Hong Kong in late December

There hasn't been a lot to write about on this trip so far as we were prevented from going too far afield by my lack of visa. We put in my passport to the Japan Travel Agency on the morning of the 24th of December but couldn't get it back until the 31st because of the intervening holidays. The price has gone up to HK $600 for a multiple entry 6-month visa. I will get at least 2 uses out of it and maybe a day trip to Shen Zhen as well, but time is already running out!

I arrived at 3 pm on Tuesday 23rd December after an uneventful trip, during which I slept some and spent the rest of the time reading a book (The map that changed the world) I had bought at the last minute at the airport. An interesting account of the life of William Smith, the "father of modern geology". Scientific backbiting and snobbism was rife in the 18th century, it seems.

I took the bus to Hung Hom, but was too late to start the visa process as I needed a photo, having left my last one at home. I had some trouble finding Eddie at the station, but we finally connected and took the MTR back to Fanling, where I had my photos done.

On Wednesday (Christmas Eve) we finally got to the Travel Agency to put in my passport for the visa, after which we visited the Museum of History since it was Wednesday when entry is free. As a bonus, we met Alex Ip for lunch at the Royal Restaurant at One Peking Rd. We had a very nice lunch with him, then took the Star Ferry to Hong Kong-side. We spent some time in IFC listening to a choir of young people who sang right through their (considerable) song book. The performance lasted at least 30 minutes and showed off their talents to advantage. It was tiring standing for so long, so we repaired to Dymock's Book Shop for browsing and a chance to sit down, before going on to Sham Shui Po for some shopping. We took the MTR, which was very crowded and hot, but it's not the most comfortable travelling on a holiday eve. It was a relief to walk back to Mongkok in the cool of the evening.

We paused to look at the Brighten flower shop which was filled with interesting flowers and floral decorations, large and small over 4 floors. The website isn't in English but certainly displays the variety of goods and is worth a look. We hardly had time to look at everything, but Eddie has photos for the memories.

On Christmas Day, we had a quiet morning, then went for a walk up the road to enjoy the afternoon. We trailed through part of a village and deserted roads before taking a train to Shum Shui Po again, where we had a Christmas dinner of wun tun soup, and bought some electronics, notably a wireless router, which I spent Friday setting up.

After wrestling with the router, we took a walk to Sheung Shui for shopping and bought fish for tea.

On Saturday we got a bit of help with the router from our ISP - mostly to do with making sure all the computers can get email. I was happy to have a computer of my own to use again, and so far it's been well-behaved. After a sleep we went to Tai Po just for a wander. We bought some pork bones and made soup for tea.

Sunday 28th was grey and overcast, so we rested in the morning. The local Fanling flower show provided an afternoon's entertainment - we saw a range of orchids and other pot plants, a hyacinth macaw hiding at the top of the cage that wasn't in a mood to be on display, a cockatoo, mounted trays of insects (mostly beetles and butterflies), enormous millipedes (pictured), giant fish and tiny fish and interestingly coloured goldfish, reptiles including snakes, frogs (tree and albino), lizards, a nest of scorpions, and a chameleon (green).

The associated stalls were selling orchids for very reasonable prices, along with spring bulbs and garden ornaments. One had tiny pots and vases of artificial flowers - all very lifelike, and quite expensive. I would have bought Eddie a tray of jonquils but he jibbed a the $280 price. We were going to go further but went home when it began to rain.

Monday 29th was still overcast but not wet. We went for a walk round back of Sheung Shui, across the Indus River and through a cemetery, which we found unexpectedly. It was a taxing but interesting sortie that occupied 3 hours. The area was desolate and showed signs of having had a fire go through it - probably at Cheung Yeung. There were many grand graves tucked into the hillsides among the grass and scrub and we fossicked about the paths and byways. You would have thought we were the only people around but beyond the hills we could see the towers of Shen Zhen, just across the border. And of course, not too far away were the various tower blocks and complexes of Sheung Shui.

We bought some beef on the way home and made beef soup for tea.

On Tuesday we took another walk up to Sheung Shui to get some eggs. We had to wait a while for the eggs to arrive, and since it was cold and wet, we took the opportunity to wait in a warm place and visited our representative at the bank.


New Year's eve was cloudy and grey again but not too cold. We took a trip to Hong Kong again, mainly to pick up a prize Eddie had won by doing a survey for JP Morgan. The prize of a "travel kit" (wallet and baggage label in a fancy box) looked flash, but we both thought its carry bag might be more useful.

We walked through Hollywood Rd area just sightseeing and then finally found the restaurant that Eddie had been to before with May and Roger Sai Louie, where we had a small lunch of wun tun soup, which we later supplemented with bread rolls from the Catherine bread shop. They would have been extra tasty with a bit of butter.

Since it was Wednesday when the museums are free, we trooped up many flights of stairs (on the heritage trail) to the Dr Sun Yat Sen Museum. It was well worth the visit, although we couldn't stay to read every inscription under the exhibits as we had to collect my visa and get some money for our stay in China on the weekend.

