Tag Archives: Hong Kong

Travel

Kowloon Park

One of the great things about a place with such an enormous population density is that everything is a stone’s throw away. So, across from the Haiphong Mansion of our stay (entrance just behind the luggage shop!),  was one of many main entrances to the underground railway MTR, besides which was a mosque (which we didn’t even realise was there), and behind which was Kowloon Park.

Time for a stroll before catching up with some relatives for lunch, the park offered as most parks do respite from the hustle bustle and craziness of urban life. I’m reminded of a Ron Cobb cartoon where, after the forest is cut down, the ground levelled, the wildlife evicted, and the concrete towers erected a man looks out of his highrise window and thinks: Man it’s a jungle out there.

A surprising number of animal enclosures existed in the park – a cross between a modern conservation zoo and a menagerie. A nice respite from the crazy few days of activity to pack in before packing it in.

 

Travel

Hong Kong Day 1

My words of advice to sister Sarah was that the Japanese as a culture are uber-polite and this ill prepares you for the hustle & bustle of Hong Kong, where if you fell over, chances are that you’d get trampled.

I thought I’d use the opportunity to practice my ever rusty Cantonese. There were two unforseen disadvantages of this – firstly my Chinese appearance; which ironically prejudices me in Australia, here the assumption is that I’m a local with all the knowledge, wit & wisdom of one. Secondly by using Cantonese, the locals assume I can fluently speak & understand it, which I don’t.

Whilst waiting for a 7-11 attendant to give me verbal acknowledgement to proceed to the next stage of a purchase, it was gruffly pointed out to me that I was standing around like an idiot and why was I waiting to compelte my transaction. And buying my ever useful Octopus card,  I was almost bowled over by an 80 year old because I was holding up the queue (waiting innocently for the sales clerk to becon me).

The Octopus Card is a must have. This stored value card is instant, works at all pocket change stores, can be topped up instantly anywhere, and works instantly on public transport (the future rude shock of return to Melbourne’s Myki awaits).

Travel

Osaka to Hong Kong

And so it was with a little sadness that our trip to Japan was over. We’d a little time to kill in Kansai International Airport, so we did some wandering around and checking out the souvenirs to be had. I happened upon an English translation of the manga “Ghost in the Shell” and snapped that up.

Unfortunately we almost missed our flight as we neglected to factor in the number of minutes to catch the intra airport express train to the actual flight terminal. Oops! Got used to the ‘little’ international at Tulla. Or the even littler one at the Gold Coast!

Travel

On Asian toilets

I’ve been to Asia before, so squat toilets are not a novelty. Perhaps stinky, unusal, requiring a lifetime’s coordination, and daunting, but not novel. I’m reminded of a recent trip down the Hume Highway, we made a pit stop at the Benalla BP & McDonalds to fuel, freshen up, & use their conveniences. We had the misfortune to use the toilets 10 minutes after a busload of Chinese tourists had gone through, and other than especially poor aim, I am still trying to picture how people were doing what they were doing as there were footprints on the loo seat.

Puts you right off.

We’d gotten used to the Japanese squat in our Osaka residence with only the mild fear that the door handle of support might snap sending us toppling into mixed company areas. The superb bullet trains also give you a choice of Japanese or Western-style so at least the art of balance at 300km/h is not always required.

The Japanese Bidet was also a revelation, not only for the gentle squirting of cleasing warmed water, nor for the post clean air dry blower, but for the controls. Should you be presented with a toilet seat and electronic controls, on no account should you look down and assume the squirty button is ‘flush’ unless you’d like your face washed. The flush mechanism is usually attached to the cistern.

Convenience stores also tended to have publically usable (usually Western) toilets, and we came across a particularly beautiful one at the Nara museum. We discovered a few weeks later though that the hygiene standards and availability of public Western toilets were not nearly so good in Hong Kong…