The Seductress

Waiting in the late night taxi queue – excited yet somewhat punchy after our 15+ hour travel day - we struck up a conversation with a fellow traveller. After the briefest of chats, our new friend hopped into a cab while issuing a warning: “Be careful – Hong Kong has a way of seducing you”. Wise words from someone who came to HK 37 years ago and never left.

To say we were in awe of Hong Kong is an understatement. What can never truly be understood without visiting HK is its sheer scale... it is massive. Everyone has at one time or another seen photos of its famous waterfront, with immense skyscrapers towering over Victoria Harbour. That is but a drop in the bucket of the type of density that actually exists throughout Hong Kong Island and across the harbour into Kowloon. Yet this enormity works. At its busiest, we never found the streets more crowded than a Saturday afternoon on Robson St. in Vancouver. This is even more astounding when you consider the amount of business – of life - that takes place right on the street. In the shadows of the soaring towers of the financial district, on the main streets and tucked into the alleys, every aspect of life is being lived with boundless energy. We explored the street markets of Kowloon, watching business being conducted for every conceivable good and service imaginable; flowers, birds, fish, clothing, fruits, foot massages, vegetables, meat, jewellery, electronics, pets, toys, food…oh, yes…the food. In a word, simply delicious (okay, two words). For $10 (including ice-cold Tsing Tau beer), we were happily stuffed.

The cost of things was a wonderfully pleasant surprise. Yes – the tales of freakishly expensive real estate are true. And there is no shortage of opportunity to spend as much cash as you can produce; designer labels, Italian sports cars, yachts and posh restaurants abound But Hong Kong is a very affordable place to visit (in fact more than one “local”, when learning where we were from, commented how expensive Vancouver is in comparison). Our hotel room was twice as big at half the cost of London. Food of all ethnic varieties comes in at a multitude of price points. Beer is about a buck each at the 7-11. And transportation – not only is it cheap, Hong Kong has it down to an art.

We went anywhere and everywhere on Hong Kong’s integrated transit network. Subways, streetcars, buses and ferries will get you anywhere using the Octopus card (a preloaded debit card that not only works for transit, but at many stores as well – including buying beer at 7-11!). On a couple of days, we took full advantage of the region’s transit system as we jettisoned the city for the ex-pat community of Stanley and beach village of Shek O. In less than 25 minutes, the double decker buses wound us up and over the lush green mountains and deposited us on some pretty spectacular beaches (one of which came with a great selection of British pubs right on the ocean). On yet another occasion, we jumped on the ferry to visit one of the many neighbouring islands, Lantau.

Lantau is the perfect example of the extreme contrasts that live and thrive side by side in Hong Kong. We arrived in Lantau by high-speed catamaran ferry. Once on Lantau, we hopped on a bus and headed up into the mountains to visit the Tian Tan Buddha and mountain top monastery, enjoying a quiet walk through the grounds, a climb up the 200 steps to pay our respects to the Big Guy and a simple yet delicious vegetarian lunch. Leaving the grounds, we did a quick round of the tourist village (complete with a Starbucks – yes we indulged, and yes Warren says that it tastes burnt on this side of the world too). Departing the mountains, we took a bus to the fishing village of Tai O – a short 15 minutes to a very different world. In Tai O, despite visits from tourists like us, life continues in a very simple manner with people making their living from the sea. Much of the village is built on stilts over a small inlet. People live in homes constructed of metal-clad boxes, many not more than 300 square feet, washing dishes outside on the street from a tap as they have no running water inside. And the term street is used liberally, as the few streets never exceed more than 6’ – 7’ in width; perfect for a village where the only form of ground transportation is bicycle. Most important though is we again witnessed and felt the energy that vibrates throughout Hong Kong, comfortably embracing all avenues of life.

We took the opportunity to sample a bit of the social scene as well - we are the Baxters after all! We spent a rousing good night making the happy hour rounds in Soho, an area just outside of the financial district (and part way up what has to be the world’s longest elevated walkway/escalator). We also had a pint or two in some of the less touristy areas (the bar girl scene is alive and kicking in HK, overseen by some rather scary looking madams). But regardless of where we went, people were friendly, it was amazingly clean and we felt safe and welcome.

Hong Kong has proven to be the perfect starting point for our adventures. And it’s certainly set the bar high. While we were excited about visiting HK, with some pretty mac-daddy cities under our belt such as Paris, New York and London, we did not expect to be captivated the way we were. We understand now why our globe-trotting daughter places it among her best of the best. As we write this, somewhere over Laos on our way to New Delhi, with months of travel ahead of us, we’re feeling quite sad to leave Hong Kong behind. While we were only there a week, we saw and experienced and lived so much in those few days that we fell in love with Hong Kong.

Somewhere out there behind us in the dark is an ex-pat of 37 years saying “Hey…I warned you”.