Tea, Tango, and a Tram

Saturday 22April.

We took it easy this morning before heading off for the afternoon and evening on Hong Kong island. On the way to the bus stop, Donna spied a department store on Jordan Rd that caught her fancy with the promise of clothes and 'arty' type stuff. As it turned out each of the five floors were well stocked with primarily Chinese manufactured items of all types including medical equipment, artifacts, clothes, beautiful furniture, sporting goods, cosmetics, food and just about anything you could want. The male staff are all dressed in western style business suits and the women in an attractive uniform. Service was exemplary from a seemingly endless supply of sales people. The fifth floor was set up as a tea expo with perhaps 8 or 9 booths each promoting tea from different regions. Each booth was stocked with colourful supplies of tea in both bulk and smaller domestic packages. We got involved with the "Oolong" booth and with much ceremony we were seated then treated to a tea brewing performance and tasting session. I wish we could have understood each other as I am sure what they were talking about was interesting.To cap the experience off there was a beautiful young woman who played a long, several stringed instrument. She was able to produce sensational oriental sounds and her level of skill was amazing.

The bus down to the harbour created a new challenge...paying the fare. You are supposed to know the fare before you get on and tender the correct amount. I still don't know how you determine the fare but I gathered from the non-English speaking driver that, in this case, it was 6.40HKD. I had 5HKD in change and a 20HKD note. He was not interested in the note and turned his nose up at the 5HKD. We took a seat nevertheless. I approached him at the ferry pier and he gestured that I should put the 5HKD in his tray. We have since learned that the drivers do not give change. If you put in a note and it is more than the fare,well so be it!

On Hong Kong island we had made a booking to go to a recommended activity in the Western Market called the 'Big Stage'. It is something like a 'high tea' with a live band and ballroom dancing for some 4 hours on a Saturday afternoon. The food was promoted as high quality and at an all up price of 125HKD it appeared good value. We were escorted to our reserved table and served a pot of tea. From that moment on we could not get any acknowledgment whatsoever....indeed it appeared we were being deliberately ignored. We sat fascinated by the middle-aged Chinese couples dancing in very formalised style. The affectations in the Latin styles were incredible, particularly the tango. There was no way any average Australian dancers (like us) were going to invade this performance. The music was great; the dancing enthralling; the service nil. We left after 45 minutes without any requrement to pay. We suspect that no one could speak English.

We have both been surprised at the little English that is spoken outside the dedicated tourist areas. Bearing in mind it is now nearly 9 years since China resumed control on 30 June 1997 I suppose both Cantonese in particular and Mandarin to a lesser extent are prevailing.
To an old building inspector it is surprising to see the exclusively bamboo scaffolding on the construction sites. It appears quite rigid and obviously serves the purpose, but to see it 20 or 30 floors up is remarkable.

The Peak provides spectacular views of both sides of Victoria Harbour and is a must for visitors. Hong Kong island was a barren mountainous rock inhabited by fishing villages before its development. It is now an absolute concrete jungle. In the early days (around 1880), most people were carried to and from the Peak by sedan chair...a frail bamboo chair supported by two strong coolies. It was the most popular, if not the most comfortable, mode of transport. In 1888 the Governor gave approval for a tramway to run between Garden Rd and the Peak. In the early trams there were even 3 classes of carriage! The track is extremely steep and initially, steam was used to drive the haulage system. The track is 1.4 km long with a gradient of between 4 to 27 degrees, rising from 28 metres to 396 metres above sea level. The two-carriage tram carries about 120 passengers a trip at 20HKD per head. It runs non stop. Quite an exciting trip when you look behind and see the steepness as you ascend. The vfiews are superb and the dining and shopping facilities are great. We had an early dinner as we watched the sky darken and the lights of the buildings below brighten. Definitely a 'must do' activity.

Tomorrow we head up into the New Territories and the Chinese border..looking forward to that.

Honkers

I don't care how good the seats are supposed to be, travelling in Qantas economy class is the pits! And to make matters worse I left the aeroplane adaptor for my Sennheiser headphones on the Brisbane to Melbourne plane. After nine hours in the air we arrived on time at Hong Kong airport on Lantau Island. The airport is extremely large, very modern and, efficient.

Our 'limo' driver was waiting and drove us the 40 minute trip to Kowloon and the United Services Recreational Club on Gascoine St. Regrettably, the office opens at 0900 so we spent just over 90 minutes sitting around waiting. The good news was that our room was immediately available and with Chinese ladies as baggage porters we headed out through the beautiful gardens. Alas, the room had not been made up since the day before and with many apologies we sat in the garden and waited. And waited. The 'room making up lady'did not start until 1100 and it was not until 1200 that the room was ready.

I am not sure what our expectation was but if we thought the room would match the effort by the Tanglin Club in Singapore last year we were sadly mistaken. I suppose the word 'functional' might apply, but only barely.'Spartan' also springs to mind as does 'barely acceptable' however, beggars should not be choosers. The bed was comfortable and the linen clean and the TV had 80 channels...four of which are in a form of English. Come on Phil, stop whinging or I will come and take your place..Ed.

OK I'm sorry.