In the evening, we met Alex Ip and Mr and Mrs Wong for a dinner at Tai Po. We had a very interesting menu of Chiu Chow cooking, which included spinach soup, a steamed fish, breaded deep-fried prawns and a very sweet cabbage. We finished with a dessert of fried and steamed dumplings. Naturally we were too tired to see the New Year in here - but we also missed the New Zealand and Australian tickovers despite intending to mark the right time.

A walk in the park

Monday 7 January

We were getting ready to burn the CDs of Yuk Tim's photos, when Alan Richardson, Eddie's school friend, rang to invite us on a walk. He said it was an easy walk, mostly on the flat, so I envisioned something like a walk along Tamaki Drive . We agreed, but warned him that we had to be in Kowloon for a dinner engagement with Alex Ip at 7 pm.

We met them at Sha Tin New Town Plaza, from where we took a 299 bus to Sai Kung, a picturesque fishing village surrounded by country parks. The next bus (94) took us to Pak Sha Wan or Hebe Haven The area is very rural and quiet on the weekdays - on the weekends it is filled with trampers and picnickers.

We headed off uphill past a pretty barbecue area among trees (with a nice clean toilet), and then towards the coast through a village (that was the easy bit) on to a walking track similar to the one we took last year round the Tai Tam reservoir. Tamaki Drive it isn't! Narrow paths are set with boulders and rocks which can be hard on the ankles, but we are grateful for steps when the going gets steep. Alan said the map indicated a climb of 160 metres, but I reckoned I could feel the air getting thin.

The air and water in the area is quite clean - we stopped for a rest at a very quiet and beautiful beach where there was very little rubbish washed up. It was a pleasure to sit and bask in the sun, thinking if this is winter, we could have more of it. The lack of humidity made the exercise enjoyable. We met very few people during the day, although on the weekends it is more crowded. Some cyclists passed us - I wondered how they negotiated the steps and narrow passes, but obviously they didn't find them major obstacles. Hong Kong's country parks are all well-kept and well-used - a major asset to the territory.

We hadn't had much breakfast, and forgot to pack provisions apart from our water bottles, so we were feeling quite hungry by the time we stopped for lunch at Hoi Ha Village at 2.30ish. The meal was disappointing, perhaps because it wasn't a busy day or tourist season, The main attractions at Hoi Ha are the remains of an old lime kiln, which was the area's industry along with fishing, and the beach, where we spent a few moments. Once refueled, we were able to carry on to the next village Alan wanted to show us.

[I thought the meal of 2 small oval plates of fried rice and noodles, a bottle of Qingdao beer, a can of coke for Weiming and a cup of tea each for Annette and myself for HK$140 was grossly excessive. Assuming the beer was $30 and the coke was $15, and the tea @ $5 /cup it would have been $85 for the food.-Tourist trap ripoff!. Maybe they charged me $50 for going to the toilet. They should have paid me for watering their garden. E.H]

Pak Sha O is a restored and renovated village (there is a good description of it at the link), with ex-pats making it a haven, almost English in its gardens and neat houses, though the one pictured isn't really typical as it is more traditional in style. An old chapel is also a feature. There are many other tumble-down buildings around - but Eddie felt it a bit far from civilisation to set up house there.




After our tour of the village, we caught a mini-bus to Sai Kung then immediately caught another to Choi Hung, from where we took the MTR to TST.



We arrived in plenty of time to meet Alex and his family, who are longstanding friends. Unfortunately, his first choice of restaurant had been booked out for a wedding, so he settled for a Chiu Chow meal instead, which we enjoyed, although I think we agreed Cantonese cuisine is best.

After dinner, we had a short walk around the waterfront before catching our respective trains home.

It shouldn't rain at Christmas in Hong Kong

And luckily it didn't. There was rain overnight, and we feared it would last the day, but once the sun had risen, the clouds stayed but the rain stopped.

We set off after breakfast to deliver a present to Jacky Chan, a friend of long standing, who teaches at a school for the mentally disabled in Mongkok. It took us longer to get away than we expected, but we met him at about 10. After an exchange of presents (another scarf for me - this time a more tasteful one than other years), and a short chat, we went our separate ways.

We walked on down to TST, through the wet markets. I haven't been to a really good outside wet market for years, and this one was like those of the old days with stalls piled with fruit and vegetables of every kind, dried fish, dried mushrooms, biscuits and cakes, butcher's shops festooned with meat and entrails, poultry shops with hens in cages awaiting the chop, clothes and haberdashery. I didn't see any baskets of frogs or small birds as we used to see at Sham Shui Po years ago, but everything else was there.

After browsing our way through the stalls, we stopped off for a quick bite of dim sum at a restaurant we'd not visited before. We had spare ribs, shao mai, chicken's feet and prawn rice rolls - all tasty and well-cooked. Eddie found it more expensive than he expected at about $9 per dish, which is a reflection of the current state of inflation.

