Our Hong Kong trip was incredible. The funny stories started a bit sooner than I expected. Last Thursday around 3:00pm we arrived at the Taipei airport with plenty of time to spare – thank god. When I stepped up to the check in counter and handed in my passport I was asked to step to the side to let the others go ahead. After the attendant spoke with her manager she came back and informed me that I had been staying in the country illegally for the past seven days and was not allowed to leave until I took a visit to the nearby immigration office. Oh boy. I had sworn I had a 90-day visa entry but when I looked again I realized it was only 60-days. How could I have messed that up? I stayed surprisingly calm as the attendant escorted me over to the immigration booth, but Tatjana and Leslie said they were really scared as they waited for me by the check-in. Apparently while I was gone the manager told them I could be in some trouble and he didn’t know what they were going to do to me.
When I walked up to the immigration booth one attendant was eating a big box of noodles while the other fiddled with something in the back. I came up and explained what happened and she looked at me and smiled. Phewph. All it took was $2000 NT Dollars, a stamp and a quick thank you and I was good to go. I had to Joke with Leslie and Tatjana for a few minutes that I was being deported and they believed me. We had a good laugh over that one.
The flight over was great – we had those nice seats with personal TV’s and an infinite choice of movies to watch. Two hours later, at around 7pm, we arrived and caught a bus into the city. We had booked a hostel right on Nathan Road - one of the busiest roads on the mainland. We chose the mainland over the island (even thought the island is considered the city center with all the action and entertainment) because it is much cheaper. It was only 10 minutes by ferry to get to the island so it wasn’t a big deal.
As we drove down Nathan Road I was shocked at how bright and colourful everything looked. Huge florescent signs lined the street, but it was different from Taiwan because everything looked much cleaner and well kept.
A view from our bus heading down Nathan Road.
When we arrived at our address and stepped off the bus it was pouring rain. It was pretty ironic actually. We left Taipei that day and the sun was shining after weeks of thunder storms and rain to come to Hong Kong where it had been sunny up until the day we arrived. At least it made us feel very at home.
As we started up the street to our hostel we were bombarded by middle-aged Indian men standing outside of all the shop windows urging us to come and take a look at their stores. Most of the things they were selling included tailored suits, knock off diamond jewellery, watches, and hand-bags and sometimes a little something more. It was pretty funny actually – Each day I’d be walking by the stores and I’d hear one of them yelling, “Ma’m, ma’m, how about a tailored made suit?” I’d shake my head and avoid eye contact as he’d quickly follow behind chanting, “Watches? Hand bags?” And then all of a sudden he’d lean in and quietly whisper, “…hash?” I really started to pick up my pace walking in that part of Hong Kong.
After pushing through all the peddlers and dodging all the pedestrians we finally made it to our hostel – Vincent guesthouse on the 16th floor of a large rundown apartment style building that, for those of you familiar with the residences at UWO, quite resembled Saugeen Maitland Hall. We got out on the 16th floor and walked shyly around the halls looking for our guesthouse. Tatjana got a bit of a jolt as we walked by a room with two big fat women sitting on a bed with their breasts hanging out. I guess that’s what you get when you book a room for $16CDN per night.
Our hostel wasn’t so bad. The lady in charge was very nice and took care of us well. Tatjana and I shared a room which was about the size of a small bathroom, but we managed. Leslie stayed in a single room right beside us that wasn’t much better. As the Lady showed us around we shot each other a few nervous glances but laughed it off knowing that we weren’t planning on spending much time there.
Leslie's room. Her toilet didn't quite work yet so she had to wait while it was fixed.
Tatjana and I debating about something. Probably about who had to sleep on the little bed in the corner nook - see it tucked away in the back right? It was sandwiched between two gross walls and the rusty air conditioning machine.
After we dropped our stuff off we hurried out to the street to see a little bit before bed. Tatjana had heard from Mo – one of the exchange students back in Taipei who had travelled to HK before – about a street close to our hostel with really good restaurants. We chose a Singaporean restaurant which was really good.
A bit later Max (Tatjana’s friend from Germany who was also in Kenting) came and met us to show us around town a bit. It was late, but he thought it was the perfect time to see the city skyline.
