Beyond My Control

Hong Kong - Days 6-8

You may have noticed – or not – that the updates for days 6 and 7 did not appear in the usual manner.

In the case of day 6 that was because (a) I was in a foul mood for most of the day; (b) I then proceeded to get a bit drunk in pleasant over-compensation; and (c) there wasn’t much to say about most of the day due to it becoming a hell work day.

Long story short, when I booked this trip weeks and weeks ago a certain large deal I was working on was meant to be well finalised by now.  Through no fault of anyone in particular, it was not.  And so I could bring it away with me, or dump it on the co-Boss to manage while I was gone.  Doing the latter would be just stupid and everything would have taken three times as long and had five times the aggravation given he knows none of the details or the people and it’s not really in his area of expertise.  So away with me it came.  And on Thursday it reared its ugly head in a way that involved a lot of phone calls and me not being able to leave the hotel room until pretty much the close of business at home because I needed internet access and a proper forum in which to read lots of paperwork.  Grumble, grumble.

This grumbling was made more pronounced by the fact that Thursday was the first bright sunny day in HK since the previous Sunday.  Or at least it was until about 2pm.  

HK is three hours behind, so getting out of the hotel at close of business in Melbourne meant it was still only 3 in the afternoon.  But no longer sunny.  Though at least the protest that had been going on most of the day in front of the Indonesian Embassy across the street from the hotel had ended and I was able to get out the door.

I headed straight to a mall to run a purchasing errand for a friend, and then straight to a bar for a large gin and tonic.

After that I started to feel a bit better.

I then made a change in public transport arrangements and took one of the skinny double-decker trams towards Central.  They have an advantage over the trains in that there are no sticky over-warm tunnels and stations to navigate before boarding, however in compensation for that the open windows deliver 2 parts pleasant breeze and 8 parts horrid exhaust fumes and polluted air.  Either, just like Melbourne, it’s generally standing room only.  Tram (taken badly through other tram window while in a bad mood):

Both the guidebooks and my friends had sent me in the direction of Soho as a good place to find plenty of bars and restaurants and places to hang out.  Plus you get there by riding the giant escalator to the sky.  Okay, not to the sky, but this is only one small section of it, so it's pretty damn big, and I have to say it’s a great idea. 


It just takes you up the hill, with periodic breaks to jump off at whatever level you want.  This is a good idea, because this is how steep the streets are.  They have steps instead of footpaths.


It is true that Soho is loaded with places to eat and drink.  I wandered into a bar that was serving large Asahis for AU$4.50 and pulled up a stool. It wasn’t until the first beer was gone that I looked around and realised that this was ex-pat and tourist central.  Everyone in the place was Caucasian. Didn’t matter though, the beer was good and cheap and, thankfully, they were not playing Christmas carols on the stereo.

I am certain that last week, between the hotel lifts, the malls, the shops, the restaurants, the footbridges and every other enclosed or semi-enclosed space, I have heard every rendition of every Christmas carol and most of them more than once.  And that doesn’t even include the inevitable repeats playing in my head.  If I ever hear another one it will be too soon.

As I said, there are tons and tons of places to eat around Soho, and pretty much every type of food you can think of.  Though very little Chinese.  I would up in a Spanish place drinking Sangria (yes, I was mixing my drinks) and eating enough tapas for three or four people, all heavily laden with garlic, and all really pretty good. 

Then I went back to the hotel and slept all of about two and a half hours.

Day 7, Friday, also involved work, but the major breakthroughs had occurred on the day before and before I got up, so it wasn’t nearly as grumble-making as the day before.

I also had a chance to duck out for an hour and a half while waiting for documents to be sent through and pick up a second pair of shoes which I’d debated but not bought a couple of days before.  I’d been thinking about them quite a bit during my night of non-sleep, so that seemed like a good sign that they were meant to be mine.  And now they are.

I also got to do most of the packing, so I could see how much room there was left for last minute purchases.

