Well I slept better than I expected and even though I woke for a while during the night it was a good rest I'd had. The hotel's breakfast room wasn't really set up for a hotel. About a dozen small tables with a few chairs scattered around. I ended up breakfasting with a chap named Tam. I think that was his surname though. As with all situations where you have two different cultures, the commonality for us was sport. To be fair he knew far more about the weekends UK football results than I did.
Traveling around on the MTR was becoming second nature and I was off to see what Hong Kong Island itself had to offer. It was a clear day, which isn't always the case, so I took advice and changed plans accordingly. My destination was The Peak. There are two ways to the top, bus and tram. The tram is considered the only real option as it is considered to be part of the whole experience, and that without taking the tram you will end up paying as much in extra bits to get yourself to the top that get included in the tram cost.
Considering the peak is talked about as one of Hong Kong’s must do visits, there isn't a MTR to get you to even the lower tram level, and it wasn't even close to one of the stops on my line. There was really only one thing that I could do. I would have to take the escalator. Odd though this may seem, it was an entirely logical step (or rather stand still) to take. Additionally it would also be another attraction to tick off. Now I appreciate that this might sound daft, but these escalators just keep on going, physically and metaphorically. I didn't actually count just how many escalators there were, one after the other, but I never had to go more than a few yards to the next on in the chain. They only went in one direction, which was up for the majority of the day, thankfully, and I was glad that I was only going part of the distance back down to get to the peak tram. I can't imagine how annoying it must be to time your trip badly and end up being sent back the way you came.
One of the things that I was starting to notice about Hong Kong was the little surprised that you find tucked away in the middle of nowhere. Well not nowhere, but where you least expect them. I suppose with the place being so small and steep they have learnt to economical with the truth. Strolling down from the top of the mid-levels, (I wasn’t going to wait 18 hours for the escalator to change direction), much to my surprise I came across the Botanical Gardens. To be fair I was approaching it from the wrong direction, but it was still a surprise and even more amazing, it was free. Now that might not seem a big deal, after all there are lots of gardens in England that are free to get into. Mine for example, though if you are visiting, a bottle of wine or a few beers would not go a miss! The thing about this place was that while it was called a botanical garden, it was actually far more. It was also a mini zoo. Far bigger than the central park zoon in Manhattan, and far less to get it! Quite an extensive collection of birds, though due to a suspected outbreak of bird flu there were all behind double netting. At least the place was still open. One of the local parks had shut its aviary section. There was also a mammals section and, obviously a plant section. All this was fascinating, but I couldn’t spend too much time there as I had a train to catch. Well not a train, but a tram.
Continuing on down (not difficult as I’d gone quite a way up) I eventually came to the Peak Tram. The tram has been operating for year and is probably the easiest way of getting to the top. Buses go there, and for the adventurous (and I have some friends who would be), you can walk it. I wasn’t going to be adventurous today. The tram was one of the ‘must do’ events and they have made a tourist attraction out of it. It was interesting to see that you can officially queue jump here. Now queuing isn’t necessarily a specialty in Hong Kong. At certain times if you aren’t forceful enough, you do get left behind, particularly on the MTR. However this was different. This time, you could pay to queue jump. It would get you into the Madame Tussards at the same time, but I was here for the tram. The dummies could wait for another visit. If need be they will cram the tram full of people for each ride. This means standing for some. Normally an easy feat, but with the incline involved, this wasn’t going to be easy. There were some ledges in the floor for people to be able to keep their balance. Unfortunately for me, where I was standing they clearly hadn’t finished the work. Not the normal Hong Kong work ethic I thought I as stood there leaning forward at a silly angle, trying not to slide backwards. The only thing I suspect that stopped other people laughing at me was that those next to me were in the same predicament.
Difficult as the tram ride may have been, it was at least short, well under 10 mins, though I suspect that if it was in the UK it would have taken double and there would have been a change onto a bus half way up for engineering works. What was stunning was the view. Well worth the short ride up. The difference in weather was noticeable, and while I was glad of the fleece I was wearing, a jacket would also have been useful. Down in the center of Hong Kong the wind doesn’t get up too much. The tall buildings tend block the wind and because they aren’t all at the same angle, you don’t get too many wind tunnels forming. Up here through there was nothing to slow the wind down. Not even the tallest of buildings in the city. Obviously it was a time for photographs and I got some funny looks from people as I tied by camera to a railing so that I could be in the picture as well. I wanted to explain to them that it wasn’t a matter of trust. I didn’t think that someone was going to be running off with my camera. It wasn’t that sort of place, they knew it and so did I. They just thought I didn’t. The only reason I was tying it up was so that if the wind blew it off the railing it wouldn’t fall into some inaccessible place. However I think had I tried to explain that I would have looked more foolish, so just kept stum.
