Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Tuesday, February 3 Entry

February 3 Entry from New Delhi India
We’ve arrived safely and soundly in India and have gone into hiding for a day or two. No sight seeing. Little venturing out. Just trying to assimilate all that has gone before and clear my sensory palate before trying to take in teeming India.

We spent three days in Hong Kong, Friday through Sunday, Jan. 30-Feb.1, one of those nights on the ship and two in the Kowloon Hotel, upgraded at the generosity of Volkmar and Inge to the business floor where we had round the clock internet/coffee/tea/high tea/ and breakfast privileges replete with a sliver of a view of Hong Kong’s harbour.

I was expecting Hong Kong and Singapore to be similar but they really aren’t. Hong Kong is built on hills while Singapore is quite flat. The river in Singapore is crossable by a short footpath while traversing the bay in Hong Kong requires a ferry ride above or a metro ride below. While the business sections of both involve many sky scrapers, it feels much denser in Hong Kong; similarly to NYC, daylight doesn’t really get down o the street unless the sun is lined right up with that street. Even the hotels are thirty or forty story buildings and they are packed in on the bayfront and hillsides. Our hotel is immediately behind the world famous Peninsula which we of course had to peruse, admire but not partake of high tea, and avail ourselves of the only $20 glass of wine I ever drank. I consider these visits to the fabulous and historic hotels of Asia to be one of the highlights of the trip.

Another difference: the climate in HK is a gorgeous California mid seventies with cool mornings and evenings. This makes all the difference.

Friday morning a group of eight of us left the Azamara Quest (berthed in a cargo facility to try to avoid the costs of a bay berth given the terrible losses the line is experiencing, we think) and headed for the city. Michael (the guest diamond jewelry dealer and lecturer), his wife Yvonne, Inge, Volkmar, and an Austrian couple whose names escape me had kindly taken Cindy and me in tow. Michael had been on board for the ship’s previous voyage which took the same route but in reverse so has had an idea of things to see all along. The ship provided a shuttle to the central metro/bus/train station; we used each of those services as well as taxis during the next three days, mastering yet another Asian metro system. Much more complicated than the others, this one requires lots of walking within stations just to get to the right train. It’s the only way to go though since the traffic is brutal. Not as many motor scooters as previous cities but tons of cars and pollution. Lots of people sporting the ever popular medical mask.

Our first stop was the top of the highest peak with its breathtaking views of the city - and we had a clear day for it. Next, following Volkmar’s great find of a guidebook, we walked DOWN a good part of the way via a jogging/walking path which wanders down the hillside and lands in what I guess you’d call Chinatown. Except now we are in Hong Kong and it’s all Chinatown. We found a place for lunch. I use the word place because I’m not sure even how to describe it.
Something like a NY Dim Sung parlor, banquet hall, wedding hall, night club. Terrible service by waiters who really did not speak English (or German) caused us to miss the fact that there were a couple of menus with food that might have been good; instead we ordered off a check-off-your-choices dim sung menu. Who knew whether an order of one of anything would yield, in fact, three to a plate gelatinous rolls of stuff like shrimp or veggies? Kind of yukky but an experience.

Next stop: a grocery store and Starbucks, a gambol through the marketing streets of the city which truly is teeming at all time of the day. I probably saw some strange items but by now strangeness is not registering in my brain quite the same way.

Michael then led us to the Peninsula’s upper floor bar for the aforementioned glass of wine.
Buffet dinner of the ship and packing. I think we are all actually tired of so much food and - well, just tired. This was the last night and we said our good-byes, put our suitcases out by 11, and prepared for the transition to the next chapter.

Saturday mornings disembarkation (isn’t that a weird word?) was smooth and orderly. Like many other serendipitous happenings, Cindy has received an email saying that the hotel at which we had reserved a room was unable to process her credit card and they would have to cancel our reservation if they didn’t hear from us. Great news because it was going to be much simpler to hang out with Volkmar and Inge if we were in the same hotel. That registration and upgrade completed, we headed out for the flower market and the bird park/market. The flower mayrket is self-explanatory but the bird park was a totally new experience. It seems that the men of Hong Kong have bird collecting and comparing as a major pastime and that they congregate at the bird market with their own birds to compare notes. Presumably there is a fair amount of competitiveness at play here, maybe like all suburban American men mowing their lawns or comparing golf scores.

Aberdeen, a section of the city on the bay where hundreds of fishing boats are tied up, female only sight-seeing boat hawkers make visiting uncomfortable, and a huge fish-market occurs each morning is basically shut down by the time we get there. As is the herb market where Volkmar is pretty sure we should have been able to by tiger penises - an Asian version of Viagra. Too bad, we missed them.

We’d been saving ourselves - or our appetites - for the high tea that we thought would be just like that we’d observed the day before at the Peninsula but a few paltry salmon on white and turkey on equally white were all that were to be had although Cindy did manage to peel and eviscerate three mangos and serve them up. So we repaired to the bar where it turns out the upgrade provided for unlimited drinks rather than one each. There was only time for one, though, because we had to rush down to the waterfront for the nightly laser show. There are lasers situated on the tops of all the big buildings on both sides of the bay and their antics of light are correographed with music piped off the pier. We loved it. And following Lynn McBrier’s suggestion, we boarded the ferry across the bay to see the lights by night. Truly as memorable as she had predicted.

Sunday found us joined by another Austrian couple, Heinz and his daughter. (Michael and Yvonne, Ned and Jeff had left early on Saturday morning) Both Heinz and Volkmar had determined the perfect itinerary for the day and it was a lovely subtext to watch the cooperative efforts of these two accomplished and at times headstrong Germanic tour guides! We metroed to the bus to the gondola ride that goes high above Landau island. Bussed down the hill and back up crossing the island to a monestary which houses the world’s largest Buddhas high on the peak. The monestary is really quite a tourist trap but also quite well done and Cindy and I found the temple to be one the loveliest ones we’d seen - and we’ve seen a lot. Three huge gold Buddha’s, the hundreds of donated flower arrangements, here all orchids and peonies, and truly grand paintings and architecture were just fabulous.

Down the hill by bus to a fishing village where the market was in full swing. We are totally exhausted by now; bus to the BIG ferry (not the little one which just plies back and forth) to the little ferry and straight to what’s left of tea. Having learned our lesson, we got to the free drinks and hor d’oevres right when it opened, enjoyed two hours of R&R and headed down for the light show again.

Good buy, Hong Kong. A five thirty in the morning wake up call and the next chapter begins. I can’t end without noting that there is a train to the airport, like in many cities. But in Hong Kong, each airline has offices in three of the metro stations where you can check your luggage and pick up your boarding pass. Amazing efficiency. Amazing to not have to drag your luggage. We loved it.

Okay, rating time: Most interesting experience city, Hanoi. Favorite city, Singapore. Most interesting experience, the new year visit with Thuy’s friends in the village outside Hanoi. That’s it for East Asia. We’re now off to South Asia!

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