Friday was also sunny and stayed that way by the time I was done with work at about 2.  I went back over to Kowloon, as I wanted to look around and get some views of the Island while the sun was shining, and stop by an Asian arts and crafts store there to pick up something for Mum as the two shopping missions she had sent me on had failed miserably.

The haze and pollution really is epic.  Here’s the view from the ferry, about three in the afternoon:


Here’s the view a couple of hours later as the sun is starting to go down. 



It just descended into a fog, really. 

I also took myself up to the bar at the top of the Peninsula Hotel for a very civilised drink, even if the view was all grey, and did get a small amount of amusement from the simultaneously over-earnest and over-arrogant business pitch going on a few stools over. The American pitcher – and it seemed they were in the middle of a series of meetings, this wasn’t a new introduction – talked almost non-stop for the whole hour I was there.  I would have been surprised if his companions, one from Hong Kong and the other from some generic part of Europe, said more than three words each.  I’m also surprised that the pitcher didn’t keel over from not pausing to breathe.

These are the small amusements of travelling alone.  Listening to other people’s conversations because you just can’t help it.

Anyway, took the ferry back to the Island.  Here are some of my bad photographer attempts to capture the way the buildings are all lit up for Christmas, and did some last minute shopping and eating close by the hotel.  Duck.  Yummy, yummy duck.

And, on day 8, I wrote this from my comfortable seat on the plane, with a chilled beverage at hand.

Hong Kong - Day 5

Today it was cloudy and dull again, but it didn't rain.

Nevertheless I am increasingly pleased that I went up to Victoria Peak on Sunday because it's been shrouded in cloud ever since, so much so I couldn't even get a glimpse of the weird building on top today:

I crossed over to Kowloon today by ferry instead of train.  Can I say how easy the ferry is?  So easy.  The journey takes 5 minutes, the longest I had to wait to get on a ferry was 3 minutes - which, I might add, is easily the longest wait for any public transport since I got here - and the cost is $2.  HK$2. Which is less than AU$0.30c.

Aside from being hugely efficient, the ferry trip offers great views of Hong Kong Island:

and Kowloon:

However, over the years the ferry trip has apparently become shorter, due to a whole lot of water being reclaimed on the HK Island side.  For example all of this was once part of the harbour:

And will shortly be joined by whatever they're building here:

Aside from the ferry ride I wandered and shopped and ate, as per the aim of the trip.

Almost directly off the ferry on the Kowloon side is the first of many shopping malls, but this one doesn't have all the big brands etc, but has more local stores, and one large store featuring local arts and crafts and clothes.  It was this store that sent me back to childhood.

My grandfather was in the British Navy before and during WW2, and later in the Australian Navy.  He travelled all over the world - including meeting my grandmere in Mauritius - and he came to Hong Kong frequently.  The sailors used to buy all sorts of things here and ship them home in crates stored under the wings of the planes on the aircraft carriers.  So spread around the family we have all this lovely furniture, beautifully carved tables and chests and a spectacular cocktail cabinet with so many hidden compartments and drawers.  All of it came from here.

But in this store it was the little things that got to me, the bits and pieces that I had either forgotten about or taken for granted.  The little ceramic vases on wooden bases, the larger ones too.  The small carved boxes.  I spent ages wandering around the store flashing back to images of my grandparents old house in Frankston.  (Which also included a stuffed deer head with full antlers in the front hall, the first thing you saw when you went into the house.)  I loved that house.

Lunch today was the first time I've really regretted being alone on this trip.  I just wandered into a reasonably upmarket Chinese restaurant, again on the upper floor of a mall with views out over the harbour, and was pleased they had no issue with my cruddy cargo pants and sneakers combo.  However, my regret at a lack of dining companions was three-fold.  1. There was so much that looked so good and was designed to share, but alone I was never going to be able to try enough of the things I wanted too.  2. There was a separate menu of things like twice cooked snake, and fried balls of snake, and, sniff, steamed wild turtle.  Had I been in a group I might have been up for ordering some snake to share - but not the turtle, which was pictured shell and all in some kind of broth - but the prospect of having that as one of my only two courses, and with no one to egg me on, that just wasn't going to work.  After all I did actually want lunch, not just experimentation. 3. Dishes were designed to share, so there was the issue of volume.  Witness the fabulous seared beef salad:

Under there was a really, really good salad of julienne vegetables, and I'm not sure what the dressing was but it was yummo.  However, as prior to this I had polished off a medium sized bowl of also fabulous spicy squid, I was a little daunted when this was placed in front of me.  Did I eat it all, though?  Of course I did.

