able to look out of a plane window and see peoples washing on the line. It is truly a bizarre landing or rather, it was a bizarre landing as this airport no longer exists.

Hong Kong is split into 2, there is Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.  We stayed in a Youth Hostel on Hong Kong Island, right on the top of a mountain.  The views were fantastic and in the evening when we were relaxing with a beer or 2 we were overlooking Hong Kong Harbour, the amount of boats on the harbour takes some believing., it looked like hundreds of little lights moving in all different directions.

Getting to and from the Hostel itself was a bit of a nightmare. It was always a case of walking down and trying to con a taxi driver into bringing you all of the way back up to the top of the mountain, along all of the winding steep roads.

Getting around is pretty easy though once you are in the main part.  The Trams run really well and for $1HK you can get wherever you want.  The star ferry between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island is even cheaper.  With $13HK to a pound transport is incredible value.

The first time I went over to Kowloon I was amazed by the “Bank of China Tower”, this is the huge glass building that you can see from all over HK.  When I got close to it I could not take it all in, so many different angles and with there being another glass building right next to it an optical illusion is created making the reflections look like there is another building in between.  Victoria Peak is the place that everyone heads to. You have to go on the incline railway to get to the top and this is amazingly steep, when you get in the seat and put on the seat belt you almost feel like you are preparing for a rollercoaster ride and if the train wasn’t so slow then the journey itself could feel that way. The peak itself is spectacular, the view across Kowloon stretches for miles and miles and it is only here that you realise the full extent of the population.  There are hundreds, if not thousands of high rise buildings with hardly any space left undeveloped.

As accommodation goes, our Hostel was fairly basic and the kitchens were normally full to the brim with people trying to cook noodles but we found that food was amazingly cheap. Every morning we would get our jobs done ( This was a YHA and there was always a task. Empty the bins, sweep the basketball court etc..) and head down to our first stops of the day, Mcdonalds or the Hilton.  The Hilton was a great place to visit as they were always friendly and the toilets were much better than the hole in the floor that we avoided using in the hostel.

One of our day trips took us to Lantau Island, fantastic beaches, mountains and a huge statue of the Buddah as well as a few little fishing villages.  We got hopelessly lost.
At that time there was another island next to it called Lanten island and I am sure that this is now the airport.

Stanley Market is famous around the world, you can buy anything there and our curiosity got the better of us so we had to pay this a visit.  In the end I wasn’t that adventurous and only bought a chop.  This is like a stamp that you can use to add your name to the bottom of a letter or envelope after dipping it in ink.  I had my name in Chinese carved into mine and I was asked my birth year.  It turns out that I was born in the year of the Monkey so naturally I was sold a chop with a Monkey carved onto the top.

At the end of one of our trips we returned to the city to find crowds of people had gathered and were sitting on blankets on the ground, all the roads appeared to be closed and there was quite a strong police presence although the groups appeared to be harmless enough.  There were all just exchanging gifts and having a picnic and enjoying each others company.  Ian did ask what was going on and was told it was some kind of holiday and people just gathered in groups with their friends but it was an incredible sight to behold.

One of the weirdest sights was the construction work, we are used to seeing scaffolding outside of buildings but in Hong Kong they use Bamboo rather than steel.  I am assured it is strong stuff but I could not help but be a little wary of its use and was amazed to see the workers climbing up the scaffold like a ladder.

All too soon it was time to leave Hong Kong, I have been back since then and it has changed quite a lot.  For one thing it is no longer owned by the UK as it was handed back to China shortly after my first trip there but it is a city I would happily return to.

Next stop….Australia.