China Part 1: Hong Kong Fluey
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
20
90
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
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Hong Kong,
China
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Well, there we went and there we conquered...Hong Kong. Our Hotel was in the HEART of Mong Kok in Kowloon. Mong Kok is one of Hong Kong's most congested working class residential areas and busiest for shopping. It's heaving with people! Arriving at midday, we had a look around the hotel and local area then at 6pm we had a 'quick snooze' on our kingsize bed with pillows that swallowed your head..aaaahhhhhhhhhhh. After travelling for 3 days near enough we were a bit pooped! At 8am the next day we woke up!!!!!!!!!!!!! David had stinking cold L
Our room was on the 36th floor overlooking Kowloon, Hong Kong Island and the Sea with its bobbing Junks and Star ferries. Hong Kong is just one massive world of skyscrapers with the sea and the mountains as a backdrop. We were lucky once and caught the sizzling orange sunset reflected in a tower of mirrored glass across the water. Stunning.
Our Hotel couldn't have been more central - slap bang next door to a shopping mall the size of Heathrow with a Hotel walkway/bridge to the centre of all the shops. HELLLLLOOOOOOOO!! Hotel, also situated in the midst of high street shops, restaurants, bars, with red touting taxis gliding past. The sky is bombarded with a million billboards suspended above streets and massive screens on the sides of buildings playing ear-bleeding Chinese pop videos.
The mall wasn't too dissimilar to any other mall in UK apart from it's huge atrium of floating glass and a shop dedicated to 'cutting and sticking' with hords of Chinese girls with scissors and glue at tables outside! another shop dedicated to glitter and another dedicated to Chintz.
Looking down into the Mall
Whatever floats your boat....Also in the mall was a big prominent display of....a tower made out of playing cards. Done by the World Record Holder (who oddly was the spitting image of Gareth from The Office tv series!!) W.R.H. was on the stage meditatively constructing another fragile Chinese monument while bustling crowds of giggling Chinese flashed their cameras at him. It was like a Take That Concert!! The area was guarded by two security guards...with guns on their belt. Hmmm very wise indeed. However, one wonders what would have happened had a Dyson hoover sidled up and suddenly switched itself on - set to blow. They hadn't thought of THAT had they?!
On our first proper full day, we went to 'The House of 1000 Arseholes' (nicknamed by the Chinese!) so called because of it's abundance of porthole windows. It was one of Hong Kong's first skyscrapers, built in 1973 and the 52-storey silver sun-blinding block houses offices galore with high heels clacking on marble and suits striding through corridors. British Airways had to change our flight into Beijing. Take a ticket. Bing-Bong. Next!
We went up the Peak Tram which was good fun. So steep, but it temporarily sorted out my double chin which was terrific. No surgery! The peak tram funicular railway has been running since 1888 operating first by steam with wooden carriages. Now it's modern, electric and carries approx 11,000 people every day! It takes you right up to the top of a mountain with an abundance of shops and then a Sky Terrace where you can see over the whole of Hong Kong and the surrounding islands.
The WRH constructing an empire
The view was absolutely breathtaking. We also went up The Escalators. Not just any escalators, dear blog fans! This is the world's longest covered outdoor escalator consisting of 11 escalators and moving walkways spanning an 800metre area and taking you up a hilly 135 metres to the Mid-levels residential area. It's not quite as exciting as you visualise. Glittery, glamorous and show-stopping it's not. Realistically, it's old and tatty but still fun to watch people's apartments, bustling bars and trendy restaurants glide past you like a slide show.
To get from Kowloon to main Hong Kong island we decided we couldn't live with ourselves without a trip on the infamous Star Ferry. This will make you howl with laughter!!! Walking to the ferry port was fine. The sun was out, tourists were everywhere snapping photos. Since we had been in Hong Kong it had been a BREATH OF FRESH AIR. No hassle from locals trying to tempt us with their wares, unlike India. So relaxing. So what happened then?? Right outside the flaming ferry port what do we get but three fecking Indians throwing themselves on us and hassling us with their flappy leaflets in their hands. No amount of "no thank YOU" dissuaded them. It was just like being back in India!!! For pity's sakes!! isn't that just typical!!!! Still, I was actually nicer to them because I was relieved they were here in Hong Kong. Being here, for them, must be such a better quality of life (with hopefully better wages). One of the receptionists at our Hotel was from India.
