Wednesday 19th December 1984 – Hong Kong
We decided to go shopping in Kowloon today as everyone
says it is more interesting on that side of the harbour. I also needed to get a
spare battery pack for my camera. It was our intention to go with David and
Chris, but they are very slow shoppers and tend to get started very late in the
morning, so we nipped off on our own. A wise decision because they got up even
later than usual as they been out on the night tour of the harbour which they had
enjoyed thoroughly. We had decided to give that tour a miss in the light of our
experience in Singapore.
Breakfast was in the Windmill Room
today – what a difference! Smiling faces, good service and a much better
selection of food. Rab was darned cross that we had been given tables in the
Garden Lounge yesterday and the day before. We also checked with the baggage room about forwarding
luggage, having drawn a blank yesterday, but they seemed very vague and offered
airfreight. In view of the potential problems back in Zimbabwe of clearing an
airfreight parcel and the chance of unaccompanied baggage going astray at this
time of the year, we decided to call TFC’s bluff and if we have to pay for
overweight, che sera sera. (In our
innocence in considering this option we had no idea just how much airlines gouge you for overweight
baggage. On one other occasion when we were overweight it would have been cheaper if we had bought another
seat and checked the luggage in as a passenger.)
Caught a cab to the pier where the
Star Ferry for Kowloon
leaves and had a brief ride across the harbour. Kowloon
is different from Hong Kong in many ways and
is much more tourist oriented. The first shop we stopped at was selling my
model camera: said it was an excellent camera: were surprised at how little I
had paid for it: had all the spare bits and pieces I needed: left me in a much
happier frame of mind.
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| Fresh garlic |
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| Checking the stock |
From there we worked our way up to
the main shopping road – Nathan
Road – and then into the back streets which were
more our style. Rab had been looking at pearls intermittently but now started
in earnest. We found a very nice little place and were very tempted to get a
string there, but Jim McDonough had said that his wife would give us an
introduction to a very good place, so we decided in the end to wait and see.
Headed back to Hong Kong and the hotel,
pausing only to buy Rab a long-sleeved HK sweat shirt as it was turning
decidedly chilly and we were going out on the Company junk in the evening. For
once they had my size but I didn’t get one in the end as I wanted a T-shirt.
This they didn’t have. It was quite surprising that I could not get anything to
fit me anywhere in Hong Kong considering the nice shorts I had acquired in Bangkok. (It was in Hong Kong that we became more
acutely aware of the variations in size in the system using S, M, L, XL, XXL
etc. Back home in those days, an XL fitted me: in the US an L would often be
OK, but in the HK I’d have to look at XXXL or even XXXXL – Japanese sizes was
the explanation!)
After meeting Jim at the office, we
went off with him like the Royal Family in his chauffeur driven Daimler to the
Peak where the company house was. The Lord only knows what that place was worth.
It is right at the top, with magnificent views. Marble floors and pillars and
Chinese carpeting everywhere. Jim says this used to be the 2 i/c’s house but he
felt the No 1 house was too big – it needed seven servants to run it. I do not
know how many servants Jim and Fiona run to. We just met the chauffeur, Jimmy
and the butler. (This gives a brief
insight into the life of an expatriate employee with one of the British
companies in the British colonies. It was generally felt within the company
that the best position was the Philippines
posting in Manila.
We never made it there, but apparently the house was like a palace with a dozen
or so servants. Although service terms for expats were generous, there was
always a good deal of complaining among most of the men – and even more so from
their wives, who were usually unable to get work permits and so lunched with
other wives, played tennis and cards and often tended to have a bit too much to
drink. We met a number of these couples at various conferences over the years
and always recall that the biggest complaint that the wife of one of the
Philippine’s managers had was that she couldn’t get any decent sausages. Used
to have to fly them in from Australia.
Boo-hoo!) But there is no ‘side’ to
Jim and Fiona is just as nice. They obviously get on well together and really
complement each other. Jim’s brother, Pip, was over from Australia and
seemed pleasant enough, if a little quiet.
After a couple of beers we headed
down to the Yacht Club to meet the rest of the party, Canadian woman Pat MacKay and her
parents-in-law from Calgary.
Her husband was at a formal dinner and couldn’t make it. It was a great
evening. We were met at the quayside by Lau, the skipper who was a Petty
Officer in the Navy. He had a sampan on standby and we made our way out to the
junk at a cost of HK$5 as opposed to the HK$200 we had paid on Monday. The boat
– Vagabond – is about the same size as Saida (this was a boat we were considering buying – for the company – in Zimbabwe)
but very comfortably appointed. The only slight problem was the swell that was
running. Junks bob about on top of the water and we really moved for a few
minutes. Rab and I didn’t mind at all, but the old MacKays were looking a bit
unhappy. We went across to a small island – Lama
Island – and the views of Hong Kong were spectacular. I was tempted to try a couple
of shots but we were moving so much that I didn’t think there would be a chance
of seeing any results.
The port of Lama
is very small – just a fishing village and we made our way right to the end of
the quay to Mr Wan Kee’s establishment. Wan Kee is very proud of the fact that
he was in the HK Special Police and has photos of himself receiving a medal
from the Governor. Pleasant smiling chap and delicious food, starting
with pepper prawns and working our way through ten or so other courses.
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| Before the food came |
The old
MacKays were a bit painful at first but I jollied old Edna along and she got a
bit pissed on her second half glass of wine. Pat MacKay was good value and the
evening became pretty noisy. It is messy eating a proper Chinese meal – Jim
reckons that the host would be upset if there weren’t pieces of food, soy sauce
etc all over the table. We had our doubts about this and wondered if it was an
‘ex-pat’ view. We were also told that you do not eat rice with any of the
dishes – rice is served towards the end of the meal, as a filler. It seems that
at a private function it is not the done thing to eat much rice since this
implies there was not enough food.
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| Fiona with an offering of ???? |
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