People people everywhere
Trip Start
Nov 26, 2007
1
43
44
Trip End
Apr 17, 2008
Hong Kong,
China
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Walking down the street
. Hong Kong has a higher density of skyscrapers than anywhere else in the world, just walking along the sidewalk you are constantly getting dripped on either from aircon units above or peoples washing. There are simply hundreds of 50 story buildings. And the streets themselves are rammed with people.I think HK only has 6 million (yes only...I have been in China too long I think) people kicking around but they are concentrated in a tiny area as a result of the mountainous terrain. And 3.5 million of those people get on the subway everyday; which has to be the most efficient subway I have ever seen, it was never really busy like the Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo subways get. The buildings in HK are a mixture of new glittering skyscrapers and old crumbling residential buildings. The skyline is one of the prettiest I have seen.
Did I like it? Not really. The only way I could live here is if you were in one of the penthouses at the top of the tower blocks. And given that this is one of the wealthiest places on earth and has the second highest rents of anywhere outside the west end of London it's unlikely I'll be living in a penthouse...especially with my current addiction to having no job...In fact HK is not cheap for anything which comes as a bit of s shock after 7 months in SE Asia and China
Dolphins
. The average meal ended up costing a fiver if you want to sit down and enjoy it. I can honestly say the accommodation is some of the poorest I have stayed in too. Not because I was in a bad place but simply down to the lack of space most cheap backpacker places have no windows so you end up in a tiny little coffin room. I did consider splashing out for a nice hotel (which would only have cost 40 quid compared to my 13 quid) but then thought I might as well keep the money for when I get back to Manchester. So, I pretty much ended the trip as I had begun it...alone...Don't get me wrong there is something quite nice about being alone walking around the sights of a new city. It can be a bit odd in the evenings but it also works out better for health and cash flow...I didn't go into a single pub in HK...I even went to the cinema to watch Indiana Jones. That is one of the things that is remarkable about HK; films are in English, road signs are in English, menus are in English. Definitely different to the China I know. In terms of food I spent most of my time searching out a last, true noodle soup...it never happened...I even went to a posh restaurant and paid 50 HK$ one night as I read online they did hand pulled noodles there but it was no way as good as the 5 Yuan jobs I have had on the mainland (1 HK$ roughly equals 1 Yuan). I had been told by many people that HK and Cantonese food is the best in China
From the top of the theme park
. Bollocks. Their noodles are dried stringy things and most of the other Dim Sum stuff is deep fried garbage. There are lots of western food options but I wasn't going to spoil my long awaited bread and cheese experience the minute I get home to Manc. There are an awful lot of fast food options - over 200 McDonalds alone!! And for every McDonalds you see there must be 5 & 7 Elevens...there are some places where you can literally see 4 or 5 7 Elevens at once.It is no surprise whatsoever that both bird flu and SARS got a grip in Hong Kong first. There are just so many people. It is a very clean society, advising you disinfect your hands after holding onto the handrails of escalators and have signs everywhere warning about contact with wild birds. But it still seems likely that is a pandemic is going to start its going to be here.
If you want to shop, HK is the place. Especially for mobile phones and all kinds of electronics. I managed to find the zone of mobile phone shops and found a guy that reckoned he could fix mine but after trying for a couple of days he said he couldn't. It was worth it just to see him ripping a mobile phone to pieces in 30 seconds flat and then rebuilding it in the same time though...while on the phone to someone as well
Panda eating
.I was living in Kowloon rather than on Hong Kong Island itself. HK Island is where all the business goes on and all the expats live. As it's on a hill they have built a series of escalators all the way up the hill so you can stand on escalators for 20 minutes just going up hill past wine bars and French restaurants.
One thing you do notice in HK compared to the mainland is the ethnic diversity and general Britishness. Although we started the whole HK thing badly; winning as a result of the 1st opium war (a war created so that Britain (or was it England...funny how its always Britain when its the bad stories) could turn as much of China as possible into opium addicts for finacial gain) in the end we created a decent society. Not only is HK very rich but it has a proper legal system, drives on the left hand side of the road but I actually saw people out in the street with posters protesting against the Communist government...there is no way that could happen in 'liberal' Shanghai. We also appear to have imported a lot of Indians and Pakistanis meaning that there are curry houses and taylors everywhere. Looking around there is also a merging of different races in peoples faces...you can see mixtures of chinese-british, chinese-indian etc etc.
So in the days I mostly wandered around checking stuff out. There are some interesting little parks. One day I went to Ocean Park theme park on the other side of the island. It was a nice day out breathing fresh air but it really wasn't a patch on Alton Towers (though it tried its hardest to match up, complete with rain and everything). The jelly fish aquarium there was the best bit...well along with the panda; I am glad I got to see some pandas as that's one of those things one is supposed to see when in China.
At night they have a light show (obviously it's some kind of biggest in the world light show) to demonstrate why China has a massive electricity shortage. It is nice to just sit down by the shore watching the skyscrapers all lit up at night and it was a good stop to get talking to other tourists. Other than that I just went to the movies or wandered through the markets at night. Sleeping got harder and harder as the week went on and the realization that home time was coming...
So that's it just about over for this traveling malarkey. For the moment anyway. There will be one more blog though. I felt it was the right time to go home after 7 months but as it's got closer I have started to wonder why I am stopping this here. I should have gone onto Australia, NZ and South America with all the other round the world people I have met...next time I guess but it would have been fun to meet up with some of the people again. It's going to be difficult to adjust back to life in the UK. I've got kind of used to going to see some kind of amazing sight every few days and not having to worry about what day of the week it is. And that's before thinking about getting a job....
To Manchester...it better be bloody warm when I get home.....
Hong Kong Photos
