Fri 29th December, 2006
Arrived in Hong Kong International Airport on time at
13:15. It's been open 8 years now, since it replaced the old
airport near the city centre, but its still an
impressive building, they've got it right as far as processing
passengers is concerned. By the time we had walked from the
gate, processed through immigration in about 5 minutes, through
the health check screening (heat detection cameras, to pick up
anyone with a fever) and into the baggage claim area, my bag was
already on the carrousel, waiting for me, for a change.
I'd checked in my bag for this trip because I had a couple of
sharp items that probably I should not have taken on board, and
after loosing my little scissors to security in Jejudo, I wasn't
going to take any chances. We were looking for the airport
bus, number A11 to be precise, to take us to Causeway Bay on
Hong Kong Island, but on the way spotted the new(ish) Airport
Express train. Well, I don't remember it being there last
year when we were here last, any way. So we thought we'd
give it a go. It only went as far as Hong Kong Station,
and, at 100 HKD it was more expensive than the bus, but why not
give it try. It was a smooth, fast ride into the city, no
traffic to contend with, and we were soon there wondering how to
get to Causeway Bay. On the MTR, of course. When
we emerged from the MTR at Causeway Bay station, we didn't
immediately recognise it, but after 2 minutes of wandering
around we got our bearings and we realised we were in exactly
the same street as we had stayed in 20 months ago. Strange
how we didn't pick that up when we booked our hostel on the
internet, but it seems that all the budget accommodation in the
area is grouped within a few buildings. From the
internet directions, we found our hostel with no problem, but
like last time we were here, we were taken to another building
to book in and pay, and be allocated with a room, which turned
out to be in the place we first went to. Only 800 HKD for
a double room, with en-suite, for two nights, that's very
reasonable for Hong Kong, I can assure you. The room was
small but clean, not too stuffy, and a clean toilet and shower
room. Perhaps the weather helps, its only about 16C here today,
the locals are finding it cold, but they say it will warm up in
the next day or two. Main meal of the day at a steak
house, of the Australian variety, bit of a blow out for us, but
for some reason it doesn't seem so expensive this time in Hong
Kong. Apart from the UK pound being fairly strong against
most currencies at the moment, thanks to the weakness of the
US$, it also depends on how expensive the previous country
you've been in was. The last time we were here we came
from Thailand, which is a very cheap place to visit, but having
come from the relatively expensive South Korea, Hong Kong seems
a bargain this time. After a little retail shopping therapy,
(Rita brought a bra from M&S, I bought a 12 pack of beer,
some real cheese and a jar of Marmite) and a visit to the
Royal Pub, the place we always go to whenever we're in
town, (actually, we went there once when we were last here, but
that means we've been there every time we've been in Hong Kong
for the last two years!) we had an early night. Back
to Itinerary
Sat 30th December, 2006
Thinks dont get going too early in Hong Kong, so why should
we. The big shops dont open until 10 at the ealiest, and
some places later, so we took our time getting up and ready for
the day. I wanted to check out some computer and
camera supplies, I dont desperately need anything, but while in
Hong Kong you may as well take a look. Jumped on one of the
famous old double decker trolley busses that ply their way up
and down the streets of Hong Kong Island. They are
normally quite busy, but we got on one that had nobody upstairs
at all and so we got the coveted front seats. I remembered
that you paid on the way out but couldn't remember how much, so
when the trolley arrived in the Central area, we went downstairs
to get off, only to find we didn't have change smaller than
10HKD and they dont give change! The charge was 2HKD per
person, regardless of how far you go, so we had say goodbye to
the extra 6 dollars, a lesson we wont forget in a hurry.
