Sarawak & Hong Kong 23 NOV - 09 DEC 2001 Matt Wegener Alastair Ritchie

... continued from Singapore and Sarawak, Borneo 23Nov - 03 Dec

Hong Kong

Monday 03 Dec
We left the flat at 05:30 and got to the airport at 06:00 - and we got a limousine taxi again! My 0730 flight was cancelled, so I had to wait until the 08:30 SIA flight instead, while Alastair took the Cathay Pacific flight at 07:55. Alastair was quite impressed by Cathay Pacific, the service was good and efficient, and the plane was not too full. SIA was good and I watched Rush Hour 2. My meal was better than his.

We took the advice Alastair had been given and took the airport shuttle bus to our hotel (the Marco Polo Gateway hotel). The highway took us off Lantau Island (very mountainous) across the suspension bridge to the mainland and the Kowloon peninsula, which we couldn't see at first due to the haze. All through the visit, anything more than 5km away started to go a gray color.

The Marco Polo Gateway is very good, although the hotel outlets seem a little pricey (remember we had just arrived from Malaysia where things are excellent value), except the bar, which by Malaysian and Singapore standards is actually quite cheap. We couldn't get into our room until 15:00, so we went to check out the huge Harbour shopping center beneath the hotel - mostly very expensive boutiques, but one or two more likely looking places. When we did eventually get into the room, it was excellent - a suite, no less, thanks to a special deal organized from Germany with Der Tour!

Alastair got my film from Sarawak processed, it was a shame that there were a few disasters, but also some very good pictures - but the lesson learnt is not to use cheap film! I purchased another 64Mb compact flash card for my Canon Digital Ixus, since I had used up all the space on my other two 64Mb cards. I also bought myself a Tommy Hilfiger jacket (genuine) from a boutique, which I was very pleased with (I got a 30% discount with my American Express card). We headed out for the night market and dinner.

Hong Kong is very different from Singapore - less clean and tidy, a lot more crowded, and definitely part of China! It does seem to have a bit more buzz, although maybe that was the cool weather. We had dinner at a Chinese Seafood restaurant on Nathan Road in Kowloon.

After dinner, we wandered on round Kowloon. On Nathan Road a dodgy bloke came up to me and said, "You want Copy Watch?". Then he led me through this alley, where there were several stores selling T shirts, souvenirs and so on, and he led me round to the back and drew this white curtain back to reveal a very small shop with lots of chairs in it. It was made out to look like a tailor's shop. Then he asked me what kind of watch I wanted, Rolex, Cartier etc. He got out his general catalogue of watches with several makes. Also in the same shop was a large American accented man looking for a watch for his wife. He couldn't choose between two face colors.

I pointed to two watches in the catalog that I was interested in having a look at and the salesman's colleague then went out to the secret storeroom. About two minutes later he came back with an anonymous paper bag and produced a couple of watches, which I had a closer look at. I selected one, inspected the quality, and then started the price negotiations. Their first offer was HK$ 1750, which quickly went down to 1500, special discount for German visitors, eventually I got him down to HK$ 600, at which point my friend rescued me.

The watches were high quality with gliding hands and heavy wrist straps. They looked most convincing. Alastair got some postcards and souvenirs whilst he was waiting for me to conclude my negotiations. The night market was a disappointment, lots of shirts, belts, costume jewelry and so, as well as "look-alike" goods but no copy watches (the brand names were changed). We didn't see many food stalls, though we were told later that they do exist!

Tuesday 04 Dec
Alastair woke up with blocked sinuses and a headache - apparently it was the dry air. We'd decided on a late start, so we left the hotel at 10:00 to book a tour (today, Hong Kong Island, tomorrow the New Territories the land between - tour). Had breakfast at City Super's food court - good value and close to the hotel - before going exploring. We took a walk to the Star Ferry pier and past the cultural center and space museum. It was very bright, warm and dry - today the temperatures were about 22-24°C, and low humidity.

At 13.15 we met our tour guide, Yvonne, at the hotel lobby to go on the tour. We picked up a few others at various hotels in Kowloon before going across to the Island via the harbor tunnel. We were driven past Hong Kong's two tallest buildings, the Bank of China Tower (2nd) and the Central Plaza (1st and actually in Wan Chai district, not central) before arriving at the station for the tram to the peak. It's not really a tram, but a funicular railway, and the track has a variable gradient - the floor is always on a slope and the seats feel like recliners!

