Hong Kong

Aaaahhhh....shame.....bye-bye Hong Kong.... what a good place!!

This is a recent (2006) image - but - what a place!!

In the UK in October 1993, I'd been "retired" for about 6 months. I'd just decided that I ought to "try-out" retirement to see what adaptations I'd have to make to my way of life, and what I'd do with my time. It had all gone well - except that money was running out, and I could see that I hadn't reduced my expenses enough (something to bear in mind for the future).

Anyway I was phoning around trying to bum an odd dinner from so-called friends, and called Mike & Barbara Waller (see 1900 Programming), got through to Barbara who said Wal was in Hong Kong and she was zotting off there to join him very soon. Bugger - no dinner there then!!

Next morning - Wal is on the phone and asks if I'd want to do a 6 month contract for DHL in HK - yes - so by November 26th - there I was.

Brittsy had been to HK years before and had said "be prepared for total culture shock", but apart from billions of people, noise, overwhelming high-rise buildings and 90% unreadable signs (Chinese) I found not too much of a shock. Traffic drove on the "correct" side of the road, most of the bollards and traffic lights were like those in London/UK, and I soon realised that everything was close/near, so things got done quicker. I was in a hotel in Wanchai (the old red-light district which is great fun), with the office a 5 minute walk away - perfect.

Good old Wal, and the rest of the team - Rosanna, Wellsey, Edmond and Travis were very welcoming and the 6 month contract finally finished 2 years later.

Early on Wal had introduced me to Janet, and another long-term "contract" began.

What of Hong Kong......??? Great place:

Crazy - everyday you'd see something you'd never see in Europe or the US, and perhaps rarely elsewhere. Examples:
- the crazy boats in the harbour, how they avoided collisions (sometimes they didn't), with big luxury liners tying-up amongst the ferries, container-ship unloaders, general pleasure-boats etc.. There appeared to be no rules - through-traffic was continually "near-missed" by cross-harbour traffic, we even bought binoculars to watch the carnival
- how they build, buildings. If its a steel structure - the idiots walking out on girders with no safety life-lines - one story about them - below. If its a reinforced concrete structure - the idiots putting (and removing) the bamboo scaffolding. Two stories about them...also below....
  - Steel 1 - I watched one guy attaching the last 6 foot section of arial/lightning conductor/whatever, to the top of a 60/70 foot structure, on top of a 5 or 6 story part, atop an 87 story building (see The Centre below) one morning. Honestly, he was just standing on the ladder type rungs of the arial/etc, at the top of what had been completed, with this new section waving in the air above him, being lowered into place, with him trying to grab hold of it and steer it into place - then once in place - to secure it with bolts/welding - AND THEN - climb up it and release the crane tieline.
  - Concrete 1 - Our view of the harbour got obliterated by a 45 storey block of flats being built across the road from us. One Saturday morning we awoke to the sound of "thwack", "thwack" - loud, about every 10 seconds or so. What it turned out to be was the removal of the bamboo scaffolding from the newly-completed building. I watched this for about an hour - it was only 100 feet away. A team of "monkeys" ( no disrespect intended - and because of the amazing way those guys clamber up, along and down the bamboo - I'd expect that being called a monkey is some form of compliment) were initially, up at the top, cutting with a Stanley type knife, the plastic black binding at each intersection of 2 bamboo poles, manhandling each pole (as it became unsecured) - each pole is about 20 to 30 feet long - to one another, until it got to one guy, who held it vertically, lined it up with a point on the ground - and let it go!! Can you imagine?? A 30 foot long, 3 or 4 inch diameter bamboo pole being dropped from the 45th storey - to the ground, into an area 10 feet by 10 feet!! whether they considered the wind - I don't know - but the "thwack" sound was each pole hitting the ground after its fall. From time to time - the ground crew would remove the fallen poles - pile them on a lorry and take them off to the next building site where they were re-used. Whether the boys considered that the fall may have damaged the poles, and perhaps they shouldn't be used on high-rises again - I don't know.
  - Concrete 2 - I'm not completely sure about this - but believe that the way the bamboo scaffolding is secured - doesn't include any knots!! Imagine a grid (vertical poles crossed at 90 degrees by horizontals), with the poles being 30 feet long and the aim is to create "squares" of about 3 feet on each side. Where the poles cross, the monkeys remove a black plastic strip (from a bunch of about 100 hanging from their belts), which is maybe 3 feet long and quarter of an inch wide. They hold this behind each intersection, with one end in the top left, and the other in the bottom right, they then pass each end across the front of the intersection - then the back, (top left to bottom right & vice-versa) - do this a bout 3 or 4 times then hold both ends together at the front and twist them into a plait, then wrap this under one of the poles stuff it into the intersection. If I were doing it - I'd try to create a "tie" that went round each of the 4 "poles", and crossed from top left to bottom right, AND top right to bottom left, but the boys appear to only do top left to bottom right - what do they know that we don't??
- Cars/Homes - I used to walk along Bowen Road in Central, one big house there had 2 Rolls Royces, one Bentley, a couple of big Mercedes, a people-mover type van and a Jaguar. There were 13 maids/drivers/gardeners, more security guards - and one tenant. Maserratis, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Aston Martins, Jaguars were fairly common, and I reckon there are more Mercedes there, than in Stuttgart. Bear in mind that all cars cost about double what they cost in Europe!!
- Billions of people - Wanchai is bad enough, but Causeway Bay, parts of Kowloon and Mong Kok and Queens Rd in Central can be murder. But there are few altercations, and everything just..... flows...... I only ever saw one person bad-tempered - and that was a Westerner who was trying to kick the side of a passing taxi. He was trying to flag taxis down at a double-yellow area (no stopping) and was getting well annoyed when apparently empty taxis drove straight past him.
- One guy I worked with, was a runner/jogger. He was also a party-animal. He said there were times when he'd been out drinking, and was still sitting at a bar at about 06:00AM, when through the open front-door he saw a jogger run past, and his immediate thought was......"Idiot!!". There were other times, when he was up at 06:00AM, out running, and he'd see guys propped up at bars, through the open doorways, and his immediate thought was....."Idiots"!!
- Things you'd see on the streets.... a big, live turtle, waiting to be made into soup, live snakes being gutted etc.., old ladies pushing barrow loads of cardboard around at 03:00AM, people sleeping out on the streets
- Night Markets - that only open at 21:00 in the evening
Good fun - the night-life is good fun with bars open until (sometimes) the last punter leaves, lots of discos and more naughty places.
Speedy - things happen there very quickly, and I reckon its because HK is a "vertical society". Consider that you're at home on the 35th floor of an apartment building, when a friend phones to say, meet him in the office in ten minutes. Descending 35 floors takes a minute or two, there's always a taxi close by (except when its raining), and the office is in another 40 storey building 1 mile away - easy - and efficient!!
Good location - Getting out of HK is easy and there are plenty of places to visit. Entry into China is very easy, but close-by Guanzhou and Shenzhen are not much worth visiting, go to Macau instead, whilst further afield is Guiling and Beijing. Flights to Bali, Thailand, Philippines, Guam etc.. are easy