I did not, however, eat dinner.

And, again, food not expensive.  This was a white linen table cloth restaurant with a view. Two large courses, two glasses of wine and litres of really good tea was less than $45.

For tomorrow I have no particular plans, though it might be time to try the giant escalator...

Hong Kong - Day 4

Today was a wandering and shopping day as opposed to a sightseeing day, but I think that most of a trip to Hong Kong is about wandering and shopping, so I'm happy with that.

It was raining again today, at least during the morning and again in the evening, though the afternoon was fine if overcast and humid.  Even with the rain, it's not cold.  Low 20s with humidity enhancement during the day, high teens with humidity enhancement in the evenings.  All of which is making me at least feel that I packed correctly.  And even if I hadn't there wouldn't have been any problem re-stocking the wardrobe appropriately.

Anyway, today I headed over to Kowloon for the first time, spending most of the day in the surrounds of Mong Kok, before getting acquainted with some more parts of my 'local' neighbourhood, Causeway Bay, this evening.

I spent quite some time at the so-called Ladies Market, and visited the Goldfish Market, which is really just a street lined with pet shops on either side, many featuring fish of all kinds in plastic bags which look far to small for them.  There were all sorts of pet accessories available to buy too, and Bertie, Oliver and Sasha should be appropriately grateful that I am not bringing them back dog shoes, because there were lots of those.

The Ladies Market is several streets long and features stalls selling mainly clothes, shoes, bags and general souvenirs.  Passing every third stall you will here "Miss, copy watch, copy bag?" and have people pointing to a laminated sheet featuring photos of knock-off Rolexs and Louis Vuittons.  Needless to say I'm not sure what happens if you say "yes", or where they're hiding the fake merch, but the rest of the market was fun and I picked up some souvenirs for the guys back home and practiced my previously non-existent bargaining skills.

In the same area there's also a small sort-of mall that Frey directed me to that has a lot of collectible type toy stores (and a lot of closed stores), that I visited.  All I could think of what that (a) I wanted the collectible "Where the Wild Things Are" toys - released for the movie but created to the original drawings in the book; and (b) if I had been able to talk Frey into coming on this trip, we would never have left that mall.

On these kind of wandering days I tend not to stop and take photos.  There was nothing to photograph at the Ladies Market and I would have felt like a tourist dork taking photos of goldfish in plastic bags, so for that just imagine carrying a goldfish home from the regular pet store in a much smaller bag.  Here are a couple of sign-laden street views around Mong Kok though:

Back on HK Island, the area I'm staying in has lots of shopping and restaurants and closes a lot of streets to cars from about 4pm every day, so in the evenings there are people everywhere.  (My hotel is on a quiet side street, but go a block and a half and it's pandemonium.)  But it's not all a big outdoor shopping mall.  This is also a residential area, with apartments everywhere, and so there's a mix of all sorts of neighbourhood stores here in addition to the malls and department stores.

Here are a few glimpses at the types of things for sale:

And, as I have seen at so many shops and restaurants here, crabs in all different sizes:

Lunch today was at a sushi place that served some great pieces.  Beef and soft shell crab and all sorts of good things.  And a sushi train.  My HK-based friends had advised me to definitely have a few Japanese meals while I'm here because Japanese food is very popular here and the quality is generally very good, and lunch confirmed that for me.

Dinner today was not my fault.  I wound up having a very good burger in a "gasto pub".  But, as I said, not my fault. 

The fault line went like this:  sore feet ---> good exchange rate ---> cheap beer ---> fabulous crab cakes ---> burger at a "gastro pub". 