Or did we have the same problem last year and have forgotten
it? I can't remember. Spent several housr wandering the
back streets around the south of central district, some
interesting shops and street stalls caught our attention occasionally,
as well as the odd bar. Happy hours are commonplace,
usually lasting much of the day and often upto 9pm, and just to
put the icing on the cake, we found one pub, The Globe on
Hollywood Road, selling Old Speckled Hen. Wasn't in
perfect condition, but after a dearth of decent ale for 3
months, a couple of pints went down very well, I can tell you. Not
sure what happened after that. Oh yes, I remember now,
looked for some bargains in the Wan Chai electronics market, but
the price of compact digital cameras didn't seem any cheaper
than the cheapest in England, so decided not to rush into a
purchase. We'd arranged to meet up with Grace, a
Hong Kong girl who we'd met at a backpackers in Hobart last
year. She'd been at university in Adelaide, but was now
back in Hong Kong, so we made our way over to Kowloon via the
Star Ferry to meet up with her and her boyfriend. Had a
great evening with the pair of them, ending up at an Indian
restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui, the Gaylord, for an all you can eat
buffet. The food was ok, though not brilliant, and we had
the "bonus" of live Indian music! What more
could you ask for? A bit of peace and quiet would have
been nice, now you're asking, but others seemed to enjoy it so I
suppose I shouldn't grumble. Back
to Itinerary Sun
31st December, 2006
When we were in Seattle recently, I'd bought a couple of
plastic folding bowls, fantastic they were, used them often in
our room when making a snack, and because they fold flat they're
so easy to carry. So we were a little upset to find out
this morning that the one we'd use to make up our marmite
sandwiches on yesterday morning had been chucked out by the
cleaner when she did the room yesterday. How could she, it
was lying on the bed, complete with crumbs and a plastic knife
(can be taken on planes) and she dumped the lot. The
crumbs I can understand, we didn't really want to hang on to
them, but our bowl! Actually, to be fair, they do use a lot of
disposable containers here, so she probably just thought it was
another variety, and when we complained to the manager and
explained it had cost us US$10, he gave us the money, which I
was only ever so slightly embarrassed about, as it actually
hadn't quite cost us that much. Checked out of our room and
left our bags with the manager to look after until this evening,
hoping the cleaner didn't get her hands on them and chuck them
out! Our flight to Bangkok is at 10pm tonight, so
we've got the whole day to enjoy in Hong Kong, and the sun is
shining and its a lovely warm day. Caught the
trolley bus down to central and walked the back street of the
Central area again, around the part known as Soho. It's
strange how that name crops up in so many places, I don't know
where it originates from, but the one in London is just a name,
whereas everywhere else it represents an acronym for the area,
e.g. in Hong Kong its the area SOuth of HOllywood road, in New
York its the area SOuth of HOuston road, etc. I guess
people like the name Soho. Had the all day full English
breakfast at The Globe, very nice it was too, my first proper
breakfast for many months, probably wont see another until we
get back to Europe. Eased down with a couple of pints of
Old Speckled Hen, what more could you wish for on a Sunday
afternoon? In the evening we made our way back up to Causeway
Bay, trolley bus and the subway. Both were getting very
busy with people coming out for the New Year celebrations, loads
of people were sitting on the pavements at various points and
the police were starting to put up crowd control barriers.
I'd like to think they were celebrating the introduction of the
smoking ban that comes into effect on the 1st Jan, a more
stringent ban than that which is being introduced in England in
that it applies to a lot of open spaces as well. Why dont
they just ban it altogether! (That's going to upset some people,
te-he-he) Something was definitely afoot, we just
hoped we hadn't left it too late to get the airport bus out of
the city, it being 60HKD cheaper than the Airport Express.
It's not that we're tight, well, actually, I suppose it is in
some ways, but its more to do with only spending as much as you
need too, an important consideration when you're trying to
stretch your travelling money for as long as we try too
4 quid might not sound a lot, but that's a nights accommodation
in some places.. We were lucky, the A11 bus was running on
time and we didn't get held up by traffic at all, and we were
soon through to the enormous departure lounge. I think its
a bit too big in some ways, spread over several floors its easy
to lose your direction, probably why they have people on hand to
ask you if your ok when you stand in front of the concourse map
looking bewildered. Not that we did, of course! We
were departing from gate 61, which involved a ride on a shuttle
train out to the end of the concourse. What a stroke of
luck, right opposite gate 61 is a bar, so while we waited for
the long queue to quietly feed through the ticket checking
process, we had time for our last beer in Hong Kong. In
all the airports we've been to a few, I dont think I've ever
encountered such a well positioned bar. Thanks Hong
Kong! Back
to Itinerary |
