Hong Kong an extended stay.
Trip Start
Aug 26, 2009
1
8
13
Trip End
Sep 30, 2009
Hong Kong, China
Saturday, November 14, 2009
It seemed that in no time at all, and whilst in the air and en-route to our destination, that the pilot of our aircraft had began to announce our descent into Hong Kong. Also it seemed that no sooner had Dave started reading a magazine article out loud to me, that we were down, and taxiing to the arrivals terminal on Lantau Island. Time flies when your having fun. Lantau Island, incidentally is about a half hours drive for Hong Kong Island.
Like Dave, I had been to Hong Kong before and I always find it to be an exciting place for some reason. Maybe it's because of its rich history, with being ruled by the British for so many years before being handed back over to the Chinese Government. There is still a lot of infrastructure that is British, which is evident from driving across bridges and paying attention to road markings and different cultural icons from an era now long past. Having lived and worked in U.K. for three years, this had reminded me of things British that I was now once again observing. However, typical of Briton's post colonial legacy, Hong Kong seems to have a mixture of wealthy and not so wealthy people, living in contrast of ultra modern well kept and not so well maintained dwellings. Still, most buildings are high rise and the views from some of these places are just breathtakingly magnificent.
We had travelled by bus from the airport, to our next place of rest which was located in Tim Sha Tsu or just TST for non Cantonese speaking travellers. On our way we had noted the very beautifully sculptured monuments and the tunnels that British engineers had left for the Chinese Government and the population in general to marvel at. The bus journey in itself was rather scenic, as it also took us past many other interesting looking places. Had we had more time, we would have loved to have stopped and observed the scene more closely. However, we had set our next travel priority on getting our back packs unloaded , showered and shaved, ready for the next photo shoot of HK.
The YMCA budget accommodation, may have at first conjured up an image of shoddy rooms and grimy kitchens, but believe me, this was relatively plush and not so budget accommodation. It cost plenty. Still we lapped it up and as usual we shared a two bedded room with a magnificent view of H. K. harbor and the Kowloon Ferry Terminal. The ferry terminal itself, was located just at the end of the same street, on which the YMCA building stood. All in all, our hotel, albeit YMCA , was very ritzy indeed.
Finally we were fully booked into our hotel and rested for our first day back in H K after years of not being here. The advantage, or so we initially thought, was that we would be able to locate familiar places, such as the MTR underground rail net work. We used the MTR to travel from place to place underneath HK's busy commercial districts and suburbs. Unlike some Sydney trains, the MTR runs quite efficiently indeed.
We had originally intended to spend 4 days in HK and during this time also, pay for and pick up our visas for Vietnam. What could be simpler? After all, we had the directions for finding the Vietnamese Consulate, and had been informed by official sources, how much we would have to pay for these standard entry visas. It should have been a straight forward process, for these by now, two seasoned 'travel back packers', that go by the names, 'Derek and Dave'..."Yeah Right'...well read on!
Early next morning, we set off from our hotel to a place called "Wan Chai", which is traditionally HK's red light district. I'm sure however, that other above board business transactions also take place there. Wan Chai is also famous for its night life and restaurant cuisine.
The actual place we were to look for, was a building known as the "Great Smart Tower', to which we had been lead to believe , was located on a certain numbered building on "Wan Chai Road." However we soon discovered that the Chinese numbering system for commercial buildings, and for many others, do just not necessarily run in consecutive logical order, that one with much patience may expect. To make things even more complicated, the exits to the MTR railway station can lead a person off in different directions...that is if they are not quite sure which exit leads to which street.? Sure there were street exit signs, but we found that these did not necessarily help us, in our case to any great measure. Although we had brought along a make-shift map and a copy of "Lonely Planet Travel Guide", we were just absolutely hours even finding "Wan Chai Road." In our search for this road, we must have gone off in quite a few wrong directions, and although I have always prided myself on having an excellent sense of direction, had to concede that after the first few hours of running around in the stinking HK humidity, that I was absolutely clueless as to where to begin even looking for "Wan Chai Road". There was no doubt according to the map, that we were in fact in Wan Chai..but exactly where in Wan Chai,?, had now become the paramount question.