It got to about 6pm and my feet were yelling at me really loudly (side note, I think I've bruised my right heel) so I needed to sit down, and I rather wanted a drink.  I wound up in this so-called gasto pub on the 12th floor of a shopping centre/office building for a beer.  Because rents are so high here, the restaurants and bars are frequently on upper floors and when you don't have a local guide (or even when you do) going into a mall of any kind (and there are many) and heading up is often a good way to find sit-down food.  In this case I was just looking for a drink in the first instance and everything else around was mainly about the food.  So I sat down for a drink in the pub - really a restaurant - intending to try somewhere else, somewhere more Asian, for dinner afterwards.  But then I did a rough calculation on the price of the premium beer (I'm getting a good refresher in my 7x tables during this trip) and found that an Asahi was costing me approximately $4.20, and therefore had to order another.  Which meant I needed a bar snack to go with it.  So I went with the chef's recommended crab cakes with a spicy salsa which were so, so good that there was no way I wasn't staying for dinner.  And the burger was great even if I feel guilty for no being more authentic Hong Kong in my dinner choice.

I have to say that so far I've found the food prices extraordinarily reasonable here.  Not sure if it's the good exchange rate or the fact I haven't hit the high name restaurants, but really, it feels relatively cheap. The average yum cha item the other day cost between AU$3-$4, the sushi at lunch today $5-$6 for each high quality plate, and dinner tonight cost less than $40 for two courses and two beers and tip.

That seems to translate to other items as well.  The high end shoes and bags etc are a bit, but not significantly cheaper than at home, but the chain store clothes etc - and not nearly all of them are made in China, so that doesn't explain it - are cheap as.  I bought two long sleeve 100% cotton, well made t-shirts for HK$99, or AU$14.  At Mothercare I spent about AU$85  buying stuff for my niece or nephew to be and bought a hat (with ears, my SIL's instruction to me on baby clothes being 'anything with ears'), three bibs, three sleep suits, another super cute baby outfit and a soft toy. 

Even with sales going on I keep checking the exchange rates to make sure I'm not miscalculating.  I'm not.  And given that this trip was about a break with shopping and food, that's all good.

Now only if my feet, ankles and back weren't making me feel so old...

Hong Kong - Day 3

When I went to bed last night, I had formulated a plan for today.  Which was just stupid.  One cannot be putting too much effort into planning.  Because it leads to silly decision making.

In the couple of days before I left a friend of Mum's who comes here regularly sent through an email with some recommendations for side trips and markets and the like.  One of the things she suggested was a trip to Lantau Island to the Big Buddha and the Buddhist Monastery nearby.  It sounded like a damn good idea.  And yesterday C advised that there was also a good outlet mall in Tung Chung where some good bargains could be had. 

Turns out the outlet mall at Tung Chung sits on top of the subway station, and right next to the cable car that takes you to the Big Buddha.  

Therefore a plan was formulated.  I would get up not too early, do some work, take the train out to Tung Chung, go up to the Big Buddha and the Monastery for a good chunk of the day, and then browse the outlet mall before coming back to HK Island.

When I got up this morning and discovered it was a dull day and a little bit rainy I thought momentarily about changing my plans to something more indoors.  But I rejected that quickly.  The plan was fixed in my mind; I thought the weather would clear; even if it didn't clear entirely it couldn't be worse for the view than the general smogginess; and I was supremely annoyed by a couple of work-related demands from people who were long aware that I was going on holidays this week but paid no attention to it so I wanted to get as far away from the hotel and the call of the laptop as possible.

So off I trotted.  I didn't even take the umbrella.

Idiot.

Lantau is the island where the airport and Disneyland are located, but vast amounts of it are untouched.

The train journey was easy as, and I wound up on the "Commonwealth" train carriage, chatting to a couple from England and a family originally from HK but long time residents of Canada.  We were all going to the same place, and all getting increasingly concerned about the amount of rain falling.  It was no longer the vague misting that accompanied my walk from the hotel to the MTR station.

