10 August - 18 August 2003
Hong Kong!
"Tui Mm Chi, Ngoh Mm Sek Kong Kwong Tong Wah"
Somewhere over the South China Sea... After a
3 hour, somewhat warm flight on China Airlines, finally arrived at HK International
Airport. I smiled involuntarily as i got off the airplane... A mixed emotion
of relief, perhaps at surviving the flight of the supposedly accident prone
China Airlines. But then again, it was probably just the delight of arriving
in a new place, with expectedly new experiences.
Stayed at my big bro's place
in Siu Sai Wan (Chai Wan). Pretty swank and upper class condominium for people
with the $$$. For all that though, apartments in HK are very small... the
whole apartment is probably smaller than the size of a one room flat over
here. I totally understand now why my brother said there wasn't any more room
for another person other than me. It would be just way too cramped. Anyways,
here you see the window view from the apartment's living room, there's a sports
stadium just below, and over the straits in the far distance is Kowloon (i
think)
My niece, Little Valerie.
She looks slightly pissed with my voyeuring efforts. Mornings were spent playing
and baby-sitting her. I am now an expert baby carrier. Afternoons and nights
would be out roaming the streets doing all the things that tourists do
Star Ferry Pier. Amazingly
cheap ferry rides between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon going for HK$2.20 (S$0.40).
Quite a convenient and fast way to go across. Transport in HK is highly efficient.
They have an Octopus card, which is a predecessor and similar to EZlink and
that links almost every form of public transport... from ferry rides, to peak
tram rides, mini-buses, airport express trains... etc etc.... almost everything
i can think of... except probably taxis.
Joss sticks in Man Mo Temple.
Signed up for a local tour at the HK tourism board for this trip to the New
Territories. Visited temples, Hakka heritage sites, and also other places
such as the orange-throwing wishing tree. Pretty interesting...
Tram exhibit at HK History
Museum.
The road to Nirvana is long
and arduous, all 217 steps of it.... Had to stop halfway and pretend to take
photos so i could catch my breath....
Tien Tan Buddha up close,
Lantau Island
Poster Girl
Street near Ladies Street
in MongKok. The amount of people travelling through these streets at night
while window shopping is staggering. and i do mean STAGGERING! Just hoardes
and hoardes of people in a never ending parade of human heads. Because there
is just so many people around, there is actually a mini-industry of security
guards, ushers, lift attendants etc etc whose main job seems to be solely
crowd control, and by all indications... they take their job very very seriously...
As most people will already know, Ladies St and Temple St is the Hong Kong version of the night market which peddles all sorts of goods. Of interest to me were contraband cigarettes... Damn interesting.... People just set up a stall where they had pictures of the various brands and I suppose they'll bring you to some dark corner if you wanted to buy them. Strange though, how they could carry on this trade even though there were green shirt policemen walking visibly around.
The Lonely Planet guidebook
on Hong Kong (my constant companion, other than my battered and sweat stained
map of Hong Kong) says this "Half the fun of going up to the peak is
riding the Peak Tram" and how true it is.... the whole ride up the peak
is an amusement ride by itself. It goes up the hill at a 45 degree incline
for about 10 minutes. There were some moments when it suddenly stopped and
slided backwards... but i guess the thrill is in the going down.... Ooo exciting....
Night view from the Peak. It was cool. Literally. Temperatures on top were
about 5 degrees cooler than the sweltering summer hear below.
Did a lot of walking the
few days i was in HK. Just so much to see on the streets. Came by the HK Cultural
Center quite a few times on my way to museums, Tsim Sha Tsui etc etc. This
area faces the HK harbour front where you could take touristy pictures. On
Sunday, the whole waterfront is full of foreigners from all over, mainly maids
dressed to seduce and laborers looking quite hip, quite like our Orchard Road
on Sunday.
Damn.... i'm getting really
irritated by the vignetting at the corner of the photos....
Last night in Hong Kong...
they had this opening night for this event called the Strato Fantasia, some
sort of a tourist opening night to welcome tourists back to HK. Was held at
the HK CEC. Once again, damn hell of a lot of people... couldn't get a clear
shot of anything much at all. The fireworks pictures were pretty screwed up.
I guess, very much like Singapore, HK is trying very hard to win back tourists. There were discounts, free museum passes, lucky draws etc etc which are given to tourists. Service standards here i must say is pretty high too... pretty friendly and efficient staff.
Hai... i miss the place already... definitely a very vibrant city... It is, in a lot of ways, very much like Singapore... But yet, the whole feel of the place and people is quite different. I guess in one sense, it is an old city, and i think the mix of old and new inter-mingling in a cohesive whole is one of the amazing things about the city... Maybe it is just the whole refreshing idea of something familiar but yet so different... and free... I could very well just be scratching the surface here, but it certainly seems like a very good place to work and live in... I wanna go again!
