We shouldn't complain though, because for most of the 5 days we spent in Honkers the chances of the fireworks actually happening looked rather grim as the area got set upon by a week of continuous rain, low cloud and cool weather. Having been to HK on the way back to Oz in December and experiencing poor vista visbility due to the pollution, we were hoping for some better luck this time but it was not to be. At least we got there with less travel problems than last time though, with the plane departing on time and us landing into HKIA around 10pm on the Friday night. Having been slugged with a $300HK last time for the taxi ride into town we decided to try out the Airport express train into central and although it was not much cheaper in the end it did offer a few advantages over the road option - not having to line up for the taxi, and having a train with WiFi capability if you had one of the local provider accounts being two of them.
I'd actually been telling people for the weeks leading up to our trip that we were staying on the Kowloon side of the harbour. As is the way though my typical male 'attentiveness' to the verbal communication efforts of my significant other meant that (as usual) I didn't know my arse from my elbow, and we were actually staying in the same place that we did on our last visit on the island. Having been impressed by our last stay, I was slightly annoyed to find that the harbour view room we had been given did not actually face down the end where the fireworks would be based. It was also a slightly smaller room than last time (having been upgraded previously for free), but we settled in happily after the long day and planned to ask about an upgrade option the next day. We knew though that this time it would certainly cost us - Chinese New Year is peak time in any city under the red and yellow star flag.
The next day (and all other days for that matter) it was cold and generally miserable weather-wise, so we were well and truely underprepared dress-wise. We had shopping on our minds though, but even though we were freezing our arses off the search for winter clothes really took a back seat to other retail therapy priorities. My main target was an iPhone for myself, after Amy had purchased hers in December as the test case and successfully proven its functionality and worth in what is a very unpredictable Chinese mobile market (where WiFi capability on handsets and PDAs is disabled on models made for the domestic market). Also on my list were a few t-shirts that didn't have Jeep, Ferarri, Polo Ralph Lauren and any other high-class label that they sell counterfeit in the local markets. At the end of the day there did apperar to be some measure of success, as we came back with two iPhones in hand (one for Amy's work colleague) and a few shopping bags of clothes to pack into the half empty cases (including some Astroboy kit which was particularly tasteful). Our best find though had to be a a set of t-shirts from the new Cantonese 'DelayNoMore' brand which uses a very well known curse in a very tongue in cheek manner (the 'Hi. Ciao. DelayNoMore'. being the least subtle of them). For those not aware of the connotation, track down your closest Cantonese-speaking friend and say to them as fast as you can 'DelayNoMore'. Warning - your friendship could come to a sudden end.
The next day we decided to play the weather odds and head on down to the bay for a harbour tour on an old Chinese Junk. The Duk Ling looked like a ship straight out of the movie 'Enter the Dragon', and my lack of martial arts experience and Bruce Lee physique aside I felt a bit like I was on that fateful trip to Han's Tournament (For those having not seen the film I'm sorry. REALLY sorry). It was a short trip and it was windy and cold but even with the low clouds having set in the views of both Kowloon and the Island were great, and worth the budget price of HK$50 it cost us.
The Duk Ling coming into dock, ready to unload one set of passengers and refill with another set.
Me on the Duk Ling, Victoria Harbour, HK. Very beautiful, even in crap weather.
The HK Convention Centre (Island side).
Kowloon side of the harbour.
Maddy and I on the Duk Ling
Trails in the Rain
One of the much-talked about activities that you can do in HK is to leave the city behind and head out for a hike or a mountain bike along one of the many great trails that are located on the islands and in the new territories. While I did not have the opportunity to get the bike thing happening, we were all very keen to hike along the best known track on the HK main island called the Dragon's Back, which on clear days gives spectacular views over the South China Sea. So we grabbed some sandwiches from the local subway-type shop up the road from the hotel and followed the directions to the start of the trail as per the guide book. The ease at which we found it is yet another testament to the ease by which you can move around HK as a tourist. The trip to the trail head was as easy as getting our closest subway line 3 stops in the opposite direction to Central, then jumping on a bus waiting just outside the subway station until we got 'just past the roundabout' 15min up the road and over the hill to the open ocean side of the island. As we jumped off the bus at the described spot we were confronted with two roads, one of which we needed to walk up. Our unsure look must be common at this point for those on the hunt for the Dragon, because the bus driver knew exactly what we were looking for and pointed us in the direction.
I had read about this trail on the recently reformed HKMTBA site as one of the great mountain bike rides to do on the island, and as I walked along it and eyed off potential rocks and tree roots that one might hop and launch over I could see why. Some of the sections were fast and flowing, while other sections were real big-travel bike terrain with hairy rock gardens clinging to the side of a steep hill threatening a serious drop off to the right for those who binned it. Didn't take me too long to decide that this is a place I'm coming back to with my Giant Reign X before I hang up my MTB gloves.
Maddy at the start of the Dragon's Back Trail that we hiked along (in the rain) while in HK.
Section of the Dragon's Back Trail.
