Day 2
I had a bit of a sleep in as I had learnt from previous trips that HK doesn’t really get started in the morning until 11:00am. I told the receptionist about my plans for the day. She gave me an alternate route out to Tsung Chung in case Central was closed, but apart from that she said enjoy, there’d be no problems.
There is a bakery near the Jordan MTR station on Nathan Road, however when I got there they didn’t have any egg tarts, Damn. So I caught the MTR into Tsim Sha Tsui to try my luck there. I stopped off at iSquare for a drink, because it was already hot, and an iced mocha sounded pretty good. After my breakfast of egg tarts and iced mocha’s I went to the tailor, still closed. As I had no idea when they were going to open I went to the place next door.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t done a deal with this lot like I had with the previous tailor, so whilst there was a bit of back and forwards with the price, fabrics and quantity of shirts I was in a much weaker position to negotiate as they knew my Plan A was shut and I was leaving that night. Still we came up with a deal and I got measured for my suit. Mission Accomplished, mid next week I’ll have a custom made suit again.
I caught the train out to Tsung Chung. This was perhaps the one place where the wreckage from the protests was obvious, a bit of graffiti and a few broken ticketing machines. I’ve seen Sydney train stations in worse nick than that.
I caught the cable car up to Ngong Ping. The views from the cable car are amazing. It’s perhaps one of the few times you get to look down on aircraft taking off.
I found a restaurant and got the Rice and Eel. It was perhaps a little fishy, slimy and salty for my tastes, but I’m glad I did as trying new foods is a big part of travelling for me. Ngong Ping village is very much a tourist trap. The prices are more what I would call “westerner”, but I still very much enjoyed myself.
After lunch I walked over to the Po Lin Monastery. Ever since listening to Wintersun’s Time Album I had always wanted to listen to that album at Po Lin. Well I got my wish. In case you’re wondering why a Metal band from Finland would sound so good at a Buddhist monastery, the first song on the album has a very oriental sound. Just sitting in the main square overlooking the happenings and listening to that album was pretty perfect.
I didn’t take many photos in the Po Lin Monastery, in part because they had signs all over the place asking you not too, and because there were quite a few people praying. I’m in no way religious, but I did find something very peaceful and beautiful there, if nothing else I can appreciate amazing architecture. My favourite room at the monastery is the hall of 10,000 Buddha’s. Whilst they don’t really let you walk in too much past the doors, even then looking around that room from the entrance way is incredible.
I went back to Ngong Ping village and had an ice cream, which on such a hot day really hit the spot, before taking the cable car back down to Tsung Chung.
From Tsung Chung I caught the bus out to the airport. Inside the bus terminal was one of the only places where I saw a serious amount of graffiti on what has been dubbed a Lennon Wall.
As expected they were checking everyone’s passports and tickets before letting people into the airport terminal. The tickets didn’t need to be on paper, they were quite happy to accept the ticket in the Qantas app on my phone.
I made my way to the Qantas lounge, and went to have a shower and get changed into comfortable clothes for flying in. As I was re-packing my bag I could not find one of my credit cards. I wondered if I’d lost it in the terminal. I usually take two cards with me with I travel, I keep one in my wallet and a second one with my passport, that way if one is lost or stolen I still have my other one. I called ANZ through their app and had my card cancelled within 5 minutes. Annoyingly I opened my laptop and found the missing card sitting between the keyboard and screen. How it got there I’ll never know, but it was too late, the card had already been cancelled. You’ve got to give ANZ points for efficiency there.
After some dinner from the buffet, and a couple of egg tarts along with the caramel cheesecake, I settled in at the bar and got a few drinks. Starting with an Espresso Martini, and ending in a mojito all I could think was “gee I love open bars”.
The on the flight from Hong Kong to Brisbane I got 28K, unfortunately one of the “Window Seats without a window” on the A330-300’s. As I was getting comfortable I wished I had checked out seat guru before checking in. I swapped over from my original choice of 30K as someone decided to pick 30J. Of all the empty seats on the plane, why did he pick the one next to me? Luckily I had a spare seat next to me so that lessened the pain. The crew on that flight seemed to be doing the minimum required, they were friendly, but that fake “the company makes me have this smile” type friendly. I guess Hong Kong is not a crew favourite right now.
Sitting in the Qantas Club at Brisbane and reading the news I saw there was more trouble at Central Hong Kong MTR station. It’s kind of strange seeing photos of a place I was at less than 24 hours being “erupting in violence”. I can’t help but wonder if there is some degree of the most shocking photo’s possible being taken and published for the world’s media.
After a short wait, my flight for Canberra was called. It was a very full flight, and perhaps one of the very few short hauls I’ve done not in an exit row. Balancing my laptop in such a way that I could watch an episode of the IT crowd (an old favourite) wasn’t much fun, but for a 1 hour and 30-minute flight I managed to deal with it.