Look at that. How incredible. I had no idea how beautiful a city skyline could be. All of the names of the big businesses shone big a bright in all different colours and sizes – you could almost feel the energy of the city centre from all the way across the bay. I admit, as the others took pictures I was fantasizing about working in one of the offices high up on the top floor of one of those buildings…maybe someday.
Max, Leslie, Tatjana and I in front of the skyline. It was hard to get a good picture of the background with the flash. After our short walk around we said goodbye to Max and went back to the hostel (reflecting back now and wondering why we were in such a hurry) to bed.
Friday morning the weather was gorgeous. Leslie had to get up early to go to the immigration office to get her VISA for entry into China so Tatjana and I met her across the harbour at Central.
Waiting for the ferry boat and admiring the harbour view.
An inside look at the ferry boat.
And an outside view. This was the boat we used to go back and forth between Hong Kong island and the mainland. It was about a 15 minutes ride and only cost a couple Hong Kong dollars.
This is "Central," the main pier where most of the ferries dock - also the place we met Leslie.
The first stop on our to-do list was to go up to “The Peak” – a look-out at the top of the island mountain that was said to give the best view of the city. We decided to ride the bus up the mountain as Max suggested to experience the thrill of riding so close to the edge of the mountain. I admit, it felt a bit close at times.
The ride was beautiful. The roads twisted a turned all the way up and we got some incredible views of beaches on the other side of the island and of all the huge mansions tucked into the hillsides. I would have loved to tour those things.
The back side of the island. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit here, but we heard it was amazing. On nice hot Sunday's, many people (mostly youth) ride boats to the beaches and party all day long.
I was really surprised at how inhabited the mountain was. There were hospitals and schools and tons of residences. The mountain didn’t seem that big at all, but you could live on it and never have to go down if you didn’t want to.
The Peak was a tad disappointing. When we walked out into the courtyard it felt like a small theme park with cotton candy, touristy souvenirs and that annoying music you hear playing at Disneyland that is supposed to evoke cheep but only ever achieves the opposite. It really didn’t matter though because once we stepped out onto the path that led to the view, all the noise and bustle around stopped. The view was breathtaking.
You could see for miles and miles and the city architecture was just something else. I think Tatjana and Leslie stood in the same spot taking pictures for about 20minutes.
They made me take a photo with the beautiful background. I'm thankful for it now :)
We met a couple from the U.S. who travel to HK each year to visit family and see the sights all over again. They told us that a clear day like the one we had only came once in a blue moon these days due to the amount of smog that looms over HK on a regular day. They said the rain from the day before must have cleared all the pollution away, leaving us with a crystal clear sky to see the entire area. I guess the rain wasn’t so bad after all.
We opted to take the tram ride down the hill which was definitely an experience.
It was an old fashioned red trolly that went really fast and was so steep that it was almost scary.
Me trying to figure out some neat places to walk to - also attempting to avoid Tatjana's persistent picture taking.
When we got to the bottom we realized we were right in the center of the financial district – all of the big glossy buildings and eager young people walking around with gelled hair and expensive suits gave it away.
Tatjana was interested in checking out the inside of the HSBC building as she will be working as an investment banker in Germany when she gets back in the summer.
You could walk right under the building from the street, and there were often people sitting here having lunch using the shade of the building to stay out of the sun. Apparently the HSBC building is the most Feng Sui building in Hong Kong because of these escalators - the escalator in the best position (according to the costellations) is for the banks employees and the escalator in the worst position is for customers which is supposed to help ensure prosperity for the bank.
It was pretty neat inside. The architechture was very modern, and I read that most pieces of the building can be picked apart like a puzzle, detached and reattached to form a new structure - pretty cool. We didn’t stay long inside as most of the guards kept eyeing us taking pictures and aimlessly walking around.
On the street we met a young gent from the UK who recognized that we might need some help navigating around. I suggested we head to SOHO - an area my dad said I had to check out. He showed us the way and off we went.
It was really neat walking through the streets because the feeling is completely different than any other big city I’ve been to. It is very westernized but completely different from a place like Toronto, mainly because the streets are so much smaller and feel much less overwhelming.
