Monday 17th December 1984 – Hong Kong
Bad day today! For start there is a massive low pressure system
sitting over Hong Kong, which doesn’t help.
Secondly it is very difficult to sleep because the smoke detector alarms keep
going off all night and the pipes are very noisy indeed. Breakfast didn’t help either because the
staff are very surly compare to the smiling happy people in Thailand.
The clouds were in quite low, but
the rain held off. It was not as cold as we had expected, but a lot cooler than
Pattaya with the temperature at 21C. we chirped up a bit on the coach – the
local guide Barry was very amusing. The coach took us to the Peak Tram terminus
in Cotton Tree Street
and we rode the tram up to the top. It was a great pity that the weather was
not good because the view from up there must be magnificent on a good day. We are hoping it will clear up so
we can go back. There was quite a wind blowing, which made it quite nippy,
especially as the coach took some time to arrive. From there we drove around
for a while seeing the sights, stopping at the Tiger Balm Gardens, which was
quite different from the one in Singapore and in rather better condition. It
must be really great for the kids because there are funny little caves and
staircases everywhere. I had a look around in the twenty minute stop, but no
one else did – they spent their time bargaining with the vendors outside the
gardens.
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| Junks at anchor |
On to Repulse Bay
on the other side of the island. It surprised me how underdeveloped this side
is. Admittedly it is very steep and I am told that the soil is unstable, but
that hasn’t stopped anyone building on the other side. I suspect that there is
more to it than that because there are some magnificent houses and luxurious
apartments in Repuse
Bay and the adjacent bay
– Deep Water – and I think it may be vested interests rather than building conditions
which prevent development. (On a
subsequent visit to Hong Kong in 2000, all
obstacles had been overcome as there had been significant development in this
area.) We had a pit stop in Repulse and wandered along the beach for a
while. There wasn’t much to see and I was a bit annoyed because we were all
ready to go at the stipulated time but Barry was still eating his Quarter
Pounder and fries from McDonalds and wasn’t hurrying for anyone.
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| "International flags" |
We went on through Deep Water to Aberdeen, which has an
enormous floating population of boat people, mainly refugees and illegal
immigrants who live on decrepit junks, many of which seemed to be rotting. We
were to have lunch at Jumbo which is said to be the largest floating restaurant
in the world and we were a bit annoyed to find that we were expected to pay
HK$25 a head to go on a sampan to get there. It was quite interesting, as we
weaved our way in and out of the junks, but we felt it was overpriced and that
we had been conned into it.
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| An interesting mural |
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| A dragon greeter |
The restaurant looked most
impressive – all dragons etc and highly coloured. Barry and Lynne were there
ahead of us, having taken the free boat trip supplied by the restaurant. We
toured the food store – all the fish,
prawns etc are kept in a large tank floating at the back of the restaurant.(I did not record a somewhat embarrassing
moment at the restaurant. We were being showed the selection of crabs when the
employee dropped one, which scuttled towards us. Since I have had some
experience handling crabs over the years I made a grab for the beast, avoiding
the pincers by grabbing the back of the shell. At that stage I discovered a
significant difference between this crab and the gentle ones I knew. This one
had needle sharp rear legs which it promptly dug into my thumb. Very painful.
As Rab said at the time “That’ll teach you to show off.)
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| Rab and I enjoy a beer |
Our table was on the second storey
and everyone chirped up at the thought of food. The menu consisted of twelve
courses and in typical Chinese restaurant style, the first five courses came in
rapid sequence. Then we waited and waited. And waited. After forty minutes,
David went over and politely enquired what was happening. We were told in a
most off hand manner that they were waiting for another TFC group, who were
about an hour behind us, to catch up. That news didn’t do much to calm the
troops and after another fifteen minutes had gone by with no further action, I
gave it to them, losing face in the process. I really was darn cross I must say
– what a waste of time. Well, that got the food going – they virtually threw it
at us. Everyone was very grumpy by the time the meal was over and we all
refused the group photograph. Barry was very silent on the way back and
Lynne was very apologetic, but it took more than that to mollify me. Still and
all, I was cross with myself for getting so annoyed.
I phoned Jim McDonough when we got
back to the hotel. He was very apologetic because he had to go to a carol
service but asked us to come around to the office as Benny Wong would be taking
us out to dinner. We caught a cab up to the office – no plobrem – which was not
as grand as I thought it might be. Jim gave us a very warm welcome and a couple
of beers and then Benny took us out for a quick foray to show us the “lanes”
between Hennessey and Queen Roads where there is a multitude of stalls selling mainly clothing and
handbags, all copies of well known brands
at very reasonable prices. Having worked our way up and down the two main
lanes, we made our way down a couple of blocks to meet his wife Anna and then
we all went along to the Peking Restaurant to meet up with Mike Burrell and his wife Jane.
It was a splendid meal which we
thoroughly emjoyed. Each course was delicious and the Peking Duck really
outstanding. There were a couple of ‘cabaret shows’ by the staff. The first of
these was when the maître de’
ceremonially smashed the clay surround of a ‘beggars chicken’ – so
called because the bird is wrapped in banana leaves and sealed in clay before
being baked. This to prevent the cooking aromas alerting the owner of the
chicken. Then there was the demonstration of noodle making which really was
fascinating to watch. A large lump of dough was slapped and kneaded and rolled
and stretched until, suddenly, it was a multitude of fine spaghetti like noodles. Really intriguing to
watch.
Mike had served with Richard
Lewis in Ghana
years ago and his wife is a bit of a pain, being frightfully arty crafty. We
liked Anna very much and of course Benny is very good value. They took us back
to the hotel and we phoned Matt at about 23.30. He was very chirpy which made
us happier, but I was still worried about our overweight baggage and my camera.
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