Mark Smalley

Saturday, 2 Apr - Hong Kong
In the lounge at Melbourne airport we get used to Hong Kong. There are about 70 Chinese happily chattering away and only a handful of occidentals at the moment.

An interesting experiment will be performed during the flight, I'm going to measure by how much my legs expand. The 'before' measurements are 21 cm ankle and 34 cm mid-calf.

A guy opposite is folding paper planes almost all night.

As the approach customs, there's a special camera pointed at passengers to check who has a high temperature, very clever.

ATM $3000, about €300.

Check for a possible early seat allocation for next weeks long flight but told “only at check-in”.

Bus A21 ($33 each) takes 40 min and leaves us only a couple of minutes walk to Booth Lodge (http://boothlodge.salvation.org.hk ), just off busy Nathan Road.

What a contrast between tranquil Tasmania and hectic Hong Kong!

We're there very early and there aren't any rooms ready so we take a hike down to the harbour opposite Central, the island with the famous skyline.

Suprisingly there's no GPRS reception. I enquire in a camera/phone shop (where we buy 5 video tapes for $200) and apparently it's normal, you have to pay extra for HK.

We enquire at Visitor Information about the free trips for tourists on the Duk Ling junk and we're able to get the next one departing at 1000. There are about 12 of us in total and it's an hour in Victoria Harbour, giving us a good overview from the water. We get dropped off on the other side, Central, which suits us fine.

There are a few wedding parties simultaniously having photo's taken outside City Hall. Inside, on the 3rd floor there's a busy dim sum restaurant. The dim sum get wheeled past the tables on carts and the contents are shown and explained. If you fancy something you get it, with a rubber stamp on the card that is tallied up at the end of the meal. We have about 6 different dishes, coming to$233. Great fun.

Then we walk to HK Park with a walk-through aviary with 800 birds of 30 different species. Also a conservatory, pool with turtles and fish, Tai Chi garden, viewing tower.

It's warm but hazy, so the views aren't that good today.

Walk back to the harbour, take the world famous Star Ferry for $2.20 each back to Kowloon and walk back west of Nathan Rd through Kowloon Park, do a bit of shopping. At 1540 we're back at the hotel having already seen a fair bit of the place.

Our room on the 11th floor is fine; airco, fridge, tv, bath, but no tea/coffee facilities. Not all that spartan for a Salvation Army place.

I realise that I forget to do the 'after' leg measurement so that's a little project for our next long haul.

At 1830 we venture out again, to take a look at the Temple Street Night Market and to get an evening meal. The meal is at Hing Kee on Temple St. Deep-fried chicken 'cake', green veg, chicken and rice cooked in pot, with a couple of 640 ml beers for $90.
As a contrast, 2 coffees at our modest hotel cost $50.

posted by Mark Smalley @ 1:10 PM