Hong Kong – Zealand Publishing House

June 2005 · Middle East Trip

David & Noel Coory's Journey to Hong Kong

A travel diary documenting the first leg of an epic Middle East adventure —Frankfurt to Hong Kong.

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First Look

Overall Impressions of Hong Kong

Teeming crowds of people.
Many malnourished, over-thin and bow legged.
Many people with malformed teeth.
Lack of Calcium in diet perhaps?
Most of the elderly frail and shrunken with sparse hair.
Very little grey hair however on older people.
Hardly any children and we saw no babies
Lovely, clear complexions on the young.
Numerous very tall apartments and hotels, and no houses.
Noisy buses and clanking trams.

Locals speak in a clucking-like language, Cantonese.
Smell of drying fish in the streets and many other unusual smells.
Hot streets, especially in the open sun, cooler near the sea.
Thousands of shops.
About 1/3rd of the people wear glasses.
Optician shops everywhere.
Intelligent and highly efficient people.
No hardware or car accessory shops.
Very few furniture shops.
Every conceivable food, much of it unrecognisable to us.

ARRIVAL IN HONG KONG

A Long Night Above The Clouds

I nod off to sleep and awake about a hundred times on this flight to Hong Kong. There’s just not enough leg room to get comfortable. There are also noisy children behind us and they keep bumping the seat. Noel gets even less sleep.

My PlaneQuiet headphones are very good in these situations. They blot out about 60-70% of the noise and sound quality is high, especially from my Ipod. Noel has decided to buy himself a pair also. This is a short night as we are travelling eastward. It will only be dark for about six hours.

We finally land at Hong Kong Airport. As we get off the plane we walk past the business class seats. I am rather jealous when I see their ample leg room, after my cramped night.

“There’s just not enough leg room to get comfortable.”

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HONG KONG

A Modern Gateway To Asia

As we file through to customs we have to use an escalator stairway. I’ve never seen so many people on one escalator. This is a new airport and is huge, and very clean and crowded with people. It is located on reclaimed land on an off-shore island, not on Hong Kong Island itself.

Actually it is two islands away from mainland China. Hong Kong city is located on a third island, linked by an underground tunnel to the mainland. Not as hot as we expected, outside the airport terminal building. However it is only mid-morning.

“This is a new airport and is huge, and very clean and crowded with people.”

ENTERING HONG KONG

Bridges, Tunnels And Towering Skylines

We board a clean bus which has been organised for us by a very efficient travel rep to take us to our hotel on Hong Kong Island. None of the porters seem to expect tips. It takes us about half an hour to drive across the two huge bridges that link the airport island, and an intermediate island, with mainland China.

As we cross the long bridges and look out at sea we see numerous islands in the distance. The sea looks a brownish green colour despite the blue sky. Many ferry boats churning up wakes. As the bus drives towards Hong Kong, just about everywhere we look we see huge, high rise apartments.

Yet we also see bush-clad hills that could have come right out of the New Zealand countryside. As we drive on the mainland and near Hong Kong Island, the road goes down into a tunnel under the sea to the island. This coastal city area on mainland China is also called Hong Kong. There is also a nearby city called Kowloon.The former China border is behind us to the north.

“As the bus drives towards Hong Kong, just about everywhere we look we see huge, high rise apartments.”

Our Hong Kong hotel

A City Of Towers And Endless Activity

We are dropped off outside our Hong Kong hotel in a middle of a teeming, busy street. It is just as I imagined Hong Kong to be. Apartments and hotels tower up high on either side of the street. As a teenager I remember seeing a film set in Hong Kong called “The World of Suzie Wong.”

They are doing road works outside the hotel. I’m impressed with a footpath sign politely saying, “We apologise for the inconvenience caused” and giving the start date and anticipated finish date of the works.

Our hotel has 28 floors. “Just small hotel,” the porter says. There is a swimming pool on the roof. We have a very small room, with rock firm beds. Our hotel window has a back view of apartments with washing hanging out the windows. Like most hotels nowadays, you cannot open the windows.

All the time we are here we have long waits for the three lifts. The lifts are mirror-lined, probably to make them look less claustrophobic.

“It is just as I imagined Hong Kong to be. Apartments and hotels tower up high on either side of the street.”

A WORLD OF NEW FLAVOURS

Out for a walk and to buy lunch

After we settle in, it is near mid-day, so we go out for a walk and to buy ourselves a fruit lunch. We have tried to have one all fruit meal every day. The streets all around our hotel look the same. Apartments towering above and shops at floor level. There are numerous jewellery and chemist shops, also clothes and food shops.

We enter a supermarket to buy some fruit. This is the first supermarket we have been in on our trip. The food selection is enormous, compared to what’s available in a typical NZ supermarket. Much of it exotic and mysterious, and highly suspect to our untrained eyes. We see tray after tray of strange foods and realise how little we know about Asian foods. Some of it is mind boggling, live eels and other fish, live toads.

Noel also buys himself a Braun electric toothbrush. The price here seem a little cheaper than elsewhere.

“The food selection is enormous, compared to what’s available in a typical NZ supermarket.”

AN EXOTIC FRUIT FEAST

Discovering New Flavours In Asia

For lunch we buy a largish exotic red fruit with black pips and triangular leaves of rind, some red bananas, and a conventional pineapple. We explore a little more then return to our hotel to eat our fruit.

The strange red fruit with black pips tastes OK, like a blackberry flavoured water melon, but is not very sweet except in the centre. The juice has a strong red dye that was still on Noel’s fingers 24 hours later. The red bananas are so unripe as to be inedible. We eat the whole pineapple between us.

