Hong Kong

Okay, enough screwing around. Sorry for being such a bum with the blog. Why is it that the longer you put something off the harder it is to pick it back up again? Anyways, now that Steph is gone to Europe I have no excuse but to at least finish off the big trip. Below is our account of the few days we spent in Hong Kong and look for a few posts on our exploits in Australia over the coming week or two.

After Shanghai we were headed off for a few days in another one of the world's great cities, Hong Kong.  To fly from China to Austraila we had to stop over somewhere, so we thought we might as well stay a few days.  At first, I was really looking forward to it, especially after spending time in China so that we could see the difference between the Mainland China and the once British-occupied Hong Kong.  But that excitement faded a bit (a good bit) when we started to look into somewhere to stay.

When we were in Beijing and Xi'an there was an American Veitnam Vet that happened to be at both of the hostels we stayed at, and we ended up talking to him a good bit.  When we told him that we were going to Hong Kong he told us that he had gone there on business before and it was really hard to get a hotel room.  He said he had to wait hours along with a bunch of others at the airport for a booking service to find him a room and in the mean time he befriended a guy who had already been waiting several hours longer than he had.  The guy he befriended was getting a $400 room at the Crown Plaza that had two bedrooms so they decided to split it and off they went.  He told us it was one of the most over-booked cities in the world.  We were thinking we should go ahead and start looking at accomodation but then he told us this was in 1984!  That was the year we were born in, surely things wouldn't be the same now as back then we thought so we kinda blew it off.  Should have listened.

When we started to look for somewhere to stay, everything was so expensive.  A hotel room can set you back at least $200 (which we weren't about to do), the good hostels book up pretty far out, and you are left with only one reasonable option - the Chung King Mansions.  It is basically this huge 17 story building that looks like it is falling apart, is a fire chiefs worst nightmare, and hosts a lot of little shops, ethnic restaurants, and cheap accomodation.  It is home to mostly miniority groups in Hong Kong - Indians, Nepalese, Nigerians, Middle Easteners, etc.  We read so many horror stories about it before we got there, I was debating just staying in the airport and getting the next flight to Australia, but after five months of travel and staying in some pretty shady places surely we could handle this one.  Plus you can't beat the location, its right in the middle of all the action in Hong Kong.

two words: curb appeal

The building itself turned out to not be as bad as I had made it out to be in my mind.  When you walk in there are people trying to sell you stuff, show you their restaurant, or take you to their hostel, but they weren't near as pushy as in some other places we have been.  When we got to the room, we were prepared for it to be small, but it still took me by surprise.  It was unbelievably small.  There was just enough room in their for the two of us and our bags.  We had to walk on top of our stuff to get out the door.  The room had everything you could need for a few days stay though - a bed, TV, bathroom (complete with a shower that was litterally over the toilet), and a couple of tea cups.  The size didn't bother me, but what did bother me was the plumbing.  Whenever you flushed the toilet this awful smell would come from the pipes.  The room is so small it doesnt' take too long to be overcome by it.  We put a ban on going to the bathroom in the room except in cases of absolute emergency.  This didn't work out too bad for Steph though because it meant that in the mornings she had to go across the street to Starbucks or McCafe to get a cup of coffee and use the bathroom.      

smallest. room. ever. 

shower and take a poo at the same time!

While in Hong Kong, we mostly just spent our time walking around and taking in the sights and sounds of the city. It certainly felt a lot less "Chinese" than Shanghai and especially Beijing, as there was still noticeable influences from the British occupation. Namely the tea drinking, always with the tea. Plus there were lots of young professionals from English-speaking countries mixed with the melting pot of ethnic groups that have come to Hong Kong over the years. We didn't know too much about the background of Hong Kong, so one day we went to the museum and had a nice (free!) tour covering the whole history of the city. Being a coastal city, it began as a fishing village and eventually became an important salt production center. It was the British love of tea, actually, that drew them to Hong Kong as they imported huge quantities of it from Hong Kong in exchange for silver and, illegally, opium. When the Chinese tried to stop the unlawful opium trade, the Opium Wars broke out which led to the cession of Hong Kong to the British. One of the more surprising chapters in Hong Kong's history was the '3 years and 8 months' that the Japanese took over during World War II. This is remembered as a very dark time in Hong Kong's history, marked by a collapsed economy, food rationing and disease. Eventually WWII ended, the British took back over, and Hong Kong obviously boomed into what it is today. Hong Kong was officially handed back over to China in 1997, but surprisingly not that much changed.  Essentially the Queen was taken off the money and all references to the "Crown" were removed from the government. Other than that, Hong Kong continues to run basically as it's own country with it's own currency, government, and seemingly booming economy. There's a Rolex or Cartier watch shop on every corner so somebody is doing something right.  Part of the agreement was that for 50 years after the hand over Hong Kong would remain a Special Administrative Region and retain some autonomy from mailand China...so we'll have to see what happens in 2047.

Overall Hong Kong was much different than we expected. I don't think we'd ever seen a picture of it before arriving, so we were impressed with the skyline, especially at night over Victoria Harbour. They have "the world's largest laser light show" or something like that, which was overwhelmingly unimpressive, despite the amazing view.

The best view in Hong Kong, though, is surely at the top of Victoria Peak (guess they didn't remove all references to the Queen). From where were staying, it started with a nice trip on the ferry over the harbor then eventually catching the Peak Tram the last 400 meters to the top of the hill.

view from the Peak

The Peak, as it is locally called, is home to some of Hong Kong's wealthier residents, but anyone can enjoy the nice walking trail and parks that circle the summit.

Our last day in Hong Kong we took a couple trains to a wetland reserve not too far outside the city. Nothing too spectacular, but it was a nice respite from the big cities that's we'd been in for a while and it was good to get some fresh air.

As much as we enjoyed our little taste of civilization in Hong Kong, we were more than happy to get out of the Chung King Mansions and move on to the LAST country on our trip: Australia! We had an awesome two and a half weeks in Oz, so hopefully I will get around to blogging about it soon!