But, stuff it, let's go.

The cable car is quite an endeavour.  It's a 25 minute trip up and over substantial hills, and if you're totally mad you can do it in the so-called Crystal Car.  That is the car with the glass floor.  Um, no way.  The first couple of days of this trip might have unintentionally turned into a list of "Things Percival Would Never Do", but even I am not so free of twinges of vertigo to want to travel in a glass-floored cable car.  I might note that I was far from the only person with that view.  At a rough guess I would think it was 30 people taking the standard car for every 1 taking the Crystal Car.  And I don't think that had anything to do with the price.

So, here are some of the photos from the journey up to the top.  Also known as photos of rainy glass.

If you wanted to you could walk:

The path actually looked spectacularly maintained, if steep and seriously long.  We did have a few moments of amusement on the way up though when a guy in my car told his young daughter she could have $100 for every person we saw actually walking on the path and not 30 seconds later we saw the lone hiker of the day walking along.

It got quite impressive when we went through the clouds:

But the truth was it was actually quite easy to see in most directions on the journey, and soon enough the Buddha came into view:

By the time I got off the cable car though the wind had picked up and it was pouring.  Even with a hat and a cheapo souvenir shop umbrella it was miserable and I was glad I was wearing light weight cargo pants instead of jeans because they'd dry much faster.  And there looked like no chance at all that the weather would let up (and I'm pleased to report with 20/20 hindsight that it never did).

So I did a quick view of the Buddha, which is spectacular even in driving rain, and climbed, drenched, back on to the cable car.

By a quirk of smaller queues and getting caught between tour groups, I found myself on the cable car alone.

And the wind had come up.

And the clouds had come in.

There was some swaying.  Quite a bit really.  More daunting when you're alone in the car.

Especially when this was the view for 3/4 of the trip back:

The larger dark bits are just shadowy reflections and as you can see it was a little difficult to even see the damn cable for the cloud completely surrounding the car.

I never reached panic stations.  (Panic stations would have meant sitting on the floor in the centre of the car holding on the central pole.  So you can see I at least contemplated Panic Stations without actually disembarking at them.)  I was very glad when I was back on the ground and in the warmth of the outlet mall though.

Not that I spent anything there aside from picking up some cute non-gender-specific outfits for my niece or nephew to be.  I saw some stuff I liked for myself too, but they were quite substantial items and it's too early in the trip for that.  I need to get my shopping bearings a bit more first.

The good news on both fronts is, though, it only takes half an hour to get out there on the train, so if the weather is better and I still have some spending money left at the end of the week I can go back very easily.  Might well do, in fact.  We shall see.

The further good news is that one of my lovely colleagues tracked down the right procedure for me to get my phone reconnected to international roaming - without me asking at all - and so as of this afternoon my left arm has been reattached to my body and I am contactable and capable of contacting others again.  Makes me feel much more relaxed.

As for the rest of the day, I did some wandering in one of the indoor malls - lots and lots of things on sale though they didn't have those fabulous 50% off sandals in my size - stocked my hotel room fridge with beer and snacks, and wandered out into the local neighbourhood for dinner.  Which was a very yummy spicy and sour soup with prawns and mushrooms.  The cafe where I ate seemed to be a mixed up Thai-Chinese place - where I am staying in Causeway Bay the foods of a large variety of countries are represented - and the meal was the same.  But it was really good and after yesterday's over indulgence, just the right amount.

As for tomorrow, I hope the weather is better, and I have, as yet, made no plans whatsoever.

Hong Kong - Day 2

I may never eat again.

In a good way.

Today I went to yum cha with a focus on Cantonese cuisine for lunch, and an almost-yum cha of Shanghai cuisine for dinner.  It was soooo good.  And now I cannot move.

My first proper day in Hong Kong pretty much rocked.  Aside from the ongoing problems associated with the lack of a working mobile phone (such problems, I hope, being mainly in the anticipation of things going wrong rather than things having gone wrong and me not knowing it yet because I don't have a phone).