The Club was founded in 1911 and is nestled in central Kowloon which has the hustle and bustle you would imagine in such a vibrant commercial location. Yet the Club is located in a uniquely lush, parklike setting featuring first class sporting and recreational facilities. I must admit, against the noise and activity around it, the Club offers an oasis of peace and relaxation. The general area around the Club is called 'Gun Club Hill Barracks' and for many years the Brits occupied it. The Chinese army has troops stationed here now. The Club building was once the officers mess and you do get that feeling about it. The dining and relaxation areas are quite nice. It is apparent that the main drawcard for members is the sporting facilities..4 tennis courts; lawn bowls; 3 swimming pools; basketball 1/2 court; golf driving; badminton; billiards; and so on. The major asset from our point of view has been the staff..truly first class. Ordinary membership is available for a 40,000HKD entrance fee and a monthly subscription of 1,100HKD...tends to keep the riff-raff out.

Back to the headphone adaptor. After a short rest on Thursday afternoon we headed into the Mongkok retail area north of the Club on the advice that many electrical equipment stores were in the area. Our walk took us upto Shanghai St which is one of the oldest in Kowloon. We visited the Jade Market which has aroun 450 registered stall holders selling amulets, ornaments, necklaces and trinkets made from the revered green stone. Many Chinese people believe that jade can protect you from evil spirits and calm your emotions. Babies wear tiny bracelets for this purpose.

Shanghai St gives one a sense of a time long past. The buildings and shops are very old and include clothing shops specialising in finely embroided Chinese-style wedding clothes. Signage dominates the street scene wherever you go in this area and as you continue on up Nathan St you notice the shops are grouped according to their main product eg jewellery; clothing; electrical; food; and mobile phones. We guessed that we must have seen something like two hundred mobile phone shops all overflowing with phones of every description and all with Chinese people in them buying phones! Mobile phones are an integral part of life here with seemingly every next person wandering along with a phone to their ear. At the top-end of our walk we came upon the Goldfish Market. Shops selling colouful fish of different species along with furnishings and decoration for aquariums line both sides of Tung Choi St. Amongst them are scattered pet shops selling all breeds of dogs and cats. Dog grooming is a serious business here.

We ate a meal at the franchised 'Spaghetti Shop'. Other food shops in this very non-touristy area appeared a bit risky at this stage of the trip. We were on the road again at 1930 and were overwhelmed by the number of people who had emerged over the past 40 minutes or so. Donna likened the crush to Family Day at the Ekka but I believe that underrates it. People streamed in every direction along every street...absolutely amazing and , apart from the endless skyline of multi-level housing blocks, was a true indicator that we were in one of the most densely populated cities in the world.

We could not locate the headphone adaptor.

Sleep came easily on Thursday night and after breakfast on Friday I hit the Chinese language 'Yellow Pages' in search of Sennheiser and the adaptor. The internet ended up providing the address of a Sennheiser service provider in the industrial backblocks of Kowloon. The Club staff phoned and it was confirmed that CP-150 adaptors were in stock. Addresses were provided in Chinese and a taxi summoned. Neither the taxi driver (female) or anyone I spoke to at this point could speak English and I can assure you not too many non-Chinese were evident at the place I was dropped off. Quite exciting really. In the end ,I negotiated the deal for two adaptors for 50HKD (divide by 5.6 for AUD) , found myself a taxi and got back to the Club...not bad I thought.

Friday afternoon we headed south towards the harbour along Nathan Rd. Not far along we came to Hillwood Rd known locally as Hillwood Soho and is favoured by locals with its collection of bars and restaurants featuring Asian cuisine. This led onto Knutsford Tce with its variety of exotic international cuisine. Pity that as you sit in these marvellous, alfresco dining areas you face some 20 metres away the back of very old and little maintained apartment? blocks with rubbish strewn around them. A little further on is the Park Lane Shopper's Boulevarde which is simply a line of around 60 shops offering a variety of of local and international name stores..Gucci, Valentinos, Crocodile, and so on. Very different to Mongkok and like most of the area we were walking into was modern and could have been anywhere. The waterfront boasts a Space Museum, Cultural Centre, and Museum of Art, as well as an Avenue of Stars where the movie stars have left their handprints along the lines of the Hollywood model.Further around we came to the Clock Tower which was part of the original Kowloon-Canton Railway terminus. Built in 1912 it is a landmark from a time when people spent days travelling by steam train across Europe and Asia terminating at this point. We jumped onto a Star Ferry and crossed the harbour and back as a taste of tomorrows trip to Hong Kong island. We ate at the Club and had a wonderful Chinese meal built upon duck and ginger all washed down with a particularly good sauvignon blanc from Chile

Go!

What a dramatic day so far. We had all the problems in the world on two fronts: Telstra and Tom Tom. After two days of phone calls Telstra admitted they had made an error in setting up our "message bank" for home...very,very frustrating as call after call implied we were "dinosaurs" and had no idea how to follow simple prompts. It was satisfying to receive their apology for their shortcomings. The downloading of the map for France onto our TomTom (car navigation kit) would have challenged Bill Gates! Again the so-called simple prompts and protocols to download the map then to again download it from our computer onto the TomTom were anything but simple. I have a deep admiration for the most patient technician in Sydney who eventually got us through the problem. All this plus cleaning the house and packing has been quite stressful.
QANTAS however, have been outstanding. We were somewhat overweight in our luggage but a very understanding lady sorted all that and organised great seats from Brisbane to Melbourne and for the onward journey to Hong Kong. We are presently saitting in the Qantas Club in Melbourne and will report again from Hong Kong.

Ready, Set..

Just 5 days to go!