Filed under: Hong Kong
Days 197 – 202, Wednesday 3rd – Monday 9th March 2009 (Al)
It was cool, it was rainy, we were tired. We arrived in Hong Kong lacking the energy to get out and explore it. But having seven days here allowed us to take our time and spread our sightseeing out, and mix it with late night internet sessions instead of sleep, as we are still on Europe/Africa time. Our standard day seemed to be 12pm – 3am…
Hong Kong did grow on us as we saw more of it.
Our modest accommodation was located in Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. I could stand in the middle of the room and touch each wall with my outstretched arms. But it was clean, relatively quiet and centrally located.
Our street in TST
The only thing we really did on our first full day was go to a Chinese medicine class in the Central district on Hong Kong island. It was basically a Powerpoint presentation mixed with a little show and tell. It was interesting to hear about Yin and Yang medicine – although a little more discussion on how this can link into Western medicine would have been useful.
Elevated, covered walkways in the Central district seemed a nice, futuristic way to get to work
A handwritten protest sign outside a bank (and there were many protest signs and loudspeakers outside many banks), one of the only indicators we could see of the ‘Global Financial Crisis’, read:
‘Mini skirts are skirts
Mini mooncakes are mooncakes
Then why aren’t minibonds bonds?’
On the way back we spent some time on the waterfront, enjoying the city lights illuminating the clouds.
Yes this is night time!
To learn a bit more about Hong Kong’s past we visited the Museum of History – which happened to also have an exhibition on the French Revolution, reminding us of our time in France – complete with replica guillotine for cheesy photos that local high school students seemed to enjoy. More enjoyable for us was our visit to the Nan Lian Gardens (a replica of a traditional Chinese Tang Dynasty garden) and adjoining Chi Lin Nunnery.
Waiting inconspicuously at the metro station
Beautiful architecture and flora set against modern apartment towers is a good example of what can be found all over Hong Kong – a mix of the old and new. This is sometimes harmonious, and sometimes clashing.
We decided to keep the flora theme going by visiting the flower market area of Kowloon. There’s probably about fifty stores lining two streets that look something like this:
That night we met up with my old school friend Jeff who lives in Hong Kong. By chance it happened to be his birthday! We went out to the suburbs, to the sort of area where most locals live in their shoe box apartments.
Hot pot birthday dinner with Jeff and his girlfriend Jenny
The next day we decided to go to Lantau island and get the cable car up to Ngong Ping village – which turned out to be a really cheesy and overly fake ‘traditional’ village. I would think most traditional Chinese villages would not have a 7-Eleven and synthetic trees. The big attraction, pun intended, is the world’s largest seated Buddha statue nearby. We followed this with what was billed as a traditional vegetarian meal at the monastery – this turned out to be niceish, but bland, cafeteria food served by grumpy ladies in a mess hall.
Cheesy
Cheesier – it’s what the monks would want
Cold, misty and atmospheric
The Buddha and surrounding statues all have amazing expressions of calmness
Po Lin monastery
Elaborate interior
What better way to follow the calm, peaceful atmosphere of Lantau than with the hectic neon commotion of Tsim Sha Tsui and some karaoke! This was to celebrate Jeff’s birthday.
Busy street scene below
Jenny and her friends were much better at this than we were. Meanwhile we were masters of collecting food from the buffet (and eating it).
Jeff and Jenny offered to spend the following day with us in order to show us a different side of Hong Kong. We first wandered around one of the older suburbs, near Jeff’s apartment, where he went to school and which has not YET been overtaken by modern high rises. People were out at markets, and playing soccer and basketball in the park on this weekend morning. The elderly were out doing tai chi or, more adorably, their own brand of exercise. One older woman slowly walked backwards past us whilst swinging her arms back and forth.
Jeff’s high school
After a quick Yum Cha dumpling brunch, we visited Wong Tai Sin temple and gardens, where Cathy had her fortune read. The results were mixed…
A visit to the Tai O fishing village rounded out the day. It was still cold and misty, but it was really nice to visit one of the only remaining villages in Hong Kong that still lives in a more traditional way. A highlight was an elderly Chinese man who came up to me for a chat. “Are you from Finland?”, “No”, “Sweden”, “No” (this line of questioning was clearly influenced by the mullet, and went on until we offered that we were from Australia). ‘Aah – are you from Pymbo?’! When we said we were from Melbourne, he said ‘I have been fortunate enough to obtain several copies of The Age and the Herald Sun’. He went on to ask us several questions about Pymbo (a town in NSW), Gundagai and Geelong! He explained that his relatives would send him copies of The Age, The Courier and other papers; also that he loved geography and had worked in a shipping yard that had maps on the wall – so he knew the names of many cities around the world but nothing more about them. We’ll always remember being asked “So is Pymbo warmer than Gee-long?”