As we crossed one of the busiest roads I could have been crossing the street in Caledon just based on the size of the intersection. Funnily enough, even with that small town characteristic, I’d say the energy and pace in HK is much greater than in Toronto. Even though the streets are smaller and things are much closer, there are so many more people and their appearances and attitudes seem much more cosmopolitan.
As we walked through the downtown we passed more high end shopping than I’ve ever seen. There were tall white men in their twenties and thirties literally standing outside of Gucci drinking coffee and socializing with their new glasses, watches and whatever else. Silly really. It was a Friday afternoon and it was like a Saturday in Yorkdale mall. Don’t these people have jobs? I got the feeling that many live off mommy and daddy’s money and simply enjoy a lush life of shopping and parties.
We knew when we were getting close to SOHO because we came upon the “big escalator.”
That's it running up on the right. Apparently it is the biggest in the world and it runs from the bottom of the hill up all the way to the top when the city stops. I can’t really remember how long it was but I say we rode it for a good 15 minutes.
Riding the escalator up through Soho. It took us up past some really trendy restaurants and wine bars and clothing shops. Some of the roads and alley ways were cobblestone which gave it a very cute feel. We decided to hop off at the top and make our way down weaving through the different streets and checking out some of the unique shops.
One of the coolest things about this area was the contrast between rich and poor. One minute we would be on a street with designer boutiques and expensive Italian restaurants...
... and then the next minute we would weave onto a street covered in tents with little old ladies selling fruit and Chinese trinkets out of their little wagons (I formed a nice bond with this lady - she had great apples). And all of the within minutes of the big money making financial distract. It was a very neat contrast.
After Soho we started back for around the pier.
It was so easy to get around the city because there are these massive footbridges that run over the roads and through the buildings. They go all over the city connecting virtually every area.
We saw loads of connstruction - the city is going up very fast.
After walking around for a few hours our legs were getting tired so we decided to do the big red bus tour – a must as a tourist in a new city. It took us around the city and, in my opinion, was only really good for indicating the best places to go back and shop. Unfortunately, as someone with little money to spend, it wasn't the greatest tour to attend. :P
Here's a picture of us on the bus. I'll admit, I've just awoke from a quick power nap.
We saw loads of buildings and loads of bustle. Apparently when the city started to become more populated and the MRT system was built, they took a vote as to whether or not they should keep these street cars running - the people voted "yes." Streetcars like this are everywhere and they are always pretty full.
The bus tour finished at around 7pm - well for us at least. We got off to grab Leslie's VISA that she applied for that morning and the bus never came back for us like it was supposed to. Oh well.
Walking back to the ferry after our bus tour.
A shot of the city at night.
I had to post a picture of this. These are people lining up outside of a massive Chanel store waiting to buy buy buy. It's not uncommon to see line-ups around the block of people waiting to get into these high-end stores, and once they get in they are known to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. Don't line-up if you don't plan to buy anything though. Apparently, unless you start whipping out the credit card the salesmen won't even give you the time of day.
By the time we got back to our hostel it was time to hurry back to get ready for our first night out!
Before I left for HK my dad hooked my up with the nephew of a family friend who has been living and working in HK for a few years. His name is Neil and he offered to have us to his place in the city for some drinks.
Tatjana and I making our way through the subway to Neil's place.
The apartment was nice but small and really expensive, he wouldn’t say quite how much though. One plus was that his apartment was on the top floor which gave him access to his own personal rooftop patio – this is where we hung out drinking wine for most of the night.
The group of us on the rooftop (including Neil's friend - his name slips my mind).
The view was incredible. At around 12 the guys decided it was time to show us the hot spot in town - It was called something like Lan Kwai Fong. Anyways we pulled up to this row of bars which lined a steep cobblestone road and started our way up.
It was packed with people drinking and dancing on stages that overflowed into the streets. Neil warned up that we probably wouldn’t even want to go into a bar because the streets were so crazy - he was right. That night, which happened to be National Queen’s Day in the Netherlands, was particularly rowdy with all the Dutch people dressed in orange to celebrate the holiday.
This Dutch man and his family were a hoot!
After meeting some very fun drunk people we took off around the block to see the rest of the nightlife.
