Hong Kong

I’ve got my blue dress, I’ve got my backpack, and … I’m out of Beijing! WOOHOOO!! I do love Beijing, but I’ve missed being warm, smelling flowers (did I not mention that Beijing plants plastic flowers over the winter? It’s weird) and seeing the sea. Oh, I have missed the sea. Armed with hastily gathered “what should I do in Hong Kong, I have to go this weekend!” tips from everyone I know, I hopped on the airport express and flew to Shenzhen on Sunday, crossing the border and arriving in time for seeing the Filipino maids of the city lounging around anywhere there was space on their afternoon off. Shenzhen Airlines, incidentally, don’t do the safety demonstration but they DO have a synchronised “thank you for flying with us” dance just before landing. The mind boggles.

So, Hong Kong is mental. It’s like someone hit London with a jungle. Hong Kong Island especially – Kowloon (where I’m sat writing) is more Chinese. I know everyone who likes Hong Kong likes it because you can have both China and England in one city, but the only thing it’s done for me is tinge everything with a hue of homesickness. It’s never been easier to live Dad’s “Remember you’re British” travel advice. Anyway. Since I only had three nights in the place I’ve been cramming in the sightseeing and absorbing the Hong Kong atmosphere. On Monday I dropped all my visa stuff off at the processing centre first thing, then (learning a mountain based lesson from Cape Town) I headed straight for the Peak because the weather was nice. The mountain lesson, by the way, is if it’s nice, you GO – you never, EVER, wait and assume the weather will be the same tomorrow. EVER.  



I got the tram up to the Peak, even though it’s super touristy it’s totally worth it. It’s so steep in places that it feels like the weirdest crank up to a roller coaster ever. The top of the Peak wasn’t what I was expecting, but the wifi in Starbucks meant I could text Mum from Skype like I did from Table Mountain. It’s always nice to follow in travelling traditions! Unfortunately I didn’t time my visit well enough to see sunset and all the lights, and I couldn’t be bothered with sitting round on top of a mountain (even one with a Haagen-Daaz café) to wait. I got the tram down again and wandered the streets of central, indulged myself with a browse of H&M and got a tram back along to Causeway Bay where my hostel was. After cleaning up and chilling out for a while, I hopped on the MTR (subway, metro, underground, whatever) along to the piers at Central to catch the Star Ferry across the water to Kowloon so I could go to the Temple Street night-market. I had a good wander around the market, got dazzled by neon and managed to avoid buying all manner of random tat, mostly because Hong Kong (on a Chinese wage) is horrendously expensive and I only had a small backpack. I wish it was because I know I have no need of or use for random tat, but I’m proud of my restraint anyhow.

In a very British fashion, the next day I went to the beach in the rain. I caught the bus to Repulse Bay on the south side of the island (6X if you’re interested, but you can catch the 6, 6A or 260 from Exchange Square in Central) which took about 45mins. I didn’t quite get the front seat, but 2^nd row isn’t bad for looking out the window and, fortunately, the tourists in front of me were pretty short so they weren’t too much in the way. Repulse Bay is so named because pirates were repulsed from there in 1848 (I think) – it’s claim to fame is a shrine at the South-East end of the beach and a “Longevity” bridge that claims to prolong your life by three days every time you cross it. There are also Baywatch-style lifeguard towers, a shark net and a 7-Eleven right over the road, but they’re not nearly so mystical.

I am my mother’s daughter so naturally I had a paddle, but I was the only one. Not quite as cold as the North Sea or the Channel, but pretty nippy nonetheless. It was a pretty miserable day weather-wise, so I hopped on another bus round to Stanley to check out their market. I was chilly and a bit cheesed off by this point (I’d been hoping for an afternoon sat on the beach) so I didn’t get anything except for a hugely disappointing lunch. I decided to call it quits on sightseeing then and got the bus back over to the north side. In the evening, I met up with my friends Will and Mark (from teaching) who live in Hong Kong now. They took me to see Lang Kwai Fung, Hong Kong’s equivalent of Bar Street, and even though it was Tuesday evening, we still managed to drink until the wee hours.

Wednesday morning I stumbled bleary eyed and cursing the evil pixie on my shoulder that thought tequila was a good idea last night to the visa office to collect my passport. I nursed a hangover, a sausage roll and an iced Hibiscus tea in Starbucks and wrote some postcards for the rest of the morning then headed over to Kowloon to have a mosey in daylight. I wasn’t in a museum mood, so I sat in the park for a while and listened to some kind of tropical bird that sounded like an climaxing swanny-whistle before embarking on the epic trip back to China.

(In fairness, the “epic” trip was a subway ride to the border then a taxi to Shenzhen airport. I’m such a traveller…)