When we got back to the hotel from the hike soaked from the rain and me nearly wretching on the soggy sandwiches we'd had for lunch along the way we were very thankful that we had decided to upgrade our room package the day before. The upgrade to the Harbour View floors not only gave us a bigger room with a view down the harbour to the fireworks - it also gave us access to the Executive lounge on the top floor of the hotel with free cocktails, wine and afternoon tea and evening snacks daily and also an even better place to view the fireworks from. Notwithstanding the three days effort it took me to confirm our access to the lounge with the staff member at the front desk (including a discussion with the head Client Services Manager) it was well worth it and made our stay even more enjoyable and really offset any negative feelings we had about the weather.
Our other activities during our remaining days in HK included a trip on the very touristy Hop-On-Hop-Off bus (an extension of the UK open-top double decker bus company), which actually gave us our best view yet of the HK area layout. After doing a lap of the mainland loop we jumped off at Mongkok and checked out some of the markets there in search of an Astroboy suitcase that I hasd spotted on the plane flight down to HK. No luck in HK unfortunately, but we have managed to source one here in Beijing as long as we can agree on a price (which is sometimes the trickiest bit of the transaction).
Even with the low-hanging cloud and the downright cold and wet weather we stil had a great time, with another trip up to the peak and this time finding our way to the SOHO area of the island where a range of western restaurants allowed us to get away from the expensive hotel buffet dinner option. The amazing thing about finding this was the discovery of the 'midtown escalator' which is actually a string of 15 or so escalators that take workers from mid town to downtown in the morning, and home in the afternoon. There are stop-off points along the way allowing you to access the various restaurant and nightclub areas. We are keen to go back for a third time, as we had decided to give the ferry ride to Macao a miss this visit because of the weather and the CNY holidays. And we are also in search of that elusive HK clear blue sky which I hear is a rare and endangered species of weather indeed. And we are also hoping that it's 3rd time lucky with the trip, having had a problem THIS time around with one of our bags not coming back on the same plane as us and needing to be dropped to the apartment at 12.30am in the morning by the airport staff.
On the way up to the restaurants in SOHO on the HK mid-town escalator. Photo by Maddy.
Aussie Coast Trip, Beijing Style
The weeks back from HK has been good workwise for me. Things have started to get busy, and I'm also delving into some of the core business of the department rather than just looking after the corporate side of the office. On Amy's side of the fence she has been busy with a month of delegations. For this reason we have kept our planned activities on the weekends to a bare minimum, although a few weekends ago we decided to change that and take up a friends offer to do a road trip with them out to a place called Shanhaiguan around 3hrs drive NE of Beijing. It's not only on the coast, but also a very significant part of the coast as it is where the Great Wall meets the sea, and where one of the most famous incursions into China from an invading force took place when a scorned man opened the door to the invading Manchurian horde in response to a bad first date (or something like that).
The drive out to Shanhaiguan confirmed my suspicions that China has more muppets behind the wheels of cars than anywhere else in the world. In the 3hr trip out we saw at least two big trucks that were "having a bit of a lie down" after the driver sucumbed to a combination of speed, slippery road or someone cutting in front of him and requiring him to take less-than-optimal evasive action to stop an accident between two cars (if a crash involving only one vehicle can somehow be considered better). On more than a few occasions our friend behind the wheel needed to quickly do a change of lanes as the person in the side lane to us decided he wanted to get to the space in front of us through our bonnet (and given that we were in a van with a tarago nose it was going to be a close shave). And while I did sleep the entire trip back to Beijing the next day Amy did tell me that there was another two accidents then both involving trucks.
When we finally found the hotel (thanks to Amy's iPhone - the built in GPS got us a bit lost) we found the lodgings basic but still comfortable. A bit like one of the older unrenovated beach apartments down the south coast that you might spend a week at if you couldn't affort the updated ones. Thanks to the cold weather though it was very quiet, but even so the local Chinese restaurant and the morning western breakfast later proved to be more than adequate (and better than a lot of meals we've had on the organised CCC tours).
The weekend schedule was very relaxed, but we still managed to get a walk in along the beach and then two walks along the section of the wall that not only meets the sea, but also sticks out 100m from the shore. If fact, it was more like 80m from the shore at this particular time of year as the ocean itself had frozen solid and was still yet to melt at the waterline. And while I could go on about all the OH and S issues of doing so, we did have great fun getting some photos while standing on the frozen ocean.
Frozen shoreline and the Temple of the Sea God in the distance.
Where the Great Wall meets the ocean.
Temple of the Sea God at Shanhaiguan.
Driving around the streets of Shanhaiguan we had spotted A LOT of fireworks stands - it was the last weekend of the Chinese New Year period, which meant the last weekend that fireworks could be sold legally. Having so far not partaken in fireworks shenanigans, we decided to grab some and then head on down the beach opposite the units and let them fly. What we found at the stalls though wasn't your usual fireworks, and not even your usual Beijing fireworks (which in themselves are bigger and more commercial in nature than the pissy ones that they sold in the dying days of the ACT firworks age). These 'provincial market' fireworks were seriously bigger, louder, less regulated and (even better) cheaper than the ones for sale in the City - damn near dynamite. As the photos below can attest to, some of them were essentially just lightglobes packed with gunpowder and a wick added. And with the old bungers being sold by the roll of 200 and jumping jacks by the roll of 2,000 we loaded up with 1600rmb worth on the Saturday night and went down to the beach to have some serious fun.
