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Day 38 - HCMC to Hong Kong
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We were up early, not taking any chances. We had to get more money out after the unplanned extra expense of another day in Vietnam, and then caught arguably the dodgiest taxi driver ever to the airport...
This guy was something else. In fact taxi drivers in general are something else in Vietnam. Rather than wait in taxi ranks, or drive around looking for a fare, they generally park in the most dangerous place possible, and either talk to their mates, squat on the pavement with their shirts pulled up to expose their bellies (apparently the Vietnamese do this to cool down), or lean on the car and shout at anyone they see to try and get them in their car.
We didn't have time to mess around, so we jumped in the first cab parked haphazardly in the middle of the pavement, checked he had a meter (any journeys off the meter are a total con) and off we set.
We knew the way to the airport as this was the 4th time we'd taken this route one way or the other, so when he started off by going in the completely opposite direction I knew this guy was going to be a nightmare...
I actually have to give him some credit, as rip-off artists go he was quite inventive, I was actually enjoying watching him milking the network of streets to secure the highest possible fare. If we were on a long street with no traffic, he would turn into a short street with lots of traffic, if we were headed directly for the airport, he would turn right, left, right, left, and get there using 4 roads when 1 would have been quicker (cheaper !).
We had to use up our Dong (reminds me, on the island I was stopped in my track by a huge advert advertising "Superdong Boat Journeys", I really should have taken a photo) anyway, so I couldn't be bothered to argue with him. It's funny how their English goes from competent to absolutely zero when you start suggesting that they're ripping you off...
Once inside, we made our way to the most unhelpful Cathay Pacific check-in desk in the world (see yesterday's entry !), prepared ourselves for the worst, and were utterly astonished when everything went ok.
The hand-written tickets were accepted without a problem, although the check-in girl did ask if we knew why we had 6 separate reservations on the flight ! Our reply was "because the British Airways office are morons", which I challenge anyone to contradict.
After allowing Katie to use up our leftover Dong on chocolate (I'm sure there's a joke there somewhere...) we were soon on the (very large and full) plane, and 3 hours later had touched down in Hong Kong. Thank God.
Katie & I both know HK well, she was here with the girls maybe 8 years ago now, and I've visited 4 or 5 times with work. Some of you will remember my friend Angela from the wedding, she is the Tie Rack group's operational manager for HK, and now China, Korea & Malaysia.
Angela's a very smart and funny woman, who we are both extremely fond of, so it was a real pleasure to meet her after work for a manic sprint around the sites of HK.
At this point I must make a sincere apology to Grace, another friend and ex-colleague from Tumi Asia, who we definitely would have met for some food & drink if we hadn't lost a whole day messing around in HCMC yesterday. Sorry Grace, we only had a few hours in the city, but we'll DEFINITELY hook up next time we come through ;)
Ok, when we met Angela I set her a challenging itinerary: into the city, up to the Peak for photos over the city (day and night), Star Ferry across the harbour, to the banks of Kowloon for the harbour lightshow, a dinner of dim sum, maybe some shopping, and back to the airport for 11pm ! We had about 4 hours, but I thought we could do it.
We took the Airport Express train to the island, and headed straight to the Peak tram, a 45 degree ride up the hills of HK island, up to "the Peak", a small retail, food & beverage area at the top of the mountains, giving fantastic views over the top of the skyscrapers below.
I knew from a previous visit that the best time to visit the Peak was after dark, when the glass & chrome skyscrapers become stretched towers of light, and the green landscape around you becomes black space, perfectly framing the modern cityscape in front of you.
We arrived about 15 mins before sunset, so we took a few photos, and had a cocktail in Bubba Shrimp Co. to pass the time before the sun went down.
30 minutes later the view was just incredible.
I'd remembered the tripod, so for the first time I was really able to capture the beauty of the scene below us. Thankfully we invested in a good camera before our trip started, and it allowed me to get some great photos.
Katie also took a nice one of us, even if you can't really see any of the buildings behind us !
While the girls rolled their eyes I fired off the shots, and off we set for the more disconcerting journey back down the steep hills on the tram, this time in reverse ! There's something not quite right about nearly falling out of the back of your seat as you hurtle backwards down a steep hill.
We jumped in a taxi, and sped off to the island's new Star Ferry terminal.
The Star Ferry is, for my money, the best value tourist attraction anywhere in the world. I think we paid HK$ 60 (US$ 1) for our 3 tickets, so about 20p per ticket !!
For this measly sum, you receive absolutely glorious views of the harbour from the ferry, really unforgettable stuff, just amazing value.
(Of course the ferry isn't meant as a tourist attraction, it has always been used by the locals as the cheapest way to move between island & mainland, and thousands of them make the journey every day)
We arrived in Kowloon (mainland side) with 15 mins left before the start of the lightshow, so the viewing area was packed, not a seat to be had.
I set up the cameras, and knelt down for the show. In my last 2 business visits to HK I've really wanted to see the 8pm lightshow but have needed to work late both times, so have missed it. I'd always hoped for another chance to see it, so I was delighted to finally be there.
The show itself was more style than substance, they basically co-ordinate the lights in all of the major skyscrapers on both sides of the harbour, they put green lasers and white searchlights on the roofs, and set the lights to music in a rather "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind" manner...
Don't get me wrong, it's a good show, you'll have seen nothing like it before, but in my head I'd imagined this orgasmic light show, with fireworks, lasers and showbiz, so some flashing offices were a bit of a let-down ! It was good though, my expectations were clearly WAY too high !
After that we headed for a new shopping centre which had only been open for 10 days, called "Elements". As you can guess by the name, it has 5 areas, all named after one of the Elements (Fire, Water, Metal, etc).
Elements is a STUNNING mall, very high-end, with fantastic shopping. Thank GOD we only had a few minutes there before dinner, Katie & I could have been shopping there for hours.
Angela chose the restaurant well, we could pick all sorts of noodles, dumplings, dim sum etc on a menu (you checked a box next to the dish & gave it to the waiter), and then sat back to enjoy the fruits of your overzealous ticking !
Angela told us that we mustn't order 7 dishes, because the number 7 is unlucky to the Cantonese, we should order 6 or 8 instead. Predictably, we ordered about 12. Hey, we were hungry ;)
The food was awesome, the only problem being that all of the seafood dim sum automatically contained meat (which Katie doesn't eat), so it meant that Angela & I had to polish off all the dim sum & dumplings between us. Bummer ;)
Katie stocked up on vegetables and rice, while Angela went in to some sort of yet-to-be-diagnosed noodle frenzy ! I lost track of what she ordered, but it all tasted fantastic and was good value. The whole meal came to about US$60, pretty bloody good for 3 of us.
After the meal we bid a fond farewell to our favourite 'tee sin po' (crazy woman), and descended 2 levels to the Airport Express platform, for a direct train back to the airport. The mall will do extremely well with such great links to the airport, especially with the high-spending Chinese (Angela calls them "mainlanders"), who have really developed a taste for western luxury labels/brands.
On arrival, we collected our big backpacks from the airport left luggage office, walked over to the new Sky Plaza terminal, and were very sad to leave. It was like saying goodbye to an old friend, we've always had a great time in HK, it's a fantastic town, especially when we have someone like Angela here.
With heavy hearts and bulging bellies we made our way through the labyrinth of Sky Plaza, and onto our budget-tastic flight home. At least we knew we'd sleep well after the mad rush around the city and the tasty food !
Roll on London !
lots of love,
Al & Katie xx
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