Simon Hampel

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Started the day yesterday with a light breakfast at Olivers, and we spent most of the morning lazing around the hotel room – and I played with the camera to see what it could do.

Met up with some friends of ours for lunch at a nice Thai restaurant in Central, which was very pleasant, before Leanne and I headed back to Causeway Bay and to do a bit of shopping (accessories for the camera !)

After a rest back at the hotel, we headed off after about 5pm to the Prince Edward MTR station, before walking around to the Bird Garden, Flower Markets and Goldfish Markets. The Flower Markets were very impressive – the entire length of one road with nothing but flower shops and flower stalls and a vast array of many different types of flowers.

Just beyond this was the Bird Garden, which was more of a bird and bird accessory market, with many stalls selling birds, bird cages, live grasshoppers, and anything else your pet bird might need. It was sad to see the conditions the birds were kept in, with some cages measuring less than one meter square in size holding dozens and dozens of birds. Parrots and Macaws chained to posts on display, and many rather sad looking birds in cages not much bigger than they were.

The Goldfish Markets weren’t any better – shop after shop down the entire length of the road with tanks teeming with fish of all different types, hundreds of them in a tank you would normally expect to find no more than a couple of dozen fish in. Plastic bags hung on poles for some, tanks filled with terrapin, tortises, even baby sting rays at one shop.

Given that most people in Hong Kong live in small apartments and can’t keep pets like dogs, it is understandable that birds and goldfish are extremely popular as pets, however I think these markets are a little too much.

Anyway, we jumped back on the MTR for a couple of stops down and walked around to the Temple Street markets where we spent quite a bit of time walking through and browsing the many stalls filled with tacky trinkets.

Finally, we headed down to Tsim Sha Tsui, strolled along the promenade enjoying the colourful lights from Hong Kong island across the harbour, before jumping on the Star Ferry across to Central to catch the MTR back home. Quite a pleasant trip on the ferry – especially at night.

A slightly less hectic day, but still quite tiring with all the wandering around the markets and such.

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Breakfast back at Oliver’s this morning – this time I ordered the basic hot breakfast (Scrambled eggs, bacon and a hashbrown) plus the light breakfast (cornflakes, fruit and toast) – much more filling. Didn’t like their scrambled eggs or bacon though … so I guess I’ll try two bowls of cornflakes tomorrow. *sigh*. If only I could get some Weet-bix !

Anyway, we headed off early in to Central and then walked up to the Peak Tramway, to catch the tram to Victoria Peak. What a tram ride – not only spectacular views, but it’s an incredibly steep track, the floor of the tram is angled so that standing passengers stay upright ! I’d like to see some stats to see if it is steeper than the “Scenic Railway” in Katoomba.

*Sim’ checks with Google

Ooh – according to most of the websites out there, the Victoria Peak Tramway is only 27 degrees to the horizon – it seems so much steeper than that. The Katoomba Scenic Railway is actually 52 degrees – or 128% gradient … which is (according to the Guinness Book of Records) the steepest railway in the world (although some websites dispute this).

Anyway, it’s a must-do thing if you are in Hong Kong – as is the peak itself, with spectacular views of Hong Kong – really helps you get the city in perspective.

We explored the various shopping centres at the top (only in Hong Kong would there be shopping centres !!), and then embarked on a leisurely hour long stroll around the summit (not up it, around it) following Harlech and Lugard Roads all the way around – with some excellent views of the far side of Hong Kong island. A light lunch followed, as described in my earlier entry Blog from the peak.

Immediately after writing that entry, we stopped at Ice-Queen pancake to sample one of their interesting (and apparently Japanese-style) pancakes, which basically involves a freshly made pancake (thin – almost like a crepe), with half a chopped banana (or your fruit of choice), some icecream (I chose the Cookies and Cream), and a drizzle of chocolate sauce all arranged on one quadrant of the round pancake. At this point it kind of looked like a fajita would before you wrapped it and at it, however, they wrapped the icecream and banana up like a cone (after turning up the end to form a “stopper”), wrapped it in paper, then filled the open bit at the top with the rest of the banana, some more chocolate sauce and a good dash of whipped cream. Quite a show really. And the result ? Divine !! I love pancakes with icecream (don’t get to eat them that often), and this was simply delicious. You start by eating the top of it with the supplied spoon, then as you get lower, eating the pancake to get to the remainder of the icecream, kind of like a cross between a waffle, a fajita and a kebab (yiros) – and you can eat it while walking, since it is well contained in it’s wrapping. They do a few other variants on this theme, which I must try one day.

Anyway, enough about the icecream, after a bit more wondering around the peak and a few more photo opportunities, we headed back down on the tram (going backwards this time !!), and once at the bottom, we walked up to the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, quite a hike up the road, and quite a few steps, only to find ourselves at the very bottom of the zoo, with yet another walk to get up to where the animals are.

Overall a little disappointing – it’s really a botanical garden with a couple of animals – not really what one would normally consider a zoo. Then again, it is free, and they do actually have quite an impressive bird collection, a couple of primates and a lone Jaguar (whom we didn’t see given it was rather hot and it was obviously afternoon siesta time). It seems most people tend to come here for exercise, we saw quite a few people jogging around the park, some Tai-Chi performers, and given the steepness of the site, everyone else simply got a good cardiovascular workout by just walking around.

The gardens really are very nice, pity about the “keep off the grass” mentality though – the more carefully they tend it, the more inviting it is. Some of the nicest things are tucked away in little “grottos”, where they have quiet spots with stone benches and other little features. The benches all have a little character at either end, cats on one, rabbits on another, pandas, and even Mickey Mouse. We took some photos, and once we have them developed I will post them somewhere, since they really were quite cute. Quite an exhausting time actually with all the walking up and down steep hills, but quite pleasant.

Since we were even more completely soaked with sweat from the heat, humidity and exertion, we walked back to Central MTR and caught the train back home for a shower and a rest. We decided to head back to Pacific Place shopping centre for dinner, and for me to do some shopping. I bought my Canon S50 digital camera – under HKD$4000 as I was aiming for ! What’s more, I managed to get this price at a reputable (and “certified”) dealer, which gives me a bit more confidence that if I do ever have problems with the camera, I can bring it back in (or have someone I know in HK bring it) to the store and they will still be there. I know I could have got the camera cheaper in some of the other less expensive shopping districts, but I do prefer a bit of security with purchases of this size. Heck, at the current exchange rates, this equates to less than AUS$800, which is about two-thirds of the price I can get in Australia, and that still makes it worth while to me.

My next task is to find some memory for the camera (it only ships with 32MB), and I know I can get it cheaper at a nearby IT mall, so I’ll try and find time tomorrow to pop in and do a bit of hunting around. This means that from tomorrow I will be able to start including photos in my blog entries ! About time to get my personal photo gallery up and running at some stage too I think.

Anyway, it’s way past my bedtime, Leanne has already been asleep for a while, so I’d best leave it there.

We’re planning to meet up with my friend, Andrew, for lunch tomorrow – so I’m sure we’ll have something interesting to say about where he takes us to eat. Night all.

(PS. don’t forget that it’s 2HRs behind Sydney here in HK, so even though it looks like I’m writing this after 2am, it’s only just gone midnight here).

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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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