In the course of our by now, 'pilgrimage', we had stopped and asked many people, much of them Chinese, "Can you please tell us where Wan Chai Road is?" but most of the time, they just shrugged their shoulders, or just made out as if they had not heard our question in the first place, before scurrying off along their way. This annoyed both Dave and I,and It only added to our frustration. The glistening sweat on our foreheads, was now becoming quite visible.
It had just turned high noon. We were lost and looking at the map, up the right way, sideways, upside down, back to front, or anyway you may care to orient that map. It just didn't seem to put us where we wanted to be. No!,.. we had crossed roads, climbed over passes and traversed subways. I asked one young 'student-ish' looking Chinese youth, who suddenly turned around to face me. I noticed his crossed eyed look and a raging case of acne. He surprisingly answered in good English and appeared to point in the general direction of where he was confident we should have been headed. I was just about to begin thinking that at last we may have begun to find our bearings, when a young policeman standing near by suddenly said.... "Wait,... don't believe him"... "he doesn't tell the truth"...and with that, they both walked off in different directions. Later that afternoon, I by chance, again happened to ask another Chinese youth the whereabouts of Wan Chai Road. He looked very nervous as he smoked his cigarette, but surprisingly answered in a broad Scottish Brogue. However, I was at first unable to understand what it was he was saying. Luckily Dave was able to decipher the directions we were given and at last, we were headed in the right direction. Which incidentally, turned out to be back in the opposite direction from which we had been travelling.
Finally after, spending nearly a whole day looking for Wan Chai Road, we at last intersected with our road and then began to look for the Great Smart Tower, in which we believed the Vietnamese Consulate was located .Well do you think we might have had much more luck finding this building, than we'd had finding the road upon which it stood? If 'you've guessed not, then you've guessed right..'. .We didn't!
Dave by this time, had begun looking at building numbers and had remarked they were all over the place such as were 'Browns Cows'. We walked that road up and down one side and then the other. This went on for hours. Dave for the first time on our travels, finally said he had just 'felt like giving in'. I had decided that I would give it just one more shot, for as futile as it all had seemed, when I suddenly saw in the reflection of a window, the words written in small gold coloured letters on a building "Great Smart Tower". We had arrived. But the really frustrating thing, was that we had passed by that very same building at least a dozen times, not seeing any numbers written on it whatsoever. What's more, something that should have taken us 45 minutes maximum, had taken us eight hours.
By the time we had located 'Wan Chai Road' and The 'Great Smart Tower' the sun hung low in the sky and we were in a hurry to locate the consulate and apply for our visas. As fate would have it, Dave and I had spent a whole day just trying to locate this 'god -forsaken' building and had finally arrived just on closing time. We spoke to the, two Chinese people on the ground floor reception desk, but they gave us the customary sad smile and told us, that we would have to return tomorrow, as the Vietnamese Consulate had closed for the day. Well we were "just a little bit pissed off by that time!!!".. but really there was not much else to be done at that point. We had had a frustrating time, finding the road let alone the building, and we had spent an entire day running this way and that in the heat and humidity. The result was just to discover we had arrived on closing time. Just before I turned to leave the foyer, I mischievously toyed with the idea of asking the two Chinese people behind the reception desk, if they knew where the "Great Smart Tower" was located ? This was seeing as it had taken so long to find it. So I finally did ask them, and to both mine and Dave's astonishment, both desk officials answered that they really didn't know.!!.. I was then tempted to scream "..Well Your Standing in It..Right Now",... however, I thought better than to give into this uncivil misbehaviour. After that day, I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing great about the tower or particularly smart about the people who worked in it.
The next morning Dave and I travelled effortlessly and soon after, were on the door step of the Great Smart Tower building,on Wan Chai Road. We'd checked that we had all our necessary documents ready and on hand. We entered the building and caught the narrow elevator to the 37th floor. We entered the consulate office area and filled out the necessary visa applications for travel in Vietnam. A surly looking official dressed in a military type garment looked at our applications, then looked Dave and myself up and down a few times with a calculating expression on his face. Then he suddenly said; .."if you want these visas processed by this afternoon, you must pay, cash an extra $500 HKD ( about an extra $82 AUS each ) or else you must leave your passports with this office, then wait until next Tuesday"... Next Tuesday meant waiting another four days from the Friday upon which we were applying.( That is how we came to have our stay in Hk extended from 4 to 8 days in total. However there were also airline booking reservations and a typhoon warning that gave us reason to stay longer.)
