We’re relaxing on our last day of spring break holidays after a week off. After visiting Hong Kong airport a conservative 20 times over the last five years, we thought it was about time we actually visited the city properly. Armed with our free air tickets from HSBC Visa, a reward for our excessive spending (although always paid off on time, so I wonder why they think we are such VIP customers…?), we tripped off to the airport for our 1 ½ hour flight.
The seamless transportation from Taipei to our room in Hong Kong whispered the 1st thoughts of sleek, modern efficiency. The airport express train ushered us on with Logan’s Runesque calming automated voices and then shuttle buses whisked us to the hotel. We worked out that we walked about 20 steps in all from limo to airport to plane to airport to train and then hotel. This dearth of walking was to be rectified in the next 4 days, however!
The Miramar was “conveniently” located on Nathan Rd in Kowloon and the flash of scores of jewelry shop windows not only captivated Cassy, but enticed her to look in every one of them every time we passed. We also entered many and great discussions were held with hopeful proprietors about various diamonds and pearls. Quite ironically, I ended up leading the shopping charge and had bought a beautiful leather jacket on our first venture down the road on the way to eat tea! In the Mong Kok markets I bought some shoes and shirts as well, but in lightning fast time.
Cass had her birthday on our last day in Hong Kong, so she spent the birthday money from her parents on a very clever addition to some existing earrings: I’m pretty sure she wants to show people, not just tell them, so I’ll leave you in some suspense. I bought her a Louis Vuitton bag, the style of which she’d had her eye on for some time.
We did all the touristy stuff: strolled the Kowloon foreshore by day and night as well as numerous night and day trips on the Star Ferry. Hong Kong island is kind of like Sydney’s Chinatown, ironically with more “foreigners” than that area. Sleek, modern, architecturally daring and exciting, the island oozes wealth and style, and how about that race course in the middle of the city?! We had a number of beers and a trendy dinner in the Lan Kwai Fong bar area on our last night: a wonderful experience for a change, streets absolutely chock full of non-Chinese and a very cosmopolitan style. Our mate here in Taipei, Coombsy, is off to work in Hong Kong next year and challenged me to spot the difference between Lan Kwai Fong and Sydney: not much!
The Peak tram hauled us up to Victoria Peak for amazing vistas and we got ourselves over to the far side of the island to visit Stanley and Repulse Bays. The real estate window announced apartments worth $160 million Hong Kong. Even when you divide by 6 for Aussie $, this place is stratospherically expensive!
Hong Kong was an interesting experience. I described it as Taipei on speed, but it’s more than that. It’s slick and chic, very self assured, a strange mix of unsophisticated mainland Chinese workers, fat expat wankers in suits and the vast majority of people, “middle workers”, Chinese and expat alike. It feels a little like its just hanging on to its “shopping Mecca” tag: we’ve personally experienced better prices and opportunities in other Asian countries, including Vietnam and Thailand. Still, there’s no denying a certain excitement surrounding the place and when you can check your bags at the Logan’s Run train station and then forget about them till you get home, you have to admit its slicker than the patter of all the Indian boys furtively promising “copy watch, copy watch” on every street corner!
After never wanting to set foot in another shop, or look at another item of jewelry, it was rather ironic that we went to the Taipei Jade Market yesterday. I went to “bodyguard” Cassy as she negotiated kilometers of aisles of jades and stones and gems with a stack of cash (the only currency!). She is keen to get some sapphires for an “order” for friends back home, but after scouring every aisle, we came up empty. We have one guy promising to try to source some for us in a month, but we’re not overly confident
Finishing off a lengthy tome this week, I sat back and wondered anew today about our changing world. We beamed a live webcast of the Surfest final from Newcastle straight through to our TV today. Merewether beach in live action: if I’d wandered over the road from our unit there, I wouldn’t have got as good a view. Here we were watching the action, marveling at the crowd, listening to the commentary until we were jolted back to earth by the strident cries of the traveling fixit men wafting up from the streets below our apartment.
Photos: Cass with night skyline, us at the Peak, Stanley Bay, street at night, my hero Bruce Lee!, Lan Kwai Fong bar.