Trains, Boats, Feet and Automobiles

We awoke this first morning (Dec 12) to perfect weather for our sight-seeing tour of Hong Kong. Our guide Amy Overy of Hong Kong Greeters met us in the lobby and we were off!

Trip 1 was a train down to Kowloon from the Lantau Island where our hotel was located near the airport. The trains are amazingly efficient, clean, fast and safe. Glass sliding doors stop passengers approaching the platform edge and the driver always manages to line up the train doors with the platform doors perfectly on the first try. The trains come approximately every two minutes and the double-decker platform system means that people movement is swift and simple. No graffiti, no rubbish, no spitting and no petty theft made it all a very enjoyable and trouble free journey. Along the way Amy introduced herself and gave us basic tips and history about moving around Hong Kong.

Trip 2 was a mini-bus which picked us up in a car park area off the train station which also just happened to have a shopping centre built in. Efficiency is their middle name over here and the Octopus system made it all very simple.

A short walk through the earliest port area of Kowloon where the original “time-ball” was located and we were up to trip 3 – a ferry ride across the harbour onto Hong Kong Island proper. On landing we walked towards the historical and financial heart of the Island around the HSBC building and court area. Multiple stops for history of architecture and features of interest kept us fascinated all through this area – the building of a 1000 butt-holes, the Koala building and the bamboo sword were the clear highlights.

We gradually made our way through various features (including a stop-over at St John’s Cathedral) up to the Mount Victoria railway and took trip 4 to the top along with a crowd of others heading the same direction. A mountain top stop for traditional snacks and multiple photos and then trip 5 bus ride down to the bottom near the Ferry wharf where we then walked to lunch next door to the Hong Kong registry office – wedding parties everywhere and a Dim Sum lunch in a reception joint completed the picture.

After lunch trip 6 saw us back on the train heading for Shatin where we walked to the end of the block and entered the rain forest along a concrete path that led us up to the Ten Thousand Budha’s Monastery. Golden replicas of life sized monks lined the path up the mountain and we were treated to a panoply of fascinating figures. The Temple up the top was a fine example of religious pluralism – fervent Buddhism blended with local superstitious ancestor worship. Truly fascinating and yet terribly sad – religious slavery creating a local economy in goods to burn to keep your ancestors happy. This made us all so thankful for the freedom we have in Jesus. The local monkeys seemed to know best and showed no respect for all this sad devotion making their presence felt as we descended the hill on the other side into a slum area in one of the many gullies.

From here trip 7 took us to the market areas of Mong Kok East where we walked through the bird, flower, fish, pet, clothing and food markets one after the other. This was one of the older more traditional areas of the city and it felt like what we remembered from 1998. Trip 8 was in taxis back to Kowloon station from where we trained it back to our original stop at Tung Chung back on Lantau Island 10 hours later. Amy was a goldmine of cheerful information and seemed to know the city like the back of her hand as she regularly took us from street to street through shopping centres, buildings and pedestrian paths that we never would have found on our own. All told – an excellent journey of Hong Kong culture and discovery.