Manic Street (Preachers)
Trip Start
Dec 29, 2006
1
10
12
Trip End
Jun 10, 2007
Hong Kong,
Hong Kong
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
In my last week before flying out, I took a three day tour of Kakadu and Lichfield National Parks. The former is rare in being a world heritage site for both cultural and environmental reasons. Had arrived in the Top End as the north of the northern territories is known just after the end of the four month wet or monsoon season when it rains every day and it looked particularly green, bit like england in springtime in fact.....travelled up with some Dutch & German people whom I met in Alice Springs, most of whom are on travelling on whats called a shoestring. One is on a budget of US$30 a day and somehow or other manages to spend just $5 a day on food & drink.
With the abundance of green, there was also an abundance of wildlife in the national parks
Bali
. This included termites and green ants, which you can touch and even eat and crocodiles, which of course you cannot. For reasons best known to themselves but I guess its so that they could cram in more sights than any of their competitors...(competition between tour group companies is particularly fierce in the Northern Territories and in the absence of government regulation, tour group leaders drive ridiculously long distances, for example 900km on the first day of the Uluru tour mentioned previously) on the last day we were instructed to rise at 5.00am, having been up at 5.30 am and 5.45am for the two previous days of the tour. The tour group was ok, mainly Germans who were fine once there had been a proper and lengthy debate regarding the 1996 European Cup football semi final including of course Andreas Mo/ullers (?) penalty goal celebration. It was also rather useful that there was a woman from HK in the group as she taught me how to pronounce a number of the most common Cantonese phrases, which I hope to put to some use whilst I am here.
As well as wildlife and aboriginal drawings, Kakadu is also home to an uranium mine. Currently, I believe Australia limits the number of such mines to three but this is likely to change as both the government and the ALP have or are changing their policies to allow more such mines to open
Crocodile
. Obviously there are a number of arguements for and against such a change. One argument heard against is that it would make OZ a more inviting prospect for invasion from the north. This underlying theme helps explain Australia's foreign policy since federation reflected in its very close attachment to & participation in many of our and since WW2 the US's conflicts. Having twelve times the population, a GDP per head many times smaller & being just an hour or two away by air, I guess that Indonesia could be seen as one of those countries which could threaten although Bali, which in contrast to the remainder of the predominantly Muslim archipelago is Hindu & has a reputation for welcoming Australians & which I thought was kinda fun. The beach areas, Kuti ,where you may remember there was a terrorist bomb in 2002 which killed over 200 people, and Seminaykin, were pretty grungy but hey as with people being grungy can be interesting and conversely being sterile and polished can be dull.
The beaches on offer weren't terribly interesting so I headed up to the centre, staying at Ubud. Accommodation there as in the rest of Bali is terrific value; I paid about 6 pounds a night for an en suite room and balcony and breakfast. Seems that about half of Bali stayed up for the Liverpool versus Chelsea semi final
Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory
. Its not often I mention the flights, however the Cathay Pacific flight to HK was excellent. Food was great as was the in flight entertainment.
Whilst in Bali, I had booked accommodation in Kowloon. Maybe its after the wide open spaces of Australia but I found the first couple of days staying there manic and thinking that perhaps I was staying in the busiest part I went to view another hostel, this time in Causeway Bay on the main Hong Kong island and that area was busier, still. Buildings are commonly thirty stories and higher and there was activity everywhere and at all levels. Went to the HK History musuem. Noted that there was little mention in the musuem of the UK's attempts to introduce democracy in the last few years before leaving rather than in the 150 years of rule preceeding that.
For a break went to Macau for the weekend, which is about an hour away by boat. For centuries, Macau has been a Portuguese colony being handed back a couple of years after Hong Kong to the Chinese, in 1999. I thought the central regenerated parts of Macau city which I visited last weekend were pretty boring, which was a shame as the unregenerated bits generally were interesting although the east and much of the CBD is dominated by the casinos for which Macau is famous.
In the last four months travelling have not suffered illness of any sort yet since I've been in HK, have had travel sickness, a dust allergy ayyack and lastly a common cold. I guess this is what could be called a response to the environment but now ten days after arriving I think I have at least partly acclimatised and am happy to be dormiciled here until I receive my Chinese, Russian & Mongolian visas for the Trans Mongolian express, which I hope to have these by the end of this week. After that I will be heading up the China coast towards Beijing.
Comments
Tumbleweed
You're not exactly the most prolific blogger, are you. I can only assume you are too busy enjoying yourself...?
Response
Was just building up to another travelog update when I received your rather impolite message.. these can take an age to compile especially here in China as the internet is so slow so and photos take an age to download although as you would no dount expect I don't want to let standards slip so will probably wait a week or so until I get into Russia where I hope download will be quicker.
A brief update before then...will be leaving China the day after tomorrow, so it seems an appropriate time to look back on this part of the trip, overall I found it a bit of a mixed bag. although more good than bad, interesting but mainly as the chinese language is so inaccessible and a lack of other travellers particularly outside of the main cities I sometimes felt isolated, which I had not experienced at all elsewhere on my travels.
Have visited seven cities in China & in all of them the experience is the same, albeit to varying degrees, (Hong Kong was the most accessible and I guess the most enjoyable, the scenery there too, smog permitting, I thought was fantastic.) Initial feeling is ambivalence or even dislike, followed except in Hangzhou which I really didn't like by familiarisation so the latter part is much better than the earlier part of each city visit.
The normal Chinese (defined as those not trying to rip you off, of which It has to be said there are a number in Shanghai & to a lesser degree elsewhere) are mostly fine if sometimes abrupt. I had a great train ride from Xiamen for example when the Chinese I met could not have been more hospitable and with the aid of pointing at objects/expressions etc we even managed to communicate, too.
Need to sign off now, have to do my washing/get ready to go out. To help countercat the isolation I earlier complained of, am thinking of going to a nearby football bar tonight to catch up on the latest games.
Stephen
Excuses, excuses..
There you go - you can do it if you try.
Glad you're still alive and successfully gesticulating to the foreigners.