Hong kong - Over view 20th may - 28th may 2012
Arrived in Hong Kong at 2.40pm, we were all ready for the next part of our journey .... Getting to the hostel. It was 29 degrees outside and the time difference with england was 7 hours in front.
We knew we had to catch bus A21 to stop 14 on Nathan road, getting on the bus was fine and we started to count the stops until we arrived, before long we were in a hustling busy road with neon lights and people everywhere.... Nathan road!! We had made it, now to find the hostel easier said then done. We were looking for Chung king mansions....... Don't get excited it was no mansion! It was part of a dodgy looking shopping mall. There were men standing outside ready to pounce.... You want suit, you want hostel, you want massage! No we don't!!! this was to be our home for the week. The worse was still to come ....our room. Luckily ed had agreed to upgrade our room from bed only and shared bathroom to bedroom with a shower room.
We were faced with a 6ft by 6ft room tiled in green mosaic tiles with one window that you couldn't see out of and that opened 2 inches. You couldn't swing a cat in there! The bathroom was tiny, the shower came out above the toilet so you could sit on the toilet have a shower and clean your teeth all at the same time.... It was very time efficient! The hostel was a little noisy but overall we couldnt complain for what we paid however I changed my mind by the last day when we found out that we weren't alone in our room! I was quite happily laying on the bed when ed told me to get off the bed and pass him a shoe, what a strange request I thought.... Until he started hitting the bed with my shoe! Oh dear god I thought its a spider by this time I was out of the door and talking through a crack asking if ed had killed it yet still thinking it was a spider until ed then informed me it wasn't a spider it was a cockroach!! I named him Clive and I didn't sleep very well that night as Eds aim was rubbish and the little b***** had got away!
On first glances hong kong looked to be an amazing city, the hong kong skyline is jam packed with skyscrapers and neon lights.
We wondered around with no particular direction however we kept ending up in air condition shopping malls. I have never seen so many shops, what a great place. It's a shamed I had a limited luggage allowance other wise I could have overindulged in shopping not to mention spending our entire years budget in one week!
Our minds soon turned to food....hmmm where to eat on our first night? There were many options.... Macdonalds, KFC, spaghetti house. I wanted traditional, I wanted culture, i wanted noodles. We found a place in a shopping mall that looked clean and well presented and the prices seemed reasonable.
We sat down only to be faced with chopsticks.... Oh no what was i going to do I had never used them before, ed assured me that he knew how to use them and he would show me. Well ed was as much use as a chocolate tea pot he had forgotten so we looked like a right pair. We ordered chicken noodles and spring rolls. Dinner took a little longer than usual to eat and we gave up in the end as it was far to much hard work however dinner was lush!!
Hong Kong -Day 2
I woke at 1.30am.... It was so hot and there was no air. It was unbearable, ed was radiating heat and our double sleeping bag had got caught up so that it was uncomfortable and restricting and to top it off ed was snoring.... Could it get any worse? Yes! Ed woke up and we laid in bed for an hour before deciding we could sleep. We managed to fumble a round for a torch as we had soon realised there was a power cut. Ed popped out to find out what was going on and found a sign stating the following " the electric on floor 3 will be turned off between 1am and 4am due to routine maintenance work" oh dear god we had another 2 hours to put up with the heat before we would get back to sleep, this hostel was turning out to be the real faulty towers. The electric came back on at 3.30 and we managed to sleep in until 12pm the next day.
We decided to try and find delifrance that had been recommended by Alex and Rachel, we failed to find it so opted for a good old Starbucks - blueberry muffin and a frappicino! After reading our guide book we decided to go for a walk, making our way towards the tin hau temple. There were a couple of markets a long the way, temple street market which opened at night and the jade market where I purchased my first bracellet, the first of many more to come.
Arriving at my first temple...... I was slightly disappointed I'm not sure what I had been expecting? The local drunks outside didn't really set the greatest of atmosphere. Inside the temples stood many shrines and incense sticks. Large coiled incense sticks hung from the ceiling dropping ash and filling the room with fragrant smells and smoke.
