2011 in Review: Trip to Hong Kong

Here’s an edited email I sent friends in early March about my trip to Hong Kong, which I visted in mid-February 2011. I actually felt overjoyed to be outside of Singapore. It made me wonder if I really missed London or if I simply loathed Singapore. As I wrote in the email, it was great to see people I knew again. I still remember getting out of Tsim Sha Tsui station, the weather was about 14 degrees and it felt like a chilly early spring day in London. I think I was literally jumping with joy. Somehow I felt that Hong Kong was a city of endless possibilities in a way that Singapore never could be.

"When I got out of Tsim Sha Tsui Station, I was just over-joyed and I had a smile solidly plastered on my face. As I went to my small box room I was still gleaming as I looked out the window, “I’m in HONG KONG!” - I felt like screaming to myself! (BTW – I would definitely recommend the place I stayed at for anyone planning to travel to Hong Kong. It was called Majestic House, it was in the centre of TST (one of the more happening parts of South Kowloon) and it was less than £30 a night.

If you ever come to Hong Kong you have to go to the south coast of TST at night. You get can the whole of Hong Kong lit up and see the array of skyscrapers that line the whole north coast of Hong Kong Island.

Hong Kong was a lot colder than I anticipated (though of course, nothing compared to winter in England – but hey, I’ve been in Singapore for the past month!).

Whilst walking around causeway bay one of May’s friends pointed out how in Hong Kong the shops layout is really 3 dimensional, as in shops aren’t just on the ground floor – instead you have to look up and all around you, making sure that you can be aware of the shops/cafés that have their signs and premises on the 2nd and 3rd floors of buildings. You can always find these great dessert café tucked away in the obscure places. In the central Hong Kong Island area you get a sense of grandeur, of everything being around you in a place that never sleeps. The food was of course amazing, particularly the Dim Sum. I rarely had any anything that I hadn’t had before, but the food was just familiar favourites done to a higher quality, the flavours were often richer and the textures were more balanced.

Hong Kong is basically Singapore if it was more lived-in, a Singapore with a soul. Exiting the station I realised how much Hong Kong reminded me of London (it was rather cold, considering I’ve been in an equatorial region for the last month!), with its bustling life and glooming skies (this was to remain for the duration of my entire trip).

Of course the main joy of Hong Kong was the fact that May and Christine (people I know! And they’re my age!) are there, and they know other cool people there. It’s hard to remove my joy of Hong Kong from my joy of hanging out with friends. It was particularly cool when we went out clubbing, since there did seem to be a huge community of English speaking Chinese (I was dreading the prospect of being in the dark whilst over a dozen people spoke Cantonese over me). The evening was great and of course I got drunk, I still can’t really remember much that happened on a 2 hour window frame. Though I more or less sobered up around about 5ish and took an extortionately priced taxi back to my place.

The next day I went met up with May and Xing Ni (one of May’s friends – though I’ve met her a handful of times since she studied at Imperial) for Dim Sum. My hang over was more or less kicking in whilst we waited for our restaurant seat – with me just about being able to muster the strength to use my chopsticks.

I did make a day trip to Macau, which I can’t say I particularly enjoyed (on reflection I probably should have made a day trip to the more rural parts of Hong Kong, such as the South Coast or the New Territories. Unless gambling is your thing, I’m not sure if Macau is really that worth it. It’s not that much of a big deal for me since you can gamble in London and as a foreigner I’m allowed to gamble unrestricted in Singapore (I think Singaporean have to pay a $100 entrance fee to their own casinos!). I went to a casino and I felt like “yeah, it’s a casino”. The Venetian is apparently one of the grander casinos, with Renaissance style frescos on the ceiling and gondolas giving rides in the canal that surrounds the casino. Though I think to really enjoy it you really do have to be into what the casino was made for.

The interesting thing is that whilst Macau has its own currency the casino gambles exclusively in Hong Kong Dollars. In fact virtually the whole of Macau accepts Hong Kong dollars (with the exchange rate being one HK dollar for one Macau dollar). The historical area was fairly interesting, though it pretty much just reminded me of Malacca (another former Portuguese colony in Malaysia). In fact besides the Portuguese road signs, there isn’t much that indicates it was a Portuguese colony a dozen years ago (though I’ve never been to Portugal and apparently there are a good portion of people who are bilingual in Cantonese and Portuguese). The more residential areas of Macau are pretty boring and extremely polluted – you feel giddy and suffocated with the exhaust fumes that surround you.

Hong Kong feels like a cross between Singapore and Macau. Hong Kong has the infrastructure of Singapore and the sense of being a developed financial hub, with the lived in worn-down accommodation, it has the dirt that makes it alive and real. However Macau feels like it has the bustle and worn-out dereliction of Hong Kong, but without the sense of anything really happening there. I imagine it’s what parts of Hong Kong may have been like in the 1930s before it turned into the New York of East Asia.

Anyway, loved my time in Hong Kong – hopefully I’ll be able make more trips in the future (the flight was only £130 return from Singapore!)”