Day 01 02-09-2013 Mon Hong Kong

We arrived in HK somewhat early at 5am (yes, AM). We had elected to change our clothes in the airport arrivals concourse loo, and this proved a good choice as the queues at customs and immigration were much reduced by the time we straggled in. Due to thorough research by Joan, we qualified to obtain an Octopus Elder travel cad like the Oyster card in London. Buying it almost didn’t happen though as the MTR desk was not yet open when we first fronted up.

The Airport Express journey to Kowloon was interesting as it gave us our first glimpse of the sun rising over the hills and also of the harbour. We had never been to HK before. A bonus of the Airport Express is that it includes a shuttle to the district where your hotel is located. We were the only passengers on the K4 service.

The shuttle dropped as street from our hotel. After some wrong turns on foot (I was strangely disoriented, not for the first time today), we arrived and checked in. As expected our room was not ready at this early hour, so we dropped our bags and set off on foot. I don’t want to belabour the point, but I need to get this whinge off my chest and hopefully not allude to it again. In short – hot and humid

Initially we visited the nearby Kowloon Park, which was full of old people doing Tai Chi. They come well-prepared with a ghetto blaster which plays music to accompany them while they go through their routines. Mostly singles, but also a smattering of small groups.

Next we decided walked over to the harbour and were at first interested in going to the viewing gallery of the Sky Tower, the tallest building in Kowloon. Due to the early hour and it not opening until 10am, like almost everything else, this was soon abandoned in favour of a visit Hong Kong (Island). We took the Star Ferry not least because it was free for Elders. On arriving at Central on the island, 

there is a long elevated pedestrian walkway over reserved-for-military land. [the next bit is for Aussies only] While traversing this we almost fell out of our shoes to see the visage of Kevin’07 smiling at us. We had been pleased to escape the election campaign at home, but there is no escaping KRudd. [/Aussies]

We had also seen some older buildings from the walkway and we took in Kev on the way there. 

Next we elected to take a tram in a westerly direction. This was a lot of fun and quite instructive, as we had the prime viewing position at the front of the top deck. No aircon, se were pleased that there was some air coming through the open front windows. Now I wouldn’t be the first person to observe that HK is a rather amazing city. The huge number of glass and steel business towers is quite striking. Then there are the zillions of tall apartment blocks everywhere you go. 

We got off at the urging of an elderly local who spoke good English, at Kennedy Town. We were touched by such kindness toward mere tourists.

We wandered around some there and headed back on the tram to Western Market that we had seen on the outbound leg. Once there we scouted around for a temple, which proved not to be interesting. The streets we traversed to get there were filled all sort of shops. One street was dedicated to shops selling objets d’arte favoured by Chinese people. There were some quite remarkably ornate pieces there, some with price tags in excess HKD 1 million.

Now the trams are notable because they are small single-carriage vehicles running on narrow gauge track. What they may lack in size they certainly make up for in numbers. We encountered dozens and dozens of them on our trip. Sometimes four deep at a stop. They must run every few minutes. 

This trip let us appreciate the vast number and variety of shops along almost every street. Those appealing to the aspirational must of course have randomly-concocted exotic-sounding foreign (as in European) names. We had lunch in a place variously named Das Gute or Das Güte, foreign accents being especially desirable. It served dishes that were mainly a Chinese version of pasta. Same for the set dinner we had at Bubbles Dream Café.

Now finding our way back to the Western Market where we wanted to have lunch took longer than necessary because we seemed to go in circles. Eventually made it.

Back at Central we elected to return to Kowloon by ferry, not least because it is free for Elders. I love this respect for the old here. After exiting the ferry terminal, I was walking slowly in an open area studying the map, when I tripped and almost fell. A middle-aged woman below my field of vision had cut sharply in front of me. I think I inadvertent hit her with my arm as I was trying to regain my balance. A nearby westerner said she had done the same to him.

We crashed when we got to the hotel. While not large, the room was more spacious than we had expected.

After several hours rest and camera/computer pursuits Joan said we should go and see the daily light show from the Promenade. We left at abut siz an it was lighter outside than expected so we took a detour to discover the whereabouts of the History Museum. We saw some strikingly coloured building in the late afternoon sun.

We reached the Promenade way too early, like 1½ hours early. We killed time by strolling around all over in our now-sore feet. The sky started to show ominous clouds and soon there was a sprinkle which came and went for a quite a while. At 8pm we had returned to a good vantage point and were expecting to be entertained, but what we got was a little weak. The heavy air dispersed what light beams there were rather too quickly. By now it was raining and one foolish bunny had decided he did not need an umbrella. We were a fair distance from where we had intended to et dinner, but were eventually forced to eat where we could, in the hope that the rain would stop. Worked like  dream.

I had to write all this twice, because in my sleep-deprived state I had erroneously overwritten what I composed before dinner. Very embarrassing for a computer geek.