The City of Escalators.
Hong Kong,
China
Friday, June 19, 2009
Hong Kong was the final destination of our China tour. We made the most of the amazing hotel we had been booked into, it was probably 4 star, no idea how the tour company managed to get us in there! It even had carpets! And matching furniture! A group of us headed down to the swimming pool and crowded out the children there whilst taking ridiculous underwater photos with Vicki's camera. Afterwards, we headed out to cross over onto the mainland, using the star ferry, supposedly a Hong Kong institution, but it was barely full and everyone on it were blatantly tourists! Whilst waiting for the last two remaining members of our group, we decided to turn the tables on the photo taking, and started asking locals to be in pictures with us. It turned out to be a really great way to meet the locals, with the advantage of nearly everyone here speaking English. We spent time chatting to a few different groups about life in Hong Kong and home. Of course, no night would be complete without us running down the boulevard of stars to find Jackie Chan's hand prints and taking more suitably ridiculous photographs. Except perhaps, running through the tube station, which turned out to be quite a hike, in order to catch the last train home. At which point I fulfilled one of my lifetime ambitions. Oh yes, I ran up an escalator the wrong way. It was a momentous occasion!
The next morning, although really it was still the middle of the night it was time for our group to start leaving. Soon, there was only me and Maraise left behind to explore more of the city. Taking a rather huge downgrade, we found a hostel across the city. It was a bit of a shock, moving to a room with no window and where the sheets were anything but clean. Still, the friendliness of the staff made up for what the room lacked in comfort.
Having a look at what to do we decided to head to the world's longest escalator, which is really a series of escalators. It was exciting for all of two minutes, until we realised that spending a good 20 minutes going up escalators really wasn't actually that enthralling. Still, at least I managed to find a street that was named after my Mum - Shelley Street! After a trek through the Botanical Gardens, the name of which was potentially misleading considering the mass of concrete that it consisted of, we reached the Peak Tram. Incredibly steep, the tram takes you up to a viewpoint over Hong Kong. We waited for the lights of the building to come on, and then the daily 8pm light show, which wasn't really that impressive without the music.
With another day to kill, we went to Ocean Park. I had been advised not to go on a hot day, or a Sunday. Of course this was in fact, one of the hottest days we'd had in Hong Kong and coincidentally, also a Sunday. We had fun on the tame rides, at least they had an excellent view over the ocean as they clung precariously to the sides of the cliffs. And yes, there was yet, more escalators, here they have the world's longest outdoor escalators, which should really also win the record for the world's slowest moving one. By this point, we were seriously over them! After a very scenic cable car ride to the other half of the park, possibly one of the best things about the park, we went to see the Giant Pandas. Of course its very logical for an ocean park to have giant pandas, but I wasn't complaining, I thought I had already missed my opportunity to see some. It was great to squeeze a peak from in between the huge crowds, the pandas seemed to have a very nice enclosure which was nice to see.
Sadly, it was time for Maraise to go, leaving me behind to explore some more of the city and surrounding islands. I headed across to an island called Cheng Chau. Billed as being how Hong Kong used to be, maintaining its slow place of life, it certainly did seem a lot calmer, and reminded me more of mainland China. It was pleasant enough, but far too hot, so it wasn't too long before I succumbed to the heat and gave up walking around for the return trip home.
I finally managed to get down to the water front to see the light show as it was meant to be viewed. Around 30 buildings are involved in a multicolored display with laser and spotlights joining in and put to a soundtrack of music. Hong Kong's skyline has to be one of the best in the world, and it was a great idea, if not a slightly random one. I couldn't help feeling though, that it would have been far more effective if all the buildings in a particular area participated rather than having odd ones dotted around here and there. I started chatting to a girl on the waterfront, and we decided to head for the night markets and then dinner.
It just left me with time to head up the Bank of China tower. Looking for something to do, the building is listed as an attraction in the Lonely Planet. I expected a little more than literally, walking into someone's office and getting the lift up to the 52nd floor where you could look out of a window. To add insult to injury, the view really wasn't that impressive. I met some equally bewildered tourists at the top! From the top I saw that the large but very peaceful protest I had walked past just a few minutes earlier with a news crew present, had disappeared without a trace.
