Hong Kong
7th March 2014: I really don’t know how to sum up my two days in Hong Kong but I will try. Have you ever wished so much for Christmas to come as a child, only to be hugely disappointed? Well, that is just about how I felt.
Don’t misunderstand me, Hong Kong is truly spectacular. There are towering skyscrapers of every shape and colour with bits chopped out of them or holes punched through them which turn into electronic billboards at night. It has more tourist attractions and things to do than could be done in a week, from simply walking around the Markets, to Museums, from simply taking a Star ferry to the Space centre.
So why am I disappointed you ask? Well, We arrived in a heavy, cold mist and left two days later in a heavy, cold mist. I came looking for Hong Kong “mysterious city of the East”, but instead I found Hong Kong, “city obsessed with money”.
Having parked beside the Star Ferry terminal in Kowloon, to get to the tour bus we had to walk through one of the newest, largest, most expensive shopping centres EVER and from the moment we got on the bus until we got back 10 hours later, our tour guide never stopped talking about MONEY. How much a flat cost, how much a car cost, how much a penthouse cost and how much it had gone up in value over the last five years (doubled), even how much Jackie Chan paid for his number plate! (Nothing, it was given to him).
All in all Hong Kong is in one great big property boom, which is interesting as when I got back on board ship, on BBC World there was a programme about China’s burgeoning debt problem getting out of hand…..is this familiar to anyone?
Don’t get me wrong, in the back street’s you can still pick up made to measure suits next day, Chinese silks, watches and electrical items, but lots of shoes and clothes I noticed were now all imported from Cambodia and Vietnam.
Even the floating harbour at Aberdeen where people are supposed to live on their boats seems to have suspiciously clean water with eagles fishing and is well stocked with multi million pound playboy yachts.
People may disagree with my feelings on this post, but I can only report what I found, the people themselves were friendly, the streets safe but crowded, clean, everything worked but somewhere for me it lacked…something.
So as not to end on a downer, in the harbour there are at least a dozen old ex cruise ships quietly rusting away. These fill up with office workers in the evening and then struggle out of port to spend the night drifting around in international waters and finally then limp back to their berths or anchorages for the morning rush hour to work only to do it all again the next night. Yes, they’re gambling boats. Why rent an expensive apartment when you can save all that money by cruising the night and gambling and if you are a regular you get free meals and board. Just think how much money these people must save!
PS Would I come back? Yes.