We disembarked at the top station and had a coffee break at Mövenpick restaurant and saw the view from the lookout platform. The assortment of shops at the top was really naff - Ripley's believe it or not, collections of truly tacky souvenirs. Alastair bought a cap. We also had our pictures taken by the company photographer for tea-plates and mounted photos. They turned out very tacky too - so we bought them! From the peak, we drove on down to Aberdeen, and took a boat trip round Aberdeen harbor, taking in the floating restaurants, notably Jumbo seafood, and the floating village of the Hoklos on the way. It's a combination of houseboats, fishing boats, sampans (general utility) and small motorboats. A sampan is used as a waterbus, van or taxi, and its name comes from the Cantonese for - three wood - due to the three sections making up the sides and the keel. We also saw the yachts in the Hong Kong Yacht Club marina - real gin palaces! Yvonne explained the cost of living in Hong Kong, and showed us the government low cost apartments - much smaller than their HDB equivalent in Singapore. Accommodation here is exorbitant, no wonder the Hoklos prefer to live on the boats.

In Aberdeen, we also visited the Jewellery factory where we saw the craftsmen at work and the sales staff did their very best to sell us things. Alastair found a mother of pearl brooch as a present. From the Jewellery factory we went on to Stanley market, passing Repulse bay on the way - named after a British warship that was based there in the early days. We saw the swimming beaches with the shark nets to protect the swimmers; apparently there have been occasional shark attacks here. Stanley market was mostly clothing, paintings and handicrafts, with a few jewellery shops. Alastair bought a rosewood box (minus the chopsticks), and I got a very tacky orange Chinese lantern for my bedroom. I still didn't find any "bent gear" though! (It was impossible to find cheap designer T-Shirts). We returned to Kowloon with the bus, after collecting our "souvenir of Hong Kong" plates and photos - great! On the way back, we were given some tips on what to do, where to eat, and to watch out for pickpockets.

We had a very good value for money dinner at the Guangdong Restaurant (Cantonese), before going to check out some of the other shopping centers after dinner. Alastair found the Lladro shop, but there was still no sign of iffy designer labels. Perhaps those can be found in Shenzhen. We tried out the Tartan bar at the hotel - quite soul-less, we will try somewhere else tomorrow night.

Wednesday 05 Dec
New Territories Tour - The Land Between

We got up at 08:00 to meet the tour bus at 9:00 nearby at the YMCA - breakfast was courtesy of 7-11! Our guide for the tour was called Irene - her catch-phrase was "Let's make a move" and she was quite nice and helpful, but had a habit of saying the same thing several times over! Our route first took us through Kwai Chung and Tsuen Wan - Industrial areas and government housing - before arriving at the Yuen Yuen Institute, dedicated to the 3 main Chinese religions, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.

The Institute was built in the traditional Chinese style, with arches, eight sided towers, temples and so on. Irene explained that the Taoists believe that there is a 60-year cycle, in addition to the 12-year cycle of the Chinese Calendar, so people born in each year have one specific god, shown by the statues numbered 1 to 60 in the Taoist temple. We also saw the paper offerings in the Institute shop; they even had paper mobile phones as well as the ubiquitous hell money.

After Yuen Yuen, we headed up route Twisk to the Tai Mo Shan country park. Route Twisk was built as a military road, the name actually comes from the locations at either end, Tsuen Wan and Shek Kong, with an I in the middle to make it easy to say! The road was spectacular, going up the mountainside in a series of hairpin bends, past ramshackle shanties and scrapyards, something we weren't expecting to see. We turned off route Twisk to go to the car park at the Tai Mo Shan lookout. It's not actually at the peak - that's a few hundred feet higher up and occupied by a golf ball radar and a couple of microwave relay stations. The view was spectacular, looking back across the New Territories to Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, which we couldn't see because of the haze causing low visibility. We also saw the practice hiking trail (a 1km loop to get fit on) as well as the way up to the famous Maclehose trail.

A group of schoolchildren were also at the park, having a barbecue and making a very bad job of flying a kite. One of them decided to take my photo and engage me in conversation! Which was nice. After Tai Mo Shan, we headed down the road through Shek Kong. At one time it was the main military base and airfield for Hong Kong, now it's occupied by a small PLA garrison. They seemed to be keeping a low profile, apart from a sentry at the gate and a few soldiers moving around inside, there wasn't much to be seen.

