Hong Kong - 1

 

9 October Cosmo Hotel, Mongkok, Hong Kong

 Since 1997, good old “Honkers”, that exotic bastion of British Imperialism in the Far East, has been part of the People's Republic of China. From personal experience, we can't tell how much of a difference this has made to life in Hong Kong as this is our first visit. We may be naïve, but Communist ideals seem far removed from this international city. Commerce and tourism hold sway. We will soon have more to add as we are heading to Beijing and Shanghai in a few days.

As usual, our flight here was fine, nine hours, a few movies and the odd TV repeat and we were on the runway. Armed with a pre-purchased tourist pass, we hit the MTR (Hong Kong's Transport System) for the Mongkok area of Kowloon. All was well until we alighted from our train at Olympic station. We had planned this down to the right exit number, but alas, things just weren't as simple as we had anticipated. Never mind, after a half hour or so, aided by our ever reliable Samsung Tablet and its GPS, we managed to find our hotel.

 Those who know us or who read our blogs, will know how much we love 'old Asia'. Yep, the smells, the noise, the street markets, and in the extremes, ankle deep dust and muck. Most of HK isn't like that at all of course. But, we have managed, yet again, to score the closest thing there is to it in Kowloon. Here, among the towering residential blocks and freeway overpasses, right across the street from our hotel, perhaps the last of the old Chinese shop keepers in this ultra modern city, still ply their trade out of two garage size 'holes in the wall'. Everything from pots and pans, tools and bolts of cloth to bales of dried “stuff', can be purchased if you are prepared to bargain and yell a bit in Cantonese. And, yes, they are still as thin as rakes, wear singlets and thongs and look at least 100 years old. All that is missing are the 'top-knots'.

 

On the tourist front, we took the historic Peak Tram for a view of the city and the harbour, but as is fairly common in Asia, the haze took away from the view somewhat. (Not to say it wasn't absolutely worth it!) On the other hand, indoors, the HK History Museum didn't suffer at all from the weather. Just fantastic, and to top it off, it was free today.

 

From our hotel window as we write, we look out on a veritable forest of high-rise apartment buildings. HK has more than 7 million people stacked up in these towers. By our standards, not much of a life,  but despite this, westerners still flock here for work opportunities. Walking in and around  the central city today, we commented that the balance between Chinese and westerners is much the same as it is at our local shopping mall. (We do live close to a large Chinese community.)

 STOP PRESS!

While we were out for dinner tonight, workmen closed off the front door of our hotel, the Cosmo. No simple window cleaning project this. We have been upgraded! The Cosmo is now the Kowloon Dorsett. Can't you just hear us?... “Oh, just back from a few days at the Kowloon Dorsett!”