Tai O village: simple, pretty, misty and smells like fish
A surprise treat – there is a Shaolin martial arts school here. Check out our form!
My style is classic wing chun kung fu whilst Cathy’s is more sloppy Karate Kid.
It was a great day that delivered the other sides of Hong Kong that Jeff and Jenny promised.
Probably the most popular sight in Hong Kong had not even been visible for our entire stay there, that is until the last day. The Peak was no longer covered in cloud so we decided to venture up. To do this, we took the ferry across to HK island, then walked through to the Mid-Level Escalators – a series of escalators that help people walk to and from work on the hilly island. 800 metres long and climbing 135 metres, the escalators see some 55,000 people use them daily (thanks Wikipedia).
What followed should have been a straight forward walk to the cable car station – but it was easy to get lost. Asking for directions three or four times helped us find the station eventually, and so we made it to the top for this fabulous view:
Another great surprise, two eagles swooping around the buildings and Peak looking for food. They soared only a few metres over our heads at one stage – amazing.
Walking around the Peak, Cathy was successfully sidetracked by this diversion I created
Which ended soon after
Before our final dinner with Jeff and Jenny (a tasty Korean cook your own bbq) we viewed the world’s largest synchronised sound and light show which incorporates buildings on both sides of the harbour. It tried a bit too hard to be Hollywood-style dramatic, and made us hope that Hong Kong uses green power wherever possible, but was a spectacle!
And that was Hong Kong. Despite the cool, wet weather and jet lag, we definitely warmed to the place and enjoyed the sites we got to see and the friends we were able to catch up with. It was a good stopover that had us ready for the sun and sand of Thailand!
But we still have no idea what this sign, outside an internet cafe, meant.
Filed under: Hong Kong
Find these most recent posts from Africa by clicking on their dates on the calendar on the left:
UPDATES 2nd APRIL – Lake Kariba – Eagles (Jan 29th), Lake Kariba – Houseboat (Jan 31st)
UPDATES 1st APRIL – this is not a joke – Egypt – with special guest writer AL! (Dec 30th), Obama Day, Pig Day, Bilharzia Day (Jan 22nd), Lilongwe & Chipata (Jan 24th), Lusaka (Jan 26th)
UPDATES 28th MARCH – Malawi posts: Chitimba (Jan 19th), A Killer Diversion (Jan 20th)
UPDATES 23rd MARCH – New Tanzania posts: Stone Town (Jan 12th), Zanzibar – Nungwi Beach (Jan 15th), Return to Stone Town (Jan 16th), Ta-Ta Tanzania (Jan 18th)
UPDATE – Serengeti post is now up (Jan 7th, Tanzania)
Click on the January archive and check out the new posts (Nairobi, Maasai Village & Ngorongoro Crater) from the 4th, 5th and 6th of Jan (Kenya & Tanzania) – hot off the press and complete with photos!
Filed under: Hong Kong
Day Ish, Wednesday 3rd March 2009 (Cath – on the spot)
We’re out of Africa and gradually moving along through the grieving process – miss it, and the people we were with, a lot!
It’s been harder to find a reliable internet connection here than we expected, but we’ve just found this lovely internet cafe, and will hopefully be back later today after the Chinese medicine class we’re about to attend.
Keep your eye out for ‘new’ blog posts about things we did several months ago, which might be published over the next few days. Egypt (late December) is on the waiting list, and I’ve just posted a summary of our time in London over New Years. Look through the date archives or click on country names to find them. I’ll try to write an announcement like this whenever something is completed.
Filed under: South Africa
Day 195-196, Sunday 1st – Monday 2nd March 2009 (Al)
After saying some final goodbyes to more of our Oasis friends this morning, Emma joined us for the trip to Robben Island. During the seven kilometre ferry ride we focussed mainly on the video so as not to get seasick. But soon our attention was drawn outward as three whales were swimming some fifty metres away! We really felt like Africa kept on showing us new things every day, as if the continent thought we might be getting bored – so decided to add some whales to the shimmering sea.
After its previous existences as a prison and leper quarantine colony, Robben Island became the infamous Apartheid political prison in 1959. We had two guides today, both members of the ANC who had been incarcerated here. The first guide showed us around the cell blocks, discussing prison life and answering questions politely. Although he normally does not talk about such things, he admitted to being tortured several times – including by waterboarding. He mentioned how more or less rations were given to prisoners based on their race – solely to create an air of distrust and hostility. And, of course, he talked about Nelson Mandela. A visitor asked if he felt part of the reason Mandela was so revered was that he was the only anti-Apartheid activist most people knew, and in fact a lot of other people deserved some of the credit. Our guide (who was an ANC member) replied that although of course there are other people who deserve and receive credit, in fact Nelson Mandela should be celebrated even more than he is – that it is impossible for South Africans to thank him enough.