The actual cost of the visa itself, was to be a modest $300 HKD ( about $49 AUS ). However we were not going to pay him this extra extortionist amount, as I'm sure it would have gone directly into his pocket. Hence I termed the practice, ' Vietscam'. Also there were reported to be many rorts involving uniform clad officials, extorting extra money from Australian travellers and other western travellers abroad. Be that as it may, we laughed at the cunning of this consular buffoon. However our laughter stopped abruptly upon discovering our visa stamp was valid from the day of issue and not from the day of entry, which really meant that we would have had four days less to spend in Vietnam before our visas would expire. This in-turn meant that we must pay an extra four nights accommodation in the place we were staying.
Dave and I had resigned ourselves to the fact, that we were going to be spending a lot more time in HK, than we at first had anticipated. Boy, what were we going to do now? ..You guessed it right again. "Yahoo".. we were going to try and cram as much as possible into an extra 4 days, before flying out again, this time to Vietnam.
We began by catching the 'Star Ferry' across HK Harbour and looking around at the places where Dave once worked and lived. Yes, he had lived in the Hilton Hotel and then later moved to the other end of HK, to a beautiful spot known as 'Repulse Bay'. There, he once again rented a magnificent high rise apartment overlooking the ocean. It had been some 20 years previous, but just the same it was really neat to walk around with your brother whom you had not seen for many years and also have him as your tour guide.
The heat and humidity were making things incredibly hard, but we made sure we ate and drank well to make up for the discomfort. I couldn't really complain as we were getting around and seeing the sights of HK. After being in the Philippines for a few weeks, HK was a welcomed contrast. I mean to say Philippines was good but, I was ready to move on after having been there a few weeks.
During our stay at the YMCA we did on occasion meet a couple from South Africa. Their names were Teresa and Louis. We had struck up a conversation with them and also a young German couple, who had been visiting HK for the first time. Whilst standing in the laundry section of the building, we had begun to realize that we had really got a good conversation going and that's one thing about travel. I loved to meet and exchange stories with other travellers. I guess that's why Travel Pod website is so popular. What had originally been a routine wash day had turned into quite a discussion group with many different stories and laughs all around. "Yes",we did eventually get our washing and ironing done.
HK night life is really vibrant, with a fast moving city and the most colourful neon lights dazzling the tourist and motorist. We for most part of things, were pedestrians, but I think we saw more on foot than we would have otherwise. One sight in particular worth photographing was HK Harbour by night, as the lights from the buildings and the shipping reflect off the water in an amazing show of colours. If good vibrations really do exist then I was certainly beginning to pick up on them, as walking down by the harbour foreshore, I was almost overcome with a feeling of excitement mingled in with a sense of history. Dave also appeared to be enjoying the ocean breeze. We almost certainly sampled some of the delicious, exotic food, washed down with an ice cold beer now and again. Life was being good to us in HK.
One peculiar happening was when we were about to cross the road in an area of HK known as city mid levels. There were a group of young people who would momentarily run into the center of the road intersection, scream and lay down on the roadway., their legs and arms spread wide. They would remain in that pose whilst the traffic light remained red. They had attempted this maneuver a number of times, and in as many minutes. At first, I had thought that they were all stark raving mad. Dave seemed to take a second glance and said, "its OK they are being filmed." I looked over to the other side of the road and sure enough there were the film director, lighting technicians, and other people you may expect to see from a film crew. I laughed as they all seemed to be having such a great time. It's a shame they couldn't have slotted 'Derek and Dave' into the script somewhere... "Oh. then well"yeah OK!!..
One morning whilst we were enjoying our breakfast, Dave suggested we might have a day trip to Macau and back on the boat.( Macau is an island, that had been ruled by the Portuguese for many years but was also handed back to the Chinese Government, so I am to believe.) The problem was that the Vietnamese Consulate had our Australian Passports. We still had our British Passports as we were both dual citizens, but to our dismay, the HK immigration officials at the Macau Ferry terminal just could not allow us departure from HK, as there were no entry stamps into HK. We explained that our Australian Passports were being held but Immigration just could not allow us to leave. They were in fact very polite about it all. We took it in in our stride and decided there were other things to do and see.