We walked around the streets for most of the day soaking up the atmosphere and people watching as we went.
We spent our evening in the pub as it was happy hour by one get one free, we had to take advantage of this as a bottle of sole cost 52 hong kong dollars £4.00 ish.
As night time fell over hong kong the skyline is aluminised with its many skyscrapers, every evening at 8pm the skyline becomes the scene of the worlds largest permanent light show- the symphony of lights. 44 of hong kings buildings are illuminated along with music and lasers. It is a truly amazing sight to see.
Honk kong - Day 3
I never thought I would see the day when Edward Gadd would get on an open top bus and be one of those tourist with their cameras around their neck, headphones in, listening to the commentary and turning every so often to take a picture of another skyscraper!
You see the Chinese in London snapping at everything and anything walking around with their rucksacks on and pointing at maps trying to figure out which way to go...... This was in fact us!!
Sat at the back of the bus, cameras poised ready to take that all imported snap we set off on our Hong Kong Island tour.
The most interesting of facts was
Villain-beaters
For only HK$40, a group of elderly ladies in Hong Kong will rid you of these ‘frustrations’ using the business end of a stiletto shoe – and they will burn the evidence afterwards!
These grey-haired old ladies ply their trade at the junction of Hennessy Road and Canal Road West. In the pedestrian area below the underpass, in the midst of roaring traffic and a continuously-moving tide of people, they sit beside their tacky, makeshift shrines and cast spells “to drive away the bad luck and evil forces that emanate from your tormentors”.
Just write your tormentor’s name on a piece of ‘magic’ paper, and give it (together with the contract sum) to one of these harmless-looking ‘villain-beaters’. She will then proceed to furiously thrash the named token to shreds with the heel of a shoe while uttering mystical-sounding words and incantations. The whole act is carried out in a swirling fog of incense-burning, with fire, chanting and theatrical waving of hands resembling
Finally, still chanting, she will dramatically cast the shredded remains into the fire, throw a handful of rice into the air, and proclaim you free and protected.
The Chinese are very superstitious people, the number 4 in the language of cantonese means death so many buildings will not have a 4th floor and the Chinese consider this number to be bad luck.
After an hour we arrived at the peak tram, a steep incline and decline to the peak. We boarded the tram and trundled our way to the top. The whole location had been made into an almost theme park however we enjoyed it. The views over Hong Kong were truly wonderful, you could see for miles and miles.
Ed was getting excited, we were heading back to the business district. Our plan was to stop at the worlds longest escalator. On first glances I couldn't see the attraction or excitement however I went along with it. Ed tried to tell me that it was on the top 100 things to do before I'm 30 hmmmm I dont think it is however I went along with it. The escalators travelled up through the street with small breaks so that you could get off at the mid stations. Bars, resturants and shops lined the escalators all the way up, what a clever invention... Well it beats walking, I knew in the back of my head the further we went up the further we had to come down!!
The escalators went on and on and on, it travels downwards between 8am-10am so that the workers at the mid stations can travel down to work and then from 10am it changes direction and travels upwards.
Finally we made it to the top only to turn straight around and start the decline... I was right what goes up must come down.... A long way down! My legs would be hurting tomorrow.
Heading back to central we decided that we would hop on the night Tour bus, then jump off at the ladies market and walk back. The ladies market was full of the usual gifts.... Bags, jewllery, iPad cases etc etc the same stuff on each stall. We walked through ladies market on to temple street market only to be faced with the same bags, jewellery and iPad cases. we came to a stall with a number of giggling old Chinese men fascinated with the objects on offer...only on closer inspection when one of the Chinese men was waving it around I soon saw what was so amusing... A large purple vibrator.... Yes these markets did indeed sell everything.
Walking around the corner we came apon Stall after stall of fortune tellers wanting to read your palms most of the stalls were full of locals wanting to hear what their future had instore for them. From One extreme to another ......from palmistry to karaoke again all lined up Chinese men and women of all ages waiting to take their turn, each one trying to out do the other. My word it sounded like a bunch of alley cats I've never heard wailing like it.