The border crossing into Hong Kong at Shenzen station is quite a bizarre affair – you go upstairs in what appears to be a nineties shopping plaza and emerge in a customs hall. The Hong Kong authorities are still super paranoid about swine flu so all the staff had masks on and we were scanned with one of those heat cameras to check that we weren’t even slightly ill before they let us in! Having filled in yet another arrival card, our passports were stamped and we were let through. Strangely, our Chinese tour guide had to apply (and pay for) a visa to get into Hong Kong (now a Special Administrative Region of China like Macau after Britain and Portugal handed them back to China in 1999) and only got a 7 day visa – we were automatically given 180 days as British citizens which was nice (even though we were only there for 3)! We hopped on the MTR (Hong Kong’s metro) and headed for our hotel on Kowloon Island, changing at the amusingly named Hung Hom station. Loads of the roads have British names like Waterloo Road plus they too drive on the left - it was nice to sense a little bit of old Blightly again even though it is most definitely still China!
Hanging around in Hung Hom
After the last of our ‘orientation walks’, we ended up at the harbour overlooking Hong Kong Island. Smog is still quite prevalent in Hong Kong, apparently as a result of some less-than-eco-friendly factories in a neighbouring province on mainland China. Despite the somewhat murky atmosphere, the skyline is still impressive both during the day and at night when it is illuminated in-sync with some painfully cheesey nineties synth-pop during the Symphony of Lights. We popped for a last supper with our tour group before going our separate ways – it was strange thinking that we would be on our own again, and that we actually had to think/navigate/order food for ourselves once more!!!
Lots of big buildings
Smog? What smog?
Neon lights everywhere
Our bunch of reprobates at the harbour
HK by night
We decided to stay an extra day in Hong Kong to scope out Hong Kong Island and to head to Lantau Island to go on the Ngong Ping 360 cable car (thanks Gareth and Marine!). The trip on the MTR to Lantau Island for the cable car took an eternity, however it was definitely worth the wait as the views were spectacular. The cable car sweeps you up through the tree-covered hills near the airport, terminating at the foot of the steps to what turned out to be the world’s largest bronze outdoor seated Buddha (quite a specific title but pretty impressive anyway!). It was pretty windy and at times it felt like we were going to be blown into the sea but that only added to the excitement! As we passed through one valley the cloud was whipping through it, seemingly enveloping each cable car that passed through! We didn’t have time to climb the steps to the Buddha as we had to get back but it looked pretty impressive in the distance!
Cabin for two!
Extreme!
The Guivers and a huge Buddha
Sunset over Lantau
We had an enjoyable trip across the harbour to Hong Kong Island, taking the MTR under the harbour and the thoroughly old-school Star Ferry on the way back. HK Island is the heart of the commercial district – all the big names in world finance vie for the accolade of having the tallest tower! The main high street is crammed with Western brands (as is the southern tip of Kowloon) and we were overjoyed to find an M&S for a welcome break from Chinese food for lunch (though it’s been delicious)! Fran has an addiction to Percy Pigs (amazing strawberry sweets from M&S) so was extremely excited at the prospect of eating some again – see photo below! The trip back over the water on the Star Ferry was a great experience – whilst the majority of human traffic now passes across the water on the MTR or through the road tunnel, the way to make the crossing is on one of the early 20th century steamers (now diesel powered) for the bargain price of 25p! The journey takes about 10 minutes but in that time we passed container ships, fishing trawlers, old Chinese junks and a scary looking grey powerboat containing the Hong Kong armed police, all against the backdrop of towering skyscrapers with lush green hills in the background (ignoring the smog for a second!).
Park life in Hong Kong
These towers definitely look like something out of Robocop
British-style road signs
Crossing the Harbour
Good piratey advice!
We left Hong Kong and headed for Guangzhou, where we were due to board a ‘hard sleeper’ to Haikou on Hainan Island. We successfully navigated the Guangzhou underground to get to the Guangzhou Central station (no mean feat!), however as we emerged we were confronted with a torrential downpour that looked like someone pouring a huge bucket of water solidly for about 2 hours. Donning the trusty Tesco Value poncho, I had the task of wading through waist-deep water (and other stuff that usually should be underground… say no more) to find a cash point that would actually give us some cash. When I returned sopping wet, the train station resembled something out of Apocalypse Now. Attempting to find the ticket office with people everywhere (all staring at the funny people with the backpacks as usual) proved pretty much impossible. When we did find it, the queues were so long that by the time we would have got to the front we have missed the train. Resigned to the fact that we were going to have to find a hotel and try again tomorrow, we were spotted by the attendant we had tried to show our ‘two tickets to Haikou please’ bit of paper to – she whisked us through security, all of the ticket checks and put us on the train without a ticket – result!!! When we finally got going, we were able to purchase a ticket so all was OK – phew! We ended up with a rack of beds to ourselves and were excited about the prospect of our best ever nights’ sleep – this fantasy was soon put to rest when the chap in the rack next to ours set his sights on the World Snoring Record!
So eager to eat the Percy Pigs, Rich forgets to open the packet before tucking in
Silly o’clock in the morning in Hai’an, waiting to cross to Hainan
The next post should see us crossing the water to Hainan Island where we’ll be meeting up with Fran’s uncle John and his partner Susu – celebrity blogger Fran will be taking up the blogging reins for that one!
Until then, here is a somewhat confusing photo from Hong Kong…
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