The most tasty fruit on our trip has been that of Singapore, and Jericho in Israel. (I find out when I get back home to Tauranga, that the exotic red fruit above is called a Pitaya or Dragon Fruit. There is also a white-fleshed variety with a green skin. They are grown in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand in glasshouses.)

“The strange red fruit with black pips tastes OK, like a blackberry flavoured water melon.”

LIFE IN THE STREETS

A Walk Through The Sights, Sounds And Culture Of The City

After lunch we go out for a long walk that extends into the evening. Most of the people here in Hong Kong are a foot shorter than Noel and I, especially the elderly. However some of the young men are my height, 5’ 10”. There are not many attractive young women, though they do have lovely skin.

We notice that the people in the streets are very chatty to each other, but not to strangers. They do not often make eye contact when they speak and there is never any touching, nor any talking with the hands as in the Middle East. Most of the locals speak some English.

Lots of bare arms up to the shoulders, unlike the Middle East where they are usually covered. There are red and white taxis everywhere, and some luxury limos also used as cabs. These are Mercedes S models, Lexus LS430’s and BMW 7 Series.

Buses and clanking, double decker trams are also everywhere. Private cars are not allowed in Hong Kong Island. Some of the red and white taxis have an extra roof fitted on top of the other one, with a space in between to cut down the heat. Hong Kong has the highest per-capita income of any major city in the world.

During the afternoon we stop at a ATM to draw out some Hong Kong dollars. There are eight Hong Kong dollars to one US dollar. As we are working out how to obtain $160 HK dollars, I accidentally brush the ATM screen with the tip of my fingernail over the Hong Kong $1500 dollar option. Too late! It activates the computer, and as Noel has already put his card in, we get HK$1500 dollars (about NZ$250) out of the ATM machine instead of HK$160. As it turns out, this is exactly the amount we will need here in Hong Kong.

Many Hong Kong streets are densely signed overhead, much of them neon. Marie my wife would love it. Noel and I walk many kilometres. We see lots of seafood shops, nearly all of them selling shark fins.

Also there is always dry, brown wrinkled stuff for sale, about the size of a dinner plate and looks rather like giant cornflakes. I ask a little lady fish shop keeper what it is. She replies, “Made from stomach of fish,” and holds her tummy as she speaks.

There are all kinds of smells that constantly change as we walk along the different streets. The strongest and most common smell is that of fish, laid out on the footpath drying. We see some strange fruit that look like brown plums. We also see raw ginger and ginseng on sale.

In many of the shop windows are porcelain and brass icons of Chinese gods for sale, both male and female. Some shops also have little shrine areas set aside, with an icon god. The one below is being tended by a young, jean-clad Hong Kong shop assistant.

And of course, everywhere are the huge apartment blocks, in all shapes, sizes and standards. It is now mid-afternoon and very hot in the sun. Some women use umbrellas.

“There are all kinds of smells that constantly change as we walk along the different streets.”

A BARGAIN IN EYEWEAR

Quality Glasses At Hong Kong Prices

My old glasses, that I sometimes wear, are unfashionably large and heavy. Noel thinks I should upgrade and I agree. As Hong Kong is noted for excellent prices for optician products, we stop at one of the many optician shops.

The owner is a middle aged, sincere, alert on-the-ball type person. He tells me exactly my eye situation by just looking at my old glasses. He says I can have a new pair competed for me by ten o’clock tomorrow morning.

He also gives me a free eye examination on the spot, (normally $45 to $60 dollars extra in New Zealand) and confirms that there is no change to my present prescription.

Noel and I then look at some frames. Noel thinks I suit an oval frame better than the square type I usually wear. So I choose an oval, gold metal rim frame. They are extremely light weight and look to be of high quality. The optician quotes me NZ$130. Normally prescription glasses are about $600 in New Zealand. I decide to order two pair.

“The optician quotes me NZ$130. Normally prescription glasses are about $600 in New Zealand.”

EXPLORING THE WATERFRONT

Sea Breezes, City Views And New Discoveries

After leaving the optician, we look around some of the other electrical shops for some PlaneQuiet headphones for Noel, but they only have the Philips brand.

We then carry on with our exploring. We find a shop selling classy, stainless steel and glass exterior doors. Noel thinks they could be ideal for New Zealand. I thought we took a photo but can’t find one.

We also make our way to the waterfront and look across the harbour to the city of Kowloon, on mainland China. We find it much cooler near the sea with a fresh breeze coming off the water. We come across the local TAB (racehorse betting shop). It’s called The Hong Kong Jockey Club.

“We find it much cooler near the sea with a fresh breeze coming off the water.”

AFTER DARK

When The City Truly Comes Alive

As dusk falls, the streets become even more busier. It cools down a little once the sun sets, but only a little. The temperature this afternoon has been in the mid 30’s and quite humid. It does not feel as hot and clammy as Singapore, or perhaps we have become acclimatised.

It has become so crowded we are now constantly dodging people on the footpaths. Some of the shops here are quite exceptional, Marie would have a field day. Probably Rana also. It is now dark and the city gets busier than ever.

Some of the central city buildings are quite spectacular. Noel and I stopped for a short rest in this beautiful exterior foyer of an elegant hotel. We now make our way back to our hotel. We go to the top floor swimming pool area to have a look and Noel takes a photo of the city lights from the window.

A view of Hong Kong at night is spectacular. We are not high enough to get a particularly good photo, but at the top of this web page you would have seen a photo of Hong Kong taken at night from “The Peak” hilltop that we will visit tomorrow. We did not take the photo ourselves as tonight is our last night in Hong Kong. Most of the buildings you see lit up are apartment buildings where people live.

“It is now dark and the city gets busier than ever.”

David & Noel Coory · Middle East Trip

June 2005 · Tauranga, New Zealand to Singapore and beyond Redesigned with care · Original travel diary preserved

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