Late one Friday Night, a somewhat bleary eyed Australian tourist arrived all on his lonesome in the never sleeping Hong Kong. The first shop straight out of the airport... A Shell service station. I expected nothing less. 45 mins in a bus got me to my hotel in the heart of Kowloon. The folks were downstairs in the Lobby waiting for me, isn't that nice :) Apparently you can smoke in hotels in Hong Kong, or at least you could in my room. Even after a quick burst of air freshener I still felt like I was in a cigar box. Oh well I'd only be sleeping there anyway. I could think of nothing more Hong kong to eat than MacDonalds. 1 chicken burger later and I was knackered, time for sleep.
Waking rather early...I think. We headed for the star ferry and a trip up the peak. I think we got offered about 30 different types of fake rolex, and hundred of suite, these guys were everywhere, and no matter what you say to them, you still want a suit. After a little while we decided that making eye contact was bad, and to them it meant a guarenteed sale. The place was so smoggy, that when standing on the Kowloon side you are very hard pressed to see the Hong Kong Island side. But we pressed on, and after a few stops at ATM's along the way we concluded my cards don't work. But we also arrived at the tram terminal for the peak. This tram is crazy. They have steps along the floor so you don't fall over when its going up the hill. We had also bough an "Octopus" card from the main rail station... This thing can be used just about anywhere, you want a burger in MacDonalds, you can buy it with your Octopus card. Even cheap wine from 7-11 is no contest for this card. But moving right along. Up the top of the Peak we could almost see the city below. This was according to the news report...a slight smogg. The peak has several food stores and restaurants, and a shopping mall. What would you put there. This is Hongkong after all. There are only two types of cars in Hong Kong, expensive or none. Given the lack of sales tax everything becomes so much cheaper.
Returning from the peak we headed for a temple... but not just any temple, this one was next to ladder street, which featured quite heavily in a movie a while back. Can't remember the name, ask someone from the previous generation, they'll know. Anywho back to the story. This temple has so much burning inscence in it, my eyes came out covered in a thick layer of dust. Further obscuring the myriad of amazing sights that is Hong Kong.
After returning to the hotel for a quick break, we moved on to the massive floating restaurant. The ... wait for it... Jumbo... wasn't that worth the wait. Where we sampled some of the more expensive foods that Hong Kong has to offer. This place had banquets for 1,300 Hk a person ( about $250AU a head. The food was nice, the beer was ok, but its not every day you sit on a giant boat in the middle of a harbour and have chinese food. So the experince was something new. Moving right along. A quick bus ride (45mins) and we were back near the hotel. A touch of shopping was in order. I almost bought a video camera, but with the amount of tech stuff I'm already carrying I decided against it. Then we headed home for a much need sleep.
Got to sleep in this morning, before we headed for a traditional Dim Sum, (Yum Cha). We were the only non hongkong people in the restaurant, so it had to be good. Sampled quite a variety of cuisines, including a Cuttlefish, and chickens feet. Chickens feet tastes like Chicken...:-o, and the cuttlefish was a tough version of Calamari. Then we headed across to Hong Kong island again, for some shopping, seems to happen alot over here. I didn't buy anything...only bought a couple of things the whole time I was there. A few gifts for people when I find something I think is appropriate. We took our first normal tram ride for the trip... They don't make those things for people over 5 and half feet tall. But it was another oppotunity to use the Octopus card. Is there nothing it can't do. Back to the hotel again for a quick sit before heading back out into the "wild" for some more shopping, this time and the Night Markets at temple street. Dinner came first though... not 3 steps into the night markets we were accosted by A nice little Hong Kong lady who insisted we came to her little ourdoor restaurant, how could we refuse such a generous offer. With an assortment of still live food sitting on a display table, we knew we were in for something good. We weren't disappointed. Oh and did I mention the beer. Apparently beer is only served as Tallies in this "restaurant". Stomachs full, and the need for beer temporarily sated we moved further into the unknown world of the Hong Kong Night Market. If you want anything fake...this is the place to come. If it didn't exist here...it doesn't exist in the real world. Everything from little penis toys you can throw at the table to squish them only to have the unfurl right before your very eyes, to minature spy camera's, to a spinning UFO type toy which I couldn't resist. A $4 pocketwatch later we headed home.
