5 October, 2017
After a wonderful breakfast and an easy morning we are chauffeured out to the Taipei International Airport terminal. Check in is a breeze and we have an hour wait in the lounge for our flight on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong.
The short 2-hour flight to Hong Kong was wonderful on Cathay Pacific. The entertainment system works a treat and sure makes a flight seem very short. On-time departure, good food, lots of space, good entertainment system and a clean plane is a nice change from the rubbish airlines in China.
We decided to take a shuttle bus from Hong Kong airport to our hotel on the island in downtown Wan Chai. It is door-to-door but takes about 1 hour vs the Airport Express train and a bus which only takes just over half an hour. At least this way we can see how Hong Kong has changed since I was last in the city some 20 years ago and we don’t have to manhandle our luggage on the way. We did pass through Hong Kong on our way to Ireland in December 2013 but we only did an overnight stay out at the airport.
We drove past the modern skyline of Hong Kong and Lynn noticed the Excelsior Hotel where she stayed when she first came to Hong Kong in 1982. The hotel was a major building on the island back then but is now dwarfed by the glass monoliths of this millennium.
We also drove past Happy Valley where I lived in the late 1990s, the Hong Kong Jockey Club and the Happy Valley race course.
As we did in 2013, we are meeting up with Sam (Lynn’s ex-student and friend) who lives in Hong Kong.
Sam met up with us at our hotel and gave us a choice of the fast and comfortable MRT underground railway or an old and slow trolley bus. It has been 20 years since I experienced the uncomfortable trolley bus so naturally that was our first choice of transport this evening.
Sam has big plans for us during our five-day stay and the plans start with going to see the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance tonight with his friends Francis, Amy and Vivienne who are all Hong Kong residents but lived for some time in Australia.
But first, time for dinner at a Chinese Restaurant in Causeway Bay.
Since I usually spill Soy Sauce on my white shirts Vivienne lent me a bib just in case of a spill. The bib was a souvenir from an Oktoberfest outing.
Hong Kong is as hot and humid as Taipei and as we head out to see the Fire Dragon Dance the crowds are building and we are dripping wet with the humidity and the heat from all the people on the streets.
Tai Hang is an area in Causeway Bay, on Hong Kong Island, where the origins of this tradition took place over a century ago. The Tai Hang Fire Dragon tradition started when the village was ravaged by a typhoon and a plague on the eve of the Mid-Autumn festival.
According to the legend, the fortune tellers warned that to be rid of the chaos, a fire dance had to be staged for three days and three nights during the upcoming Full Moon.
And so, a “Fire Dragon” was built from straw and covered with joss sticks which were lit at night. The Fire Dragon then paraded through the streets of Tai Hang for three days and three nights, and the plague was gone.
Since then, this tradition has been carried on every year during the Mid-Autumn festival. The 67-metre Fire Dragon will wind through the streets of Tai Hang, like it did over a century ago with over 300 performers, 70,000 incense sticks, and lots of firecrackers.
From Tai Hang we head over to the lantern and light display in Victoria Park. By this time we are wet through but it is much cooler away from the crowds.
By the time we returned to our hotel we were hot and tired so a quick shower and straight to bed. It has been a very long day….
6 October, 2017
Another hot and humid day is forecast and Sam has a big day planned for us. This morning is the first time that we have had time to check out the view from our hotel room.
The Novotel Wan Chai isn’t a patch on the Novotel Taipei airport. The room is quite small and the foyer and reception floor is under renovation so it all seems a bit chaotic.
Today we are taking the number 6 bus to Stanley which gives us a bit of a sight seeing trip around the island but first Sam takes us to a fantastic Dim Sum restaurant for an early lunch to make sure that we have the energy for a very full day.
The food was wonderful and I finally had some very tasty BBQ pork steamed buns…. yummy… my very favourite Chinese food.
After lunch we set out to catch the number 6 bus to Stanley. We headed upstairs on the bus to get a great view of the trip.
The first thing that hit me when we arrived at Stanley was how much it had changed in 20 years. Gone are the shabby houses and dirty streets. There is a large shopping mall adjacent to what was the beach and the beach strip is now modern apartments and top-end restaurants and coffee shops.
Murray House is a Victorian-era building in Stanley. Built in the present-day business district of Central in 1844 as officers’ quarters of the Murray Barracks, the building was moved to the south of Hong Kong Island at Stanley during the 2000s.
