As the plane begins its final approach to one of the ‘hardest places to land’ and you release your white knuckled hands from the arm rest for a few seconds to lift the window cover and look outside, you are greeted with something fascinating. There is a line that runs along just below the horizon over Hong Kong, on one side of this line there are high rise buildings, fluorescent signs that advertise numerous digital companies and a spaghetti of roads full of flashing lights and flashy cars. on the other side of this line is a huge expanse of green. The entire city is surrounded by fields, jungle and waterfalls. the difference between these two environments is huge, and fact that they are resting next door to each other is an amazing thing to see from the air.
A million and one scooters in Hanoi
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The last few days in Vietnam were fantastic. Hanoi was much faster than any other town we have been to, but there was ten times the amount of scooters on the roads, making crossing them an adrenaline sport. Every street looks very much the same, which meant that when we got lost, it took a long time to make our way back to home. But along the way we found a local market, one that not many westerners seemed to have found as we were the only ones in sight. After a little battering (3 DVDs and the complete 24 box-set for around £12) we did make it home.
Over the two days that we were there we managed to get to the War Museum, where I found out that the country has been ripped apart more times than thought, what with the French sticking there head in there as well at some point over the past 100 years. Some of the jeeps and planes that were left over were fairly haunting, some of them having plaques drilled into them expelling how many people were killed with them. Chilling stuff.
American planes, Vietnamese museum
In the evenings it was all about the celebration. We found a bar on top of a block of flats, cleverly named ‘Top Pub’ which turned out to be a little dodgy, as when police came round, the music was turned off and we were told to keep our voices down and to pretend that we were infect friends with the bar man who had just come over for a casual drink. The bar man had a LOT of friends. Once they left the music instantly started again when I am fairly certain they were still in earshot. After far too many cocktails (which you got for free if you stood on one leg for 4 minutes, which gets harder after your 5th) we all stumbled into a taxi that drove around a few times before going to the hotel, watch out for this, it happens a lot, especially to drunk tourists!
The were some swift goodbyes in the morning, with the rest of the group heading into Lous and us jumping on our plane to Hong Kong, it was amazing to go up Vietnam with them all, and was a shame that we had to say goodbye so soon as they all rumbled off to the party capital of South-East Asia.
Hong Kong is a city full of rich businessmen and high rise 5* hotels. It’s no more expensive than it is back in the UK, but after going through a country that asked you for no more that 70p for a beer in the nations capital, it was a bit of a shock when the bill for our first meal come through. It would have been alright though if the food and service had been anything like what I had experienced in Vietnam, but alas it was not. On a recommendation from a guide book, we went to a restaurant in the City Hall. The place must have been a school hall at some point in its life, which had been closed down and then filled with tables, chairs and chandeliers. Avoid it if you can!
Here, they have something that works very similarly to the Oyster card back at home. Although here it’s imaginatively called the Octopus card. The public transport system is pretty sound all the time, and not only does the Octopus card work for all modes of transport, you can also use it in the 7-Elevens all aver town (like co-op, only smaller and there’s one every other shop). Even though this is great, you can’t eat food on the trains, at all. Annoying when my stomach was crying out for some food and I’m sitting there holding a bad full of biscuits, bread and cream cheese (the ONLY cheese you can actually buy out here).
Partying in Carnegies, pre bar dancing
The night life here is fantastic, and not as expensive as you think it might be after spending a day watching the back account suffer. I have a friend out here who moved out with her parents a few years ago, and she is well versed in the night time scene. Katie took me to a bar, ‘Carnegies’ in the centre on town. Here, the booze is stacked on the shelves behind the bar like a library and the way the bar staff get them down is using a ladder very much like the ones you would see in a library to slide back and fourth and drop them down to the colleague waiting at the bottom. You dance on the bar all night, and on wednesdays and thursdays it’s ‘ladies night’ so all girls drink free. Have a female friend with you helps and most of the time there are so many people there and you are ordering through someones legs so the bar staff have no idea that every girl is taking two drinks and handing one straight over to a male friend behind them. Twas a cheep night for all!!
The Hong Kong island is only one part of the entire city, and to be honest not the most exciting one. Whilst it has all the bars and night life, as far as things to do during the day it falls a little short. there is a place called the peeks, where you can get a tram up to the highest point on the island for another amazing view of the different environments in the city, but thats about it. There is also the ‘Big Buddah’ that you can find on the next island, the same island with Disneyland Hong Kong and the airport on it (diverse I know), which is definitely worth the very long cable car ride to it, but pray for good weather. being so high up in the mountains the whole place is prone to disappearing into the clouds.
Ng Chai water falls
If you ever do manage to make it Hong Kong, something that is a must is truly experiencing the sudden change between built up city to dense jungle. Right now, I just got back from an epic 4 hour trek up a (almost) mountain, where on one side of me there was a concrete jungle and on the other an actual jungle. We dropped down the other side and started hunting around for something special. We found it. Three hidden waterfalls are cut off by signs saying that there have been landslides and it’s too difficult to get there, saying that we have to turn back now for our own safety. But after bumping into an expat in a sandwich shop who turned out to be an experienced hiker, we were told to go for it, to climb around the sign, and climb down the old land slide (it had been a few years ago, and as long as it hadn’t been raining was still [relatively] safe). We did, and thank god we did. We fell upon one of the most beautiful water falls I have ever seen. If you are anywhere near here at any point, even if you are only there for a few days, get your trainers on (flip flops are a no go!!) and get out there, it’s well worth it, and the best hang over cure in the world!
Tomorrow, through various contacts made over the various nights out and friends of friends, I will be getting on a yacht, heading over to an exclusive yacht club, and dinning with the other half. Its a tough life!
Till then
Matt M
STA WTI UK 201o