We ran into Max and the German friends he had met in HK. Later that night I also ran into Alex Latta, a girl who I went to Ivey with who is also doing an exchange in HK. Small city. After that Neil took us to a rooftop bar where we danced the night away. He had a Frisbee tournament the next day so had to leave a bit early, but Tatjana, Leslie and I found our way home alright.
Saturday morning Tatjana woke up with the pink eye. I was a bit worried about the sanitation situation of our room, or just her bed, but I bit my tongue and accompanied her to the pharmacy to get some antibiotics. Leslie was scheduled to leave for her trip around China that morning so before we did anything we said a nice goodbye. We were really happy to hear that one of her acquaintances from school (who is now studying in China) decided to meet up with her to tag along on the journey. Max had told us about some horror stories when he and his guy friends crossed the border and it sounds like theft is still a really big problem. Leslie is so adventurous and carefree so it didn’t seem to bother her, but Tatjana and I felt much better about saying goodbye.
It was weird for the first little while after she left because we felt like we were missing something. It didn’t last for long though. Tatjana and I jumped up and decided to head to a nearby island off the coast of China called Llama.
The boat ride was about 30 minutes long and I slept the whole way to make up for the lack of sleep from the night before. When we arrived it felt like we entered a totally different world. The Gucci stores and BMW’s were replaced with hole in the wall seafood restaurants and run down bicycles, and the well kept avenues transformed into rickety wharfs and dirt roads.
A view of the harbour. When we stepped off the boat the smell of fishing boats and algae filled the air and carried us into what you could call the “town centre.” Tatjana and I sampled some of the local foods – fish balls and meat skewers – and then carried along across the island to the beach.
It was so hot and sticky out that the walk seemed to take forever, but it was so beautiful.
When we got to the beach we found a nice seat perched up on the hillside where we could watch the waves roll in.
My view.
There was a small group of English people sitting in front of us having a BBQ and they amused me with their conversation for quite a while. Tatjana says the beach depresses her because she finds the sand mixed with sweat and often smelly water very uncomfortable. I had to laugh about that one.
Tatjana and her corn. We didn’t stay on the island for long but were glad we got to see it.
When we got back we decided to go to a market on our side of the island, which was about a 10 minute MRT ride from our hostel. This market was much different than the markets in Taiwan. First off the people were so much more annoying. Unlike Taiwan where they stand back and let you browse, here in HK they would start harassing you the second you showed a slight interest in what they had to sell. I got really annoyed by this and eventually started refusing to buy, walking away or getting really angry with some of them. One girl in a shoe store literally started hanging from my arm begging me to buy and allowed herself to be dragged behind me while I motored it out of there. RRRRR! Some people can handle it but I know that if I am harassed while I’m trying to buy I will end up getting flustered and making the wrong purchase choice (this happened the following Monday at the Jade market, but that’s another story).
The things they sold at the HK market are also different.
I never see fish in bags sold in Taiwan.
The other difference is the way its set up. The markets in Taiwan are spread out along various streets with wider areas to walk whereas the one in HK had stores set up in a tight straight line giving you very little space to move. I realized this was one of their tactics to try and get you to buy by literally forcing you into their store when the street got crowed.
View of the market.
By the second block I really couldn’t wait to get out of there. I didn’t really find many things I liked which is probably just the result of getting annoyed with the sales people. Tatjana and I decided to walk home to cool off and we went to bed right away so that we could wake up early the next morning to get a full day in on the island of Macau.
The next morning we got to the boat station around 9:50am and ran around the terminal like mad women trying to catch the 10am ferry. We made it to the line just as the last few passengers were boarding, but unfortunately when we got to the front they had reached capacity. After waiting around another few minutes I realized I didn’t have my passport on me so there was no way we could get in the boat anyways. Stupid. Tatjana was a doll and suggested we simply change plans and do a big walk across the city.
We started at the west end and weaved our way through the street of HK passing by all the shops and coffee houses. The most interesting thing was the Philippino people that seemed to take over the city. We would walk for kilometres down certain sidewalks near parks and around certain busy shopping areas and thousands of Philippino’s were just hanging out on the ground, sitting in groups of five or six either playing cards, sleeping, or feasting on their traditional food.
