Hong Kong - Girl

Our introduction to Hong Kong came in the form of tiny, airless and damp hotel rooms costing around £40 a night. We dejectedly looked at a few before settling on the least tiny, airless and damp of the bunch. Despite its lack of window we (read 'I', since I don't think C actually cared much) did get used to it. Given that some locals live in metal cages (I jest not) so small they can't stand or stretch out fully, I shouldn't really complain.

 

Hong Kong, for me, will always be about the food: the bright lights, the forest of towers, the humidity and the ice-cold air conditioning may blur but the food, good or bad, I'll never forget. The first night's delicious meal with stunning views of Hong Kong Bay was followed by complementary cocktails at Hullett House, a hotel built in the old Marine Police Headquarters. A sign promising all we could eat dim sum and all we could drink Veuve Cliquot ensured we would return soon. Sadly the offer had expired by the time we returned but thankfully, an even better one had transpired: breakfast buffet and free flowing Veuve for €50 a head. Bargain. We tried it once, we tried it twice. And yes, it was incredible both days. The buffet served everything we could wish for: oysters, sushi, dim sum, muesli and fruit, cheese, meats, salad, cake, the list goes on. This feast was compounded by the addition of an a la carte main course. Wow. Day one we were more than a little tipsy by the time we left. Day two we were a little more sensible and succeeded in maintaining a semblance of sobriety!

 

Hoping to strike it lucky again, we tried an afternoon tea in another nice hotel - no comparison to either Hullett House or to any afternoon tea in good hotels at home. Another sadness came when we visited the LP's highly recommended Spring Dear restaurant, famed for its Peking Duck. What a disaster. First, with a flourish, the duck is carved before the table. Two plates of meat are placed on the table alongside dry cucumber and spring onion and some bad pancakes. Here, we floundered. We picked the meat off the fat and skin and realised we were left with very little we actually wanted to eat. Never mind, more meat was sure to come, right? Wrong. The waiter came to clear our table and was surprised when we stopped him and asked for the rest of our duck. Seems most people (tourists included?) get the rest to take home. Well, since we didn't have a home in HK we thought we'd go crazy and eat in the restaurant. A small plate of bones was placed before us. When we complained to the manager that for £30 we expected a little more meat, his response was 'this is HK, this is what you get'. Well, clearly this wasn't good enough. All we managed to get out of him was another plate of bones though. A total rip-off and what we did have wasn't even that good. Upon returning to our room we searched on line and found a number of reviews quoting similar experiences. Bad job LP. I did, however, enjoy adding our thoughts to the list of negative comments. Thank goodness we had good old Genki to feed us whenever we needed something reliable - HK's answer to Yo! Sushi. Hurrah. A great build up to Japan.

 

While it's true that most of our HK experiences were around food, we did do some touristy stuff: we watched the light show, which was poor, we took the tram to the Peak, which was a fun ride but the incredible smog meant we could barely even see Kowloon! We also took a train out to the New Territories to visit the Wetlands. Our high hopes for the Wetlands were dashed by the Sino-ifying of nature: we walked on concrete paths round extremely controlled and manipulated ponds whilst 'spotting' almost nothing except for the fake animals put in for kids. I suppose for people who have never seen real countryside, it could have been exciting but for those of us who spent a lot of time in the country this was a fairly dull day. C, however, was enthralled by the jungle of tower blocks that never left our sight throughout the park.

 

A day trip to Macau showed yet more of China's zebras. An island run by the Portuguese until 1999, today it is covered in casinos that wish they were Vegas and horribly run-down apartment buildings that show the 'real Macau'. Using complimentary shuttle buses between casinos we managed to get around the island for free all day. First stop: The Venetian - just like Vegas except full of good Communist Chinese zebras enjoying a trip to Capitalist heaven. Second stop: The Bubble - a 4-D imax experience that totally surpassed anything I've ever seen in imax before. Third stop: The Grand Lisboa, an enormous casino right in the middle of the city, totally overshadowing everything around it. Enthralling in a car crash kind of way. For me, this was an interesting but uncomfortable day: the poverty spelt out by the apartment buildings contrasted too deeply to sit comfortably.  

 

How could we go to HK and not go to Disney Land? We couldn't, obviously. Despite the park being small, fairly dated and aimed at 10 year olds, and despite the pouring rain, we had fun. I even overcame a true fear and went on Space Mountain, twice. I know it sounds pathetic but I am so proud of myself for doing this. I hate roller coasters and as a 14 year old refused to go on the same ride in California, instead standing on the side while my parents rode it! And surprisingly, it was ok. I'm not sure I want to go on much bigger rides but now I know I can do it.

 

Apart from Hullett House the other highlight of HK was PercaDu, an Israeli duo of percussion perfection. These guys gave the best performance I have ever seen. They played an array of instruments with such finesse that nothing I write can relate the magic of seeing them on stage.

 

So that was HK. A SAR (Special Administrative Region) done good. Capitalist in the extreme, from the millions of shopping malls to its claim for the most expensive land per square metre in the world we never really felt like we were in China, everything was too ordered and spitting and shoving are certainly not permitted! The People's people have done well, perhaps the other People's people would do well to emulate.

 

Our flight from HK to Japan went via Shanghai where we were brought back to China with a bump! Suddenly the zebras weren't so abundant, instead we had some donkeys with painted stripes. I don't know how but the Chinese managed to make transit between two flights more complicated than I have ever seen anywhere else. We saw a door marked transit but as we approached we were cut off by two guards who pointed us in the direction of customs. Instead we went to the help desk and asked how to get through the transit door (perhaps there was a magic key?). We were eventually led to the very same door through an extremely circuitous route and then told to wait in a cupboard until the officials were ready for us. Some more bureaucracy later and we were finally free to sit still and await our flight to Tokyo.