It’s my big day out. I’ve left my passport at reception for the agent to collect to process my visa; so that’s my work done for the day! I’m off to Stanley village and find out that I need the number 973, from a stop 5 minutes down the road. It’s an hour’s journey taking me under Victoria Bay via a tunnel and across to Hong Kong Island. The ticket cost about 50p for a single. I wasn’t sure where to get off, so I got off with everyone else. Stanley is a pretty little coastal town with a pier, museum, bars, cafes and quite a large market.
The market was fabulous; a tourist’s paradise selling all sorts of clothes, trinkets, some nice art and so on. I bought some gifts for the girls there and I spent quite a lot of time strolling around, before settling down at a café for an iced tea and a gaze. I was visited again by sparrows, which reminded me of my girls and what I was missing, and what they were missing. I had brought fruit for lunch to save a little money, which I had already eaten by this time. It was a beautiful day, markedly different from the day before and I sat in the shade. From there I found Stanley beach, ten minutes away and sat under the shade again and read a book for an hour. The beach was small and sandy, full of ex-pat MILFs and their toddlers. I’d go again. You look out on crystal clear waters to all these little islands out in the sea – a lot like being on a Greek island, with tree-lined hills and white villas and apartment blocks. I’m so happy with myself that I have ventured out of the HK central areas to do some exploring. The island on this side is very blue and green and beautiful.
I took a different bus back, 120, because I want to see The Peak, the highest point on the island overlooking Victoria Bay. The bus took me back a slightly different route around Repulse Bay, with another beautiful beach, a boating club, country club and possibly the most expensive properties on HK, very smart and a place to explore another time.
The bus took me back to HK Island Central and I simply followed the pedestrian signs, walking up-hill to the Peak tram station. I walked past the mighty HQ of HSBC, designed by Sir Norman Foster, which looked magnificent. Behind it, towers the needle-like Chinese ICBC bank. I read in a guide book that there was controversy in HK over the design of the latter. The Hong Kongese find it to be aggressive, both in situation and design, an affront to the principles of-Feng Shui; whereas Norm’s bank was totally aligned to local tastes and traditions. I found the tram, near a large church and join the long queue, having paid my £4 for a return ticket. The original tram was built around a century ago, and the current generation is the fifth. There are good storyboards and displays on either side as you wait in the queue. I read with interest how the British Army retreated to The Peak to make their last stand on Christmas day in 1940 (from memory).
The train was a brief ten minute ride, taking us passed accommodation of various designs and price tags, woods and park trails, at a gradient steep enough to keep you pressed against the back rest of the bench. There were four compartments, each holding about fifty people, and in my compartment were tourists from all over the world.
At the top was a typical visitor’s centre, tourist trap shops, Haagen-Dazs, Burger King, Pizza Hut and some decent restaurants. I had a walk around, looking at beautiful vistas all over the island from the 550m height landmark. Then I settled down for a cappuccino and sticky chocolate something at Starbucks and watched the world (skirts) go by. I was joined yet again by my daughters in the form of a family of sparrows.
I took the tram down to Central again and found by way to the Star Ferry in Wanchoi, with the plan to get the ferry across the bay for the first time. The ferries are very old looking jalopies and are one of the famous HK sights in Victoria Bay. They were set up in the Nineteenth Century by a Parsee cook, Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala. You had to wear a suit and tie in those days. The smooth journey cost 20p and took ten minutes to get over to Tsim Sha Tsui, and it was a good way to take in the sights. Then I worked my way back to the hotel through the small-but-perfectly formed Kowloon Park, which had its own aviary of exotic calling birds and water features which all had the effect of drowning out the surrounding traffic.
The evening was spent having a Billy-no-mates dinner in at The Black Stump Australian Steak House on Knutsford Terrace, and a few Billy-no-mates beers in All Night Long. In bed by 10.30pm.
