High Rise in the rain

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  Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Monday, May 19, 2008

Not sure where to start with this one, but I suppose the beginning is as good a place as any.........
The transfer to Taipei airport and flight to Hong Kong was a breeze, but then came some very complicated instructions to get to my Hotel, the "Alisan Guest House". First I had to phone them from the airport to tell them I was in the country, next take a bus to the main station, and then board a courtesy bus to a completely different hotel. When I arrived at this hotel I had to phone Alisan from the lobby to let know where I was. About 5 minutes later somone picked me up and took me to the real hotel.
It was all a bit cloak and dagger, but I'd never have found the place otherwise. My new friends in Hong Kong, Mr Tommy Hou and family, own two apartments in a multi-storey block and they rent out the rooms. I'm paying for a double room (none of the singles have windows, and I couldn't be doing with another mirrored ceiling!)

Star Ferries at dusk, Hong Kong

. The room is tiny, but I quite like it here. There are 3 or 4 Chinese families on the same floor, and it feels like living somewhere real, rather than just as a hotel guest. There is a downside though, because over the road there's a pet shop full of yapping puppies. They make a noise a lot like a certain Pomeranian.........
Continuing the London theme, my new address is on Gloucester Road in the Causeway Bay district. It's pretty central, so everything is pretty much on your doorstep. There's lots of remnants of the British colonial period here, from the street and district names, to recorded messages on the metro warning you to "Mind the Gap". I found the whole place a strange mish-mash of Western and Chinese cultures. For the first time since March, I read an English language newspaper and found to my astonishment that there is an Asian 5 Nations Rugby competition between Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea (so far so good), plus er.......Kazakhstan and "The Arabian Gulf"(?)
In Hong Kong bird flu is officially off the menu - all eyes here are firmly fixed on the Chinese earthquake, as the death toll passes the 50,000 mark. For several days, the earthquake got wall to wall coverage on television, with 7 channels showing absolutely nothing else. Because the detailed coverage has gone on longer than I'm used to, things have emerged that I'd never have imagined. For example, after a week the most common cause of hospital referrals was dog bites, as homeless, hungry and traumatised pets roamed the streets

Hong Kong from the Peak

. Three days of official mourning started on Monday, and two things I'd planned to do were cancelled (there was going to be a light show in the harbour, and on Wednesday I was going horse racing at Happy Valley just down the road from here).
This is a difficult place to walk around, as the roads are impossible to cross in some places. Pedestrians have been pushed upwards onto overhead walkways that will inevitably deposit you in a shopping centre at some point. For a lot of people Hong Kong is a retail paradise, but I don't really do shopping and after a day or two I just found the whole thing irritating.
Hong Kong's most famous feature is its skyline. The buildings aren't as high as Taipei 101 (although 3 of the world's top 10 highest buildings are here), but the sheer number of them is quite a sight. The best views are above, from the Peak and over the water from the Harbour. I started at the Peak and took the famous tram up there, but didn't really enjoy it very much. The queues to buy a ticket were horrendous, and the at the end of the line you are dumped in yet another bloody shopping centre - depressing tourist crap IMO. The Harbour was much better, and for 15p, the view of Hong Kong from the Star ferry to Kowloon was the bargain of the week.
To escape the concrete, I attempted to catch a ferry to Lamma Island

Causeway Bay - spot the osprey

. Lamma is quite rural compared to Hong Kong, and you can walk from one end of the island to the other before getting a different ferry back. As I was waiting to board, it started to pour with rain, so I went home - and it didn't stop raining until the day before I left.
Feeling a bit underwhelmed by Hong Kong, I caught a ferry to Macau which was an excellent place. This is Hong Kong's down at heel cousin and was a Portugese colony until 1999. The whole place is a mixture of Chinese and Portugese culture, and in comparison to Hong Kong is quite exotic. There's a slightly seedy feel to Macau, which is understandable considering that the main industry here is gambling. There are even slot machines out on the street, something I've never seen before. 
They've built a copy of the Auckland Sky Tower next to the harbour, and you can take a lift up to the 61st floor for a panoramic view of Macau, amongst other things. This is also the home of the world's highest bungee jump, and if you're brave/stupid enough you can pay to climb the metal ladder to the top of the mast - and I quote: "Conquer Macau's highest summit, at 338 meters (over 1,100 feet), and stand at the top of the world's 10th tallest free-standing tower by climbing 100 meters up the mast's vertical ladders. The ascent and descent takes approximately 2 hours and is not for the unfit or faint-hearted". The other thing you can do here is walk round the outside of the 61st floor of the tower

Hong Kong at night

. There's a huge catch though - no handrail! I toyed with the idea of trying it (you're clipped on so there's no possibility of falling off), but the whole thing just looked horrible and nobody out there seemed to be enjoying themselves - I'm afraid I bottled it.
Hong Kong was OK, but nothing special really. Probably I was a bit unlucky with the weather and the official mourning certainly didn't help, but 5 days here was a bit too long for me.
Maybe I've been living in too many efficient high-rise Asian cities in the last few weeks? What I need is a bit more chaos in my life, and my next destination will provide that in spades.....................see you there.  

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Grand Lisboa, Macau	View from my room, Hong Kong	Hong Kong skyline	Tree roots, Hong Kong
Dawn, Causeway Bay	Hong Kong from the Peak (2)	Tram to The Peak	International Finance Centre. World's 5th highest
Hong Kong skyline (2)	Somebody should tell them........	View to Kowloon from Hong Kong at night	Are they baking dogs, or for dogs?
Hong Kong trams	Happy Valley Racecourse	Old skyscrapers, new skyscrapers	Macau Ferry
Amsterdam, Macau	Outdoor slot machine, Macau	Portugese courtyard, Macau	Main Square, Macau
Market stalls, Macau	A-Ma Temple, Macau	Rock Carvings, A-Ma Temple	Rock Carvings, A-Ma Temple
Rooftops, A-Ma Temple	Doorway, A-Ma Temple	Pagodas, Macau	Macau Tower - nearly my nemesis
X-walk, Macau Tower	WW1 Memorial, Macau

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