Late morning I met up with an old colleague who is from Hong Kong, spent several years in Melbourne, and has subsequently returned home.  I hadn't seen him in a decade, but the co-Boss and I have kept in touch with him and so I dropped him a note when I knew I was coming over, hoping to catch-up for a coffee and maybe get some restaurant tips. Instead he suggested I come to lunch with him and his wife and they could show me around a little from there.

It turned into such a good day. 

First, C and T were so lovely.  Not only did they take me to lunch and to dinner, they gave me shopping tips, gave me a tour of the neighbourhood around the hotel including walking me down to the supermarket and the subway, showed me where I could do the city check-in for the trip home, and went and bought me my public transport card and wouldn't let me pay for it.

I must divert to the public transport card, the Octopus card, for a moment.  That thing rocks.  Not only can you use it for trains, trams and ferries, you can use it for car parks, in the supermarket, the 7-11, for entry into various tourist locations, and, fantastically, to operate the binoculars for viewing at the lookout at the top of the Peak.  Mykii wishes it were this card's poor cousin.

Before we got to the Octopus card though, we went to dim sum.  And it was goooood. 

As you may know, I am a fairly regular yum cha attendee in Melbourne and I'm pleased to report that Melbourne yum cha does stand up pretty well.  But I'm equally pleased to report that Hong Kong yum cha is better.  The crispy skinned sucking pig - for a larger group you could have the whole pig on the table, for us we just had a smallish serving - was fantastic.  Some of the items were almost the same as at home, others were completely different.  Most were just that little bit better.  The hint of lemon added to the bbq pork dumplings, for example.  And a simple dessert of heated milk infused with ginger sauce - something apparently very commonly made at home - was surprisingly great.

Needless to say we over-indulged, and drank about 15 litres of tea, and then had to walk around a bit in order to avoid curling up on the floor in a happy, miserable ball of 'I ate too much'.

After a wander and a pointing out of some shopping centres to which I will return, as well as the giant escalator that runs up the hill linking neighbourhoods above Central, we got in the car and drove up to the top of Victoria Peak:

As you can see, the Peak has a panoramic view of the whole of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.  And the whole of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon has spectacularly cruddy pollution levels.  Haze everywhere, rendering the view less than dynamic.  But you get the idea.  This one gives you an idea of how the green hillside hits the high-rise city:

And this one is a shot just for Percival, taken as I went up the escalator of doom on to which I'm confident he would never step in a million years:

After a walk around observation area - accessible by Octopus Card - enjoying the view, deriding the air, and being both stunned and not at all stunned by the presence of a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company outpost directly underneath the observation deck, we drove down to Repulse Bay on the other side of the island, to have a coffee and have a look at the beach. 

Then, back to the area around my hotel in Causeway Bay.  The area around my hotel has a lot of shopping.  Lots.  Lots.  I am happy about this.  T showed me stores with good deals on perfume and handbags and shoes.  She didn't need to point out all the 'sale' signs around the place.  They made me happy too.

Finally, dinner.  In a restaurant over looking the harbour where C and T go regularly.  I was a little concerned by how much food was coming when C had a very lengthy conversation with the waitress coming up with the list of food, but he was just trying to get the right balance.  He succeeded.  Drunken chicken, pickled jellyfish with mustard sauce, lotus root in soy, king prawns in a sauce of garlic, ginger, chili and spring onions, super soft pork spare ribs, these almost spring rolls with five or six kinds of mushroom in them, pork dumplings, two kinds of tea.  Oh, and, just for some green, some steamed Chinese broccoli.  Obviously I didn't eat much of that last one as it's against the yum cha rules.  

So good.

So, so full.

In fact, I'm really only writing this post now instead of in the morning because I'm still too full to feel that lying down and going to sleep is a wise move.  Also, I want to avoid waking up at 4 in the morning again tomorrow.

Tomorrow when I suspect it will be unnecessary to eat a single thing.

And when they next come to Melbourne, I will be taking C and T out for several of the best meals I can find.  And I'm not letting them get out their wallets even once.