I’m in Honky!! I arrived four days ago, and after a pretty boring and long flight the adventure really began when I discovered that my mobile phone does not work outside of Britain. Under normal circumstances this wouldn’t worry me too much, in fact I quite like being uncontactable sometimes, however I was supposed to be contacting Natalie, my sister- in- law and host for the week , to arrange a time and place to meet. Panic did set in slightly when I tried to use a payphone, but couldn’t work out how to dial her Hong Kong number (resulting in a hilarious voicemail on her English phone). Thankfully a lovely Chinese man showed me how and I managed to meet up with Natalie fairly easily. Crisis averted.
So impressions of Hong Kong so far: Everything is massive- there are so many sky scrapers – transport is dirt cheap, even taxis, everything is so clean and efficient, especially the MTR (the equivalent of the Tube), and everyone is so friendly. So many people speak English and all signposts and markings are translated into English so it is really easy to get around. I’ve also noticed that there are still a lot of British influences, maybe because there is still a large number of Brits living here. Even the way people dress is very similar to England; none of the mullets and fanny packs you get with the Europeans and Americans.
Another thing I found out pretty soon after arriving is that Hong Kong is party central! Although alcohol is quite expensive here (more so even than in London) it doesn’t seem to stop people drinking and having a good time! On Friday evening Natalie took me to Lan Kwai Fong, an area full of bars in the Mid-levels part of Hong Kong Island. It has a real holiday feel to it, with the party spilling out onto the streets and people wandering from bar to bar. This goes on all night, but despite this there was no drunken brawling and everyone still remained pretty civilised. I think this is characteristic of Hong Kong Island more than the mainland and other parts of Hong Kong as Natalie and I discovered on a little trip to Macau.
We were very excited about our trip to Macau, which felt like a mini holiday, as in order to get there you have to go through passport control before getting on the ferry which meant getting another stamp in our passports- always a good thing. However, when we arrived our excitement lessened when we realised that getting anywhere on the island was going to be hard. No one really spoke English, and people were quite unfriendly (at one point we got kicked out of a taxi in frustration because the driver couldn’t understand what we were saying.)It made me realised how spoilt we were back on Hong Kong Island, and also how ignorant I, and a lot of English people, are when it comes to languages. A lot of the time, I think we assume people will speak English so don’t make the effort to even attempt to learn the language of the country we are in. So, Macau is famous for being the Las Vegas of Hong Kong with many casinos which attract mainly Chinese tourists as gambling is illegal on the mainland. As a result, there were few English tourists unlike on Hong Kong Island. The gamblers here also seem to take it quite seriously, so Natalie and I decided to skip the casinos and hit the old town in search of restaurants and bars instead. Our evening took a turn for the worse when we tramped around the old town looking for a place to eat that was recommended by Lonely Planet. We could not find it anywhere and eventually we were forced to give up and take refuge in a Portuguese restaurant after a creepy man accosted us on a dark street. This actually worked out for the best as the waiter here was very friendly and gave us directions written in Chinese to a good bar area. The evening seemed to pick up again, until we were once again accosted by more creepy men, this time Portuguese and VERY old. When one of them began to tell me he wanted to have a child with me (he was 70, at least) we knew it was time to get out of there! We definitely learnt from this experience that girls should avoid going to Macau without a man present, and preferably take one that speaks Chinese. Despite all this we did actually have quite a lot of fun, though we were definitely thankful to get back to the civilised Hong Kong Island the next day.
I only have three days left before I leave for New Zealand. I have managed to see quite a lot of the Island and taken lots of snaps, and so far it has exceeded my expectations and surprised me in many ways. I didn’t think I would like Hong Kong as much as I do. Hopefully I’ll get over to Lantau Island tomorrow to see the Big Buddha and across to Kowloon tonight for the night markets...I wonder if these trips will be as eventful as the trip to Macau?
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