David getting inspiration for more trickery
He told us his parents lived over there and he hated it "too dirty for me" he said! Interesting. Anyway, I digress, Indians getting in the way again....so, the ferry...fairly bog standard travel, nothing special but passing all the tower blocks on the river was amazing. Only a 10-minute journey with the wind in your hair.
We went on the metro in Hong Kong. It is absolutely spotless and faultless. You are not allowed to eat or drink anything on the trains. In HK you are constantly led eg. On the metro signs, little flashing lights will tell you which station you are at now and how many more stations to go till the end of the line. On the street, maps will tell you where you are now and how many minutes to walk to a certain place. It's impossible to get lost! Poor David was so fluey so I left him in bed one day and wandered around locally and got back to the Hotel in one piece! This is an amazing feat for me since I often get lost in Coventry!
We also went to Temple Night Market. This was one long street of stalls selling every kind of tat you might wish to haggle for! From alarm clocks to flight socks to Mah Jong to Chinese dresses, it's a cacophony of tourists haggling, photographing, scoffing noodles and sharing stories. Everything is dirt cheap. We bought a Chinese chess set, some fortune sticks and I bought two handbags at disgustingly low prices. Ace! We had a right laugh with the chinese woman on the handbag stall. Temple Market is supposed to have tons of fortune tellers there too but I didn't see one.
HK by night
Perhaps the gods weren't in my favour that night!? We also went to Kowloon Walled City. We had been warned against going here by David's dad who barked at us "You don't go in there!!" (probably followed by poxy twat/flat as a witch's tit/black as a witch's hat or something equally appropriate!) It was a small patch of land that fell outside British rule by some sort of political cock up. To cut a long story short, it used to be a secluded city of tower blocks full of prostitutes, drug pushers, triads and if you went in there, you never came out alive. The British adopted a "hands off" policy after trying to get rid of them all and the HK Police had no authority to enter the city. (David: it was the inspiration for the sets of Bladerunner... so they say) In 1991, after years of unacceptable sanitisation and the decreasing crime rates within the city, HK decided to evacuate the residents and demolish it. Today, the walled city has completely gone, with landscaped parks, temples, restaurants and meditation areas all around. Although it is beautiful and safe now with an abundance of trees, plants, birds and fountains, there is an aura of sadness about the place. They've obviously Feng Shui'd it all to make it tranquil place to sit and read the paper but I didn't feel relaxed - I just wanted to cry. Really weird feeling. It's quite dark and dense with a labyrinth of paths and bridges and sky-reaching trees. In one place there are some relics of the old city fenced off that were discovered while demolishing and digging and there are lots of signs telling the history with photos and maps.
Hong Kong
Fascinating but spooky place. We absolutely loved HK. It was clean, very very safe and everyone was really friendly. The shopping is magnificent and although yes, it is quite expensive, if you go to the right places, you can pick up a bargain (like my HK dress for £25! Stunning!) HK is vibrant with neon Vegas lights, billboard brainwashing, video screens the size of small planets and hundreds of locals ramming the streets. The traffic, and the driving, was fine. No hooting. No rushing. No mad swerving. Calm, organised, clean. But, pedestrian congested. Not traffic or pollution congested. We ♥ HK!
(David: Saying about that. The whole place appears to have been designed around pedestrians. I think we probably only spent about 10% of our time at ground level on an actual street - the rest of the time was spent effortlessly whisking our way along sky walkways, up and down escalators and weaving in and out of grand skyscraper atriums. 20% of that time was at least 6 storeys up. There was something nice and calming and equally exciting about this. Almost like tapping into a racial past memory of swinging through trees... but I don't believe in that twaddle, so I probably liked it because it was novel. Still, I could probably write at length about the similarity between trees and skyscrapers, walkways and vines... but I can't be arsed.)
Next: Beijing!! We're not competing, don't get excited!
Love Lois & David xx
