We flew with Cathay Pacific and they have very narrow seats and really jam everyone in. I dropped a few things on the floor like my eye mask (for sleeping) and glasses and could not bend down to pick them up as I was in a seat by the window. This meant that the three of us seated in the row had to all stand or shuffle sideways in order to retrieve them.
Hong Kong airport is a dream to pass through. There is a bit of walking with travelators ( not sure what they are currently called) to help out. At 1.00 am there were few people at the immigration line and they are divided up conveniently into different groups: students, residents, citizens, visitors etc and everyone moved through quickly and hordes streamed through the green customs channels with nothing to declare. Quite unlike our own international airports where shoes that have been used on a farm and tents that have been camped in need to be declared, causing holdups.
We were able to buy a ticket for the train to our hotel. The station was a 6 minute walk from it and felt safer than walking anywhere in Auckland in the early hours.
At the hotel we discovered we had miscalculated our first night's accommodation date and they were not expecting us until the next night. Luckily for us they had an expensive harbour view room for us as the place was fully booked!
We were last here 10 years ago and then we had stayed in the infamous Chungking Mansions on Nathan Road, in Kowloon. The drug dealers met you at the escalators ready to sell drugs, copy Rolex watches and Louis Vuitton handbags.The cheapest place in town and pretty seedy at at that.
This time we have an Ibis Hotel and were cheerfully met by a doorman and the smell of coffee from the Starbucks in the entry. It is on Hong Kong Island and surrounded by high rise apartments.
Our harbour view through the yellow tinted hotel windows
We are on the 27th floor looking at a new construction showing the 30th floor and bamboo scaffolding.
Across the hallway from this was an apartment fully constructed and luxuriously fitted out by an interior designer. Very flashy too. There were so many people involved in showing us around or keeping an eye on us it was astounding. The complex is to be situated close to the Chinese border and those that did a lot of business in Hong Kong were their target market.
Fish bladder
Duck tongues are a common snack food
Tiffini, another Couchsurfer, contacted us and invited us to walk in a country park as it was a public holiday. The holiday is called double fifth: the fifth day of the fifth moon. It is also Dragon Boat racing day but we decided we did not want to be hassling with thousands of boat watchers.
We met Tiffini and her friend Ping from Taiwan at the end of the metro line. at Tsuen Wan.The women met in Whitianga while on a working holiday to NZ. We started with a Dim Sum lunch and a chat. It was very interesting listening to their stories of wwoofing at a vineyard, cherry orchard and an alpaca farm.
After a short bus ride we arrived at Pineapple Dam and started the MacLeHose Trail around a reservoir. A group of Brits were ahead of us exploring the tunnels dug out during WW2. It was a pretty hot and humid 31 degree day and a few groups of locals were running the trail in the opposite direction to us. We caught another bus at the end of the trail to the Newtown mall where we ate dessert at a mango restaurant and cooled down with mango juice and ice cream followed by a durian pastry which Tiffini and Ping did not eat because of the smell of the fruit. I find parmesan cheese stinkier!
Mango ice cream, juice and sago
We were lucky enough to spend another day with Dagmar and visit the Hollywood Road area with its art galleries.
We visited the historic Police Married Quarters complex which has been restored and renovated into a fashion and arts and craft centre without losing the original outline of the building.
Hong Kong is very good at keeping public spaces and there was one in this complex where locals can take a picnic and lounge about.
We called in on Jo, Dagmar's husband who works for a Belgian diamond company. He explained the four facets of how diamonds are valued which was very interesting. We were all going to lunch but a client decided to visit Jo at lunchtime so we went with Dagmar to her favourite dumpling restaurant.
No visit to Hong Kong is complete without an evening out to see the laser light show.
Hong Kong airport is a dream to pass through. There is a bit of walking with travelators ( not sure what they are currently called) to help out. At 1.00 am there were few people at the immigration line and they are divided up conveniently into different groups: students, residents, citizens, visitors etc and everyone moved through quickly and hordes streamed through the green customs channels with nothing to declare. Quite unlike our own international airports where shoes that have been used on a farm and tents that have been camped in need to be declared, causing holdups.
We were able to buy a ticket for the train to our hotel. The station was a 6 minute walk from it and felt safer than walking anywhere in Auckland in the early hours.
At the hotel we discovered we had miscalculated our first night's accommodation date and they were not expecting us until the next night. Luckily for us they had an expensive harbour view room for us as the place was fully booked!
We were last here 10 years ago and then we had stayed in the infamous Chungking Mansions on Nathan Road, in Kowloon. The drug dealers met you at the escalators ready to sell drugs, copy Rolex watches and Louis Vuitton handbags.The cheapest place in town and pretty seedy at at that.
This time we have an Ibis Hotel and were cheerfully met by a doorman and the smell of coffee from the Starbucks in the entry. It is on Hong Kong Island and surrounded by high rise apartments.
Our harbour view through the yellow tinted hotel windows
We are on the 27th floor looking at a new construction showing the 30th floor and bamboo scaffolding.
Have plans to meet up with a travel friend we met in China who was cycling with a friend in Yunan ftravel 10 years ago.
What a great system with the Octopus card they have here in Hong Kong. I noticed a sign for a senior's card and asked if we could have one and were duly issued with it. It gives 50% discounts on some trips so we were lucky. We loaded it with money and used it to travel the fantastic MTR rapid train system. It can also be used to purchase goods at convenience stores and other places by placing it on a reader with the Octopus logo. It can either be topped up at stores or vending machines in the stations. When we finish we can get the credit refunded minus a small fee.
