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Day 1
So where to begin? Matt doesn’t want me to simply type what, where, how, why; so what? A quote from Mao about “a journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step”? A bit too cliche?
Well, without that, I’ll simply type what I experience and thoughts and let you decide how much you want to read.
The flight from Perth to Hong Kong was about what I expected. I met Ben at the airport and we got through immigration easily; no exit forms to complete, scan your passport and have a photo taken. Then of course the wait to be boarded as the flight was delayed for an hour. An oldish plane, the sound system crackled through the latest rendition of Spider-Man and some other film I can’t even remember the title to. Ben on the other hand watched the latest Alien film and became quite animated at how stupid the characters were at facing the dreaded xenomorph. The food was ok, but certainly not the best I’ve had on an airline.
Our arrival into HK was met with 30C temperature and we were certainly lucky to get our bags and through immigration and into the welcome embrace of an air conditioned taxi.
The drive to the hotel was about 40 minutes and past a lot of a city that has changed so much. The driver had no clue about where the hotel was and had to get some help and the name Hung Hom (the local MTR station - more of that later).
Getting out at the hotel we met up with Todd and John; the former having arrived 24 hours before us and John arriving from Japan. Naturally our rooms weren’t ready so we piled into Todd’s room to get changed. Todd wanted to get a charger for his camera so wanted to get to downtown. John and I had a tour booked at 2pm; Hong Kong in 8 Markets so we all went off using the MTR. The main reason that I had booked the Grand Harbour Metropolis is because the Hung Hom MTR station also houses the intercity train that we needed to catch the next day. The MTR is HK’s metro system; a sprawling link of underground rail lines that connect the New Territories to Central Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Gone are the days of the slow moving majestic ferries wheezing their way across the harbour; now it’s just done MTR.
We caught 3 different lines to finally get where Todd wanted to be, and by this time we were all demanding a chance to sit and enjoy something to eat. We found a French cafe which served baguettes and a gorgeous view of the harbour. My baguette was ham and Camembert and the cheese was served in big 2cm cubes. To show how French the cafe was they included fries with the meal.
John and I said goodbye to the others and headed off to meet Danny, who then showed us how HK was developed and how the markets have influenced, adapted and influenced the growth of HK. We got to see the Flower, Bird, Pet, Jade, Fruit, Street and Night Markets. I know, that’s only 7. I didn’t stuff up; he also took us to where a Fish market used to be, but with the reclamation, the Taoist temple built next to the original fish market is now surrounded by high rise buildings with no harbour in sight!
As we had an hour break before our next tour, and being a bit exhausted from walking for 3 hours in 30C and a humidity in the 90s. We stopped at a local cafe and by way of pictures selected a lime sofa. Think of a non-alcoholic mojito. Very welcoming.
We had Danny again for our Night Food Safari tour, and started at a vendor selling fish balls, sugar cane juice and pig’s ears. We also got to see and partake in local pastries, including a very nice custard tart, slightly more ‘eggy’ than our usual ones. The party was introduced to durian, custard apples, pomelo and a few other unusual fruits. We also visited a bbq section of the night market, selling different variety of bbq meats. By this time, John and I were exhausted from walking and excused ourselves from the tour as we had to be up early the next day to get our trains to Beijing. The MTR made life easier to return to the hotel and while John went off to his room immediately, I joined Ben and Todd on the patio lounge where a couple of bottles of local Tsingtao, a cool breeze and the night vista of HK island made for a great end to the first day of travelling.
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