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Flew from Tokyo to Hong Kong via Taipei again. Again I flew on a hello kitty plane. The same plane was used for both legs of the journey and I sat one behind the previous seat on the second leg. I was a little stressed since there was exactly 1 hour 20 minutes between the landing and take off in Taipei. Fortunately we landed half an hour early so I had adequate time. I also saw that there was rain forecast for Hong Kong and it was a longish walk from the metro station to the hotel. I emailed the hotel that morning and asked them to arrange a seat for me on the airport shuttle. It cost HKD140 but it is so much more convenient rather than trying to find your way at night in a strange city, and I was glad I did it.
The next morning, I went on a walkabout which lasted pretty much the whole day.The hotel is in Kowloon which is a lot more gritty and poorer than the usual images people associate with Hong Kong. This is where the ordinary people live. You don't ever feel unsafe though. There are a few upmarket hotels in the area though. It is within walking distance of Nathan Road, the ladies market and other famous markets. It is amazing how many jewelry and watch shops there are. And not any watch shop, there are Rolex shops on every block, Tissot has its own chain of stores. These watches are not cheap, priced in the tens of thousands of dollars. I don't know how they all survive!
There are other areas like Canton Street which has all the upmarket brands and even more watch shops. In Tsim Tsa Tshui, the harbor area on the Kowloon side from where you get all the great views of Hong Kong island with its amazing skyscrapers, there are upmarket shops and hotels. Hong Kong is all about brands.
The one thing that I realized very quickly is that 99% of the people and tourists are Asian. There are much less Europeans and even fewer Indians. The Hong Kong people are chasing the Chinese tourists and not the western tourists. When you walk along the pier, the touts ignore you but hound the Chinese tourists with harbor cruises in Chinese.
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