Hong Kong

May 2007

HONG KONG – HONG KONG

So my friends it pains me to tell you that we have reached our final destination. Before returning to the UK that is. The journey has been amazing with nine months worth of great memories. But before we close the book on this adventure let us just fill you on the place that is Hong Kong.

The first thing that became immediately apparent as our taxi carried us along the outskirts of the city, was that they don’t half love a sky scraper here. If you imagine London’s Docklands or New York to be a small cluster of tall trees, then Honkers is an entire forest of tall structures. We drove for over half an hour and these high rises stretched as far as the eye could see. A gleaming modern metropolis.

Our hotel was actually situated twenty minutes out of town in an area known as the New Territories, situated North of the city. Hong Kong’s geography and size reminds me a lot of Singapore. Its basically just one big city on an Island nestled at the bottom of China. Packed with people, but the strict rules result in a very clean and polite experience.

On the Saturday we had been told to catch the ferry over to Cheung Chau Island to witness one of the biggest annual events, The Bun Festival. Celebrated on the 8th day of the fourth moon in the lunar calendar it’s a remarkable festival. The story behind the event is that the buns are left out each year to feed the hungry ghosts of pirates’ victims that roam the island in search of food.

Its full of colour and includes dancing Chinese Lions, Kung Fu performances, races and lots of people heavily dressed in mythological figures. It was OK getting over to the island, but once there, it was mayhem. Half of Hong Kong crammed in to one small land mass and on the hottest day of the year.

We followed tradition and bought one of the steamed buns and ours was filled with tasty vegetables. The festival itself was hard to get to as the main parade took place along a very narrow street that was cordoned off by police and was already lined five deep with locals. We did get some good views later on of the races and dancing Lions, whilst we slurped our ice cold drinks and lapped up another ice cream.

It was definitely a new experience, but we then realised it was all coming to an end and obviously thousands of people will be wanted to board the ferry back to the main land. Doh! Too late. The queue was already massive. We joined the back of the queue and then it split in to lanes for either the fast ferry or normal. The fast ferry took half the time to cross but was more expensive. We didn’t care about the cost and just wanted to get off this rock so slipped in to the fast FERRY lane. Big mistake, as we soon found out that fast ferry, didn’t mean fast queue! The other lane sped along and we ended up waiting over two hours for our ride back.

Next day we did some shopping and then checked out the Space museum. In the cosy 360 degree auditorium we leant back and watched a very soothing video about space and asteroids. It was so soothing that I fell asleep! After that we headed down to the river front for 7pm when each night they put on the worlds biggest light show. All the sky scrapers, on the other side of the river, are wired up to a computer program that co-ordinates music with hundreds of lights, strobes and lasers. A remarkable thing to watch. Very clever indeed and once it fades the buildings are silent but still show off the many famous electronic brand logos such as Samsung, Sony, Panasonic and Sanyo to name but a few.

If you like shopping then you can’t go wrong in Hong Kong. Everywhere you go are parades of shops, markets or vast air conditioned shopping centres. Saying that, it’s not cheap in the branded outlets so you have to go to the markets for a bargain on your fake Rolex.

On our last afternoon we caught the tram up to the best viewpoint in town. A weird futuristic looking building known as the Peak. We spent a good amount of time just admiring the city from above, seeing how the winding river slips its way between the tall buildings. Afterwards we ducked in to a pricey restaurant for lunch where I enjoyed stir fried duck and noodels washed down with no less than a yummy glass of Malbec Red Vino from Mendoza in Argentina. Superb!
We caught the tram back down and you have to sit facing backwards due to the very steep 45degree slope.

Then we went to see the Mid Level Escalators. At 800 metres long, this is the worlds longest covered escalator. It takes twenty minutes to rides its full length and its widely used by residents to get to work. Between 6am and 10am it runs downhill so people can get downtown to their office and after that it runs uphill. And best of all….. its free!

After all that excitement we slipped in to a cosy looking Irish bar that was full of English and Aussie stock brokers. We determined this by their loud and boisterous behaviour and we could just smell the money. Not jealous at all we left after just one pint of Guinness.

So our last night of the holiday arrived so we went to a place called Ruby Tuesdays for a slap up celebratory meal. To celebrate the fact that we’d successfully navigated our way around the world unharmed. We ordered a jug of beer and the biggest fattest burgers known to man. Dripping with mayonnaise and packed with cheese and gherkins…. Man they were good!

On the table to our left sat two very skinny young Chinese guys, in their early twenties. To be honest I’ve seen more meat on a chop stick so imagine our surprise when between them they put away five of the largest dishes on the menu…. First they devoured a large meat platter loaded with chicken wings, ribs etc before the waitress bought then the largest double burgers. Then cam a huge plate with a Tbone steak and chips. Just when I thought they were going to pop the tallest ice cream arrived and they devoured that too. All the way through the meal they just kept on laughing and taking photos of the mass of food. I could only presume they just graduated and earned their first pay check or had been starved in prison for the past two years... Bet they felt well the next day! A funny end to a great nine months.

So we hope you have all enjoyed our updates. I know that some of you are avid readers, some of you have read a few and some probably toss them al in the recycle bin, but we’ve enjoyed writig them and even more have enjoyed living the dream.

For those who remember the half time analysis… keep your eye out for our full time analysis, when we try to summarise our trip and the emotions it inspired. Not to mention trying to pick our favourites 30 photos!!!

Over and Out!
The SpicyApples.
The itchy feet are still there, but for now, they have been satisfied.