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September 18, 2005
Hong Kong: First Stop (long post)
My trip to Hong Kong was fantastic! This is about the fourth or fifth time my passport has been stamped there, but this trip has totally changed my impression of the place.
First of all, my early trips were with finances that only the gainfully employed in IT have, once with family, and none with no local friends to show me about--the hands down best way to learn a city. These earlier trips involved going every where in taxis and limos, lodging at four and five star hotels, and staying on the beaten path in general.
No more. I'm unemployed now and watching the cash flow--more so thanks to (that evil fucking bank) UBS. I have my old friend and fellow victim of Virtualplus (John Pitcher's shady, now defunct dot com in London), Hoi , and my new friend Alice to guide me around and show me the ropes.
The first night after my arrival and check in at the North Point Ibis (~HKD450/night inclusive), Alice and I had dinner at a Chinese Vegetarian restaurant in the Causeway Bay area of Hong Kong Island. Alice, despite my meager protests, paid the bill. Then we took a tram (cool, old double-decker electric jobs with big open windows) down past Happy Valley and into Central.
There we had a pint (me) and half (Alice) of Guiness at Dublin Jack's before turning in for the night. Afterwards I went back to the hotel and slept...until two or three in the morning. Bloody jetlag. Finally made it back to sleep at 6AM.
After sleeping until three in the afternoon, surfing the net, and buying some basics at the 24-hour "7-11" store, Alice and I met up and went for Indian food in Sia Kung at Dia. This is a big fishing area, and there are plenty of famous fish joints, but that is not my thing. Food was great. Weather was a bit shit, so nobody was about. Alice, again despite my stronger protest, paid the bill. The Third day saw myself, at Alice's advice, heading out for 'The Big Buddha' on Lantau Island near the new-ish Chek Lap Kok airport. After tacking the orange line MTR train out there (HKD25) I hopped onto the local bus #23 (HKD16) towards the Po Lin Monastery, Vegetarian Restaurants and Tian Tan Buddha. Wow--what a crazy road. Apparently, before the new airport was build, this island was pretty sleepy by any standard. The island is very mountainous and the road winds its way up and down very carefully. At many points the traffic converges into a single lane for several tens of meters or more, usually on a curve. Anyway, the Big Buddha is quite a sight. Before walking up the steps, I plopped down HKD100 for my own private dinning table at the premium Vegetarian joint offered by the monks. Then I went up the stairs, checked out the Buddha inside and out, took some digi-pics, and headed back down.
Whilst descending the steps, this American guy told me that my backpack was open. One thing led to another, and we ended up having lunch together. (They gave me a refund so that I paid the normal, group table HKD60 each.) Mark and Jing (sp?) are from Sacramento, California. Mark works for Intel and was only in Asia for a few weeks. Jing, like myself, has stopped slaving away for The Man and is off on a semi random three month long Asia trip. Good for him. :D He has my email, we may cross paths again this fall/winter.
So, on the way back we saw one of the three prisons on the island. Took a photo. Cool.
Once back on Hong Kong Island, the plan was to meet up with Hoi at Central Station. "Exit G...as in girl" says Hoi. He is late, so I find the nearest beer--The Mandarin Orient Hotel lobby. This is supposed to be one of the finest hotels in the world, and I was wondering if they would even let me in with my trekking outfit. Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster, they did. After two Guinness’s in a bottle (HKD66 each), Hoi shows up. We head of for SoHo a few minutes away where we spot a table outside without deafening music. We had a great time catching up--have not seen each other for nearly five years. He's married now, working for a utility company in Hong Kong and generally happy. Fan-fucking-tastic. :D Several beers later I'm getting drunk and hear my rock hard Ibis hotel bed calling my name around 11pm. We part ways, and the bastard pays for all the beer. I've been foiled again!
Saturday morning I wake up and attempt to meet Alice at Central for our planned trip to Lamma Island. But I have this silly habit of getting off of trains one stop too early. So there I am waiting for Alice outside of exit B of Admiralty station when we had agreed to meet street side of exit A at Central station. Duh! Regardless, we meet up and took the ferry to Lamma Island--a cute little curvy land mass with a few fishing villages, no cars, some hiking trails, and two or three ferry piers. We roams the touristy section of Tak Kok Tsuen, get lost in "the 'burbs", or at least the equivalent, buy trinkets for family, have lunch at this totally out of place and very touristy organic vegetarian friendly book shop which I loved to pieces, walked out to the Pavilion (local touristy spot), got lost again in the local ghetto, got soaked in torrential downpour repeatedly, warmed up in the local library with English language books and periodicals (!), and then headed back for 'home'. Great time, want to go back under different conditions.
After the ferry back to Hong Kong island, we took a bus to Stanley. I have always heard it was one of the most touristic things you can do in Hong Kong. The weather was shit, so there were few people about. That made it easy to pick up a cute little Chinese-style dress for Atabei, my younger niece, amongst other stuff. We also walked down to the sea, saw a guy's happy-go-lucky dog dive into a cesspool of waste (everyone laughed, owner resigned to fate). Ha ha. Then it was a Thai food dinner over looking Stanley bay.
My final day, Sunday, turned out to be a real world wind tour of Hong Kong. Alice and I met at my hotel, then headed for her home town, Yuen Long in the New Territories. After dropping some stuff of for her father, we went to this park in town that had this really cool six or seven story 'bird house' (34 species, ~125 birds) that sat atop a hill surrounded by flatlands populated by highrise apartment buildings. Truely picturesque. But the wind was crazy hard, the rain sporadically heavey, and conditions were generally hot and hummid. Lunch was at a Nepalese place in town near the bus stop. After lunch we took the long route to my hotel where I needed to get my stuff before flying out. We took the scenic, yet food-induced sleepy bus to Taipo Market, then switched to a train bound for Kowloon Tong, where we transferred to the MTR to get back to North Point where the hotel is located. There we grabbed by bags and headed for the airport via bus. To make a long story short, if there is a bag over the bus stop sign saying in English 'service halted', that means the bus will not pull over for you.
All in all, this trip to Hong Kong was better than the previous trips combined! I cannot wait to come back.
Posted by stu at September 18, 2005 11:16 AM
Comments
Stu, you've become an old man on me... lol
Posted by: G at September 23, 2005 01:31 PM
Fantastic to open up your webpage and see Hoi on the from page! Hoi looks much different than he did 4 years ago. I guess a lot of guys go bald and gain weight. Opps, that's me. Hoi doesn't look one day older. Tell him hello if you see him again. Best of luck on your future travels... enjoy as I am sure you will.
Posted by: Todd Hugo at September 21, 2005 10:36 PM
i am unbelievably jealous
Posted by: alice at September 19, 2005 06:32 PM