Heaven in Hong Kong
So we made it to Hong Kong, eventually, and settled in really quickly (immediately spreading our stuff all over the flat). After China it was a breath of fresh air, much cleaner, no spitting and pretty much everyone speaks English. Despite that we still had a few problems understanding the bus route, although we'd just about cracked it by the last day!After a very long sleep and a wash we headed down to Central (the centre of Hong Kong City, on Hong Kong Island) to explore. We took the Star Ferry (a HK institution which has been running for over one hundred years) across the harbour to Kowloon, which faces Hong Kong Island. We wandered down the 'Walk of Stars', HK's answer to Hollywood Boulevard - lots of handprints and signatures of famous Cantonese actors, set in stars. We hadn't heard of any except for Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, which were swamped with Chinese tourists taking photos of themselves doing 'peace' signs in front of them - very peculiar! More exciting I thought was the fact that every hundred yards was a wedding party having photos taken. Bizarrely, people get married in the huge shopping centre next to the Walk of Stars, and then have their photos done there. So I got to assess Chinese wedding outfits (verdict: too many meringues but I liked the lace), and be horrified at the number of people who go to weddings in jeans! No-one is coming to my wedding in jeans!
We returned to the Star Ferry for an evening tour of the harbour as the sun 'set', or rather disappeared into the polluted haze. We were then treated to a light show over the harbour complete with fireworks, something to do with it being Hong Kong Year - they're showing it every night allegedly, but clearly they had heard of our arrival.
Our second day began with a walking tour of Central, although as most of the shops were closed (it was a Sunday) we probably didn't get quite the experience that was intended for us. We did however visit the botanical gardens and zoo which was exciting, lots of monkeys and Chinese people going 'waaaaa', the noise they make when they're excited. They made it again on the tram up to the Peak, the mountain overlooking Hong Kong harbour. The hill is extremely steep, it's quite a ride. At the top I coerced Chris into walking round to Severn road, where I lived until I was about 4. Quite good views although it was pretty polluted that day unfortunately. In the spirit of excercise we decided to walk back down from the peak, getting lost and ending up in the University where we prided ourselves in our ability to blend in with lost-looking groups of freshers!
In our attempt to see more than one island in Hong Kong we took a day trip to Lantau, the largest island much of which is national park. We took a bus to see the reclining buddha, the largest in the world which was very impressive, perched on a mountain top. Again we thought walking down would be a good plan. Unfortunately we had overlooked the distance, 6.5km, which was a problem as we were due to have supper with friends of my parents. As a result we all but ran down the mountain and suffered from dehydration. Luckily this was alleviated in the evening - we were taken to the Mandarin Hotel, then the China Club, then Soho (a happening part of town) and were bought enough alcohol to completely wipe any memories of the day. Chris was not a well boy!
Due to our hangovers, our final day in Hong Kong was a write-off and we completely failed to leave the flat until late afternoon when we met another friend of my parents for a drink. He persuaded us to stay another day, with promises of a relaxing time by the pool on the south side of the island. So we extended our stay and visited Stanley Market, famous for cheap shopping, and also made a trip to the beach. Our final afternoon was spent by the pool at the America Club, where people bought drinks to our sunbeds. We felt extremely spoilt.
We both very much enjoyed Hong Kong, which I now think of as a cheaper, cleaner, safer and more efficient version of London. Admittedly we were very spoilt the entire time with free meals and accomodation. Nevertheless it is a fun place and I'd recommend a visit to anyone who can afford it.
Emily
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