We weren't expecting Hong Kong to be hot, but it was, and very humid too. We actually stopped in Singapore for a couple of hours on the way and really didn't realise the luxury of the air conditioning until we ventured on to the cactus roof garden (that should have given it away!) at the airport. The heat hit us like a brick wall, instantly draining energy and sucking clothes to clammy skin! The flowering cactuses were amazing, but we soon sought a climate-controlled environment again.
We arrived in Hong Kong early evening. The airport is vast (largest in the world I think) with 80 departure gates and a huge glass roof that curves over the whole complex. It's quite impressive.
We were staying at the infamous Chungking Mansions which is a cluster of six tower blocks crammed together on Nathan Road (the archetypal Hong Kong street scene, with Neon signs protruding from the sides of the buildings in all sizes, shapes and colours, and at all levels so looking down the street is like looking into a sea of advertising). The (far as imaginable from a) mansion holds hundreds of guesthouses on its 19 floors, which are serviced in each block by two tiny overworked lifts that attract quite a queue at peak times. The ceiling of our tiny, musty room seemed to sag from the weight of the building above and the masonry is crumbling in the humidity. If the lifts are bad enough, the stairs were meant to be even worse but on returning to building one day, we were unable to find them when the queue for the lifts was just silly. We set out into the maze of shops, corridors, fire escapes, steps and unmarked doors.... and returned defeated to the back of an even longer queue 10 minutes later! It wasn't until we took the stairs down from our guesthouse one time when the lift was broken (not an uncommon event I understand) that we found where they came out - in a tiny dingy side alleyway filled with rubbish!
When we first arrived by airport bus at Chungking Mansions, although we were forewarned, we could never have been prepared for the touts. They were actually getting on the bus trying to get people to go to the guesthouse of their choice. We were obviously at our most vulnerable - looking very bewildered with huge rucksacks, trying to find the way to our reserved rooms - and they just wouldn't leave us alone - talk about not taking no for an answer. It wasn't very nice, but after a while we got used to them shouting 'Guesthouse? Guesthouse?' to us every time we passed through the entrance and it was like the greeting of old friends!!
Of all our destinations, I was most apprehensive about Hong Kong and was on constant alert as to which one of my senses would be assaulted next. Mainly it was our noses! Smells emerge from the Hong Kong streets, coming out of every alleyway, drain, shop, restaurant and air vent. It is a cacophony of aromas, the majority of them unidentifiable and not particularly pleasant!
As with everywhere, apart from the UK it seems, public transport is very cheap and efficient. We caught the famous Star Ferry every day from Tsim Sha Tsui on the mainland where we were staying, across the harbour to Hong Kong Island. The ferry costs about 17p and is an excellent way to see the views of the city and appreciate the navigation skills (or not - Hong Kong is made up of hundreds of islands and inter-island ferries have been known to get lost in the fog or take a different route because the captain feels like a change!) of the ferrymen. A huge assortment of ferries, barges, cruise liners, and motor boats criss-cross the channel passing perilously close to one another. From the air you can see that the number of vessels in the water around Hong Kong is phenomenal - oil tankers look like toy cars scattered on a child's bedroom floor!
Hong Kong Island is crammed with skyscrapers which soar upwards in every conceivable space. Those being constructed are shrouded in a veil of bamboo scaffolding that seems to cling onto the sides of the building with gravity defying construction. In fact we read that sometimes bamboo poles come loose and spear a pedestrian on the pavement underneath! Due to space restrictions and the poverty in a lot of Hong Kong apartment blocks, illegal rooms spring out of the sides of buildings, quite literally constructed of corrugated iron and string, precariously clinging on 15 floors up.
Wandering around the streets of older parts of Hong Kong, we started to get a feel of the amazing relationship that they have with food! You can get virtually any type of food, particularly seafood, dried. It all looks like something you'd give a dog to chew on. You can even get whole dried ducks that are flattened as if they've been run over! Live fish flap about in boxes and carcasses hang out in the street. They're certainly honest about where their food comes from.
The streets are crowded with traditional medicine shops, antique shops, incense and candle sellers and an incredible number of the aforementioned dried food stores. Unfortunately we did this on a Sunday so only a scattering of shops were open - that was enough for us though - I can imagine on a weekday the whole thing is quite overwhelming, if you add all the street sellers in as well - far too much to take in!
In amongst all the hustle and bustle out on the street, you come across temples that are little oasises of calm and sweet smells! The oldest temple in Hong Kong, Man Mo, is bedecked in opulent red and gold carving, with a range of disapproving looking gods seated at the back. Huge incense coils hang from the ceiling, causing a rather tentative approach to be made into the temple to avoid the falling ash, and hundreds more incense sticks are waved about in big handfuls.
Soaring over Central Hong Kong is Victoria Peak, reached by the Peak Tram with hauls itself up the side of the mountain eventually rising above the height of the tower blocks. The air is clean at the top and the views of the city breathtaking, as you circle the peak passing through forests and peering over the boundary walls of grand houses. The plan was to wait until nightfall so we could see the spectacular display of lights, but while we were there the clouds got lower and lower so we gave up and descended into the odorous metropolis again!
We found an archtypal English pub (lots of wooden beams etc) on the other side of Hong Kong Island and spent a very pleasant evening in there. In fact it was a little too pleasant as we both got very tipsy. In order to get back to our hotel from the pub we had to catch a bus, then a ferry and then walk 10 minutes. When we woke up the next morning, neither of us could remember the journey home! Luckily our homing skills came into play.
On our last day, we explored Lan Tau Island, which is home to the International Airport. The island is bigger than Hong Kong Island and has large areas of untouched forests and mountains. Near the highest peak is the Po Lin monastery, home to the largest, bronze seated outdoor Buddha in the world. Apparently there are larger Buddhas elsewhere, but they are not outdoors, seated or made of bronze! It occurred to me that a lot of tourist attractions use this kind of marketing - 'the longest, wobbliest 1920's steam train in Bognor'!
The whole monastery complex was shrouded in low cloud which made it quite atmospheric and mysterious - so mysterious in fact that by the time we came back down the 300 steps from the Buddha, you couldn't see it from the ground anymore! We ate in the vegetarian restaurant and not for the first time since we'd been here, I had to face the embarrassment of asking for a fork - I just can't use chopsticks! We were amused as waiter had to go into a store room and hunt around in the back of cupboards for the offending item - I suppose it's like asking for chopsticks in Burger King. Anyway, the whole thing made me feel very uncultured and belittled and I really must learn how to use them.
Hong Kong Hotels