In 1982, the historical landmark was dismantled to yield to the new Bank of China Tower. Over 3,000 building blocks were labelled and catalogued for future restoration. In 1990, the Housing Department proposed the resurrection of the building in Stanley. The building was restored in 2001 and reopened in 2002.
We took a stroll through the Stanley markets but they are only a fraction of the size of what they were 20 years ago and the number of shoppers has also shrunken to a trickle.
Back on the very comfortable, air conditioned bus to the city to experience the old Star Ferry trip to Kowloon. This time however we will take the long way back via Aberdeen. We had front row seats up stairs where we experienced the regular collisions with overhanging tree branches and tropical vines.
Occasionally we’d catch glimpses of colonial buildings, stone and tile in stark contrast to steel and glass.
It is hard to imagine that years ago the Star Ferry was one of the only ways to access Hong Kong Island from Kowloon. Now it is almost exclusively a tourist attraction. The Harbour is now only half as wide as it once was since both sides of the Harbour have seen substantial land reclamation as the ever higher skyscraper developers look for more building space.
On the Kowloon side we take a stroll to the Peninsula Hotel that once had a front row seat on the Harbour’s edge. It is now one block back and about to be built out by yet another skyscraper.
Next we head back on the MRT to Central to catch a train heading down to the South Horizons station on Ap Lei Chau Island to experience the driver-less train.
Back to Central to catch the number 15 bus to Victoria Peak to see the sunset and watch the lights of Hong Kong come on after dusk.
The plan now is to take the bus back down the hill. Sam is taking us to the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club for dinner tonight. It has been a very long and hot day and I am more than ready for a couple of very large, very cold beers.
We decided not to take the tourist Peak Tram back down as there is about an hour wait in a very long queue. Without waiter service in the queue there is no way that I can last that long before I down a cold one.
Unfortunately when we get to the bus stop there is also a very long queue. Sam is quite happy to queue but I insist that waiting is not an option and I spring for a taxi. Door-to-door to the Club has a lot of appeal after a long hot day.
Today we have traveled on a trolly car, a modern double-decker bus, the MRT, the Star Ferry and a Hong Kong Taxi. Talk about trains, planes and automobiles….
Our taxi driver is fast, aggressive and efficient and within 15 minutes and a small tariff of only A$14 we are delivered to the heavenly gates of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. Sam is a member here and, by the greetings of the staff, a regular attendee.
The food is fantastic and the beer is large and very cold. Ahhhhh… relief at last. The view on the club terrace is wonderful but after a hot day and an evening that is still very warm and very humid I make my case for eating in the air conditioned club house. Can’t have my beer getting warm, now can I?
After dinner we take the Sampan “punt” to the MRT access tunnel which is adjacent to the noon-day gun which is still fired each day so that the sailors can synchronise their time pieces. Although I suspect that all the sailors have GPS chronographs, or at least mobile phones, these days.
What a big day. Sam gives us a summary of another big day planned for tomorrow. We will sleep very well tonight.
7 October, 2017
It was supposed to be raining today but when we throw back the curtains yet another hot day beckons from the other side of the glass that separates us from the hostilities of Hong Kong’s everlasting summer and the cool and comfortable micro climate of our hotel room.
Today Sam is collecting us from our hotel in his very comfortable Mitsubishi Pajero. We will be going to Sai Kung Town in the New Territories where we will park then take a taxi out to the High Island Reservoir. We had the option of taking a taxi (private cars are not permitted in to the Reservoir area without a permit) or walk the 10 km each way to the Reservoir dam. Taxi!
Our taxi driver has at least 5 mobile phones set up across his dashboard. There is not much windscreen area left.
The High Island Reservoir, located in the far south eastern part of the Sai Kung Peninsula, was opened in 1978 helping to alleviate water shortage problems in Hong Kong. Its water capacity is approximately 273 million cubic metres. The area it occupies was originally the Kwun Mun Channel, which separated High Island from the Sai Kung Peninsula. Dams connected a number of islands and the sea water was then replaced by fresh water. The fresh water is held at over 70 meters above sea level and nearly 30 meters below sea level.
We walked down to the lower sea wall then back up and across to the far side of the main dam.
I was very tempted to have a swim in the cool water. I am so glad that we didn’t have to walk here. My only fear is that there are no taxis available to take us back out again.
