Hong Kong in the Time of Troubles
It has now
become something of a tradition in our family. Each year, our daughter takes us
out for a short vacation. In 2016 it was Bangkok, which I skipped as I have had
enough of the Thai capital, but my wife and daughter had a great time and ate
and shopped without fortunately dropping. In 2017 we all went to Jakarta, last
year we went to the Komodo Island (you can read about it here and here), this year it
was Hong Kong and Macau.
Initially I
was not very keen on going. Somehow I always thought of Hong Kong as another
Singapore, which is not really one of my favourite places. However nowadays we
all live in three separate cities, and I would have hated to miss meeting up so
I agreed to go.
We were to
reach Hong Kong airport on Friday morning (9th August). Susmita was
to take the late night flight from Kolkata to reach at about 9 AM, Shreya was
to reach at around 10 and my Air Asia flight from Kuala Lumpur was scheduled
for about 11 AM.
The
reporting time was 5AM at KLIA 2. This meant that I rose at 3 AM and drove to
the airport at 4. I prefer to leave my car at the Airport carpark if we are
going for 3-4 days, it saves me the hassle of trying to get a cab in the middle
of the night and it is also a lot cheaper than paying the to and fro cab
fares, even though , I must admit, the
parking charges are not cheap.
The flight was
smooth; only I realized, after I reached the airport, that I had left my phone
behind. Not that it mattered, as I was not too keen on being wired all the time
during my holiday. As the plane
approached for landing I realized what a big place it is. I am told that it has
the highest concentration skyscrapers in the world, (more than New York?) and
it looked like it from the air. However it was also possible to see that there
were big stretches of green and spectacular bay. The Hong Kong Airport (the Chek Lap Kok
Airport) is spectacular; it has been built entirely on reclaimed land and is
surrounded by water. We realized this very clearly later when we took the cable
car to the Big Buddha, but of that later. The easiest way to our hotel (which
was in the Wan Chai area) was to take the Airport Express to Hong Kong Central
station and then change from there. We did have a little difficulty in locating
the hotel exactly but soon we were ensconced in our room, in the blessed cool
of the air conditioning.
Hong Kong
was hot. It is not as though we had arrived form a temperate climate, but even
so, all three of us found the humidity terrifying. The temperature was also
quite high but the sauna like effect of the 90% humidity made out of door
activity very trying to say the least. All of us had not had much breakfast, so
we were very ready for our lunch. Close to us was the Wan Chai Road with
restaurants galore. We chose one at random, it was called the New Forest Restaurant and we had some baked rice with vegetables and chicken. For Chinese
food I am totally dependent on the ladies of the group as my Chinese food
preferences are still entirely Indian Chinese: chilly chicken and mixed fried
rice and the like; I never have anything else of my own volition. The food was
excellent.
After a
short rest we were ready for Victoria peak, one of Hong Kong’s principal
tourist attractions. To reach the peak we had to begin the climb just behind
our hotel and we took a no 15 bus from just about a minute’s walk from out hotel
and as it climbed up the mountain, our mood began to lift. The route was
forested, though there was also a lot of construction along the way and as we
went higher the city began to spread itself out before our eyes. Soon we could
see Kowloon and the Bay and in about 30 minutes we reached the Victoria Peak. The
peak is the highest point in the Hong Kong Island itself and was a favourite
place for the British colonizers as it was a lot cooler than by the sea. It is
possible to use a funicular service to reach the Peak as well, but we had been
warned that waiting times to board the tram could be as much as 90 minutes. The
view from the peak was spectacular. You could see the Victoria harbor, Kowloon
and the massive buildings in the Central business district. We spent a lot of
time there. It was cool, there was a pleasant breeze and as it grew darker, the
buildings in the city proper began to light up to produce a breathtaking
spectacle. According to Wikipedia, living in the Peak is the ultimate in luxury
as fairly recently a house was sold at HK $ 100,000 per square foot. Ulp!
View from the top of Victoria Peak
We took the
bus back to Wan Chai and had some of the best dumplings we have ever had at a
restaurant that boasted a hundred year history. If the food was any indication
the restaurant is good for another hundred. Ninni still had energy to meet up
with some friends and go to have a drink at a nearby bar where there was live
music, but for the two of us, we could not wait to retire for the night.
The century old shop
The next day
was for Macau. This was another
destination that I was not too keen upon. I am not fond of gambling, and the
sight of what appears to me greedy people blithely losing vast sums of money
makes me physically nauseous. But when
with Romans, you must do as they do. The ferry ride was comfortable, a far cry
from the horrible ferries that we are used to in Malaysia. In an hour we docked
in Macau and then another immigration check later we were free to board a
complimentary bus to the Venetian Casino. There are a large number of such casinos
and buses are available at short intervals to take you to them. I guess that
they make so much money from the gamblers that this free service is not really
a freebie.
The scale of
the casinos was amazing. I have never seen such huge buildings all devoted to
the art of losing money. I am told that they have far surpassed the legendary
Las Vegas casinos in splendor, size and opulence. The Venetian casino has an
indoor canal simulating the Venetian ones. You can ride a gondola along these
and your gondolier will also sing to you (in Italian!). They have built a mockup
of St Mark’s Square, (Napoleon’s drawing room of Europe) various other squares
and markets. If you look up you can see the blue sky with scattered clouds. As
we wandered around the faux Venice, it slowly grew darker and the street lamps
came on. It takes quite a bit of time to realize (at least it did for me) that
the sky was entirely artificial. The shopping opportunities are phenomenal. I
used to think that the KL and Bangkok shopping malls were the largest and most
diverse in their offerings, but these were a lot bigger and full of everything
you may ever want from a Milanese shopping district or from Paris.
A crowded "St Mark's Square"
To be continued
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