World China Guangdong Tonggu

Steve's World Tour 2006 - 2008

Hong Kong Wk1 5 Nov 2006

Movie Clips - Playback Requirements - Problems?

Well I finally managed to make it onto a train to Hong Kong and had quite a relaxing journey. I was in a four berth coupe but was the only person in there as it was one of the more expensive options (second class was a six berth) and so was able to spread out and look at the Chinese landscape. After quite a few hours of dusty landscapes and factories outside of depressing towns it got dark and I headed down to the restaurant car and I managed to bump into another English person. Needless to say we started drinking beer and chatting about what we were up to but the conversation degenerated into him bragging about how many Chinese women he had slept with and soon I decided to head to bed. It was another 24 hour train journey and by the last few hours I was quite relieved that I was not due to be on any more trains in the near future. The scenery had improved however by the following morning with tropical plants, mountains and valleys going past the window.

After arriving at the untra modern train station and after navigating the metro system I met up with my friend Claire, who I used to work with in London. I was renting a spare room in her apartment and the two of us ended up spending that evening shifting furniture and mountains of stuff so that I could fit in there. The apartment itself is really nice as it is situated on the top floor (23rd) of her block on Hong Kong island and so has a large roof terrace with excellent views of the city. It was a relief to be somewhere where I had my own room and a wardrobe and it was also really nice to be around someone who I have been friends with for more then a couple of weeks.

The first few days I did absolutely sod all. I think I have become a bit travelled out after going round South Africa, Eastern Europe, Russia, Mongolia and China and so I had no real interest in doing much. I was relieved that I am due to be here for a month where I could settle a bit and that the next country is Australia where I am going to spend 11 months. Anyway I arrived on the train on Monday and over the next three days I slept, watched all of "Lost" Season two on dvd, spent a long time on the roof terrace looking out at the city, played a bit with Claire's three legged dog "Geo" (he had been in a car accident) and her five parrots, met up with Claire and some of her work friends for a meal one evening and assebled a wardrobe which Claire had ordered from Ikea.

On the Thursday i met up with Simon & CJ who I had met in Beijing and who had also now made it down to Hong Kong. I caught the ferry over to Kowloon which was an experience in itself. Like every other mode of transport in this city it is highly efficient and quite fast and cheap. You also had spectacular views of the skyscrapers going into the distance on both shores. One part of Hong Kong has the highest density of population in the world with 50,080 people per square km. Such is the demand for and price of land the harbour is constantly being filled in to make more room. The road that Claire's apartment is on used to be on the seafront apparently - now the sea is three blocks away!

Anyway I met up with Simon & CJ and we saw the museum of Hong Kong which was interesting. I also saw the hostel they were in which was horrible. Not only was it quite expensive, the building was a blatant fire risk and looked as though it was about to fall down, there were loads of small shops underneath the building where people were constantly trying to sell you fake rolexs, their room had no window, there was no common room, ect. I was very glad to be staying over on Hong Kong island with my friend instead.

We all met up with Claire and some of her friends for dinner that evening back on Hong Kong island and then headed off to one of the main bar streets in the area. Claire did not join us as she was in training for an insane 100km non stop charity walk over mountains in the New Territories the following day and so was not drinking. She had asked me if I would like to do the walk as well, but I knew that I would have collasped half way round. Mabey if someone had held out a bottle of vodka in front of me carrot style I might have done it! :)

Me, Simon, CJ and Rebecca (one of Claire's friends) ended up in a R&B bar and after a couple of drinks in there Rebecca brought us to a launch party for a 80% proof tequilia called Patron. We were obvious crashers. I had not shaved and was wearing a washed too many times t-shirt and Simon & CJ were looking quite backpacky as well. Most of the rest of the people at the function were in suits or expensive designer clothes. Still there were free cocktails and after a few we were all getting a bit merry. We managed to accidently lose Rebecca and when the free drinks stopped flowing we headed back down to the bar street and went from bar to bar until it was the early hours of the morning.

The following day Claire was on her walk and she asked me to bring her out her torch for the nighttime part of the walk, so I headed out into the new territories which really are very beautiful and met up with her and the team after they had done 25km. The walk was still going on the following day and did not in fact finish until the early hours of Sunday morning (well it was 100km!) so I chilled out for the rest of the weekend and did not do much.

On the Monday however I finally got motivated to do something. I walked into Central district and saw the Man Mo temple, where huge coils of incense are suspended from the ceiling with prayers written on a piece of paper in the centre. One such coil can burn for up to a month apparently and the air was quite thick with smoke. After that I took the "central - mid levels esclator" half way up the mountain range that is the centre of Hong Kong island. The esclator is in fact a large series of covered esclators that strech almost a kilometer up the lower slopes of the mountain and provide communters easier access to the apartments higher up, as well as access to the bar and restaurant streets that it intersects. I found it fasinating as I had never seen anything like it; Claire found my fasination hysterical as of couse she lives here and sees it more as just a mode of transportation. After the esclator I decided to climb to the peak of the mountain as surely it could not be that far. When I arrived at the top about 30 minutes later after sweating profusely from the steep incline, I was not sure how good an idea that was. The view was amazing though and after hanging around for a little while I got the tram back down the mountain.

That evening I headed out for dinner and drinks with Claire and some of her friends and ended up in an untra posh bar with Claire and her friend Mark called "Dragon i". One thing I have noticed about bars and restaurants in Hong Kong is the outdoor feel that many of them have with one side of the bar been completely open to the outside due to the heat. It meant that the heat of the balmy night could be felt, which made it feel so much better then an equivalent place in London or elsewhere. It was a really good evening and after quite a few drinks me and Claire went off for some burgers/kebabs. In the burger place they had currency from around the world on the wall and I drunkenly gave them a Ukrainian note as I noticed they did not have one.