Archives for July 2003

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Yesterday we started the day at Oliver’s Super Sandwiches across the road from the hotel for breakfast. The “light breakfast”: cornflakes, fruit salad, toast, orange juice – all for HKD$25 each … a far cry from the HKD$165 for the buffet breakfast at the hotel.

Unfortunately this was not really enough to feed me for breakfast (I usually have several bowls of Weetbix), so I was a bit hungry all day – perhaps I’ll order two light breakfasts tomorrow.

We did a bit of MTR hopping yesterday and went over to Tsim Sha Tsui East and the Hong Kong Museum of History – admission is free on Wednesdays ! Unfortunately this means crowds, but since we were there fairly early in the morning (around 11am), it was not too bad. Good move we did go earlier – when we came out a couple of hours later, the Museum of Science right next door to the museum of History, had a lineup more than 100m long of people waiting to get in !

The Museum of History was pretty well set up. They have obviously gone to a lot of trouble with the displays, and while some of them are a touch tacky, overall it was very impressive. The video presentations in the various theatrettes are shown in several languages at different times (including english) – with clearly marked timers showing when the next session in your language is due to start.

The Museum is divided into sections, following chronologically through the history of Hong Kong. Starting with the ancient ages of the creation of the landscape over millions of years, followed by the pre-historic times with the first primitive inhabitants of the area. Next, they spend some time looking at the influence of the Chinese dynasties on the area, through to the interaction with European traders. Quite a bit of time was spent looking at the developing cultures, the conflicts between the Chinese and the British over trade and opium, then looking at the lease of Hong Kong Island to the British, and the influence on the early development of the nation.

A section on the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during WWII was pretty horrific – the people really suffered during that brutal period in their history – and even after the surrender of the Japanese, they took quite a long time to recover and really start developing as a nation again. The section of the post-war development of Hong Kong was quite impressive – the massive influx of people from China and the struggle to find housing, reliable water, food, dealing with natural disasters and such. Finally, there was a section on the reunification of Hong Kong with China – which is still an interesting story that will take many more years to be told completely.

To become the thriving metropolis it is today in such a short space of time, the land reclamation, infrastructure development, services and culture – all lead to Hong Kong being a remarkable and thoroughly unique city.

Probably the highlight of the museum was in the cafeteria afterwards where we decided to have lunch. The dishes came with fruit salad on the side – a nice refreshing addition I thought. Interestingly, they seem to have taken the concept of fruit salad rather literally. It was a salad with fruit in it – lettuce, cucumber, tomato, potato, apple, cherry, rockmellon, honeydew, grape, blueberry, all smothered in mayonnaise !! Either a locally discovered delicacy, or an unintentional mistranslation of the intent of fruit salad. Quite unique.

If you are new to Hong Kong and want to get to understand a little more about the culture and history of the place, then it’s well worth the trip to the Museum of History.

As I mentioned, I would have gone to the Science Museum as well while we were there, except for the huge lineup of people waiting to get in. Since it didn’t open until 1pm getting their early won’t help – I suggest you go on a day it’s not free.

We headed up to Nathan Road, had a bit of a look around, before jumping back on the MTR down to Tsim Sha Tsui for the Hong Kong Space Museum and the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

Given the long lineups for the Space Museum and the shortage of time we had, we decided not to go in. However, while standing outside trying to make up our minds, we were cornered by a group of young school children, obviously on an excursion with instructions to improve their english language and writing skills. They asked us (one at a time) for our names, where we were born, and our favourite food in Hong Kong. Given the difficulties in understanding the difference between the sound of I and A, we both had to exercise patience in spelling Leanne, Simon and Australia – fortunately they seemed to know just how to spell noodles. Good thing I didn’t pick something like “Pan fried eel with sea cucumber dressing” as my favourite dish !

After extracting ourselves from this rewarding effort (with much amused giggling from their teacher), I decided I needed a rest, so I sat and watched the world sail by on Hong Kong harbour in the airconditioned foryer of the Museum of Art while Leanne went in for a look. Following this and a wander around the foreshore to check out the old clock tower, we headed back to the MTR station back over to the island.

On our way back, we decided to get off at Wan Chai and go check out the Expo Promenade outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on the waterfront. Unfortunately, by this time is was well and truely peak hour and what’s more there was a book fair on at the convention/exhibition centre and so there were thousands and thousands of other people all moving that way too, making it a sluggish walk. Finally we managed to extricate ourselves from the teeming masses and make our way around to the waterfront.

