A wedding anniversary trip - Five days in Hong Kong

We celebrated our third wedding anniversary on Wednesday 22 October.  I'm not sure where that time went, but it conveniently coincided with the biggest Hindu festival, Diwali, and hence more Public Holidays for me.

When moving to India, we had a vague vision of travelling to lots of different places in India in our first year, then going farther afield in Asia in our second.  We've done well on the first objective but stalled on the second, mainly because the first has proved so enjoyable and I haven't got much holiday left between now and the end of March.

Pre-anniversary treats in the lounge

Anyway, we decided it was time to spread our wings and Hong Kong is short-ish five hour hop from Mumbai so we used some of Phil's hard-earned air miles to secure a bargain set of flights for a few days away.  I knew very little about Hong Kong before arriving on Wednesday except that it used to be British, it seems to be a popular place for expats in Asia and is the home of HSBC bank.  My brief research suggested that Hong Kong is an international (not too crazy) city so I was looking forward to a few calm days of good museums, varied and exciting food, usable public transport and functional public toilets.  It's strange the things that I pine for whilst living in Mumbai!

Anyway, here's our mini-guide to Hong Kong based on our trip.

1)  History

Hong Kong was a British colony between 1898 and 1997 before being handed back to China when the British lease ran out, but under the condition that the British legislative structure would remain for 50 years following the return to China.  Whilst Hong Kong is now very much Chinese, as are most of its residents, the historical British influence is strong and tangible throughout the city.  I felt quite nostalgic upon seeing blue British road signs and the orderly driving, street names and general culture are reminders of Hong Kong's heritage.

We spent an afternoon at the Hong Kong Museum of History in Kowloon which is excellent and I would highly recommend to anyone visiting Hong Kong.  It was so good that we got timed out and had to miss out a whole section on the Japanese occupation near the end.

Old colonial buildings in Hong Kong are sparse but a few remain including the cathedral, tea museum in the park and the old tram travelling up to Victoria Peak.  Unlike India, Hong Kong has not tried to shed its Britishness but it retains a strong Chinese culture too, including temples within the city which are well worth a visit.

My top tip is to read about Hong Kong before you visit and understand how the city's past has influenced its present.  A lot has happened to such a small patch of land and it's well worth understanding how Hong Kong has developed.

Fisherman statue on Aberdeen Promenade - the historical trade of the Aberdeen area 

The Peak Tram approaching... 

World War memorial flanked by skyscrapers 

Incense ceiling hangings in a temple 

The Big Buddha (not strictly old, but pretty impressive) 

Monastery on Lantau Island 

Reconstructed old house in Stanley - now housing a tapas and German meat restaurant

2)  Nature

Hong Kong is described as one of the most overcrowded cities in the world but we found it to be blissfully quiet compared with Mumbai.  Most of Hong Kong island is protected countryside and most of the other islands and mainland are positively rural.  Even in the busiest areas, it is only a short walk into the hills to reach a peaceful trail and lush countryside which is spotlessly clean and beautifully kept.

We walked from our hotel in Aberdeen, on the south side of Hong Kong island, up to the top of The Peak to enjoy the view and catch the tram back down the other side of the hill. This was serene yet close to the heart of the city.  Later, we caught the bus to the south-east of Hong Kong island to walk along the "Dragon's Back", a popular stretch of hills with great views over the south beaches.  We saw great trails on our visit to Lantau Island although didn't have time to explore and have been told that the hiking in the New Territories is fantastic.  All the trails we saw were well labelled and maintained, though not too crowded so it felt like a proper rural walk.

As well as the hills, Hong Kong has beautiful beaches which we saw both on Hong Kong Island (Shek O and Stanley) and on Lamma Island.  They are spotless with soft white sand and netted off areas of sea to allow you to swim without getting eaten by sharks (always a bonus).

The natural beauty of Hong Kong was a revelation and the green verdant hills shrouded in mist (some would say smog) alone would be enough for me to return for a future visit.

Beach on Lamma island 

On the walk from Aberdeen to the Peak 

A happy sculpture in Hong Kong Park 

Enjoying the pond 

View from the cable car on the way to see the Big Buddha on Lantau island 

Climbing the Dragon's Back 

View of the south side of Hong Kong island from the Dragon's Back 

 On the trail

Shek O beach

3)  Transport

Hong Kong's public transport system is fabulous; cheap, efficient, well maintained, air conditioned and with a wide variety of modes of transport from which to choose.  The only thing we didn't do on our trip was travel by car; the opposite of our approach in Mumbai.  Most enjoyably, we walked a long way every day although we also took ferries, buses, a minibus, the metro train, the Peak Tram and a cable car.  I'm told that taxis are good value too but we genuinely didn't need one.

