Get Down, Get Out

Hi everyone.
This piece contains events that took place at the very start of mine and Ger’s journey around the world, and although I didn’t write it in the last week of August 2004, it can be viewed as the first installment. Kind of like George Lucas re-writing cinematic history only without the inclusion of jive-talkin, floppy-eared giraffe men. Enjoy…
***
Hi Everyone.
I hope none of you are offended at getting a group e-mail, but time is
money and this is the shape of things to come and so on. Let me take
this opportunity to apologize to each and every one of you at the same
time.
Sorry.
The trip has been going well. Our first port of call was Heathrow – the world’s busiest airport. It is also enormous. How nice it was being reacquainted with this enormity on the ten mile walk through its scenic glass tubes and walkways. I suppose it helps if you think of the distance in football pitches. I don’t find that helpful. Owing to my thorough crapness at all sports, I have been to more airports than football pitches. I’ll be in the mile-high club long before I own a club jersey. Sadly the rushed meal in the little restaurant under the Tap and Spile pub would be my last taste of Europe. There was time for a look in the Duty Free shop. Ger and I both resisted the temptation to stock up on mags, Toblerones, Chanel, Vodka and all the other things one simply must have on a long haul flight (That’s a lie. No one can resist a Toblerone). I still think it borders on the ridiculous what they sell in airports. I mean, when have you needed an X-box or a Gucci suit on a two week sun holiday in Playa del Santa Booz? Needless to say, Ger and I found our gate after a mere hour’s journey through the citadel of dutiful spending. Strapped in. Forms filled in. Books and inflatable pillows at the ready and off we set into the friendly skies. Next stop – Hong Kong.
Upon arriving we passed through the usual rubber stamp entry formalities with a relative ease that would become a distant memory. A quick update on the political situation. As punishment for defending their territory from drug trafficking Europeans, China agreed to hand over Hong Kong to the British government for 100 years. It may have sounded harsh at the time but really it was quite beneficial. The combination of the Chinese work ethic with a bit of old fashioned colonial culture mixing turned the city into the international trade and travel hub. The Peoples Republic of China happily took possession in 1997 of a veritable money factory (I know these are actually called mints but I’m trying to be flamboyant so just go with it). Kind of like inheriting a Ferrari made out of diamonds with a gold robot chauffeur. Many in Hong Kong feared that their vast assets and prosperity would be rapidly siphoned off as soon as the deeds changed hands. Thankfully the new owners have had the sense to heed the gold robot chauffeur and haven’t wrapped Hong Kong around any telephone poles or sold the engine to slick talking con men. Yet. The region forms one of China’s Special Economic Zones. The SEZ is one of the clever ways China’s government gets capitalism on its own terms – patiently and without the rapid changes and corruption that hit poor Russia like a hurricane. No one could say that life or the economy is exactly the same as before in Hong Kong but development and trade have continued. The airport I arrived in is an excellent example of this.
In recent decades, the guys running things (Hong Kong has a Managing Director, not a mayor. How’s that for corporate?) could see that their main airport was too damn small and rather badly located. I think it was in between two blocks of flats, tucked away at the back of a noisy café. Pilots were having a hard time landing and the vast numbers of passengers were getting tired of spending two weeks queuing to get out the front door. They could agree on the food at the café – it was top notch. But where does one put a major international airport? Large open spaces were not all that abundant. So – and this really typifies their can-do / we-have-loads-of-cash attitude – Hong Kong made space. And I don’t mean making space, the way one does on a couch when Predator starts. They made their own island. This was no half-assed Thunderbirds job, like sticking a few hinges on a mountain. They demolished a mountain on one island, scooped it into the sea and joined it up with the neighboring island. Thus creating (no giggling) Chek Lap Kok Airport. It is situated 24 miles from downtown but fear not. Planners included a high speed train and new motorway, inadvertently building the world’s longest bridge in the process. The train ticket cost us $100 each. My heart began beating again when I noted the 1:9 exchange rate of Euro to HKD.
We were at our hotel before we knew it and sipping cold beer not too long after that. The lady we sat next to on the plane recommended we hit Wan Chai. One of Hong Kong’s many British ex-pats, she’d had fun in the bars and restaurants there. The only problem was that it was Monday night and everywhere we went was rather empty. Not easily discouraged, this was still our first night traveling after all, we soldiered on and finally found a bar with atmosphere. I can’t tell you the name of the place because I don’t think it had one. The front door was a curtain. Inside was a small collection of regulars (more ex-pats), a large selection of booze and a delightful bartender/DJ.
Firsts, especially when they coincide, are always memorable. Such was my first Chinese hangover coupled with my first real experience of humidity. Like most fools my age, my attitude was that I’d seen it in films and wondered what all the fuss was about. It’s about the worst surprise I could have had. Strolling calmly from the hotel, we exited the lobby and on passing through the curtain of air conditioning, collapsed. Well our plans of exploring the city did. Constant pit stops for cold drinks and dry clothes were required. We became rather indiscriminate. I think our first meal in China was in an Aussie theme pub. I’ve nothing against the blokes and their kangaroo milkshakes but we found ourselves thinking “Are we in China yet?”.
The answer was yes…and no. Hong Kong is host to peoples from all over the world. You can get just about any kind of food or clothing you want there. What might appear on the surface like an identity crisis is really just a city that’s embraced all of the cultures that made it, even if they do eat kangaroos. The more time you spend there you start to see things that are distinctly Hong Kong. Like the MTR. The city’s train system is spotless, air conditioned (thank God) and even lets you pay with a wrist watch (you can recharge the credit in your watch’s Octopus chip online – well smart). It will take you any where you need to go – even across the harbour to Kowloon. This journey is better done on the Star Ferry. The super-cheap, super-reliable, super-slow ferry service has been plying these waters since the Stone Age. To be honest a tourist like me would rather have it as slow as possible – more time to enjoy the sky line as the sun sets and the lights in a sea of skyscrapers flicker to life. On reaching the Kowloon side, Ger and I were rewarded with the most singular light show we’ve ever seen. A series of lasers and coloured spotlights began to light up and turn off again in perfect time to a piece of music being played over out door speakers to the spellbound crowd. It’s really something to watch razor sharp beams of light slice the night sky half a mile away and office towers appear and disappear in different colours as if by magic and all in time to the music. Breathtaking – another first. Are we in China yet? Yes, thank God, we are.
Fred.

On the Star Ferry

Tags: Airports, Hong Kong, Local Transport, Travel

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