What most people came to see – Nelson Mandela’s cell for many of his 27 years of incarceration
The prison yards with the mainland viewable in the distance. The isolation felt by the prisoners would have been unbearable if they couldn’t talk to each other.
As our second guide (taking us on a tour of the island by bus) told us, Robert Sobukwe – the former leader of the Pan African Congress – did not have this luxury. He was thought of as such an influential threat that he was kept in a nearby cottage by himself for several years. When he was released he had difficulty speaking as his vocal chords had withered away during his solitary confinement. Even upon release, he was forced to live in an isolated part of the country, and forbidden to travel abroad or be involved in any political activities.
This second guide had such a regal and commanding, dramatic voice that he was a joy to listen to. He would tell stories as if he was reciting Shakepeare, and made an effort to mention how the countries of each passenger on his bus contributed to Robben Island and the struggle against Apartheid. This included Australians invading a rugby pitch in protest during a South African tour. His other mentions of Australia’s impact on the island were not as flattering: the introduced rabbits were a pest and the introduced thirsty Eucalyptus trees had assisted in depleting the island of any natural water supply. We did try to tell him that the English introduced rabbits to Australia, creating a pest that still bothers our country today, and that the Eucalypts flourish in Australia precisely because of their abilities to drink every last drop from the ground, to help them survive through dry times. But these facts would have got in the way of a good story, and we forgave him, because he was very funny.
Shipwreck – Table Mountain visible in the distance
The limestone quarry where prisoners were forced to work (in not the most satisfying way – moving the rock out, then later moving the rock back in) under the blinding, scorching hot sun. To this day, Nelson Mandela has problems with flashing cameras because of the damage his eyes suffered whilst working here.
On returning to the mainland (once again seeing the whales on the way), Cathy and I went to see a wildlife photography exhibition which was great. We almost felt like some of our animal photos could have made it in – if we were eligible for the under 13 age group perhaps. A final seafood dinner down in the waterfront area of town was the scene of our final, final goodbyes to some of our Oasis friends. It was a very bitter-sweet evening, and we wished we had a lot more time to stay and explore this really beautiful city (we had looked into changing our flight to a later date, but it just didn’t work with the rest of our plans).
We realised that we were not only saying goodbye to our friends, and to Cape Town, but also to Africa itself. We had been there for over two months, and the continent had shared with us its amazingly varied landscapes, beautiful wildlife, fascinating cultures and friendly people. We can’t recommend south east Africa highly enough, and would love to come back to spend more time in one or two places, with lots more money to spend at local markets and to pay local tour operators and businesses (probably the best way, as far as we know, to offset any negative impact tourism might have on local communities). And we’ve really only seen such a small corner of a huge, diverse continent.
We were off to the airport quite early the next morning – with some important news for our families. Sitting at Johannesburg airport waiting for our connecting flight to Hong Kong, we made the final decision that we would come home one month early and surprise our families and friends – with plans to return to south east Asia a few weeks later. We wanted to tell only the people we thought needed to know we’d be home for our plan to work. So we called Cathy’s parents, my Mum, and then my brother Hamish (I decided the brother who picked up the phone first would be the one to be told). All were surprised and pleased to hear that we’d be home in two weeks – and we were starting to get really excited by that idea too!
I loved reading the names painted on shops and restaurants we passed on the road. I also loved how most businesses had painted on their wall, underneath their name, ‘We offer the following services…’, often followed by a long list of what seemed like quite randomly chosen goods and services, and ending in ‘etc’.
In Tanzania, and Zanzibar particularly (outside Stone Town), the names were quirkily aspirational:
Nice Hair Dressing Salon
Aalya Beautiful Salon
Bob & Bad Boy Ritzy Barber Salon
Tulifo Modern Butchery
In Zambia, things tended to take a more philosophical tone:
Reasonable Shop & Take Away
Reasonable Restaurant
No Money No Power Grocery
New Deal Tarven (sic)
Be Strong Enterprises
Be Strong Barber Salon
Tropics Depot – for all your stationary, food, signwriting etc etc
Just Imagine Investments
Hope Dot Com (internet cafe)
Sex Thrills, AIDS Kills (billboard)
Namibian businesses seemed to have less personality overall, apart from a couple of interesting ones:
The Dog Is Hot Bar
OK Food (actually a big supermarket chain, where we bought food to cook for dinner, and yes, it was acceptable)
But one of the best signs we saw was in Malawi:
Road Signs Save Lives (painted on a road sign)
