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Hong Kong - Day 2
Thursday, January 22, 2004
We start with the complimentary "American" breakfast. It has everything anyone could possibly want including some steamed Dim Sum items, ripe fruit, including dragon fruit, yogurt, cold cereals, omelets, bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon! There is also an entire table dedicated to bread.
We are in the lobby by 9 AM ready to go on the City Tour. We meet with some of the others who had purchased the same package and, while talking with them, we are surprised that some of the people are complaining about the size of their rooms, and about the "uncomfortable" beds. We point out to them that, with 7 million people crammed into roughly 400 square miles, space is at a premium. L mentions that they could have had just a futon on the floor for a bed and a hole in the bathroom floor for a toilet. The complainers go and find someone else to complain to. Really, though, the rooms may be small, but the service is definitely five star.
Our guide for the day is Stella Chow. Her real name is something like Chow Ben Ying (she didn't spell it for us, so we are guessing at it). She tells us that, as with all Hong Kong children, she was required to choose an English name when she started learning English in school. She says that she chose Stella because it was hard to pronounce and it would force her to work on her pronunciation.
The tour bus takes one of the three tunnels that go under the harbor, connecting Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. Stella tells us to be sure and take the Star Ferry across the harbor at some point during our visit. She says to take the ferry "while you still can" because, at the rate that they are reclaiming land on both sides, it will only be a few years before we will be able to cross the harbor simply by jumping! We are, of course, a little suspicious of this claim but, if you look at a map that shows just how much of the city is built on landfill, you tend to reconsider.
After a little driving about, our first stop is the base station of the Victoria Peak Tram. It is also referred to as The Funicular since it consists of two sets of trolleys joined by a big cable; as one set goes uphill, the other goes downhill, and vice versa. Since space is expensive in Hong Kong, there is only one set of tracks for the Tram except at the halfway point where it splits into two sets so that the trolley cars can pass each other.
The ride is very steep and it is strange to see these tall, skinny apartment buildings growing out of what seems like a 45-degree slope (though we are pretty sure it isn't quite that steep, it sure feels like it). The view from Victoria Peak is, of course, spectacular and many of the most famous pictures of Hong Kong are taken from here. Our pictures may never become famous but at least we can publish them on our web site without worrying about copyrights. Stella says we should come back in the early evening to see the city as it starts to light up (unfortunately, we never do get back up there).
Tram Ride, View from The Peak, View from The Peak
View from The Peak, View from The Peak
While we are busy snapping pictures and visiting the Happy House, our bus is weaving its way up the narrow roads to meet us in the parking lot near the Peak. The "Happy House", by the way, is the literal translation of the local euphemism for bathroom. The bus takes us down across the middle of the island, through Repulse Bay to Stanley Village and the famous Stanley Market (we didn't take any pictures on this visit but we come back here later on in the trip).
Today being New Year's Day, less than half the stalls in the Market are open and it isn't very busy. Stella allows us about 45 minutes to shop and explore and tells us we should really plan to come back on Sunday or Monday when business is more or less back to normal. We find a shop, one of many, it turns out, that sells custom "chops". A "chop" is a signature stamp, like a rubber stamp but carved in stone. You take a rectangular piece of stone about the size of a chess piece and they carve/scratch your name in Chinese characters onto the base of it. Many Chinese people, including painters and other artists, use these chops, with an inkpad, to sign their work. We decide to get chops for both of L's parents so we pick ones that have their Chinese Zodiac animals carved on the top. English names are translated to Chinese characters based on the sound of each syllable in the name. The man tells us it will take about half an hour to carve them so we wander off into the Market.
There's a lot to see here, even with only half the stalls open. Lots of silk stuff; clothes, scarves, and socks (yes, socks). Lots of souvenir T-shirts, pins, frig magnets, etc. There were also lots of regular clothing and shoes, including various brand names and knock-offs. We vow to come back later in the trip and buy stuff then. Our plan is to buy little during the first part of the trip. We will spend our time looking at what's available and their relative prices. By Sunday/Monday, we will have a good idea of what we want, how much to pay, and where to get it.
We go back to where the chops were being made only to find that they aren't ready yet. A lot of the people on our bus had ordered chops there and they are backlogged. They take down our name, hotel and room number and promise to deliver them by this evening. We check with Stella and she confirms that they will do as they say.
The bus takes us back through Repulse Bay and Ocean Park to Aberdeen. Aberdeen has two claims to fame; one is the large number of people (up to 30,000 depending on where you read) that still live on houseboats, many of whom never touch solid ground their entire lives. The other claim to fame here is the two huge floating restaurants, the Jumbo and the Tai Pak. We had read that the food and service in these restaurants was not as good as it used to be and Stella confirms this, but she says that they are in the process of changing that. They get a lot of tourists but they are losing all the local, repeat customers that they used to have.
The Jumbo, The Tai Pak
Our tour included a half hour tour of the harbor in a sampan. Sampans are small, motorized boats (10 people per boat) that look top heavy but are apparently quite stable. They are the taxies of the harbor. The harbor is full of row after row of fishing boats and houseboats. The houseboats aren't very big but we suspect that they have more square footage than some of the government housing buildings that Stella tells us about after we are back on the bus.
