Hong Kong - more likely Hong Bloody Pong

Hey folks,

Apologies for not keeping the old blog up to date - I know you workers of the world enjoy checking out our adventures but believe it or not it's been almost impossible to get access to a computer with a decent enough link speed. As you'll see there is no pics linked into the blog yet but just click on the link on the right - "The Photos" and you'll see the pictures until I get a chance to link them into the blog.

Anyway here's Hong Kong

For those that are interested I did manage to make as much noise as possible when getting up at 5.30am when we left Japan. Take that sniff couple and the new occupant - tiny Dave for the US of A who had a snore like a damn gattling gun. Anyway they all know about me getting up as I managed to crash and bang my way around the room. Ho ho ho.

We arrived in Hong Kong and after the downturn in weather in Japan it was nice to feel the warmth of the sun on our skin as we left the airport in Hong Kong. A simple enough bus journey and we were in Kowloon and on our way to our hostel. Now up until this point our experience of hostels had been excellent (noisy dorm occupants aside) so we still had some high hopes that this tradition would continue. It didn't we were staying in one of the hostels located on Nathan Road in the notorious "Mirador Mansion". What a fucking shit hole the place was, it was like a junkie's flat. Basically the mansion is an almost derelict apartment block that I assume dates back to the 60's / 70's which is only used now by immigrants and backpackers. There is 2 lifts to get up the 15 floors (each lift can only take 6 people at a time) so as soon as you want to get into the lift you have to fight with the hoards of rude ignorant people to squeeze your way in. When we got to the room we couldn't believe our eyes, it was basically a room the size of a postage stamp and a bathroom (no door, let alone lock - nice touch, we know each other very very well now), it hadn't seen a lick of paint for oh about 20 years, it stunk and was full of dust (hadn't been cleaned in oh about 20 years). I know it was cheap, but my god the place was a death trap - and we had 3 days there.

Day 1 - Still in shock at our room we only ventured as far as Nathan Road and then check out the skyline. The skyline across Victoria Harbour is cool I have to say. Nathan Road is not cool, full of touts trying to sell you fake Rolex's and suits. Yup even with a backpack on my back they were still coming up to me asking "You want to buy a suit, very good quality etc" - yeah I've got a whopping great ruck sack on my back, a suit would be real handy for that important business meeting while I travel the world. Twats.

Day 2 - The Big Buddha

One thing I have to say about Hong Kong is that it's really simple to island hope. So we had read about a really big Buddha on one of the close by islands so we decided great it gets us out of the junkie flat. So a couple of ferry's later we were on Landau Island on a bus heading towards the Po Lin Monastery. The Big Buddha is a huge bronze seated Buddha (the largest bronze, seating one in the world apparently) that sits at the top of some steps (see the pics on flickr) on top of a mountain. It was pretty nice, just a shame the weather was kinda crappy and was really overcast. We then ate in the monastery and headed back to the flat to "shoot up" - I mean get changed and go out. Since it was night time we went to the "Avenue of Stars" - Hong Kong's answer to the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, not really that good at all considering I can only name Bruce Lee, Jet Li and Jackie Chan as stars but hey ho. The could thing about the avenue is that you have this fantastic view across Victoria Harbour to the skyline and if you get there for 8pm (any day) you get to watch the "Symphony of Lights". This is where about 15 of the huge skyscrapers all light up and put on a neon light show in time to music - they shimmer, pulsate, lasers emit from the tops of the building. It really was a greatthing to see.

Being pretty tired we managed to crash out pretty earlier in the our wonderful hostel , sleeping like baby's we were suddenly woken at about 3am by a lot of noise outside our door and then very loud banging on it. I got up sheepishly and opened the door to be faced with 4 policemen screaming for my passport, I naturally did as I as was told as you don't mess about with these people. So it turns out that about once a week the mansion is busted by the local police (they send a squad in) to check for illegal immigrants. I tell you I can't make up the shit about his place (we also had a power cut and the lifts breaking down).

Day 3 - Victoria Peak

After the events of the night before we got a up a bit later and deiced to get the tram up to the peak - the highest point in Hong Kong. The tram is a real must if you are in Hong Kong, just a quick star ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong central, then a bus to it. The tram does indeed go right up the side of the mountain (yes a tram not a cable car) at about what seems like a 45 degree angle. The view at the top is amazing, we managed to time it superbly so that we went up about 30 mins before sunset, so saw the view in daytime (sadly cloudy though) and then saw the sunset and the place flicker to life. Definitely well worth it, we hung about up there for a few hours (there is a mall, but in Hong Kong there is a mall everywhere - even inside the junkie flat). After that we headed into Hong Kong central and came across a little Christmas market kinda nice and felt all Christmassy (aw shucks), we then stumbled upon a fashion taking place in the Chanel boutique (I stayed there drooling for about 30 mins at the models as we could see them just coming up from the changing rooms from outside - Jacquie finally dragged me away).

Back in Kowloon, we went to the evening street market in Temple St. This is where you get all the fake stuff. I came away with some crappy movies (all fake of course), a pair of Oakley sunglasses (well I should say Oakey sunglasses as that is what the label on them is) and a Diesel bag, Jacquie got a CK watch. All that for about 15 dollars classic.

So that was Hong Kong and I have to say it was a huge disappointment to me. The place just didn't click at all with either of us, the people are extremely rude and the obsession with money (mainly taking it from you) is unbelievable the whole place is just shopping. It's really weird because even in the shit hole that is Nathan Road there are these really expensive boutiques charging a fortune and they are right next door to really poor areas with people begging everywhere. Hong Kong central was nice, but that's the posh part and you can see it, the money is everywhere and no suit touts peddling there "designer" suits.

So on the whole we're glad we've done it but will not be rushing back.