Dagmar, from Belgium lives here in HK with her husband and two boys so we headed off on the train to have lunch with them.
The graphics for the train route are very well thought out. You can see what direction a different line is travelling when you get off at your stop which is very helpful to know as it will be across from the platform you exit from. So you have a view of the stops on your line and a connecting line. It also tells you which side you will exit from at each station which is very convenient.
We enjoyed a walk around Cyberport with Dagmar and her family. It was a complex designed for IT companies but has not been used to its maximum - it seems they chose to go elsewhere. There were many families visiting to enjoy the outdoor area and feed the fish.
Interestingly it was a day off for the domestic workers, being a Sunday, and there were many Filipino women in small groups napping in corners in the quiet of the corridors. They like to cook their local food and meet with other Filipinos to share stories and eat. Dagmar's nanny was away renewing her passport in the Philippines and catching up with her own family.
We spotted an online ad for a free walking tour of Hong Kong so set out to meet up with the guide at Mong Kok station. Michael Tsang was waiting with a group of about 20 from Brazil, Philippines, Spain, US, Argentina, Ireland, UK and us. Once the tour ends you make a donation to the guide of what ever you think his efforts are worth. Half the money goes to him and the rest to the company that has set up the tour business.
We chose the Kowloon part of the tour but there is also a harbour tour. We visited Goldfish Street where we saw styrofoam bins of bagged fish being set out for display. Goldfish are seen as lucky and as people do not have much room for a pet the fish are convenient.
In Flower Street there were boxes of flowers arriving from Holland. Valentine's Day is when the most flowers are sold and more flowers are sold when the day falls on a week day as this is a chance to have flowers sent to the workplace and admired by colleagues.
The bird market was pretty quiet as fighting with birds is no longer a popular pastime for the current generations and neither are they interested in having song birds.
We saw notices in a real estate company window of accommodation for rent. It is very expensive with a 5 square metre floor space going for NZ$250 a week. Around the corner we walked through an area where there were many homeless people living in shacks constructed from bits of wood and old sofas. They cannot afford the rents. Michael also showed us signs above doorways where cages were built above restaurant kitchens or on landings and rented out.
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| Street of cage housing |
I posted a Public Trip notice on Couchsurfing and Annie offered to meet us. She is an interesting lady who has done a lot of travelling. She gave up a well paid job to volunteer to help victims of the big earthquakes in China. We met in a shopping centre where there were sales people in the foyer promoting a new development. She suggested we go have a look so we did. We were labelled and escorted up a couple of flights to a cinema where we could watch a video of the golf course, clubhouse and apartments.
We went through a model of one of the smaller apartments to experience the room sizes. All the rooms were empty. This photo is of the maid's room. She has a toilet and shower and under the black board on the right of the picture is a slide out bed which takes up the narrow walking space and that is all the room she has. What a contrast to the cage houses!
We finished off our time with Annie visiting the 57th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel for a coffee and a spectacular view of the harbour as Annie and her family stay in an apartment there.
We took the Star ferry across the harbour to meet up with Michael the guide again to join a group for the HK food delicacy walking tour. Once again we were the oldest there .Michael gave us a taste of the food and after we had eaten it he told us what it was.
Turtle Jelly
We ate pig skin, pig blood, cow stomach, duck tongue, toad, snake soup, stinky tofu, pig ear, thousand year egg, turtle jelly, bird nest soup, snow frog jelly (frog fallopian tubes), with a shot of snake penis wine!
Fish bladder
Duck tongues are a common snack food
Tiffini, another Couchsurfer, contacted us and invited us to walk in a country park as it was a public holiday. The holiday is called double fifth: the fifth day of the fifth moon. It is also Dragon Boat racing day but we decided we did not want to be hassling with thousands of boat watchers.
We met Tiffini and her friend Ping from Taiwan at the end of the metro line. at Tsuen Wan.The women met in Whitianga while on a working holiday to NZ. We started with a Dim Sum lunch and a chat. It was very interesting listening to their stories of wwoofing at a vineyard, cherry orchard and an alpaca farm.
After a short bus ride we arrived at Pineapple Dam and started the MacLeHose Trail around a reservoir. A group of Brits were ahead of us exploring the tunnels dug out during WW2. It was a pretty hot and humid 31 degree day and a few groups of locals were running the trail in the opposite direction to us. We caught another bus at the end of the trail to the Newtown mall where we ate dessert at a mango restaurant and cooled down with mango juice and ice cream followed by a durian pastry which Tiffini and Ping did not eat because of the smell of the fruit. I find parmesan cheese stinkier!
Mango ice cream, juice and sago
We visited the historic Police Married Quarters complex which has been restored and renovated into a fashion and arts and craft centre without losing the original outline of the building.
Hong Kong is very good at keeping public spaces and there was one in this complex where locals can take a picnic and lounge about.
We called in on Jo, Dagmar's husband who works for a Belgian diamond company. He explained the four facets of how diamonds are valued which was very interesting. We were all going to lunch but a client decided to visit Jo at lunchtime so we went with Dagmar to her favourite dumpling restaurant.
No visit to Hong Kong is complete without an evening out to see the laser light show.
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