We continued our walk past the Jade market (not open) and down Canton Rd, through the Harbour City complex to the Star Ferry, where we crossed to Wan Chai to look at the computer centre. Lots to look at and reasonably crowded with more foreigners than at the Golden Computer Centre - I think I heard a Kiwi accent in passing. We checked out several floors then continued walking to Central.

We went through the Wan Chai market - this one has been tamed and is mostly in shops rather than stalls on the roadside, and seems to have shrunk from the days it covered several streets. We couldn't find anything that suited both of us for lunch so we carried on walking down Hennessey Rd till we reached 3 Pacific Place. I thought this was where we could see Christmas decoration, though the main buildings are 1 and 2 - but we went to the first floor just in case, and discovered a group of young handbell ringers performing carols. This was well worth the stop, and we enjoyed listening to them for 15 minutes.


Continuing on to 1 and 2, we found that the decorations weren't quite as mean as Eddie thought - the theme was "White Christmas" and featured several Christmas trees and an ornate Santa House in European style.

Having enjoyed the decorations, we went through Queensway, then on to Statue Square, where there is hardly any glitter and sparkle. The main tree is skeletal - a cone with some gold strings inside, surrounded by a few angels. It's not as tall as last year's tree which was across De Voeux Rd and seemed much more impressive, if only because that one looked like a proper Christmas tree.


While we were having a rest, we were asked by a visiting couple to take their photo. Eddie got talking and found out they were from Beijing, on a day trip to Hong Kong. He is a retired shipbuilding researcher, with very good English. We helped them get on the MTR for Lo Wu, and hope they got back to Shen Zhen in time to meet the friend who was taking them on to Guangzhou by bus.

We crossed the harbour again, and bought something for tea from Wellcome in Harbour City, sitting outside the Cultural Centre to eat. We had a long wait before the performance (6-7 pm) that we wanted to see, but it was worth it. The young a capella singers were clever and entertaining, well deserving their applause, and a larger audience. (Hayden singers on Youtube 2006?).

At the end of the concert, we walked back through the crowds to the train - unfortunately many of the subways and exits were blocked off and we had a longer walk than intended to get to the station. East TST was colourful, but not as busy as we expected. I think the hawkers who used to add liveliness selling their coloured lights and santa hats have been banned. There didn't seem to be as many impromptu carol singing groups as previously, unless the night was too early for them. We were tired, and keen to get to bed, so we didn't wait round, and took the next train home .

Back in Hong Kong

Nothing much of note has happened in the past few months (the life crises I've touched have all been other people's), but now I am back in Hong Kong till mid-January and there may be more days worth a diary entry.

I left Auckland in the early hours of Thursday 20 December, and arrived in a windy, grey Hong Kong morning. I was home by 8 a.m. - unfortunately I had to wait more than half an hour for a bus, or it would have been sooner, as I was off the plane and through formalities in less than 20 mins.

Thursday was spent posting Mary's and Eileen's Christmas cards, and arranging a China visa for me. We got the passport in just before close-off time of 12 noon, and then went to HK side to see about lunch. Slim pickings there, especially after we waited for a long time at a stall in dai pai dong with no service. We left after nothing seemed to happen to our order and we were running out of time for an appointment at Jardine Flemings.

After meeting our adviser we came directly home, where I heard of the death of a long-time friend, Andrea French. It was not unexpected news, but saddening nonetheless, as we will not be able to attend her service on Monday. I was pleased to have seen her several times this year.

On Friday we went to see an old school friend of Eddie's who is retired and living in a village near Fo Tan station (Lok Lo Ha village). Apart from the 'Everest steps' one has to climb to get to his house - 114? I lost count at 10 and was out of breath at 30 - it's a very pleasant spot, with a good outlook, a hill behind for good feng shui, and not too many people around.

We went to help him with his computer - I did what I could and he seemed happy enough with the results. I hadn't worked with Vista before, but it wasn't too difficult. Anyway, he had done most of the work installing his own copy of Office and once I removed the second copy he had installed in frustration, it worked well.

The day was fine and warm, but not too humid, and we continued on to TST East to collect my passport and visa, had scraps from the supermarket for lunch, then came home for early dinner and sleep.

Saturday was spent at home, tidying up, and sleeping. We were both wide awake and busy from 2 am to 4 because of the early night, so we went back to sleep for a while, before doing some washing that became a marathon as more and more items were found to wash. Unfortunately the humidity was high, and with little wind and no sun, nothing dried.

Eddie fished out his portable clothes drier, figured out how to assemble it, and we had everything dry by bedtime. It was so much easier than waiting for the sun to come back out. The washing would have been mouldy first, although the forecast is for finer and drier later next week.

Sunday has slso been a day at home - we listed Eddie's books and he has spent more time scanning stuff before junking it.