Round the World

Getting up at 5am in the morning is not something I enjoy but in the circumstances (the fact that I am travelling around the world like mr smug from no.10 smug street, smugland) it wasn't so bad, although your bag does seem to be a little heavier than it is at any normal hour! Beijing Airport was pretty quiet when we got there, just the first few flyers of the day milling around. Our flight took us to Shenzhen which is an industrial city in Southern China and by the grandest standards this city is sprawling - 30 million Chinese live there. We didn't get to see it much as we were simply passing through to the port for a ferry to take us to Hong Kong but we did notice that it was tropically hot and sunny. The boat was comfortable and quick, it only took about 1 hour across Victoria Harbour into downtown Kowloon and the view as you came into the port was pretty mindblowing, the scale of construction in Hong Kong is surely without rival in terms of its visual impressiveness with skyscrapers in every direction.

The Kowloon Hotel

Hong Kong is divided into two main districts which are separated by the body of water in between them. Where we were staying was Kowloon - The Kowloon Hotel in fact and this is where the hustle and bustle is really at its peak, there are apparently 100,000 people for every square kilometre here and it shows. Every ounce of available space is taken, the roads are narrow and the buildings are tall and people pour out of every orifice of it 24 hours hours a day. This, combined with the extreme humidity can make it a rather oppressive place but it feels very alive and exciting at the same time. The other side of the water is Hong Kong City where all the big companies and their various skyscraping headquarters are based. The biggest, clearly dwarfing the rest is the 'Two IFC Tower' and it is not only the biggest in Hong Kong but also the biggest in Asia, a formidable sight. It was also great to see the HSBC building designed by Norman Foster which was one of the things I had been looking forward to.

On arrival we decided that it was no distance to reach our hotel by foot so we changed some cash and off we went. After trying to find the hotel for about half an hour with a heavy pack on your back and 90% humidity you kind of get annoyed. It was at this point we stopped and asked and eventually we stumbled into the foyer in a sweaty mess. The hotel room was small but immaculate and we were very pleased. We got sorted and headed out. It can be quite daunting when you first get to somewhere because you really don't know where you are going but the beauty of Hong Kong is that it is compact and well sign posted and you can get your bearings fairly quickly. We wandered around a few streets and went for some dinner and drinks. They have bars with happy hour which is a good job as Hong Kong in normal hour is expensive (in some places as expensive as London although you can generally eat cheaply) so a couple of discount cocktails were just what we needed.

HK Street Scape

Along the way several things were particularly striking about the place. There is a very cosmopolitan feel to Hong Kong with lots of shops like Gucci, Burberry, Vivienne Westwood - all the big fashion names were represented. The people there seem to be fairly affluent and it shows in the way they dress and carry themselves. There is also a diverse cultural mix and in particular lots of Indian people, most of whom were trying to sell me a suit or read my palm, one guy said to me, "You have a very lucky face sir. Do you know why you have a lucky face? Its because this month of September and also October is very lucky for you." I didn't stop to hear any more and must have heard "Do you know why you have very lucky face sir......" being shouted down the street at me about 20 times after that. In the end I was shouting back, "Yeah, its September."

On any given building in Kowloon there might be 5 or 6 signs for different shops, restaurants or services that you can get in that building and you have to walk inside and take stairs or catch the lift to get to them, this results in the space above the street being littered with neon signs advertising everything from the ubiquitous massage parlours to the not so popular Hong Kong Haemmorhoid Centre! Hong Kong differs from Beijing in that they speak the southern dialect of Cantonese rather than Mandarin although in truth so many speak English or some English at least that we never once had any problem not being a Chinese speaker. Food, like the language, is also diffent with the Cantonese speciality being dim sum which are baskets of steamed dumplings and other small dishes that you order several of, a bit like an oriental tapas and really very delicious.

No title required

Before you arrive in Hong Kong you see pictures of the harbour and read about the magnificient view at night but nothing really prepares you for how impressive it is. As you come out of the subway, as we did on that first night, and walk through a small garden to the Avenue of the Stars (like Hollywood but with Asian actors) you suddenly see the buildings across that harbour lit up with colour and spotlights, their reflections rippling on the water. I could not stop looking at it for about twenty minutes in order to take it all in and I went back every night we were there just to see it again.

Victoria Harbour looking moody in the rain

On our second day, after a stunning dim sum breakfast, we went to the Hong Kong museum of Art in Kowloon. It was pretty cool and they had an exhibition by an artist whose name I can't remember who had made sculptures from hair. Apparently the hair of 10,000 different Americans. The room full of tiny shoes that she'd made was particularly impressive. We also saw work by Qi Baishi who is considered one of the greatest ever Chinese artists. His work was great and full of humour, one of his caligraphy scrolls was translated as, "Visitors enquiring about the wellness of my wife in order to receive discounted work will no longer be entertained," which he had hung in his workshop. He was obviously a bit of a grumpy old git, but he did have a one year old son when he was seventy five which I thought was quite an achievement. On the ground floor, that we visited last, there were exhibits of ancient Chinese jewellery and artefacts some of it about 2500 years old which was impressive by its age but by the time we got to it I was suffering from museum fatigue and had to get out of there.

That evening we went to a night market. There was a great deal of crap for sale but some nice jewellery and leather stuff and I bought a leather notebook. We ate in a little street cafe where a crazy old geezer was trying to get us to order what he wanted us to order and managed to flog us two of the biggest beers I've ever seen, although I wasn't complaining and the food was great. Ruth bought a Baby G watch for about 2 quid and on the way home it rained. When we got inside the hotel the watch had stopped! It started again the next morning but I don't hold out much hope for its long term future.

On our final day in Hong Kong we visited the space museum which failed to impress as much as the art museum had although we did go to the space theatre which is a huge domed cinema that shows you space scapes abopve your head and aroiund you in a 360 degree perspective. It was a fairly good show but there were some people sitting behind us who were gabbering on through the whole show. Even when Ruth turned around with a theatrical ssshhhuussshh!(in true teacher style) they still kept on. We decided that either they had never been to the cinema before or they were ignorant idiots.

In the evening we went for a meal at the Hong Kong Hot Pot restaurant. It was similar to the hotpot we had had in Huehot but not so spicy, things are never quite as good the second time you have them but it was still delicious. We sat at a table next to a massive tank filled with big fish looking at us and lobsters clawing at the sides. We had chicken. The following morning we had cake and juice for breakfast from the bakery (of which there are several fantastic ones in Kowloon)and got packed up. There was a free shuttle bus to a train which then took you to Hong Kong Airport. You could check at the train station before getting on the train which was fantastic as you didn't have to carry your bag any further and could relax from that point on. A fine example of Chinese efficiency I thought. The airport was generally unremarkable as most airports tend to be although we had some pretty good Chinese food there in the 'banana leaf cafe'.

The flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok is the best flight I have ever been on. It was operated by Cathay Pacific who are in their 60th anniversary year and the stewardesses were in various uniforms from the last 60 years. There was a special annivesary menu from a top Hong Kong restaurant and enough free gin and tonic to total a horse, as well as individual TV for every passenger. It makes you realise how crap package flights are when you fly in relative style!! As the captain announced, we touched down in Bangkok at about three in the afternoon local time, outside temperature was a moderate 27 degrees centigrade with a slight breeze......