Hong Kong Fury

Hong Kong

In terms of the time it once took me to book holidays, a relatively short amount of time had passed since I was last in Eastern Asia, however it felt like a lifetime ago that Nick and I were roaming Thai streets, Laos' waterways & Vietnamese tunnels. A few floods of excitement tipped with nostalgia poured through me as I thought about the prospects of visiting Hong Kong for the first time. I guess I've come a long way since those back pack days as I decided that the night I spent in HK should be somewhat luxuriuous and hassle free.

So as my Virgin Atlantic flight (special note here... their service has dropped in recent times!), landed and I grabbed hold of my faithful Osprey backpack and a rather floppy snowboard bag (I left my Fish in the UK). I made my way out towards where I expected my pick up to be... though I guess I shouldn't have tarred HK with the same 'cheap' brush as Thailand. I would be taking a bus and not a personal ride to my hotel, although it was a luxury coach with nice large clean windows that I could lear out of on my way into this tall city.

I felt much like what I see of most Asian tour groups when I'm travelling, tightly led with what appears to be very little freedom - told to sit 'here' and not wander, even in a quiet airport, a little like an inquisitive child. My hotel name was called and I made my way to those large glass windows.

Into the Miramar hotel of Kowloon and I dumped my bags, splashed my face with water and put some different shoes on before heading out into the mild night. Armed with my camera, this trip quickly presented itself more as a locational photoshoot than one I would remember for having awesome fun sociable times, I was alone in a half decent hotel afterall, not a shared communal backpackers joint!

I headed out to a typically crowded Asian highstreet shopping precinct and spent the first 10-15minutes getting my head around my map of the place. I popped in a small photographical/electrical shop and got a quote on a lens I liked... then realised the same road was home to about 15 virtually identical stores where the prices would be either similar or somewhat more expensive; I guess to some I look like someone that might be taken for a ride on price?! Hong Kong was starting to drop off to sleep, as suited youngsters left restuarants and cheesy bars, it was only around 8pm but as I looked into the bleached night sky I could see beams of green light... I then made out that these lasers were being fired from the tops of the skyscrapers on Hong Kong Island. Sadly once I got to within a good shooting angle, I'd missed the opportunity for this trip as I'd not see another nightfall here, other than from a departure lounge.

I wandered past the famously inaccurate clock tower and then set about getting the best night shots of the skyline as I could possibly achieve, with no tripod it wasn't that easy. I got a little creative before I noticed the temperature was starting to drop, though it was still infinitely better than what I'd become accustomed to in Kashmir and London! Also, a special mention to the 4ft jobsworth woman who gave me an ear bashing for putting one leg over a 1ft high plastic chain barrier; (to get a better angle on my photo) guarding the lantern show from Godzilla (it's okay Love, you've got a panda with a pistol here to frighten him off).

Much like many cities, street sellers and artists ply their trades to any tourists brave enough to be charactured or photographed in front of the pillars of concrete, glass and funky neon. But after checking out a couple of hot spots according to my little Berlitz city guide like the "Avenue of Stars", I suddenly decided I'd had enough, so headed back to my huge bed and fell to a slumber.

A cosmopolitan European breakfast welcomed me in to my second day in my Kowloon hotel, and after some confusion at the reception, they threw the cost in for nothing, which was jolly nice. I took another walk down to the waterfront and this time jumped on a ferry over to Hong Kong, a system very much like Sydneys ferry system.

I once again spent a few minutes getting some orientation before finding the base of the cable car up to Victoria Peak, where tourists are treated to the "Lumberman" view of Hong Kong. Except it was shut for maintenance. Of all the amazing chances on Earth, there was a taxi driver nearby ready to tell me this and sell me a return trip up to not only the Lumberman view of Hong Kong but a couple of other views too. I really had no idea what a lumberman was to do in the city but figured it must be worth a look.

I jumped out of the car at the given points took some token photos before jumping back in to get a sales spiel about a full on tour which would show me the lumberman market and the lumberman beach, it looked good but the dude wanted some ridiculous price so I thanked him and hopped out back down in the city.

I'd ticked off the few things that took my fancy (or at least the ones I could achieve in my 28hr stint here) and so figured I should use my last few hours to soak up a little sunshine, get some shopping and postcards done. I bought a few things, though in a way, it was good my pockets were nearly empty after a long trip like this, I could easily have gotten extravagent here.

I squeezed in a quick and pretty average Maccas (when will I learn my lesson in Asia?) before getting back for my airport pickup and, suddenly feeling the excitement of getting back home to Sydney I was revving to get going. My longest ever "holiday" was just about over. Sitting there changing lenses, I suddenly realised who the lumberman was... local dialect for "number 1".