What I saw and what to see in Hong Kong

I flew from Singapore to Hong Kong on Singapore Airlines. The flight was about four hours, time for one meal, lunch.

Easy Train and Shuttle Bus
From the airport we took the train a few steps away from the place where we collected baggage and bought the return train ticket. The train has about four stops, very easy.

From the stop where we alighted, shuttle buses go to the major hotels. You get a free look at Hong Kong from the train and the shuttle bus if you arrive by daylight.

Sights and Lights
I saw the big wheel down on the sea front. I liked the lights changing colour on the front of the Park Royal hotel building.

The streets had enormously high thin skyscrapers. Then trams ran along the streets. The first hour, seated in the train and on the bus, I loved it.

Walking Litter-Filled streets
Walking around on the uneven streets littered with cigarette ends and rubbish bags I was less happy. In Singapore I smell jasmine flowers and trees in the suburban gardens and incense and curries in Little India. In Hong Kong I smelled cigarettes outside restaurants and bags of decaying rubbish.

Crossing narrow roads, I was dodging trams, which you can't hear because every body is talking and shouting all around you. The vehicles are ringing bells and the pedestrians' 'cross now' lights are bleeping.

After Singapore's six lane motorways, it was quite crowded and claustrophobic.

In Causeway Bay, which friends in Hong Kong say is an upmarket area, the litter is everywhere, unlike pristine Singapore. I was overcome with homesickness for Singapore. I had to get a grip on my attitude and keep telling myself I was enjoying it.

Chinese Dinner
We went for dinner at a vast Chinese restaurant. Fish tanks containing enormous live fish were on the ground floor. My friend eats dim sun there twice a week, reasonably priced. If you go for dinner, be careful you are not persuaded to order fish at the highest prices. They have cold beer and hot Chinese tea.

American Coffee
Afterwards we went to an American coffee shop where I had an excellent lemongrass and passionfruit long drink, plus an unnecessary but tasty crumble and part of somebody else's strawberry tart. Very young and trendy and noisy.

Our friends in Hong Kong pass their tap water through a coral filter to ensure it is drinking quality.

I just asked a friend who lives in Hong Kong what one should see. He recommends:

Great photo opportunities:

Dr Sun Yat-Sen's Museum
Castle Road
Mid Levels (above central)
Hong Kong
Free

Sanitarium in Sheung Wan

My personal spell check says crematorium but sanatarium.)

The old PMQ (police married quarters) is Staunton street, now converted into a cultural centre come shopping mall with free films and activities.

Upper Lascar Row - art galleries. Old Hong Kong.

TRAIN
MTR (unlike MRT in Singapore) is the only railway system.
Take the train from Causeway Bay to Central where the big wheel is by the star ferry.

Sanitarium which has been moved from Central to Stanley. Massive Victorian sandstone building. Each block was numbered so it could be put together again and rebuilt like Lego.


Angela Lansbury