This is the only picture I have but it is a really poor representation of what it looked like with so many of them. They would bring cardboard boxes to sit on and some even made little barricades around themselves to block their space off from the others. It was a bit weird actually, walking along the clean footpaths by all the ritzy building and big investment banks and seeing all these people on the ground. There must have been thousands. I later found out that they were all the housekeepers in the city and enjoyed getting together on their only day off – Sunday.
After walking for hours Tatjana and I decided to hop on a harbour boat tour. On the boat we met a nice couple from the Netherlands. The man was here on business and they had been getting drunk with clients the entire four days they were here. They highly recommended that we check out a bar on the top of a building called “Aqua,” where we could watch the skyline light show that night.
I think we hyped the light show up a bit too much in our heads because it didn’t turn out to be much. That green laser was about as exciting as it got.
We actually had a better light show inside.
The bar was really funky with dim florescent lighting that made you feel like you were underwater.
Our seats also overlooked a restaurant that looked amazing.
After that we went back to the hostel to get a good night’s sleep as I have my meeting with my dad’s business contact the next day. I really wanted to get to bed early so I would be nice and fresh the next day – as some of you know, I am not always the best company in the morning. Unfortunately we had a, well, what we assumed was a prostitute, living in the room beside us and she decided to play her slow rap music nice and loud until four or five in the morning. For hours I lay awake in bed trying to drown out the sounds of Jay-Z, Rkelly and Pdiddy singing about “hot ass” and “bumping and grinding” and I thought I was going to lose it. Anyways, at around four in the morning (to Tatjana’s surprise) I decided to get up and go knock on the door to ask them politely to keep it down. I got up in a huff and managed to keep it to a few nice knocks, but no one answered. It was frustrating but I managed to get to bed around 5:00am to be up for seven.
That morning when we woke up we started to blow dry our hair, which, of course is a very loud process. When we walked out of the room there was a very large scary looking man peering his head angrily out of the door that the loud music was coming from the night before. Opps. We both stayed pretty silent that night.
So my eyes were a bit puffy and I was pretty tired Monday morning from the lack of sleep but I had a nice visit with Andrew still. He (and his driver) picked me up outside the hostel at 9:00am sharp and we had a nice little chat about Hong Kong and its history on the way to his office.
The office was outside the city about 20 minutes in an industrial looking part of the city. With multiple factories in China, Andrew said he is only in the office about two to three days a week. It was quiet in the office when we arrived with only the secretary to greet us. I was taken into the boardroom and my eyes were immediately drawn to all the designer hand bags that lined the back wall (they are a hand bag manufacturing company). Andrew sat down with me and we stared to chat.
We talked about his past and how he came to be where he is, what his company does exactly and how he manages all his people. We compared what I had learned about Taiwanese business and business in Hong Kong and found a few interesting things. For example, in Taiwan, business men tend to willingly sacrifice short term gains in order to build long term relationships, whereas businessmen in Hong Kong are all about immediate gains. I feel more comfortable with the former. He gave me some business/management advice that I have heard a lot over the past few years and that is, “to maintain close friends and family,” and to, “continue to foster new relationships.” It seems like an easy enough concept, but I see why sometimes we must remind ourselves of these simple facts. It was a good chat and when we finished I thanked him and we left it open for future contact. I left his office and, with Tatjana in Macau for the day, I ventured off into the city to buy a few souvenirs for friends and family.
Monday night Tatjana and I met up with Max again for dinner at an awesome sushi restaurant. After that we called it a night and I left early the next morning for my flight back to Taipei. Tatjana stayed a few extra days, which is why I came back alone, but I had a Chinese exam on Wednesday that I still had to study for. The good news is, I did well (I just found out over email) which means that I get a full refund of $10,100NTD from the Taiwanese government. WAHO! That will pay for my time here in June. Its nice when you don’t have to stress constantly about money.
So, finally my Hong Kong story is told. Thailand was a whole other experience that I cannot wait to share. Davin just left on a plane back to Canada and I am already missing him, but it's nice to see everyone again and get reconnected to the world. I'm off to start some work that I've already been assigned to from today's class, and to finish another chapter of this great book I picked up in Thailand about a psychologist in Vienna in the early 1900's called "When Nietzsche Wept."
And a final very important note:
Happy **th Birthday Dad! Love you xoxo
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