3/10 Hong Kong The great hike

Wednesday 3^rd Hong Kong

We got through very smoothly, drew money and caught 2 trains onto the north shore. We had sketched a map outlining all the streets between the station and the hotel but we had very minor problems getting around between the three towers of HSBC bank (our favourite). By then it was 5am and we were lucky to be offered help by a young lady walking a dog. It turned out she walked right past our hotel.

Which is VERY nice. I don’t mind paying for something this good, particularly when the alternative is very cramped verging on squalid in a bad area. We fell into the (very hard) bed at midnight after a 24 hour day and slept to 6am.

I was up first (it was noon in Hawaii) and explored the gym, breakfast arrangement and neighbourhood. We are next to a 24 hour Maccas where they offer all sorts of packaged breakfast meals for $3-4. Next door was one of those delightful Chinese bakeries that turns out the most delicious pastries. I picked up a walnut crisp (kinda like an Anzac biscuit) and an adjacent wife crisp (smaller but sweeter J slightly like a fruit mince pie) for about 30c each. Next door again was a 7/11 where I picked up a 1.5l Ribena for $1.20.

Ms Honeymoon had one eye half awake by the time I returned and I managed to appease her with half a wife crisp. Very nice. She was lucky I didn’t scoff the whole of both of them. We have a miniscule harbour glimpse and the air is pretty murky but we are very happy here. I do like HK. Of course there has just been a ferry crash in the harbour here with 38 dead and dozens injured – but we aren’t planning on heading to the island anyway. And we don’t need to go to Disneyland again – but we just might because we won’t see one for a long time.

We did an hour in the tiny gym downstairs (2 joggers and a broken bike plus some small handweights) then dropped in at the bakery for a couple of milk coconut muffins. Fresh/warm and DELICIOUS.

Then began The Walking.

We are higher up the Kowloon peninsula than we ever got last time and we are isolated from the rest by a number of freeways and flyovers which have no obvious ground level crossings for pedestrians. So it took a long while with some backtracking to find our way down – not that we were in any particular hurry.

We found a smallish park where a couple of ladies were doing their versions of Tai Chi. Sometime later we reached the Temple St area and chose a local eatery to have some not very good yum cha. This was the local version rather than Western variety. For no particular reason I decided I wanted a massage and we checked out some of the many first floor places before we found one open. J then decided to have one too. For $16/hr you cant really go wrong. We both got pretty solid rubbings in the Swedish fashion rather than the Chinese style you see in the shopping malls at home. There again, that is a dry massage done through clothing and the vigorous gluteal oiling we got would cause something of a stir in the Mandurah Forum!

More walking took us down to Kowloon Park – a much bigger green lung which is just about the only quiet leafy place in Kowloon. We wandered through it, enjoying the sculptures (sorry no camera today L ) and the lakes, fish and walkways. Nobody seemed to be doing any of the exercising/dancing/swordplay things – probably not the right time of day.

We carried on down to the waterfront, scene of our famous boarding of the Costa Allegra in 2009. Backtracking briefly, we had booked to spend 6 days in HK and then cruise to Singapore. On the 5^th day, we strolled down to the waterfront to see if the boat had come in yet – they often stay overnight in their home port before a cruise.

It was there and we decided that while we were there we might as well find out where to bring our luggage the next day. We found the place and told the chap we would be back tomorrow with our luggage. We had pretty much turned away and were heading off again when he seemed to say that they were sailing at 10pm. Something about his choice of words struck a chord and we said – no we are only sailing tomorrow. He said the boat was definitely departing that day and wasn’t coming back! We had lost track of the days and it was actually Day 6 already!!! We came THAT close to missing the boat.

No such excitement today and we followed the path around the harbourfront to the Information office, where we got a map and some information about Ocean Park. On impulse, Ii asked if Fed Ex had offices in HK and we were happy to find that they were located a short walk away.

Sidetracking somewhat, J’s first husband Martin has apparently decided that he needed a friend so he went and bought a Wilson basketball – if this doesn’t make much sense, go and see the Tom Hanks movie (Castaway). We thought he really should have a FedEx box to keep it in but we forgot to look for one in Hawaii.

Fedex don’t sell boxes. They provide transport for items which they put in a box. They did however consent to donate us an A3 envelope, which we will somehow engineer into somewhere for Martin to park Wilson.

Yet more walking took us from the bottom of Nathan Rd to Temple St night markets. This was the best place for bargain hunting and some pretty quirky stuff that we remembered wishing we had more luggage space to accommodate. Last time we were here, we were about to cruise to Singapore then spend 3 weeks in Nepal.

Somehow there wasnt much that appealed. J bought a backpack and I got a Braziian soccer top to match the one from Bolivia. We got watches for the girls and a fridge magnet and that was about it. We walked the whole length of the markets, which were far less crowded than last time, when we had to shoulder our way through between the stalls.

There was still a not inconsiderable distance to get home and the train lines didn’t match so we decided to hoof it, having learned enough in the morning to have half a chance of getting across the freeways. J decided to try Aberdeen St and we followed it until we got blocked by a freeway, at which point a towering overpass got us to the other side and we found our way home. It was only about 9pm but we were Tired.