Written By Kevin Clare
Frazzled, and driven mad by spoiled toddlers and the daily grind of boarding the metro, going to Dashi bus station to get a bus further out into the soulless fringes of the Panyu “residential estate area”, I needed a break and something of a rejuvenation. A friend called and announced she was visiting Hong Kong and I was duly instructed to take some leave and be there for this happening.
That feeling of taking a bag to work, full of nothing to do with work so you can make a mad dash for the train after being trapped with some feisty three year olds is one of life’s better experiences. And knowing that I was bound for Hong Kong, where I was guaranteed to get an injection of the fast paced, cynical yet positive and over excited medicine that only HK can provide meant that work was just so much better.
Having an equal love of both the city and the country side, Hong Kong never disappoints me. Boarding the KTT is always a good way to start: Simple, efficient, and if you decide to drop a few more Yuan bills, you can sit in first class which makes you forget that the Metro even exists. Crossing the border from Shenzhen into Hong Kong is always good for me to appreciate the changes that China has undergone in such a short time, but for me to also appreciate that Hong Kong territory is a lot more green and you actually get to see some relatively untouched country side so close to one of the world’s most built up areas.
I arrive at the station, and I hear all the familiar noises of the MTR system which I find comfortably nostalgic from my student days in Hong Kong. I walk through the busy tunnels with my iPod blaring and a spring in my step, having long forgotten that annoying brat who was trying to turn me into her personal scratching post just a few hours before. I meet my friend in Tsim Sha Tsui, but feel a quiet drink along the Avenue of Stars is a lot more fitting for a Hong Kong welcome than a night getting dressed up and going to one of the Island’s many new chic bars. My friend had also just got off a long flight.
I stay over on a friend’s couch. And get up early, which is a rare phenomenon, and march my friends off to one of my favourite breakfast joints in the Mid-Levels: The Flying Pan, where I consume my body weight in eggs, bacon, coffee and read real English newspapers which have not been “happied up” too much! Fuelled and ready to go, I did the tour guide thing and as always in this city, I discovered things that I had never encountered before, and had a grand time in the Mid-Levels wet market among the many things that appear strange to my friends’ unaccustomed eyes.
After a bout of obligatory shopping, Dinner is at Gaylord, which is a slightly pricey Michelin Starred Indian restaurant, a stone’s throw away from the less salubrious, but just as delicious ones found in Chung King Mansions. However Gaylord does come without the side of Safety Hazard that Chung King Mansions offers. I note this and am grateful that I am staying at my friend’s house, as my other option is Shanghai Guest House, wedged somewhere on the 16th floor of Chungking and the elevators are operated by elderly slaves! They are that slow.
After basking in capitalist hedonistic excess for one day, we decide to bask in capitalist hedonistic tourism excess and take the cable car to see the Big Buddha! I had been informed that an improvement had happened, and they weren’t lying to me! All the tourist shops look fancy, and the lady that used to hawk corn near the stairs is gone! They didn’t add an escalator to the Buddha yet which surprises me, knowing how modern Chinese tourism adds convenience machinery to everything nowadays.
Our “spiritual rejuvenation” complete, we need more food and off to Lin Heung Lau we go, ferried by a mad taxi driver, and this is quite the statement for a Mainland China resident. An entire duck, deboned, and stuffed with eight “treasures”, then glazed and baked overnight arrives at the table, ready for demolition. The wait staff do not attempt to use English at all which makes the experience even more authentic.
More shopping is required by my friends, who are clearly enthralled by the availability that you will not find in Perth, so I find a bookstore and some coffee and hide amongst a selection of books that simply cannot be found here on the mainland. After some heart to hearts with my now ailing bank card, I saunter out with a few books and magazines, and find my friends, who clearly do not suffer from a rather slim bank balance, or they just earn in real dollars.
Sadly, a fun escape needs to come to an end, and after the goodbyes, I reluctantly return to the train station, board a CRH train…no KTT for me, and head back to the grind of living in the lurching madness that is boomtown China! Somehow I feel calmer, more optimistic and slightly readier for challenges again after I have been among the psychosis of Hong Kong…It does that to you.
Want to see more and experience more, please visit: http://www.beingfunchina.com/magazine/the-getgo-vol-15/
