A Taste of the Orient

Saturday 04 April 27C Cloudy at first, sunny later.

Now here's a long day. Get on a Boeing 777 at 2330 on 03 Apr, take off at 0010 on 04 April and immediately change your watch back to 1910 on 03 April. Time travel is fun. As you will have guessed, Hong Kong is 5 hours behind Auckland and 7 hours ahead of UK. The flight was quite full, but we got seats we wanted, one window and one aisle, very cosy except for the Chinese man in between us! Nonetheless, both of us got some sleep, one of us managed over 6 hours out of a 10 1/2 hour flight!

Caught a glimpse of Cebu city and Manilla as we flew over the Phillipines and landed at Hong Kong just before 6 in the morning. Last time I was here, over 20 years ago, the airport was at Kai Tak, in the edge of Kowloon and the aircraft made an interesting approach around the skyscrapers of Hong Kong. Now the new airport is open on Lantau Island, things are different. Most people on the aircraft were continuing on to London, we didn't envy them that, another 12 hours to London. Immigration was very quick and straight forward and our bags arrived quickly on the carousel.

We made an abortive attempt to find the Tourism office at the airport and finally gave up after a kind person pointed us in the right direction for the bus into the middle of Hong Kong. The bus, number A11, was almost empty and took about 40 minutes to get to Causeway Bay. It is a good way of travelling as your get to see Lantau Island and Kowloon before diving into the tunnel under the harbour. The driver dropped us off as close to the hotel as he could, but is was quite difficult to find the hotel and downright hard work heaving the bags up and down stairs in the underpass needed to cross the road next to the hotel.

Although it was only 8 in the morning, the hotel found us a room which they desribed as having a big bed, which was two single beds. After rejecting this, they found us a 'nicer' room with a queen bed on the 12th floor directly overlooking the Happy Valley racecourse.

Following a much needed refreshing shower, we catch a free shuttle bus from the hotel to 'Times Square', a shopping mall next to Causeway Bay Mass Transit Railway (MTR). Once again we tried to find the Tourism Office and after discovering that there are 7 entrances to the the station, we finally find the right one, discover the tourism office and get some advice about transport in the city. We purchase a 'Octopus' card, doubtless the same as London's Oyster card, for $HK 150, which allows us travel on the buses, trams, underground, ferries and the Peak Tram. Any money left on the card at the end will be refunded - fat chance.

One of the best ways of seeing Hong Kong is to travel by tram. The trams follow a route that roughly follows the northern coast of the island. They are double-decker trams which look like London in the 1920s (in fact that is probably exactly where they came from). We rattled our way down to the Central district and then walked toward the Central Pier. As we walked, we found hundreds, maybe even thousands of Filipino girls gathered in the area. Apparently, they meet here each week, presumably to chat and meet friends. Many of them work as maids in the city.

After a very pleasant lunch on the pier sitting in the sunshine, we caught the Star Ferry across the harbour to Kowloon. We travel 'upper deck' for an extra 30 cents, very posh! The journey across Hong Kong harbour is great, the view of the city is fantastic. Once in Kowloon, we stroll up Nathan Road, otherwise known as 'Golden Mile'. The area abounds with shops selling the latest electronic gadgets and cameras.




Feeling that we have had quite a busy day all told, we head back on the Star Ferry, lower deck this time, and then catch the tram back to the hotel.

In the evening, we stroll down to Hennessy Road to find some food and march boldly into a Chinese Restaurant with no obvious english menu. We were the only non-Chinese customers, but they found an english menu and we had an excellent meal. As we ate, we carefully studied the other diners to see how they handled their chopsticks and food. We learned a few tips and didn't disgrace outselves apart from one of us refusing to drink the near obligatory tea.