Today was our big trip, into the very heart of China, well Canton anyway. At 7am sharp a little chinese man herded us onto a bus and whisked us off to the Ship terminal, where another little chinese man gave us bit of paper and said fill them out. So we did. An hour on a Cat, and we were at the chinese border. By this time I had had the oppotunity to scope out the other people on the tour, and I can only say I was a long way from the average age. Only one other traveller was even close to me. Back to the story... no sooner than we have left the boat to go through customs does dad get pulled up for something. Apparently he hadn't signed the form. Can't take some people anywhere. A short 15 minute wait on the other side of the barrier, and we were again herded into buses to begin the journey. So far so good, we'd only been on the road for just over an hour, and we had already lost two people. Well thats not entirely true...we hadn't even picked them up. My first impression of China is... this place is depressed...I mean they should be on prozac depressed. Nobody smiled. I might have just come on the wrong day but they were depressed. First stop was a Zoo, and my first look at the Mighty Panda Bear. The way it ate that bamboo was so intimidating, it made me glad I was behind that bit of glass. Moving on from here, we headed to a gallery where the Terrecota warriors were on display. 5 at any rate. I can't belive that this big bad ass emperor had so much spare time that he could make thousands of these things. Impressive none the less all life size, and all different. Apparently he killed all the crafters when they were done. Nothing like ancient china job security. He also had 3,000 wives...now that is just asking for trouble. Which he killed all of when he died. Not the best life for a wife of an emperor...spend all your time doing not much, probably not even going to get lucky with the hubby, and all you have to look forward to is having your head removed. From here we headed on to the city of Canton. Pretty dingy place really. Interesting though. Half way there...and a loud hissing sound begins to emenate from the back right tyre. Pulling over to the side of road the drive pulls a 6inch bolt from the tyre, we all move to the other side of the bus, and carry on on our merry way. The next stop was the best of all. The petrol station. This place was amazing. ok enough of my sarcasm, it was a necessary stop, as we were short a tyre. But it did give rise to the joke how many chinamen does it take to change a tyre. Well from my experience its at least 5. One to observe, and the rest to jump up and down on a long metal bar, to try to get enough leverage to undo the nut. After this short detour we headed to lunch. Thankfully before the trip to the market, more on that soon. 6 people to a table, and an assortment of authentic chinese meals, and a bunch of people who wouldn't try anything. Well except for Dad, Mum, and I anyway. And 1 australian woman who made me want to denouce my australianism (made up a new word :) ). Again the ceilings were a problem here... at points only just reaching my shoulder. Again the beers were served as tallies here too. Life's tough. From lunch we headed to a traditional little chinese market place. You could buy an assortment of different products including freshly skinned toads, snakes, and scorpions. For the more morbidly facinated ones in the audience I'll send the video of the toad preparation. All you need is a bucket of water...once previously caught toad, and a pair of sissors. Next in the line of exciting tourist attractions was a temple with 6 stories, and some huge banyan trees. Pretty cool, was wallet guarding time though... Beggers apparently like tourist hot spots. There was 3 giant budda's here and a female budda, apparently according to our tour guide, chinese women weren't aloud outside, this made it very difficult to go and worship, so they were given their own statues, but chinese blokes are a little jealous, and a female having a male statue just isn't done, do they made the already gender neutral budda into a female version. All very confusing but each to their own. Fighting my way back through beggers, we again boarded the bus. Next was the huge octagonal building dedicated to the Father of Moderm China Dr Sun Yet Sen. If you want more history on this impressive dude, google it, I've got better things to be doing. Anywho from here next stop was a shopping center. I was stoked they had a Lamborgini shop, and Rolls Shop. Finally a trip back on the train, and our foray into china was all over. Much need sleep was in order, but not before dinner. We again ordered too much, and didn't pay much for it. Nice beer though.
Today was when I finally break loose of the shackles of family, and head out into the wide world in search of something which I don't know what it is. But rest assured when I find it I'll let you know. Last minute shopping, then it was off to the airport, and a 3 hour wait. So with nothing else to do I headed to the Pizza place, and had some lunch. Ordered a beer, then another... then I thought thats enough, so I asked for the Bill, which apparently meant I wanted another beer. Not one to make a fuss over others people mistakes I graciously drank the beer, paid my bill, and headed for my boarding gate. The plane ride to canada is a whole nother story...
Please ignore the undoubtedly numerous spelling mistakes, and grammar etc.
I'll post some photo's at some point.
Narco Out.
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