As we found our way around the area near our YMCA hotel, there did appear quite an annoyance in the form of dozens of 'Indian Hawkers', situated on every street corner selling business suits and/or, Rolex Copy watches. These guys were just so bloody persistent that they soon become "number one pest" to the western traveller passing by. They would wait, and once they saw you approaching from across the pedestrian crossing, suddenly "ambush" you.
At first we just smiled politely and said no thanks, we weren't interested, but then they would become even more persistent, hanging on to your arm and at times stepping in front of you. and just about yelling in your ear...with a script that went something like:
Indian Hawker: "Excuse me sir, I have copy of Rolex watch for you, very good very cheap"
Me: "No thanks.. I'm in a hurry."
Indian: "Stop Sir.and buy my luxury Rolex watch!!"
Me: " No thanks really not interested."
Indian: "Sir this watch very good quality."
Me: "No thanks I said , now let go of my arm."
Indian: "Sir this watch bring you very good fortune, improve your sex life"
Me: "No! look now get out of my way..let go of my arm Indian!"
Indian: "But Sir this watch..............
Me: "No look ..now piss off with your Rolex!!!
Indian:" You swore at me sir.."Not Very Nice of You Sir...I report you sir!..what's your name sir?"
Me: " My name...my name ,"John Wayne",and... me not like Indians bothering me".
This may have seemed impolite of me, but these Indian hawkers were not deterred and we intercepted them on every corner, for many city blocks, everyday add infinitum. Dave had thought of reporting them to HK Police, as the hawkers were just so annoying,.. you couldn't walk past without being molested.
At times Dave and I had to split up and go in different directions as the Indian hawkers, would single us out when they saw us on the approach. It was very nerve wracking to be hounded to death by these guys off loading their business suits and fake Rolex watches. They just wouldn't take No! for an answer.
Later that night as we lay in our beds, Dave and I had discussed the various happenings of the day and on top of our list were how we were going to avoid these Indian Hawkers. We were wanting to avoid being arrested ourselves, for eventually 'losing it' and "punching these guys in the face". Whilst this may not have been a very civilized option, and it never quite came to that, it certainly felt that it may have been "the most satifying thing we could have done" whilst on our stay in HK. Yes ok, sure these guys were out there only trying to make a living, but they were 'annoying us shitless' by blocking our way along the footpath.
As we lay disscussing this well into the early morning hours, I suddenly thought of a plan that may have proceeded something as follows: My self and Dave approach an Indian Hawker:
Me: "Excuse me Sir..we have plenty much 'boomerang and kangaroo wallet' for you
Indian hawker: Oh No! No! No!... Sahib not interested;
Me: "But Sahib...These, our kangaroo wallets very good quality..You buy one from me.!!!"
Indian: "Oh No!,No! No! What you think I am stupid. ?" What I want with your bloody boomerang and kangaroo wallet, when I have fake copy of Rolex watch and business suit?!!"
Me: But Sahib.. I beg of you"..Our boomerangs very good quality, good enough, even for you and your friends, re-sell on Hong Kong street corner, make good profit and then afford airline ticket back to India".
Indian: "What's this?" "You try and put one over me you."...
Me: But Sahib..come now, you must buy boomerang from me.. you sell again to someone else ..but unlike boomerang you not return."
Indian:" Look here you Aussy shit head."...
This second scenario, was never enacted of course, but it gave us a good laugh and also helped to put our troubles into perspective. As after all we were travelling and wouldn't necessarily have to put up with these guys for ever. No we'd just have to avoid them wherever possible.
During our extended stay in HK, we did meet many different people and exchange stories with them. Some of our local day trips took us to such places on the other side of the island as Stanley Markets, where we saw many good things for sale but didn't buy much. We had only back packs with us and were really considering the room and the travel weight when booking our luggage into the flight departures at the airport. Every traveller is allowed only so much luggage weight before they would be charged steeply for being over weight. The idea was to keep it light and travel costs low. During our travel throughout South East Asia, we did a fairly good job of doing exactly that.