We went on through the farms on the Lam Tsuen valley to the border town of Luen Wo, where we stopped for a look at the market - no dodgy gear, unfortunately, although I was very impressed by the Bank security guard's pump action shotgun. Irene showed us round the market, mostly local produce, but proudly pointed out a Thai Durian and hit us the old cliché about "Smells like hell, tastes like heaven", Ha Ha. She also encouraged us to try "Fly Loodah" (Fried Noodles) for breakfast, although a couple of Scandinavian girls were seen running in the general direction of McDonalds! The town itself was low-rise and not particularly picturesque - globalization has reached here, they had the dreaded McD and KFC!

From Luen Wo we went along the road to Sha Tau Kok, the North-Eastern border town which is a restricted area, turning off just before the checkpoint. Sha Tau Kok actually sits right on the border, one side is in Hong Kong SAR, the other half is in China - the main street's name is China-Britain street! We turned right to go along Bride's Pool road, and saw the cormorants on a rock opposite the Luk Keng village. The people of Luk Keng village are Hakka, with their distinctive sun hats, and the village is restricted to those who have ancestral lines, so it's not possible to just buy a house there. We looked around the village, with some original houses, over a century old, and some which were rebuilt in the 1950s and 1960s. Most of the residents we saw were elderly, and there was one group of elderly ladies playing cards in the front garden when we came past (and yes, they were playing for money!). We also met the tourist attraction woman, about 75 years old and she did some chopping of some plants for us to take photos.

Bride's pool road took us on to the Plover Cove country park, although the commentary pronounced Plover to rhyme with clover rather than lover. Oh well. The park is apparently very popular for family picnics and barbecues at weekends, especially in the dry months. Plover cove is actually a reservoir and rainwater catchment, formed when a natural sea inlet was dammed.

Our next stop was at the Sam Mun Tsai fishing village, to look at the fishing boats and fish farms. It was getting cold and windy by this point. We then went on to the Sha Tin racecourse, where we had lunch in the restaurant - the standard Chinese 8 course affair. The food was quite good, and we were sat at a table (of 8, of course) with a party of Brits and Americans from a charitable foundation, plus Alastair, myself and a Polish girl. Some of them had interesting tales to tell, but the event was hijacked by this American woman from Atlanta - "Oh that's WONDERFUL!" - cutting off other people in mid sentence.

Got back to the Hotel at 16.30, then Alastair left me in the room while he went to get his film processed and to get some presents. The photos from his new Rollei camera turned out very well indeed, a relief after the problems with his Pentax. That camera needs seeing to. We crossed to Hong Kong Island on the Star Ferry, which has to be the best way to get there, before heading southwest and up the hill towards D'Aguilar Street. Irene told us this was the place for bars and restaurants, and she was right, we found the ex-pat scene; nearly all the clientele was English. Had a pint at the Jazz bar before moving on to the "Mad Dogs Fun British Pub" - the waiters wear kilts and the waitresses wear natty tartan outfits, a great place so we just had to stay a while! Had bar snacks and a couple of pints (happy hour was until 22:00) before heading back to the Star Ferry. We also saw several nightclubs and expensive looking restaurants and wine bars there.

Incidentally, the guidebook was right, the view from the lower deck is just as good and you save 50 cents. Fireworks entertained us over the harbor on the way back!

Thursday 06 Dec
Late start, with breakfast at City Super again, in the Café. I had pizza and quiche for breakfast, which Alastair found perplexing as a breakfast meal. I wanted to take a look at the old Kai Tak airport, so we went there via the waterfront walking, past a small container terminal and the Whampoa - a shopping center, which looks just like a stranded luxury yacht! The old airport buildings have been converted into a leisure complex and government offices, with bowling alleys, a permanent car show and an indoor karting circuit. We found a way up a staircase so I could take a look at the runway. Lunch was at the karting circuit, where there was a 2-for-1 deal and a very dozy waiter.

After lunch, we went through New Kowloon, which was very grotty, all car repair shops and cheap supermarkets and cafes, to get to the Walled City Park. This park was obviously aimed more at locals than tourists - all the signs were in Chinese. It was a re-creation of how the walled city would have been at the beginning of the 19th Century, with the almshouse and courthouse, as well as a Feng Shui garden with such sites as the lovers' rock, long life rock, and a pleasure garden. The center had some pictures of the post-war apartment blocks that occupied the site in 1990- the new look is certainly an improvement! One interesting site is the old South Gate - you can see the flagstones and drainage gutter under a reinforced concrete grid, which was the foundation for one of those apartment blocks.

