Hi all hope everyone is well well here i am ...
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2001
1
35
51
Trip End
Sep 30, 2002
Shatin, Hong Kong
Saturday, January 12, 2002
Hope everyone is well. Well here I am in Hong Kong, the birthplace of my mother and where my gran, an aunt and various other relatives still reside. It's been 5 years since I last visited and I can't say I've noticed too much change despite the handover in '97. New airport is pretty impressive, one of the best in the world they say. And of course numerous tower blocks and other skyhigh developments in progress as well as in the pipeline.
I used to think Hong Kong was a cheap place to come and visit and each time I came back I would stock up on consumer electronics and other goodies, not so, in comparison to the UK, yes is cheaper, but when I compare it to the places I've already been to then the prices seem outrageous even if the SAR (the new name for what was Hong Kong, as it is now a Special Administrative Region of China) is in the midst of recession. My mum thinks I've become really tight with my money since I've been away, but I ask her how far she'd get trying to live off 10 english pounds a day, it's a good job I'm staying with my gran and have all my food and accommodation paid for. My mother was also horrified to discover that I'd lost almost 15 pounds in weight and have spent the entire duration of my stay trying to fatten me up!
Hong Kong is still a very beautiful place to come and visit despite all the rapid development no more so than when my mother and I took the 299 bus from where my gran now lives down to Sai Kung Country Park which is where my mother grew up. For the entire 45 minute journey my mother took a trip down memory lane pointing to the vast jungle which she as a little girl used to go into to fetch firewood, she explained how she and a friend would go in to the deepest jungle to find the best timber and how one day upon returning she was stopped by a neighbour and questioned as to where they had been to indeed have found such fine firewood, my mother was horrified to discover that tigers roamed those jungles and never went back! Very pretty landscape and took a nice ferry ride to some now near desserted outlying islands.
It's also been a shame that whilst I've been here, the pollution here has been a huge problem and I could not enjoy one of finest panoramas I have ever seen in it's full glory, the Star Ferry crossing from the New Territories to Hong Kong island is still a must. Most of the toursisty stuff I've done on previous visits and still remember fondly, so what have I done mainly? Well of course what the Chinese are best at: Eating and Shopping!!! Well eat and window shop anyway, although the thought of blowing my entire travel budget on some beautiful Audio/Visual equipment and the latest gadgets did cross my mind several times, I did however fail to give in to temptation.
Right time is up, and tomorrow I shall be boarding a flight to meet up with the others in Bali.
Ta ra for now.
Ed
