Stef
woke still feeling stiff but up to the challenge of going out and
about. We headed up the road and had breakfast at Starbucks, one of
many outlets of the chain on Hong Kong. Just before we left a man
came and sat next to us and started to talk to us in English. He did
not really make sense, just kept going on about different colours
and how his father was in the army, he was in the army and he likes
green. As we walked out the staff came to check that he had not been
hassling us, very similar to experiences we have had in India.
It
was a clear day so we decided to head up to The Peak to get our
views down and over Hong Kong. We made our way to the Peak Tram,
which is really a funicular railway, and joined the queue of other
tourists waiting to go up. It rises for about 400 metres but at a
very steep angle. You can feel the pull of gravity on your back as
it crawls up hill. The trip takes about eight minutes and halfway up
they stop at a good vantage point for midway views.
At the top, the main Peak Tower where there are shops and
observation platforms is being renovated but the Peak Galleria next
door provides a similar service. It is yet another shopping mall but
has a large terrace roof from where you can see down to Hong Kong
and Kowloon below and up to the top of the peak. Outside there is a
rectangular raised block of what looks like granite or marble with
holes pierced into the top. Every now and again shoots of water
burst up and slowly fall back down, a funny but relaxing to watch
fountain.
Having been in amongst so many very tall skyscrapers we now
found ourselves looking down at them. The apartment blocks are
packed so closely together that everyone must be able to easily see
into everyone else’s apartments. A couple have outdoor pools but the
whole feeling is one of lots and lots of people crammed into a very
small space. When we were in Vancouver we thought that the western
side of town was pretty badly packed full of apartment blocks but if
Hong Kong is representative of Chinese cities I can understand why
so many have moved to Vancouver. The hemmed in parts of Vancouver
are incredibly spacious compared to Hong Kong. Looking across at
some of the walkways and bridges linking buildings together really
creates the impression that you are in a huge anthill and that there
are lines of ants scurrying away all over the place.
The views from here were pretty amazing and on a totally clear
day you would be able to see for miles. Although at sea level we
thought it was a clear day, from here Hong Kong Island and Kowloon
are covered in a smog-like layer of haze. I reckon that the number
of air conditioning units in use to keep the city cool is probably
just adding to the heat problem in the first place. The manic
traffic probably does not help either. The roads are clogged with
cars, buses and lorries but surprisingly the traffic still seems to
flow.
We decided to follow the Mt Austin Road up to the actual peak
itself and the peak park. The road wound up past gated apartment
blocks all with their own security guard. The wealthy residents of
Hong Kong live here and there are Mercedes and BMW cars galore
parked up beneath the apartments. Most of the blocks though look
like they have seen better days or perhaps they just need a fresh
lick of paint. On a clear day they must get fabulous views and in
the summer it will be much cooler here than in the compact and dense
city down below.
Around us the vegetation is definitely tropical and as we
climbed up hill the temperature also seemed to rise. On the way up a
local man started to chat to us. He is a “small potato” in the
business world as he is only the assistant manager of a jewellery
shop whereas his brother and brother in law are both something big
in banking. We had already guessed that the main activity in Hong
Kong was to make money, and then to spend it at the ceaseless trail
of shops and shopping malls that cover the whole region and this man
confirmed this to be so.
His children are a burden to him, although the British legacy
in Hong Kong means that they get free education, and he wants to
invest in property, oil and telecommunications on the mainland as he
thinks these will be growth areas. I was left with the feeling that
this was a dream he would never fulfil. He has also predicted that
the level of bombing that the USA and its allies did in Iraq
recently will set off a geological chain of events and that the
pressure it created on the earths surface will next year result in
big earth quakes down the Rockies and through the California. Time
will tell if his prediction is correct.
At the top there is a large pagoda like shelter where you can
stop, cool down, relax and enjoy the views. A smartly dressed man
was crooning to himself accompanied by his guitar and a local
detachment of Police had come up here for their lunchtime break. It
was far removed from the hustle and bustle of the city and the noise
of the building work by the Peak Tram stop, and was a great place to
just sit quietly and contemplate for a while.
We followed the Governor’s Walk to get back down, a narrow
concreted path that winds down and along the hillside. Large glass
domed street lamps light the way at night and you can make these out
from the lookout terraces back at the tram stop. It was a reasonably
steep climb up to the park but definitely worth doing, in part
because hardly anyone who makes it up to the Peak Terrace continues
on up to the park.
Another group of schoolgirls who want
to interview us
From here we decided to go and have at a look at the south of
the island. The only problem was that the bus Lonely Planet says
will take us from The Peak to Aberdeen only runs on a Sunday. If you
know where you want to go and how to get there travel around Hong
Kong is pretty easy. But if you need to get a bus, tram, maxicab and
do not know the route or the number there is never any information
to help and rarely anyone around to ask except drivers of other
buses.
We ended up heading back down to the Central area in a little
maxicab bus. These only seat 16 passengers and no standing is
allowed. It was a great little service, rattling down hill at a pace
of knots, turning off here and there to go into housing estates
before finally dropping us back down at the bottom. We hopped off a
couple of stops early to have a quick look at the Central district
and hey, what a surprise it is more shops and offices.
As we worked our way back down to the Star Ferry we were
stopped by a couple of school children who were doing a survey on
tourism. They asked us a range of questions in very good English,
asked if they could take our photo and thanked us for our help. As
we finished a lady, obviously their teacher smiled and also thanked
us and it was only then that I noticed another teacher filming the
whole event. A few hundred metres on, we were stopped again by
children from the same school but with different questions. A few
hundred metres further we completed our third survey.
At the bus station outside the Star Ferry there was a bus to
Stanley but no obvious way to get to Aberdeen. With Stef’s back
aching again we opted for a taxi. Great idea in principle but little
did we realise that when he said “for boats to floating restaurants”
he meant ones right by the floating restaurants and not the ones
marked on our map in Lonely Planet. They are huge buildings but the
food is not meant to be great, and neither of us were hungry so we
headed on.
Another taxi took us down to Stanley and to its market. It is a
large collection of stands selling stuff for, and only to tourists.
You can get everything here from rugby shirts and luggage to silk
clothes, paintings, jewellery and even some pretty stunning evening
gowns. None of it though is on our shopping list so we just wandered
through taking it in. By this time Stef was peckish so we stopped at
a café so he could have a snack, which turned out to be quite a
substantial snack but very tasty.
The number 40 minibus took us back to Causeway Bay and we
retreated to our little haven. I was surprised to find that they had
made the bed and given us clean towels, not what I had expected in a
budget hostel. We both took time to catch up on diaries and then
headed out later for something to eat. We went to a restaurant in
the shopping centre opposite and got our first taste of what it will
be like in China where few people will probably speak English.
I think we were the only non native people in there. There was
a loud undercurrent buzz and hum and clink of chopsticks, the sounds
of the very sociable activity the Chinese call eating. At the back
were a couple of private rooms, doors closed and curtains drawn.
When more food went through you could see inside and it looked as if
business was still being conducted even though it was late on a
Friday night.
There were four different menu cards on the table, one of which
had pictures and one had English translations. We would have been
totally lost without this as neither of us can make any sense yet
out of Chinese characters. I suspect we will have to confine our
future eating to places where they do have picture cards or, and
this is quite common, where they have sample bowls outside of what
you will get so you can simply point and nod.
