Arrived 18/06/19
I had caught my connecting train to Hong Kong, but it was still 9.30 pm when I arrived at West Kowloon station. It took 30 minutes to complete the formalities to exit mainland China and enter Hong Kong, and then another 30 minutes to find my way through the impressive but vast station complex to the Kowloon MTR (underground) station, on the way catching my first glimpse of night time Hong Kong island over the water.
It was about 11.00 pm by the time I got to my accommodation, a spare room in a couple’s flat, booked through AirBnB rather than my usual Booking.com, where I had been unable to find anything reasonably priced. It is a 2 bedroom, 40 square metre apartment that costs about £2000 a month to rent. My host told me that most places this size have 6 or 7 people living in them and that he was fortunate to have a separate shower cubicle rather than a shower over a squat toilet like most places. An average flat costs 19 times average earnings. And virtually everyone lives in a flat. There are tower blocks everywhere, many on quite small plots of land right next to other blocks; gardens are a rarity here. My block was built post-war and is only a few stories high. It will probably be pulled down in due course and replaced with a 20 or 50 storey building. There are 7.5 million people crammed into the small area of flat land; the steepness of the hills makes building there impractical. Much of the city is built on land reclaimed from the sea. Foundations go down into solid granite enabling the very high towers to be built.
I ventured out in the morning to find breakfast. Since I had use of a kitchen I bought some oats, honey and a bunch of bananas to make porridge. The bananas were a little fatter than usual but looked good. Back at the flat I attempted to peel one. It fought back, vigorously. I yanked and twisted and pulled but it was not giving up easily; finally I found a knife and caught it unawares. Surprisingly, the flesh inside was just as hard as the skin! I questioned my host and he explained that what I had bought were actually plantains, not bananas at all. Damn cunning, these Chinese fruits. Not to be beaten, I sliced it up with a chainsaw and boiled it with my porridge. It tasted OK, not very sweet, but good.
After consuming enough calories to replace those spent battling fruit, I spent some time catching up with washing (I had the luxury of a washing machine!) and finances – checking what I had spent in China and getting money in the right accounts – before heading out to ascend Victoria Peak, usually referred to as just ‘the Peak’. Eating a sandwich in a square in the town I also provided lunch for the local insects, who consumed most of the blood from my legs, adding to the bites I had got in Guilin. Up at the Peak I enjoyed the views and then got away from the crowds to a quiet place where it was convenient for more insects to suck whatever was left from my legs. With 35 very itchy bites, replacing my confiscated insect repellent was clearly overdue. Fortunately I found some that evening at the Temple Street night market. It was about the only thing worth buying in the market, which, with a few exceptions, was full of tourist souvenir tat.
The next morning I set out for Lantau Island, which I had read was worth visiting. I should have prepared better because when I got off the boat I was faced with a profusion of buses going to place names I did not recognise; Lantau Island was clearly bigger than I had realised. I saw a sign for an ‘Old Village Path’ and, deciding an old village sounded interesting, started walking. It was a mistake. After 30 or 40 minutes on the flat through fields and houses, the path suddenly dived into the woods and headed uphill. It kept going uphill through trees, with big stones and sometimes mud underfoot. It was not long before my shirt was wringing wet with sweat. I never did find an old village; all I found was an old village path. Silly me. Eventually I came out onto a road and took the easy route back to the ferry terminal, where I cooled down in an air conditioned restaurant while waiting for the boat. So much for Lantau Island. I did not really do it justice. And I over paid on the ferry; my top tip for seniors visiting Hong Kong: when you buy an Octopus card, ask for a senior one; they are like an Oyster card but can also be used in shops. I would have got the ferry for HK$2 instead of HK$30 if I had had the senior version.
Back on Hong Kong Island I took a ride on the Ding Ding, the old trams that run east and west through the city. Sitting upstairs on the narrow vehicle is great for sightseeing as it trundles slowly along, and you can travel as far as you like for 26p. I went to the North Point terminus and then back to Victoria Park, where I had possibly my best Hong Kong experience: a glass of ice cold mango slush; it was wonderfully refreshing.
On my last day I took the Ding Ding to Wan Chai, the Star ferry across Victoria Harbour to Kowloon and the MTR to Diamond Hill in order to visit the Chi Lin Buddhist nunnery. Rebuilt in 1998 entirely from wood (no nails), this is an oasis of calm in the otherwise unrelenting commercial hubbub. It has a marvellous permanent exhibition of bonsai trees (large ones) and ‘fine rocks’, each with a quote from ancient texts. Both the nunnery and the adjacent Nan Lian garden were built in Tang dynasty style, and both are beautiful, especially the garden, where the theme of beautiful rocks and large bonsai trees was wonderfully executed.
Not far from the nunnery is the temple at Wong Tai Sin with its garden which, while interesting, was not a patch on Nan Lian. Just outside were arcades with scores of fortune tellers’ booths; I did not use their services but headed for an air conditioned mall to cool down with an icy lime juice.
I had found Hong Kong interesting and impressive, but also tiring; it is not a relaxing city. Every street is lined with businesses and, when every one lives in towers, there are thousands of people on every block. The weather does not help; it is hot and humid by day and night with the only relief inside air conditioned buildings. There are some open spaces, and there is beauty, but the overall feeling is one of hustle and bustle. I am sure there is plenty more to see, but four nights was enough for me.
Rob's Roads 