Tie one on, in the Fong, Hong Kong

Rarely will our strategy of interspersing the more difficult countries with more familiar surroundings pay off better than it did when we arrived in Hong Kong last Wednesday. After the dust and dirt of India, Hong Kong’s gleaming new airport and futuristic shuttle train were as refreshing as a cold shower and the difference between the two countries belied our short flight. Yet again we were to be spoilt by the weather during our time in Hong Kong and while residents would tell us the city is often shrouded in a dense fog we enjoyed blue skies from the moment we touched down. As we sped into town we marveled at the busy waterways and high rise buildings clustered into the foothills of the mountains which rose up on all sides.

We were lucky enough to be hosted in Hong Kong by our very good friend Kate who many of you will remember from our wedding. Her apartment building was right on the waterfront with views of Victoria harbor but a short distance to the west of the ‘Central district’ where many expats live and work. We both noticed on the drive across town that the buildings in the surrounding area (while still exclusively high-rise), were much more varied than in other parts of the city and, although it shouldn’t have surprised us, at street level reflected the island’s overwhelmingly Chinese population. The pungent smell of dried seafood was strong even in the taxi and we saw groups of men playing cards on every corner.

Hong Kong allegedly has a fairly serious air pollution problem but after running through the downtown gridlock of Mumbai the humid air felt cool and fresh and so, after a short stroll around the area to get our bearings, I decided to try a run up through town towards Victoria Peak. It soon became apparent however, that after the first couple of blocks the thin strip of built up land that borders the harbor is dizzyingly vertical - often the sidewalks were abandoned in favor of concrete staircases and roads were built as tight hairpins to give cars any chance of making progress. For 25 minutes or so I shuffled up and down trying to find my way through to the park which always seemed to begin the other side of a last impenetrable line of tower blocks but eventually, with the help of a clearly amused security guard, I found a path and began climbing through the dense forest.

I have run, off and on, for 18 years now and as Megan will testify am prone to get stroppy if I’m unable to get out on the road for more than a couple of days at the most. In all the tens of thousands of miles that that time equates to there are only a handful of runs which I still remember distinctly. For the beauty of the scenery I’ll never forget the Tour des Dents de Midi in Switzerland or the Motatapu Icebreaker in New Zealand. For other reasons I’ll always have a soft spot for the Sodbury Slog, the Col d’Aubisque and perhaps a few more. To that short list I can now add that first run up Victoria Peak. From the moment I entered the park the sounds of the city, already little more than a murmur, died away completely and the only sounds were of my breathing and the occasional trickle of a nearby stream. Although there was no respite from the gradient, any suggestion of heading back was hushed by occasional but spectacular views of the island’s coast through breaks in the foliage.

These were just preludes however for the panorama from the peak itself which to my endorphin soaked brain was startlingly beautiful. From the plaza which marks the top of the famous cable car run, the whole of Hong Kong from the Center over Victoria Harbor to the most distant areas of Kowloon on the mainland was laid out like a scale model with the silent progress of ferries and container vessels the only visible sign of life. As if to put on a show for me the waning sun, which had disappeared behind a headland, cast the entire city in a vivid orange light with the last direct rays just catching the tops of the city’s many famous skyscrapers. Needless to say I didn’t have the camera with me but we hiked up together the next evening and caught the cable car back down to town:

Thanks to Kate we got to spend that second evening enjoying the quintessential Hong Kong experience - touring Victoria Harbor on a junk. Much as in Dubai we quickly forgot that we were supposed to be backpackers as the huge wooden boat and two staff arrived to ferry the three of us and a bottle of champagne around for the whole evening! Relaxing on the deck beds we took in the lights of the harbor and then spent an hour negotiating our way through the wakes of enormous container vessels to make it to a nearby island for a seafood dinner. While we are used to seeing ‘live’ crabs and lobsters sullenly blowing bubbles from the bottom of their tanks at restaurants in New York, the displays here were something else. Enormous shrimp fought to climb over the edge of their baskets, crabs snapped angrily at waiters as they tried to tie them up and even the cockles and mussels were trying to slime their way to freedom.

We did some more island hopping the next day and visited a Buddhist monastery overseen by the biggest (counting the lotus mount), seated, brass Buddha in Asia. Despite the somewhat specific distinction the complex and particularly the mountaintop setting was very serene and quite beautiful.

After getting our cultural fix we devoted most of the rest of our stay to the more traditional expat activities of eating and drinking in which we were assisted by the happy coincidence that Kate’s birthday and the annual Fong district beer festival both fell on our penultimate night. For the second time on this trip we ended up partying to the early hours to the sounds of a Filipino covers band though sadly didn’t quite make it through till the 5am putine stop.

Dim sum seemed the perfect antidote to the next day’s grogginess so we headed to the former City Hall for a huge buffet. On the way we were amazed to see thousands of the city’s Filipino housemaids enjoying their weekly day off by congregating under the downtown flyovers for communal picnics. While having a maid is common in Hong Kong as it was in Dubai it was startlingly to see just how many people are actually employed this way.

The infusion of dumplings and diet coke was so restorative that we decided to take the star ferry over to Kowloon for our final afternoon and explore some of the traditional Chinese markets. The atmosphere on this side of the water was very different from Hong Kong island with most of the less formal markets offering fake versions of the goods available for many times the price in the luxury stores only a short distance away. We also noticed that most of the hotels proudly advertised nightly and hourly rates lending the area a slightly seedy but more interesting feel. Eventually however the heat and the effects of the night before took their toll and not even tentacles on sticks could keep us from a well-earned DVD night before our morning flight to Bangkok.