From Hong Kong to Dubai

Apart from our firt day misunderstanding of what prepaid Octopus cards actually cover, public transport in Hong Kong is fantastically well organised. We used a lot of it while there, and all you have to do is swipe the card in front of reader when getting on buses, trains and ferries. But perhaps the most impressive was the ride back to the airport for our departure.

Our Octopus cards included the Airport Express fares, and with such a ticket, the train company (the MTR) shuttles you for free from your hotel to Kowloon Station. At Kowloon Station, as our friend Debbie had told us, you can check your bags in for the flight. One's confidence in this process is enhanced by the check in area looking just like any airport, and boarding passes as well as baggage claim tickets are issued there. Thereafter, the train takes you at high speed to the airport, with no luggage to lug around.

Hong Kong airport is one of the world's best - that's well known, but it fell down in one area for both our arrival and departure, and that was in the Immigration check, where long queues and surly staff greeted us both times. Everything else works so well in Hong Kong - why can't they get this important process right?

Our flight to Dubai was pleasant enough on Cathay Pacific. The 9 hour flight with a 4 hour time change and late night arrival makes for some very tired passengers. The horror stories about arrival in Dubai that we have read in the Sydney Morning Herald were confirmed but not fully borne out. Correspondents to the SMH have complained about immigration queues of 2-3 hours, but we only endured about 30 minutes, and it was torturously slow enough. Huge crowds of incoming passengers, even at that time of night, were being processed by large numbers of staff working very slowly, and in fact, most of them seemed to be doing nothing at all. There are no forms to fill in on arrival in Dubai, so everything the immigration people want to know, they have to ask you. It just seems so slow and inefficient.

But the rest of the airport works well. Our bags were dizzy from having been on the conveyor for so long before we got there, and the process of getting a taxi to our hotel was efficient and worked well, much better than it does at Sydney airport.

Dosed up with sleeping pills, we both managed a good night's sleep, and look forward to our stay in Dubai.

Hong Kong Update

The civic fathers of Hong Kong must be very pleased with the way that they have trained the population to keep the city clean, and to give up smoking. The fines for breaking these rules are substantial, which is no doubt why the campaign has been successful. Rigorous enforcement must take place, or at least used to, but it was not apparent to us.

The Temple Street night market is promoted as quirky, but it really just seemed to be a regular market, selling mostly cheap goods (we bought some socks), not much different at all to, say, Paddy's Markets in Sydney, either in the goods available or their price. The fortune tellers and Chinese opera singers, which are supposed to make this market unique, were mostly not apparent. What was interesting was the multitude of very popular eating establishments in adjacent streets. We noticed these mostly in Woosung Street. Tourists enjoyed mingling with the locals here, and enjoyed very low cost Cantonese cuisine.

At the other end of the spectrum was a visit to the Felix bar at the top of the Peninsular Hotel. This had been recommended to us by our travel agent - thanks Bob! You travel up to the 28th floor in a dedicated and suitably decorated lift. Lights are dimmed as you step out into the bar's lobby. Interior design at Felix's is fascinating, there are no straight lines, and no surfaces are horizontal, not even the ones you put your drinks down on. Of course, the view back to Hong Kong Island is stupendous, although venetian type blinds are an unnecessary distraction. The bar is very small, and we couldn't get a stool with a view, so we stood and soaked it all in. In such a location, you might expect the drinks to be way overpriced, but they were not, in fact barely more expensive than you would pay in the trendy hotels of Surry Hills.

Another touch of luxury we enjoyed was a very relaxed afternoon tea at the Intercontinental Hotel. The same view, stunning of course, but filtered heavily by thick pollution hanging over the city in relatively windless conditions.

Causeway Bay is a great place to visit, bustling in the city area, but calm and peaceful on Victoria Park. We were lucky enough the see the ceremonial noon day gun go off (see photo), and it's good to see that Hong Kong is preserving its traditional history from the colonial past.

For a change of pace from hectic Hong Kong and Tsim Sha Tsui, we took the fast ferry to Cheung Chau, an island about half an hour away to the south west, in the same general direction as Lamma Island which Mike visited on a previous trip. Cheung Chau proved to be a good choice for this excursion. It centres on a delightful and quite large fishing village. Hundreds of craft are protected within the artificial breakwaters. The township occupies a very narrow spit on the island, and it's only a short walk between the protected harbour side to a beach area on the other side. The beach was quiet, it being winter, but it looks as though it's very busy on weekends and in summer. The long waterfront features a neverending strip of popular seafood restaurants, and the back lanes of the town were a delight to walk through. There are no motor vehicles on Cheung Chau! There are some little gas powered buggies used by tradesman, but for the most part, people walk or bicycle around. We saw hundreds of parked bikes. The only regular vehicle we did see was a fire brigade van as it passed us, siren and all, on the narrow waterfront thoroughfare. Signage implied that no vehicles, including bikes, can be used on weekends. It's very worthwhile to make the trip to Cheung Chau!

Hong Kong Arrival

Our grand trip has started, with a flight from Sydney to Hong Kong. That was uneventful, mercifully shorter than the 14 hours flights across the Pacific that we have become used to. The MTR train trip into Kowloon from the airport is a lesson on how Sydney should run its train network. Clean, fast, efficient, frequent service, precision arrival at each station platform - everything that CityRail is not. Ticketing was confusing however - the much lauded Hong Kong Octopus Card is not all it's cracked up to be, but only because information available on what ticket is most appropriate is incomplete and doesn't answer obvious questions. For example, we found that the special tourist pass which covers trips to and from the airport and (we thought) unlimited 3 day travel actually does not cover bus travel at all, and you have to top it up for that. The unlimited travel is only on the subway system.

Our hotel is in the Nathan Rd area of Tsim Sha Tsui, and arriving at 7:30pm on a Saturday night was a great way to thrust us into the excitement of modern Asia. The first thing we noticed (apart from the endless touts trying to sell us shirts, suits, bags etc), compared with previous visits to Hong Kong, was how clean the city is - obviously great attention has been paid to enforcing anti-littering, and there is little or no graffiti. There are few cigarette butts around and not many people are smoking - how delightful! Smoking is totally banned in many outdoor areas.

We visited Stanley and its famous Sunday markets today, using buses to get there and back (which is when we discovered that our Octopus cards were devoid of bus money!). The thrill of rides on the top deck of Hong Kong buses are always a highlight of a Hong Kong visit. One has to admire the skill of the drivers negotiating the narrow, hilly, windy & crowded streets, and the views of the island are superb, although it's all but impossible to take good photos. At Stanley, I recognised a restaurant I had been taken to by friends on a previous visit. The photo is taken at the Stanley seafront, in a no-smoking outdoor zone. Not everyone could read the signs, though!

We also bused up to the Peak on Hong Kong Island. What a fantastic structure they have built up there since we were both here last. The view back to Kowloon was amazing, as it has always been, but it was quite hazy, maybe too much air pollution. And it was monumentally crowded. Sunday is possibly not a good day to visit the Peak. We decided to walk down rather than catch another bus or queue up for the tram. The walk was a great experience and we're glad we did it. There were very few other walkers.

Today was also the Philippino maids' day off. So the city, and every recreation area that we looked at, from the Peak, to Stanley, Repulse Bay, Deep Water Bay, and Central, is packed with them relaxing with their friends, and incredible sight.