Chinese - the guy who invented Chinese (spoken and written) was an idiot!! He obviously did it to prevent the spread of any knowledge, which presumably he had, and wanted to retain.
Walks - on HK island you can walk all over the Peaks, there are masses of trails. I used to do Bowen Road - flat for 4 Km one way with good views over Central. Then there was the Morning Trail from Conduit Rd towards Western, up Lugard Rd then the trail itself - all uphill for about 3 Km to the Peak Walk - through the childrens playground and then up the trail to the top of High West (fantastic 360 degree views). Down from there, through the playground again - up the Governor's Walk to Mt Austin, down from there to the Galleria and Peak Tram, but take the Old Peak Rd down back into Mid-Levels. Brilliant!! At long last (June 2003) I've managed to cobble together a map and descriptions of some of "MY" HK walks..
Animal life - eagles - tens of them (I've counted 40 circling) everywhere trying to grab anything they can - fish, small birds etc..., parrots - noisy white things with yellow crests, butterflies millions of them - mostly black with iridescent blues and greens, dragon-flies by the thousand - and snakes - I only saw 2 in 8 years, both brilliant green with black and white, but friends say there are .... lots!! mostly Cobra type Kraits...eeeehhhhhh!!
Weather - winters get down to 6 to 10 degrees Celcius, but inside the apartment (with no heating and lots of draughts) it feels much colder - better to get out in the sun. Summers are 32 degrees everyday - I don't know why they have a weather forecast. The killer is the humidity during summers, and the best times are Autumn (October to December/January) - brilliant sunny dry days and temps around 15 to 25.
Things to see/do - if you're visiting - spend 3 to 4 days in HK - that's enough - visit The Peak (via the Peak Tram), walk around the 4 Km Peak Walk (its flat - no hills) for lots of views, go on the Star Ferry for the cheapest best waterfront views, go up the Escalator and stop in Soho, go to Lan Kwai Fung and Wanchai areas to soak up different atmospheres, Temple Street night market. Go to Stanley by bus - go up top and sit in the front seats on the right side - and hold tight - great views and a very twisty road (try to get the bus that goes through the tunnel going to Stanley, and the one that goes over the mountain on the way back. In Stanley, wander round the market (better prices on Weekdays) then have a drink/eat at one of the waterfront places. Don't bother with the Big Buddah on Lantau Island - lots of traveling - and its just BIG. Also don't bother with Ocean Park - its just a theme type park. If you are mad keen on shopping - then spend another couple of days (although HK isn't as cheap as it used to be). I don't like shopping so cannot recommend anywhere to go!!
People - some say they're rude, but I grew up around London and I prefer to live in a place where people do not consider you - and that's certainly true of HK. I don't like the small village set-up, where you know your neighbours, they know you - and everybody knows what's happening.
Air con - Air conditioning in HK is......cold!! They like it on full, and are quite prepared to air condition public walkways that are open to the elements - visit the Escalator Link alley where it goes into the IFC building, or just wander down Queens Rd past the department stores on a warm day - lovely gusts of cool air blasting out onto the pavement - madness!!
Typhoons - When a typhoon is about 300 Km away from HK the Number 1 signal is raised - its just a warning. When it gets closer, the number 3 signal is raised - people start getting ready to hunker down. Next comes a number 8 signal where Government offices, schools etc close, and people start stocking up on food/drink and videos. Most public transport stops (especially the ferries, although I think the MTR continues). If it gets to a number 10 signal - well that's bad (I only had one in 8 years), with flooding likely, and things being blown around - so its best to stay indoors. Impressive from the comfort of a 35th floor flat - although the building does shake/move!!
Taxis - are brilliant!! Always available, cheap and convenient. The only problem is that most drivers don't speak English - so you either have to get a Chinese person to write down your destination - then you show this to the driver, or you jump in - get the blank look, and he then hands you his walkie-talkie handset and you say "Stanley Market", give the handset back to the driver - and the dispatcher tells him your destination, in Chinese. All public transport in HK is good, and what a variety - buses, MTR (subway), mainline trains, trams, ferries and of course....... The Escalator - which is brilliant!!
Trees/Flowers - trees with fruit growing straight out of the trunk and branch, those Strangler type Fig trees, growing on near vertical walls, no earth, just roots on stone, lots of lovely flowering trees, shrubs
Contrasts - mad, racing noise, and just around a corner - a peaceful oasis of seats, shade... peace. Or, the 80 storey high-rises all glass and stone and modern, and next door a Mosque in green, shady grounds, or the old Governors residence amongst the hurly-burly of Central, 8 lane highways racing past narrow alleyways, or up in the New Territories - mountains and lakes/seashore and down in the valleys, more Expressways leading to towns that are just a collection of 50 or 60 high-rise apartment blocks with shopping malls at their feet.

Here are pictures taken from our last flat on Robinson Road, Mid-Levels, looking North down into Central, the Harbour and across to Kowloon. I'm trying to 'merge' them together to make a single view. The bloody great building in the third pic. is The Centre - 87 floors - and at night it has lights which change colour slowly - not gaudy - very impressive.

Left to right - Nolan and Helen Philipps lived in pink block at left. The 3 blocks (in fact there are only 2) a bit to the right with red top-floors are the Macau Ferry terminal - the next big block coming right - I cannot remember its name but the next one is The Centre, next is the small IFC then comes the Stock Exchange and then Jardine House.