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'Bus Tour'17 Jun 2009
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Wed 17th June---Weather:-Humid/Sunny
Hong Kong --- Peak tour
After not much sleep and the return with a vengeance of my cold symptoms we had to get up at 6:30am so that we could be at the pickup point in central Hong Kong for our tour today. The Peak is one of the most popular attractions in Hong Kong and we were eagerly looking forward to our trip to the top as looking down from The Peak gives you the most spectacular view of the world famous Victoria Harbour. I have always remembered the 1955 movie ‘Love is a Many-Splendored Thing’ staring Jenifer Jones and William Holden in which the central characters met on the Peak, fell in love but their affair was doomed as interracial relationships were not tolerated here or in the west at that time. It just shows how we have matured slightly in some cases at least. The scene of Victoria Harbour at the time of the movie is a different scene to that of today. To say that a lot of building has gone on in the meantime is an understatement.
The bus trip also drove us past Repulse Bay at the southern part of Hong Kong Island and showed us its famous (man-made) wave-lapped beach. The area of Repulse bay is where a lot of the expats reside, over there it is not as congested as the main district is, it affords them a little more space in their apartments and the buildings are surrounded by a lot of greenery, only about 1% of the population in Hong Kong live in houses as we know them, the rest live in small apartments in the 'high rise' buildings, that is the reason that they spend so very little time at home. Most people in Hong Kong do not own a car but use the frequent public transport. The problem does not seem to be the cost of purchasing a car but more so the cost of parking is the prohibiting factor. The tall skyscrapers of buildings that house the population over here are also a scary situation for me. Families live in a lot smaller spaces than we are used to but I think that it must lead to a better tolerance and consideration of each other. I have noticed that western tourists speak and behave a lot louder than our eastern counterparts, I suppose in their upbringing in more crowded conditions they have learned to keep their voices down a few pegs or two.
The Stanley Markets was on our list of stops today as the tour included it but for us Adelaideans it was quite unnecessary as our Chinatown area 7 minutes from our place is the South Australian equivalent. A visit to a manufacturing jeweller was also of interest but the high pressure to buy was a ‘put off’, I wasn’t game enough to look or show interest in any items-a view that was echoed by some of the other travellers on our bus. The jewellery was certainly beautiful and of excellent value, tax free and government guaranteed with a 30 day full refund policy if you were not satisfied with your product after purchase but the sales pressure put on was their undoing.
Aberdeen harbour, our next port of call is home to hundreds of people living on fishing junks. Their traditional lifestyle is dramatically juxtaposed against a modern high-rise community spread over the nearby hillsides. The harbour is a typhoon refuge as they have built facilities there so the population can get shelter from the many typhoons that hit this area. To get a close-up look at the Aberdeen way of life, we took a sampan ride which showed us the fishing fleet that is on sabbatical at the moment as they cannot go out to fish for about 2 months at this time of year, it is the fish breeding season. The government helps out the local fishermen during the breeding season as profits are not high so the fishermen use this time to do maintenance on their boats. The Harbour also houses two magnificent floating restaurants that are anchored there, three storeys high and elaborately decorated with swirling red and gold dragons and other traditional Chinese motifs, the fare on offer there is delicious fresh seafood and excellent Cantonese food. These two ships have also been featured in many movies one of them being a James bond movie and another one was a Bruce Lee movie. When we came back home it was time for some editing of photos, some heat relief was had by having a light dinner in our room followed with some more of the previous nights frolics in the ‘Waterfront Terrace Bar’ during their “Happy Hour”.