Thankfully there are plenty of taxis waiting to take us back to Sai Kung Town.
Since this is Saturday there are lots of tourists about and the restaurants are full. We headed for a stroll along the waterfront and out on to the Pier where local fishermen were selling all kinds of live seafood which they would kill and gut fresh for the consumers.
It must be beer o’clock by now. Sam finds us a very nice restaurant and we head inside for the cool, air conditioned section. The waiter recognises a man with a thirst and immediately suggests a nice cold beer, I respond with a resounding affirmative.
After a very nice lunch we headed back to Sam’s apartment to relax for the afternoon before returning to our hotel for yet another early night.
8 October, 2017
Sam has worn us out over the past few days so we are having a day off to catch up on things. However, today is the annual pilgrimage to Mount Panorama, Bathurst for the V8 Supercar races in Australia. Just by chance I found that the race was being broadcast live on Fox Sport 3 in Hong Kong so I will be spending the day glued to the TV screen.
The race was run in continued rain and was very interesting. After 161 laps the race was won by David Reynolds and Luke Youlden. Lynn went to school with David Reynolds’ mother.
The perfect day really. Air conditioned comfort, the great race, a Holden victory again and cold beer brought to me by Lynn.
9 October, 2017
Today is our last full day in Hong Kong. Early tomorrow morning we fly out to Chiang Mai as our first stop in our month in Thailand.
We met Sam at Wan Chai station and he took us to the HSBC head office building and the original HSBC art deco building which is now the Bank of China.
The lions guarding the HSBC building’s entrance, Stephen and Stitt, have a colourful past; remnants of which can be seen in the form of bullet holes on Stephen’s left flank. Getting caught in crossfire was not the only adventure the pair had during the Second World War. They were also sent to Japan to be melted down, but were saved at the sudden end of the conflict when an American sailor recognised them as they lay stranded in an Osaka dockyard. Highly revered by HSBC, they are also popular with locals who stroke their noses and paws for good luck.
The words above the main entrance of the bank are a bit ironic considering that the bank was fined millions of dollars for allowing money laundering and FX and interest rate manipulation over the years.
At street level on the other side of the new HSBC building are two, marble lion heads, relocated from the 12th floor of the old building.
Next we walked down the road to visit the Hong Kong Botanical and Zoological Gardens which Lynn last visited 35 years ago.
We spent some time checking out the primates and the variety of birds in the zoo. Lynn was fascinated by the meercats after seeing the baby one in Japan and the half dozen Japanese red-crowned cranes we found in avaries at the top of the gardens.
By the time we spent time walking around the gardens and the zoo it was way past hot so we headed back to a Chinese restaurant near our hotel so that we could take Sam out to lunch for his upcoming birthday.
The food at the restaurant was excellent and Lynn found a dessert that took her fancy. Probably not for how it tasted – purple yam filling – but for how it looked.
After lunch we had to say a sad farewell to Sam. It was wonderful spending a few days with him and we made him promise to come and stay with us once we return to live back in Brisbane.
10 October, 2017
Unfortunately we didn’t have much choice in which flights we could take out of Hong Kong to Chiang Mai today. Our flight leaves at 10:30 am so we are out of bed at an unacceptable hour for us. We are taking the shuttle bus to Hong Kong station this morning at 7:30 am then the Airport Express train to the airport.
We arrived ahead of schedule into Chiang Mai and are met by the hotel shuttle bus driver. A quick 20-minute ride to the hotel and job done.
The plan this week is to have a 7 day rest and just catch up on things and lay by the pool.
We plan to take a cooling dip in the pool then have dinner in the hotel restaurant before heading to bed for an early night. It has already been an early start and it feels like it has been a long day – including acquiring an extra hour as we flew west.
The dip in the pool was wonderful and very refreshing. While we were cooling off we met our neighbours, who live in Sydney, and after some fun conversation we agreed to meet up with them at a local bar after dinner.
Dinner at the hotel restaurant was excellent and reasonably priced so we may eat here again this week.
By 7:30 pm we arrived at Hot Chilli, a cocktail bar about a km from the hotel in the middle of the old town.
We had a wonderful evening sucking down cocktails and talking “shit” with Bruce and Wade.
Our neighbours are heading to their next Thailand destination early in the morning so we agreed to catch up with them when we pass through Sydney in February next year.
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