Amy with the biggest firework we found in Beijing. This one alone was 1600rmb.
The roll of 2,000 jumping jacks. Wrap these around a bridge pylon before lighting and you might want to check the foundations afterwards.
Maddy with the pile of fireworks we got for 1600rmb in Shanhaiguan. The big one at the bottom had 100 shots, and the two 'V8's on top 25 each.
The bungers. These do not mix well with hands.
After dispensing with the lightshow we headed back for an evening of wine and our first go of Mahjong, which I really enjoyed and managed to pick up quickly thanks to all of the card games of 40 I tend to play with Mum whenever we have a deck nearby. (winning the three games we played that night did help though :-).
Still being the official cracker period up until the Sunday night though, we decided that some of these gunpowder puppies were necessary to bring some excitement to the quieter streets of Beijing. So off we headed back down the street and came across a different stand that sold not only the bigger variety of crackers, but also something that looked like a claymore (cylinder of clay with a wick out the top). While we had seen the powder globes the night before and passed them up, today we felt that they were worth a shot especially when the shop keeper warned us to 'be careful with these ones' - a safety warning in China is a very rare thing indeed and an indication that something could go horribly wrong. But, when a Chinese firecracker shop owner tells you that, it's like a moth to the flame for two males in a less firecracker-regulated foreign land.
Just the NAME of these hand-held shooters is tempting.
The powder-filled 'lightglobes' and the green tube you drop them into once you have lit the wick.
So after we had got back into the city and knocked down a couple of pizzas and wine we thought it was time to make some noise. We headed down to a small bridge around the corner from the apartment which crossed the now refrozen canal, and tried out the big crackers. Boy, were they fun. The lightglobes on the other hand were just chaotic, with the firing tube only lasting two shots before one of the globes blew the whole bottom of it apart when it was dropped in sideways. With no firing tube to direct them we proceeded to light them and throw them over the bridge onto the ice and found that that made for some very effective antifreeze. It was almost a hillbilly 'fishing with dynamite' experience. The good thing was that these had a long wick and you could throw them far away before the bang, unlike the bunger that went of in my hand (luckily gloved) when the wick burnt a bit too quickly. It was a close call, and fortunately I had some thick gloves on else my foray into darts may have been short-lived.
All that was left of the tube after the 2nd 'globe' was dropped in sideways and it shot out sideways.
As well as our adventures outside of Beijing we have also had some funny ones in town. A few weeks ago we decided to head off to the Olympic Park to check out a Chocolate Exhibition that had opened up recently, and while I'd rather eat it (remember the Cadbury Pavillion at the World Expo in Brisbane?) it was impressive to see the results of some creative chocolate moulding minds. Very pricey to get in though.
The chocolate Great Wall of China
The chocolate Terracotta Warriors
The chocolate Yao Ming
The only other real experience that would propbably best be discussed with a psychologist rather than to the entire world via a blog involves an awkward retail experience that I had a few weeks ago at the local market. On the hunt for some warm pants for the Harbin trip, I found a guy who sold a range of the fleece-lined dacks and selected two to try out. Now in the open stores of the market there are no change rooms per se, so they pull out a sheet and hang it across the front and stand outside while you jump in and out of the various sizes to check them out. My retail guy though decided that he wasn't just interested in my money, but decided to have a bit of a geezer at this geezer in his Reg Grundies. Even after a subtle "Mate, can I have a bit of privacy?" he still wanted to stand there and have a discussion with me all the while I was doing the old TV newsreader trick below the waist. So when it came to negotiating on his first price of 170rmb I offered to give him a discount on my usual charge of seeing me in my Rios - I would only charge him 50rmb instead of the usual 100rmb for the 'pleasure' of the eyeful and deduct that from the price he was asking. It might have taken him a while to get it, but he finally got the message that a) the personal space violation was not really welcome, and b) I wasn't paying his price regardless of the excuse I was using the drop the price. Now if only Amy can maintain her composure next time from the sidelines :-)
The next few weeks are going to be busy for us. Although Amy has got a quieter month with all the delegations gone, my work will be busy and I am also heading to Bangkok for a few days at the end of April for some training assuming the annual coup sorts itself out in the next few weeks. We are also looking forward to Easter, when we are heading down to Yangshuo outside of Guilin for the weekend with a friend from Beijing. Until we return from these travels with stories to tell be sure to take care (and if not, be sure to take photos).
Maddy getting a Henna 'tattoo' at the Indian Festival at her school last weekend. It was popular among all the kids. The school also didn't mind, even though many of them performed for Prince Andrew this week as part of her new school campus opening.
Just like the hamburger picture last post, there is no particular reason for this one except that I'll miss it when we leave China. Called 'Roubian' (meat bread), it's salty, oily and tastes bloody great.
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