Hong Kong

We arrive in Hong Kong after 14 hours on an overnight train. Emigration from China and immigration into Hong Kong takes 2 hours – mostly just waiting in lines - and then we have a 45 min metro ride to get to our hotel. We are all in need of a shower and food before we can take in anything else. But it is amazing how restorative those two things are and we are all shiny new again and ready to explore. Our hotel is on the Kowloon side of the city and in spite of the big city craziness we are surprised with how familiar and easy it all is – street and road signs are in English as well as Chinese and vehicles obey the traffic signs. The city is easy to navigate around, once you realise that what you are looking for is probably not at street level. The post office is one floor up; the supermarket underground and the best way to walk from one place to another is probably via an elevated walkway, with the access possibly by the escalators inside a shopping mall.

This is the last evening of our China tour and we decide to go up to Victoria Peak to get the iconic view over Hong Kong as darkness falls. We take the metro (MTR) over to Hong Kong Island, which proves to be clean, efficient and easy to negotiate.

Metro – MTR

We then join the queue for the Peak Tram, a type of funicular railway.

Queuing for the Peak Tram

The tram takes us to the top of the hill and then we go up through many levels of escalators inside a mall and out onto the viewing terrace just as lights are starting to come on in the city. The day has been hazy and overcast, the same as we have experienced pretty much the whole time we have been in China, so the view becomes better defined as the sun sets and the lights come on.

View of Hong Kong from Victoria Peak

The next day the tour group disperses gradually and I set off to meet up with my friend Debbie, who I met on the Nepal trip. She is from Chicago, but currently living and working in Hong Kong and she has kindly invited me to stay. It is great to see her again and it gives me a few more days to see some more of Hong Kong. It is not yet clear how the situation with the flooding in Thailand might affect the next part of my trip. All-in-all I stay for 5 nights with her, which gives me time to relax post-tour and make a plan.

We go back to Debbie’s lovely apartment; she lives on the 28^th floor of a 34 storey block. Here is the view from her living room window. This is going to be the best hostel accommodation! Her building is just at the base of the hill, before it gets too steep for development, so it’s ideally situated just a short walk from the main Johnston Road in Wan Chai with trams rattling along; but out of the back gate of the building you are straight on a walking trail up the hill away from the city. Here is a view from this trail across Hong Kong Island to Kowloon.

Hong Kong Island to Kowloon

View from Debbie’s window

View of buildings on Hong Kong Island

That afternoon Debbie takes me on the Star Ferry back over to the Kowloon side so that I can get my bearings. Land is still being reclaimed on both sides of the water and people joke that eventually you will be able to walk across form Hong Kong Island to Kowloon.

Land reclamation on Hong Kong Island waterfront

Star Ferry pier

On the Star Ferry

We wander along the waterfront and take in the view back across to Hong Kong Island.

Debbie on the Kowloon waterfront

Along the waterfront there is an ‘avenue of stars’ with Chinese movie stars' hand prints in the cement. There is also a Jackie Chan statue and tourists have their picture taken by it, trying to copy his pose.

Jackie Chan statue

In the evening we are meeting up with some work colleagues of Debbie’s – a couple who are Irish and English and a friend of theirs, who is originally from Plymouth. They have all lived and worked abroad for many years and have no plans to return ‘home’. We meet them for a drink in an Irish bar and as I drink my beer and look around for a moment I am confused as to where in the world I am. Later we go for an Indian meal. The restaurant is in a huge ugly building called Chungking Mansions. It used to be very upmarket when it was built close to the waterfront, but as the waterfront gradually retreated from its location it became less salubrious. It is now a warren of surprisingly good Indian restaurants and cheap hostel accommodation. As you enter the building you have to fight through a barrage of Indians who wave fliers for their restaurant at you. It’s not a place to wander around on your own – you might never come out again! But thankfully Debbie and her friends have been here many times before and know where they are going. We go up a dingy stairwell and along a corridor with pipes in the ceiling and metal doors in the walls.

Restaurant approach

And then with a sudden right turn we are in a bright and pleasant Indian restaurant. We have a jolly evening and very good cheap curry.

Indian meal with Debbie and friends

The next day is Sunday and Debbie has arranged for us to meet another work colleague, who is from the UK and is in Hong Kong for a 3 week project. We are going to do a short hike along the Dragon’s Back trail; have lunch and visit a beach. This is Debbie’s favourite thing to do on Hong Kong Island at a weekend and it shows just how varied the place is. I never knew there is so much more to Hong Kong than city – and that’s just Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. There are also the New Territories (the rest of the Hog Kong mainland) and the ‘off islands’ to explore. I woud seriously recommend that if you ever have the chance to visit Hong Kng, either as a destination in its own right, or on-route to somewhere else, then take the opportunity and give it enough time to explore all its facets - there is more than enough to keep you busy for a week. 

We take a short ride on the MTR and then a bus which crosses the island towards the south coast. This side of the island is much less built up and has beautiful beaches and country parks which protect the environment and provide excellent walking trails. For example the Hong Kong Trail is a 100km marked route.

The path we are taking is along a ridge which looks over beautiful coast on both sides and although it is hazy the views are great. The combination of seascape, with high-rise buildings and vegetation reminds me a little bit of the views in Torquay (on a good day).

View from the Dragon’s Back Trail

Me on the trail

Debbie and Paul on the trail

We come down from the highest point of the trail and catch a bus to Shek O, a seaside place, where we have a nice lunch in a restaurant that is busy with tourists and ex-pats having their Sunday lunch out. After lunch we go down onto Shek O beach – a beautiful bay with white sand. Although it is the end of the season here and locals think it is beginning to get cold the sea is a beautiful temperature. I go for a short swim and it is such a pleasure as I can walk straight into the water and swim without any of the palaver I go though at home – arms held out to the sides; little jumps every time a wave comes and squeals of ‘Oo oo’ as the cold water inches up my body.

Shek O beach