The peak is often called the top of Hong Kong, it actually isn’t. It’s a bit like Gibraltar in that respect. You can go to the highest point, but you’re not actually at the top because that’s a MOD base and you tend to get chased out of there unless you’re filming a James Bond movie. To be fair there isn’t much more above the peak, but there are a few scatterings of residence, including one very grand place. Apparently it’s meant to be more desirable to live on the peak as there is less pollution. An awful lot of wind, but less pollution! There is plenty to do at the top. You can go for walks, shop, eat and even have a Starbucks. I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed back to the tram station. The queue to get down is just as long as the one to get up, but by a craft bit of waiting; I managed to be first in line for the ride down. This time I could pick my spot. This time I would have no silly stances to keep my balance. The ride down, looking down is a little like a slow moving rollercoaster on the downhill section of the ride. You keep looking down into the abyss (well Hong Kong) and never pick up the speed you are expecting.
Touching down gently at the end of the tram ride, I headed on down towards the central area of the city. Once again there was a pleasant surprise awaiting for me that I nearly missed out on. In fact I walked straight past and only then decided that maybe I should have a look. This was Hong Kong Park. It was only because it was highlighted on the map that I changed my mind. Otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered. But like the botanical gardens, this was a little green gem again in the middle of high-rises. In fact this place created more of a contrast than the botanical gardens as the place is right down in the middle of the financial district. You can stand in the park and have to crane you neck up at some of the tallest buildings in the area, most of which are glass based. The park is a real sanctuary and I can see that lots of business people would use it for lunch to escape the city feel that would otherwise overcome them. It’s well landscaped with waterfalls the lot. They’ve even made some of it a nature reserve, though I’m not entirely sure how you can manage that in such a built up area, but they have, apparently. They’ve got some wildlife there and the most photographed had to be the terrapin that had got itself seemingly stranded at the top of a rock. It was rather cartoon like with its belly balanced on the top and its head and feet inside the shell. I have to wonder what it would do to get down, but I suppose that it would just have to lose its balance and tumble down the slope into the water. Not the most dignified of exits from a high point.
I was doing well for time, so I thought I’d put in a visit to another recommended site. This time is was the Mo Mann temple. It meant a bit of a detour, but so far the book had been good with its recommendations and from the queue when I got there, I thought that it would have been right again. Maybe it was just me, but I came out disappointed. Possibly I missed most of it, or there was a hidden room, but there wasn’t a lot to it and the queuing took about 15 times as long as the visit. Only problem was I wasn’t at a theme park on a ride, so the excitement factor was lacking. Possibly it was the fact that as you entered the temple, all that people wanted you to do was buy more and more incense sticks to light in the temple. I realize that this is what they do, but having all these stalls in the grounds of the temple seemed to cheapen it a bit. Possibly if I had bought some, I’d have been shown the hidden room or given a guided tour. I didn’t, so the visit was short and I was soon on my way again, only this time a little more wary of the books advice.
It was now going to be little bit fine, but if I timed things well I would turn up at the ferry terminal, just in time to catch the sightseeing Star Ferry. I’d walked a lot so far and a chance to rest my feet for an hour would be welcome. Timed almost to perfection, I walked more of less into the terminal and onto the boat. I had seen it coming in, so I knew which was the front (not as easy as it sounds, and you’ll see why in a moment) and walked through to get a seat where I could video the interesting parts of the trip. It was then a bit of a surprise that the ferry moved off and I found myself going backwards. I now knew why the boat looked symmetrical. It was going to change direction of travel each time it called into a tour stop. So much for another well worked out plan. I had no intention of changing ends of the boat every time it changed direction. My directorial decisions would have to be compromised instead. The tour itself was informative and took me further along the harbour that I would have gone otherwise.
Having caught the sailing bug, I decided that the only way to get back to the mainland and the hotel was to take the official Star Ferry. This is the way that the natives travel (apparently), though most seemed to be making use of the far faster MTR and the road tunnels, but I’m assuming the researchers in the book have done their homework. They hadn’t and while it was a nice gentle and unrushed trip, it was pretty obvious that this was now more of a tourist route than a business route. Whoever the PR bod is at Star Ferry, they deserve a pay rise because they are getting the ferry used far more than it would otherwise be though their sections in the tourist guides.
There was just enough time to have a quick recharge (quite literally for the electronics) before catching the nightly light so again, this time so I could video it rather than take stills. Sadly it was another day when I wasn’t going to get the English translation of the story, still never mind. (It was only at the end of the visit that I found the bit telling me what translations would be held on different days. I felt a little foolish, but I wouldn’t have been able to make it on the English days anyway, so I felt less bad).
A very long day, so that was it. Bed called.
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