From the park we went up to the MTR station at Lok Fu. On the way, we went into the shopping center at Lok Fu, which was very like the neighborhood malls in Singapore, with the exception that everything - signs, directions, shop names, were in Chinese characters, most of the time with no translation. Fortunately, some signs are universal.

The MTR is much like Singapore's MRT - but Alastair did notice that there were no "Please give up your seat to someone who needs it more than you" signs. Either everybody is very courteous or there's no point even trying! We got off at Wan Chai, after changing trains 3 times, so we have now used every line. From Wan Chai we found our way to the exhibition center, which is much like any other Expo, and stopped there at the gallery café to plan our next move. In the end, we had a look at the cross street market (still no dodgy gear) before going to Queen's road East and the furniture makers. Alastair called in at one shop, Wing Fat, no. 63, to have a look - beautiful rosewood furniture. From Queen's road, we proceeded to Pacific Place, where we went to have a look in the shops - shockingly expensive prices! I embarrassed Alastair by having a McD cheeseburger, before returning to the hotel by Star Ferry. The weather was dull, windy and overcast all day, with mist - so the view from the ferry wasn't as good as it should have been.

We had dinner at the Banana leaf restaurant, near the hotel on Nathan road. The food was with a South East Asian theme and the waitresses were all wearing MAS style Sarong Kabbayas! It was very filling, and made a pleasant change from Chinese Seafood!

Friday 07 Dec
We decided on having a Dim Sum brunch, so we went by MTR from Tsim Sha Tsui to Admiralty. However, the selection of shops and eateries there was rather limited, so we made our way back towards central, past the Bank of China tower, and saw some crazy people cycling down the tram lanes. We had a look at the legislative council chamber, now flying the flags of China and the Hong Kong SAR, a change from the days of the Crown Colony. The cenotaph in front of it is closed to visitors, no doubt to prevent it being damaged by skateboarders and rollerbladers. Perhaps they should do that in Singapore!

Wandered on to D'Aguilar street, in the hope of finding a Dim Sum restaurant - no joy. Time was running out, so we decided to go back to Kowloon and the Crystal Jade restaurant, which turned out to be very good value, even if the waiter did try to walk off with my Henkel-Research Technology pen. We had a quick drink at Starbucks before checking out of the hotel and taking a taxi to the railway station for the airport express. The train was very comfortable. Alastair's plane was a rather aged 777 with 2-5-2 seating - completely packed! It was going on to Jakarta after Singapore, and Alastair said there were passengers on it from a previous flight as well. The flight itself was OK, except for one extraordinary incident just as the plane was coming in to land: The old woman opposite Alastair, who didn't speak a word of English, got out of her seat to have a look at Singapore out of the window, leaning across a little boy about 3 seats in front. The flight attendant was shouting, "Madam, please sit down and put your seat belt on, we are about to land", but didn't come down and put her back in her seat. Eventually, one of the gentlemen on the flight put her in his seat, then ran back and sat in hers. She got a scolding once the plane had landed, but it was rather strange that the cabin crew did not take control of the situation immediately.

My flight with SIA was uneventful. I watched the film The Rat Race which was not bad. My plane landed a bit earlier than Alastair's so I had time to access my e-mail from the Terminal 2 internet access point (SGD 2 per 15 minutes, between 23:00-06:00 it's free). We met at Coffee Bean a logistically good meeting point in the main arrivals hall past customs of Terminal 2. Alastair came about 20 minutes later and after sorting out our holiday accounts we got a taxi back to the flat at about 21:00.

Saturday 08 Dec
I had packed the night before so we didn't need long to get ready. We a taxi from NTU near the flat to the airport at about 08:45. After breakfast at a coffee outlet I said goodbye to Alastair and headed through passport control to duty-free. I bought a few presents for home and for Stefan, whose birthday party I was due at in 20 hours time as soon as I got off the plane (23:00 German time, Saturday night). The Singapore Airlines Boeing 747 Megatop aircraft sat on the tarmac with all passengers aboard for a whole hour whilst several bits of it were fixed. Eventually we left 1 hour late! The flight dragged on for ages, taking the route south of Afghanistan and Iraq. At last we arrived only 40 Minutes late. My connection to DUS was punctual and I was straight into a taxi and back home by 22:15. Then after sorting myself out, I was straight over to Stefan's for his big party. Which was nice. I'm afraid I was very drunk

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Updated 06 JAN 2002