Matt and Lisa's Adventures

18 January 2024

We land in Hong Kong at about 10:30 am, four hours later than scheduled. The airport is an absolute breeze, Shanghai could learn something from Hong Kong! 

We have a mare trying to get tickets for the train into the city. We buy an octopus card which is meant to work everywhere but it doesn’t come preloaded with quite enough credit for the trip. There is a top up machine but it only accepts cash. And there is no ATM. We give up and just buy a single trip ticket. Once on the train, it is fast and efficient. We then catch the MTR (which, thankfully, we can use octopus for) and then the final walk to the hotel. It is hard work as it was a long walk between train lines in a very busy station and the streets are busy, narrow and people aren’t paying attention to where they are going as they are all glued to their phones. Eventually we find our hotel and it’s very nice for one night. 

We head out to explore and find some lunch. There are more understandable options than in Shanghai and a lot more English but we were looking for something nice and simple. We find a pancake place in a mall and Lisa has a soufflé that she says is amazing and melts in her mouth. I have pancakes with cheese and bolognese – sounds weird but it worked. 

We then walk to the waterfront which is very pretty with lots of people out and about. We catch the historic Star Ferry across to Central Hong Kong and wander around a high end mall before catching the ferry back. Lisa is having withdrawals after not having seen a Uniqlo in a while so we head to the harbour side mall and after some searching we find one. She is very happy! Lisa purchases a few things, and so do I. The prices are much cheaper than in Europe.

By this time it is five pm, which is an acceptable time for a beer. We have one in a knock off American restaurant in the mall. Budweiser but we were thirsty, so we took it. 

In Apple Maps I spotted a cluster of potentially  acceptable restaurants near our hotel. When we get there none of the options stands out. There’s a bistro that turns out to be in a hotel – hotel reception direct us to it in the basement. There’s nothings there and it all feels creepy, so we run away from that! Eventually we choose a beer heavy cafe with nice outdoor tables. The service is exceptional – over the top you might say. We hadn’t even sat down and they wanted our drinks orders. About five different people serve us and they seem in a rush to do it. I wanted chicken but Lisa made noises about the cleanliness of the kitchen – and the menu is very weird. Lisa has toast – for dinner! Now, that is an odd choice! I have spaghetti bolognese but it is cooked in the oven like a lasagna – a bit weird but ok in the end. 

19 January 2024

Late start for us as we adapt to the timezone changes. We have an 11am walking tour booked but it ends up being a bit of a rush to make it! 

The tour is in central Hong Kong with Summer who is young and enthusiastic. 

• Hong Kong was given by the Chinese to the British after the British won the first opium war. British victory in the second opium war led to the territory being expanded. The Japanese captured the city during World War Two before it was returned to the British. The British turned it over to the Chinese in 1997. These changes in ownership have affected the people of Hong Kong who very much see themselves as Hong Kongers rather than Chinese or British. 
• The city currently operates under the one country two system rule but that is meant to expire in 2047. Not sure what will happen then… 
• The city is populated with a lot of refugees from China who came looking for prosperity in the city. Summer’s grandparents moved there for that reason with one of her grandfathers swimming across and her mother being sold to be a maid in Hong Kong until she was able to escape
• Feng Shui is a big deal particularly around the design of buildings. Building designers often get advice from Feng Shui masters. The HSBC bank building has an agreement with the government that nothing will be built between it and the harbour as that would be bad Feng Shui. The HSBC building was bigger than the bank of China building so they built a new China bank building which is even taller. It was also designed to be aggressive towards the HSBC building. This led to another business man trying to help things by putting a building in between to soften things and with lots of windows to mirror the aggression back. Other buildings in the area also have specific designs to neutralise the aggressive building. All very complicated…
• Under the HSBC buildings there are two lions which are the symbols of the bank. One of them is called Stephen and he was captured and damaged by the Japanese during the war. There is still damage to him that hasn’t been fixed as a memorial to the war. 
• We saw the first church in Hong Kong, Saint Joseph’s cathedral. The cathedral clearly doesn’t live up to the size, scale or grandeur of the cathedrals we saw in Europe but is nice in its own way. It had fans which I hadn’t seen in a church before. It can’t have air conditioning as that might lead to mould and damage. During the war the cathedral was turned into a dance hall by the Japanese. It was restored to a church after the war
• We saw the escalators that take people between the different levels in Hong Kong Central. These are meant to be the longest outside escalators in the world at 800m. It isn’t one single escalator through, but rather many different escalators – that feels like cheating to me
• Hong Kong is one of the most expensive cities in the world. This leads to a lot of issues particularly around housing affordability for younger people. Apartments are tiny, lack cooking facilities and are very expensive. Summer said that every day there are news articles about people taking their own lives because of the cost of living
• We finished at a traditional temple with the opportunity to make some wishes

After the tour we find an upscale food court for lunch. I have braised pork ribs on rice and it is great! Lisa has a scone which is very dry and she is not a fan. Maybe this will be the end of the scone obsession?!? We wander around Central for a while longer, but is a very busy place.

We train back to Kowloon. Lisa goes shopping and I go to the Hong Kong space museum. It doesn’t have a lot of content and most of what it does was already covered by the Deutsche’s museum in Munich. 

We walk back to the hotel and then Uber to the airport. We had hoped to have a shower there as we often do this with later flight departures but can’t make it work this time. Seems like a facility that every airport should be offerring! 

Dinner is hamburgers and a beer. The flight to Christchurch is smooth and easy. Alan picked us up at the airport and then we were home to reality and Enid 🙂

Overall thoughts on Hong Kong

• Quite similar to Singapore. Big Asian city but with a clear western history and influence
• Felt a bit soulless as times
• Great infrastructure, especially the transportation systems
• Nice place to stop for a few days, but probably wouldn’t come here as the focal point of a holiday

Our first week back is busy with by the Foo Fighters concert and Beer Fest!