But hopefully luck will smile on us. After an uneventful flight we were disembarking when a young Mum with a couple of kids lost control of her overhead locker. A solid cabin bag started falling onto one of the kids, but with lightening fast reflexes honed from dozens of track days I managed to catch it in one hand and avert a pretty nasty injury. I'm still waiting for the call-up from Dan Vettori.
The bus trip in from the airport to Mong Kok in Kowloon saw us pass over some pretty amazing bridges and motorway interchanges, not to mention the never-ending succession of 50 storey tower blocks accommodating some of Hong Kong's 7 million people. Our Ah-Shan guesthouse is a stone's throw from the bus stop and metro station, and we're up on lucky floor 13. Not that it matters - our room is internal with no windows, which means it successfully keeps out the clamor from outside. And it's about the size of a shoebox - the double bed takes up a full two thirds of the room! But it's all you need to lay your head. Travel is about what's outside the hotel room, not inside. Here's what's outside!
It's Monday morning and time to get oriented. We cruise around Mong Kok looking for breakfast. Plenty of strange smells, plenty of eateries with Cantonese script describing the delectable items on the menu, but indecipherable to us, and no coffee! Against my better judgement but suffering from caffeine withdrawal I settle on a McCafe. Remarkably good until it's time to visit the toilet. While McDonalds is all clean and plasticy, the toilets are down a dingy concrete alleyway, and stink as though someone's boiling rotting fish in the sewers underneath.
So what have we done. We've walked down to the ferry terminal and taken a Star ferry across to Hong Kong Is. We've taken the tram (incredibly cheap) from one side of the island to the other. We've done the touristy thing and taken the cable car to Victoria Peak, where the normally resplendent city is obscured through a continual haze - mostly weather conditions but a bit of pollution thrown in for good measure.
Hong Kong is a very affluent city, and Mercs, BMWs, and Rollers proliferate, at the expense of pedestrians and cyclists. It's not all bad though - public transport is superb, with the metro, buses and trams frequent, cheap and efficient. And we've explored the Ladies Market - identical in concept and appearance to KL's Chinatown. Scored a nice little leather iPhone case for $10 too which I was very happy about.
Tuesday's highlight was dinner in Soho. A giant escalator takes you from downtown up to Mid-levels - imagine an escalator taking you from Auckland's ferry terminal up to K Rd and beyond. Soho abounds with eateries, and we were looking for a slap-up authentic Cantonese dining experience. We settled on Cicada - basically a tapas bar specializing in Asian dishes. The Peking duck spring rolls, five spice squid and walnut & sesame-encrusted tuna with wasabe all went down a treat, especially washed down with a very pleasant Tsingtao beer. The last time I'd tasted a Chinese beer was in the northern Vietnamese highlands, and it was only memorable for being the worst beer I'd tasted in all of Indochina.
On Wednesday we head for Lantau Island, and I discover where all the bicycles have gone. There are hundreds of them parked up at the Mui Wo ferry terminal.
Lantau is a bit to Hong Kong what Waiheke is to Auckland. Laid back, hilly, and with a number of tourist attractions, the major one being the big Buddha at Ngong Ping.
This guy is huge - 30m tall and dominates the landscape, but very serene and somehow comforting. After checking out the adjacent monastery the crystal cabin (with a glass floor) cable car takes us down towards the airport where we catch the metro back to Mong Kok.
Thursday and it's time to leave. We have a late flight out to Istanbul, so spend the day chilling out in Stanley on the south side of Hong Kong Island. I spot the odd paper knife in the market, but nothing that takes my fancy. A bit off the beaten track is an old guy selling fortune sticks - now this looks like fun for our next dinner party!
I'm typing the bulk of this blog post on my iPad while sitting in a cafe looking out over Stanley Bay. Much better than being stuck in a dingy Internet cafe, though due to various technical difficulties I do need a computer to finish off the post. While Apple make some great products their vice-like grip on what you can and can't do really pisses me off. Meanwhile, Pauline's Android phone is behaving impeccably. Grrr.
So what of Hong Kong? In terms of livability I'd put it between KL and Singapore, so definitely a place I'd consider if offered a PM contract here. Yes it's polluted, crowded, full of smokers, and car-oriented, but with money and a nice apartment you could live here very well. English is widely spoken, and like most Asian cities it feels very safe. Choose Hong Kong Island for more of a western feel, Kowloon for a more local Chinese flavour. It's very easy to get around too, particularly when aided by Google Maps. It's a lot easier following a reassuring little blue dot than struggling with a paper map and invisible street signs.
But it's time to go, and if we get through the airport the next post will be from Istanbul. Stay tuned!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad (and for the first time too, so who knows what it'll look like!)
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