The main attraction here is the Golden Bauhinia, a 6m tall gold plated sculpture of a flower donated by the Chinese on the occasion of the return of the former British colony of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China. A nice gesture I’m sure, but it looks, umm, how can I say this ? Well, it looks like most things you see which are “made in China”; cheap, tacky plastic (although it is supposedly gold plated). A bit of a disappointment really.

We got back to the hotel for a shower and a rest, before heading downstairs to try out one of the hotel restaurants dinner buffet. Quite a nice spread, and Leanne enjoyed the seafood (although they massacred the lobster), but overall a little disappointing. I think we’ll stick to the other resturants in the Causeway Bay area for dinner in future.

A long and very tiring day, and we certainly slept well last night – which was a good thing, because today was an even more tiring day ! I’ll get to that later. I think it’s time to go out for dinner now – and I think Leanne wants to head to Admiralty. If I get a chance I’ll try writing up today’s excursion later tonight. Bye for now.

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Lonely Planet’s guide to Hong Kong (condensed) makes the following comments about the “lowlights” of Hong Kong (after discussing the highlights).

Hong Kong is not the easiest place to bumble around. For a start, no one here mooches: they’re all hurrying with intent in their eyes. And it’s an elbows-out, unapologetic kind of hustle. The air is filthy: there’s nothing very charming about hacking up black gunk at the end of a day out and about. And if you want us to get even more petty and picky: the contemporary art galleries at the Hong Kong Museum of Art are a poorly curated joke; we’re sick of air-conditioners dripping on our heads as we walk down the street; and once, just once, it would be nice to get a seat on the MTR.

I’ve experienced the “hurrying with intent”, the “hustle”, the drip of the air-conditioners, and in my time here so far, I am yet to be able to find a seat on the MTR, despite travelling in off-peak times. But all this just adds to the charm of the place 😀

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Hong Kong’s MTR (or Mass Transit Railway, I think) is one impressive piece of infrastructure. We are staying in Causeway Bay, and in the 3 days we have been here so far, have done a dozen or so trips between here and Wan Chai, Admiralty, Central, Tsim Sha Tsui and Jordan … and this is just the “downtown” area really. It’s quick, efficient, and easy to navigate – surprisingly so, as the stations are underground rabbit warrens – but fortunately are well signposted.

The most impressive development seems to be the “Octopus” card, a stored value card which you can charge up with money and which may then be used for MTR trips, buses, ferrys, and I’ve even seen a McDonalds store which let you pay by Octopus !

The best part is that you can get proximity based Octopus cards, you just swipe the card over a reader, and it autodetects and deducts the relevant fees from your card – we learned this by watching the locals first – always a good practice !!. This actually means you do not need to remove the card from your wallet – which is actually a major bonus, no accidently dropping the HKD$10 coins from your wallet as you open it to remove your card while 5,000 locals push and shove you in their rush to get to the train. It’s a very efficient system.

The trains are fast, frequent, airconditioned, smooth, and if you are extremely fortunate you may even get to sit down.

Naturally comparisons can be made between Singapore’s MRT (Mass Rapid Transit, I think it stands for), and similar systems in Bangkok and elsewhere, all of which are pretty good, I just wish that certain parties from Australia would come over to one of these countries and discover for themselves just how good a transit system could be – dare I say it, a pleasure to use ! *sigh*, I guess we’re stuck with our beloved Millenium trains in Sydney (although we all want to know in which Millenium will we get to actually use them ?) I can’t believe that the politicians in Australia could be so short sighted about our infrastructure.

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Just thought I’d take advantage of the free internet connection here at the Pacific Coffee Company coffee lounge at Victoria Peak in Hong Kong. We caught the tram up earlier this morning, and after taking in the sights from the various viewing platforms, we went for an hour long stroll around the peak. Some really spectacular views of both sides of Hong Kong island.

We stopped here for a light lunch, and will take the tram back down before heading to the Hong Kong Zoo later this afternoon.

I still have to write an entry about yesterday’s activities (was too tired by the time we got back to the room last night) – and a more detailed account of what we have done today – hopefully I’ll get some time tonight to do that.

Oh well, back to the views – seeya.