Aberdeen, House Boats, more House Boats
Our "Taxi" driver, Another Sampan
As we drive back through Aberdeen, Stella points out the government housing apartment buildings. Apartment buildings that we have lived in usually have one big set of windows for the living room (with sliding doors to the balcony) and then other windows for the bedrooms and maybe the bathroom, depending on the layout. There buildings had only living room windows, side by side, each with tiny balconies attached. If you count 40 sets of windows across each side of the building, then that means that there are 80 apartments per floor. Government housing is available to anyone with a sufficiently low salary and at least one child. A family of three is eligible for a whopping 250 square foot apartment and only has to pay about $300 US per month. A family of four gets 300 square feet and so on. Of course, a family of three does not really have the entire 250 square feet as living space. The area is measured from the outside of the outside wall to the middle of the corridor and half way through the walls on each side. Worse yet, is that it also includes a share of the stairwell and the elevator lobby (whether it's on your floor or not). Buildings with even 20 or 30 floors may only have two elevators. To help them run a little faster, one elevator may only stop on floors 2, 6, 10, 14, etc. while the other only stops on 4, 8, 12, 16, etc. If you live on an odd numbered floor, you have to walk up or down one flight depending on which elevator you catch.
Stella says that families that don't qualify for government housing typically spend between one third and one half of their income on rent. Don't expect a good view either. Most of these buildings look across a small gap at an identical building, as they tend to build these things in multiples. Any building with a view is a condominium with apartments that sell for big money. One such apartment in Aberdeen, with 3,000 square feet, recently sold for $20 million US.
Our next stop is at a jewelry factory. A lot of tour companies do stuff like this. They take you around and show you the beautiful sites and get you all caught up in the wonder of it all, then they take you to a store/factory somewhere nearby. The sales people give you a half-hour demonstration of what they do and then let you loose in their showroom where you feel compelled to spend money (want to bet that the store paid for the Sampan tours of the harbor?). Call us cynics but we learned our lesson in Cairo and Istanbul. We manage to listen to their sales spiel and wander through the show rooms without buying anything. Others in the group have obviously come here to spend money as we see some pretty expensive items being wrapped up.
We head back to the North side of the island and drive through Wan Chai district to the Central Harbor Tunnel, which goes under the harbor, and back to the Kowloon Peninsula. Wan Chai is on the East side of the Central District. It used to be the red light district for soldiers and sailors many years ago but now, it is relatively tame. The movie "The World Of Suzie Wong" took place in Wan Chai and our guide says that people still refer to Wan Chai as the Suzie Wong area. Today, it's all business hi-rises in the blocks near the harbor, apartment hi-rises in the blocks behind that, and bars and a few nightclubs for the tourists.
As we arrive back at our Hotel, we check with the front desk and, sure enough, the chops we had ordered in Stanley Market are there. We go back up to our room and find that the hotel is very thorough about leaving messages. There is a printed message slipped under the door, there is a fax on the fax machine, and there is an email waiting for us on the computer. They all say that there is a package for us at the front desk.
We have a couple of hours before the parade so we go out looking for food and sights. We pass a number of restaurants and end up at a small hole-in-the-wall place that has good pictures of their dishes out front. We each have a noodle soup dish that is very tasty and not too expensive. We then walk North up Nathan Road looking at stores and sights. The further North we go, the fewer tourists we see. We walk almost all the way up to Boundary Road when we decide it is time to turn back and head for the parade site.
Can you spot the 7-11 sign?, Nathan Road, One for our hair stylist friend
What they've done for the New Year's parade is set up a stage area behind the Chinese Cultural Center with bleachers for an audience (ie. Mainly us and other tour groups). All the floats and bands that take part in the parade present themselves to us and to the TV cameras around the stage as they start out on the parade route.
Title Screen, Year of the Monkey, Young Performers
Cathay Pacific float, Thailand float
One of our favorite bands is the Itchy Feet Pep Band from Australia (see www.itchyfeet.com.au). Unfortunately, the web site doesn't include the three girls bouncing around wearing kangaroo pants or the guy dressed up like the Crocodile Hunter and pretending to play a stuffed crocodile as if it was a saxophone. At least we have pictures of them.
Musical Croc, Itchy Feet Band
There were floats and performers from many different countries. The Hong Kong police band even had drumsticks that lit up at night.
Ocean Park float, Flowery Costumes, More Costumes
Lots of Costumes, Night-light Drumsticks
Another very impressive group is called Caribana and they're from Toronto, Canada. They had seven or eight people dressed up in huge, elaborate costumes. The costumes are actually built on aluminum frames with wheels so that the people don't have to try and balance them on their bodies alone.
Caribana Boom Box, Tribal Warrior?, Impressive Dragon
After the parade, we go back to the hotel, cash in a coupon the hotel gave us for a free drink at the bar, listen to the Chinese lounge act (very much like lounge acts anywhere in the world, it seems) and eventually go to bed.