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First full day in Hong Kong today. Got in just after 6pm last night and it was about 7:30pm by the time we got to the hotel after taking the Airport Express train and the free hotel shuttle bus – I’m really impressed with the convenience and speed of the airport transport services. Flight was pretty uneventful – the best kind really. They landed to the west, which meant an approach to the north of Hong Kong island, with some great views of the city. Nice !

The busride from the train station was interesting, since the area we are staying in (Causeway Bay) is one of the main shopping districts – all the (narrow) streets we drove down were filled with bright neon lights and advertising signs – exactly the stereo-typical vision of Hong Kong most people would have.

Woke up early this morning – 6am… not the way to start your holidays – but I guess that is 8am Sydney time, and it’s unusual for me to still be asleep by then.

We decided to do breakfast at the hotel this morning – try their buffet. Was pretty good, although they don’t seem to know how to cook bacon – was rather overdone. HKD$325 for the two of us – given our self imposed budget of AUD$60 each per day for food, that’s a pretty big hit (we calculate exchange rates roughly at HKD$5 = AUD$1, so starting off the day using $65 of our combined budget was a bit concerning – but we figured it was just to get us started. We’d try and find somewhere better/cheaper to eat nearby the hotel once we had familiarised ourselves with the area.

Actually we found a place almost immediately after walking out the front door of the hotel – a sandwich shop which does breakfast – including a hot breakfast considerably cheaper than the hotel. We will try them out tomorrow.

We started the day with a casual stroll around the local area familiarising ourselves with where we are. Lots and lots of small shops – with the occasional department store or shopping mall. One of my missions was to locate the IT mall that one of my friends took me to last time I was in Hong Kong (this time last year actually) so I could check out the prices of digital cameras. We found it right where I thought it would be – it’s just around the corner (a block or two) from our hotel actually.

After a brief respite back in the hotel room from the heat and humidity (will take us a while to get used to that), we decided to head for Admiralty on the MTR (subway) – I’m continually impressed with the speed and efficiency of the transport systems in countries like Hong Kong and Singapore – I wish that Sydney’s transport minister would come over here and learns a thing or two about how to make a public transport system that actually works.

At Admiralty we walked through to Pacific Place shopping mall – lots of shops selling overpriced handbags it seems. We were going to have lunch in one of the foodcourts here, but timed it completely wrong and hit the lunch rush. We gave up on that idea and tried out McDonalds “60 second challenge” – where they seem to try and get you away from their counter (with food) in under 60 seconds from the time you step up… was rather impressive actually – they even have a chart on the wall recording the fastest servers in the store. Considering the number of people waiting in lines, and the speed at which they were served, I can tell that this is one smoothly run machine – these people are like robots (with a smile !). Another HKD$32 off the budget – rather cheap actually.

Found a couple of camera stores which appear in the “Guide to Quality Mechants” booklet kindly provided by the Hong Kong tourism board. One of the stores actually had fairly competitive prices too, so it looks like I may have found where to buy my Canon S50.

After lunch we headed back to the MTR and on to Central, where we wondered down to the Star Ferry piers, where we started a walking tour we found in our lonely planet guide to Hong Kong – “Central Amble”. This walk took us from the piers, past Exchange Square (building), Jardine House (building), Statue Square, Bank of China (building – nice views from level 43 !!), Flagstaff House Museum, Hong Kong Park, St. Johns Cathedral, The Landmark (shopping center), and finally the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (building) – a nice tour of the area.

The highlight would be Hong Kong Park – a lovely oasis surrounded by skyscrapers, with waterfalls, grassed areas, trees and gardens (all man made naturally). The walk in aviary was nicely done, and the ponds filled with fish and terrapins were quite a pleasant place to sit and eat an iceblock and sip a chilled bottle of water from the nearby kiosk.

That took us most of the afternoon, after which we headed back to our hotel via the MTR again for a cool shower and a snooze.

So while Leanne sleeps, I decided to get online and check my email, see if I can set up a date with my friends living here in Hong Kong, and do some blogging. I’ll probably make a decision on the camera in the next day or so, and once I’ve got it I should be able to start uploading photos as we go.

The debate for tonight is where to eat. There’s plenty of restaurants around this area, so we’ll probably just wander until we find one that takes our fancy. I think we have about HKD$200 left in our food budget for today, so it won’t be an expensive dinner.

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