Here are some pictures of our transport experiences:

Enjoying dinner on the plane (business class treat though it wasn't very good on Cathay) 

Ferry to Lamma Island 

On the Peak Tram 

Star ferry from Hong Kong island to Kowloon 

The MTR 

On the cable car over Lantau island, mainly watching planes taking off 

The mid-levels escalator - site of a very good pizza restaurant

4)  Food

Hong Kong is a foodie's dream; it is a worthy equal of London or New York from a culinary perspective but with an Asian twist.

Unfortunately, I managed to pick up a stomach bug shortly before leaving Mumbai which curtailed my eating but we still enjoyed a variety of the goodies on offer in Hong Kong.  I would highly recommend several of the restaurants shown below which were recommended to us by others too.

Fish fresh from the sea 

and on to our plates 

Refined dim sum and Maxim's Palace.  The barbeque pork buns were excellent. 

Sushi (we ate a lot of it...) 

Shanghai style soupy pork dumplings - loading up on our meat

5)  Friends

The world is a small place and we were fortunate to meet up with two different groups of friends in our five day visit.  Dave Richards, from Cambridge, was passing through on a work trip; and the Bloomfield family have been living in Hong Kong for the last four years.

We had a great time catching up over dinner on Friday and Saturday and enjoyed learning about Hong Kong from a local perspective too.

Meeting Dave took us to Discovery Bay (other friends of Dave live there) which is a slightly bizarre place; an expat enclave which was built as a holiday village and subsequently abandoned.  We would never have otherwise visited DB which felt very much like a small part of California in Hong Kong; we wouldn't have guessed that we were in Asia whilst drinking beer, eating pizza and watching the fireworks from the nearby Disneyland over the horizon.

6)  Buildings

Hong Kong's skyline is rightly famous and we admired some of the sleek and stunning buildings in the heart of the city, including the HSBC and Bank of China buildings.  Feng Shui also plays a big part in building design adding yet more quirks to the landscape.

For me, the most overwhelming aspect of Hong Kong was the huge scale of the apartment blocks, far bigger than anything I've seen in India.  I found myself geekily estimating the number of people who must live in each one - some must house 10,000 people easily.  Many of the locals live in family units in very cramped conditions.  Space is at a very high premium in Hong Kong.

Aberdeen Harbour - The view from our hotel window 

 Our Ovolo Hotel - Tall, spindly and highly recommended

Victoria Harbour from the Peak 

 Very big building (can't remember which one)

 Bank of China.  The triangles shown cause Feng Shui problems but the big square buildings offsets this issue.

 Inside Norman Foster's HSBC building

Looking back over the Harbour from Kowloon

7)  Money

Hong Kong is a very wealthy place.  Unlike Mumbai, where extreme wealth exists in only small pockets or behind closed doors, Hong Kong's affluence is obvious wherever you go.

There are copious shopping malls with every expensive designer shop you can think of, apparently targeted at the mainland Chinese visitors.  A high proportion of the cars that we saw were BMWs or Mercedes and eating out was pretty pricey, in line with prices in London rather than Mumbai.

Tax rates are low and capped at 15% although accommodation costs are eye-watering - upwards of £4000 a month for even a small simple apartment.  Gambling is huge in Hong Kong, as Phil saw on his trip to the races, and accounts for 12% of all tax revenue.

So whilst Hong Kong is modern and international, the residents of the city (and tourists) pay handsomely for this.

A night at the races 

 Temple Street night market - low key shopping

Causeway Bay shopping 

 Hello Kitty is VERY popular in every form

Crazy crazy house prices 

A dog park.  Not something you see in Mumbai.

8)  The future

So what's next for Hong Kong? Change is afoot as student protesters have recently occupied several central streets in an unprecedented challenge to the Chinese government.  Hong Kong continues to grow richer and more powerful, along with China, and the power and rise of the East was clear to me on our trip.

My other observation was the power of technology in Hong Kong; wifi connections were everywhere alone with the latests phones and gadgets.  The top gadget in Hong Kong appears to be the rather bizarre "selfie stick" upon which a camera phone can be placed to allow for a selfie to be taken at a distance.  Very bizarre.  I hope they don't make it to India!

The selfie stick is hanging off his arm rather than in use here 

Protest tents 

Messages of support from the protestors

Varanasi

Varanasi, or Banares, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and the holiest of the seven sacred cities of Hinduism.  It is the spiritual capital of a very spiritual country and I'm ashamed to say that I hadn't really been looking forward to our visit to the city.  As well as being spiritual, I had heard that Varanasi is extremely intense (read utterly bonkers) and I knew that a trip there would not be a relaxing experience.  Phil anticipated my apprehension and sensibly arranged for us to stay for one day and night only; enough to experience the city but probably quite enough for me.

We arrived in Varanasi (on a flight from Khajuraho) and hopped into a taxi to travel to within a short walk of our hotel in the heart of the old city.  Varanasi is situated along a wide section of the Ganges river, and the old city and therefore most of the action is on the bank of the river, so Phil had booked a hotel overlooking the Ganges to maximise our Varanasi experience.  The taxi ride was going well until our driver stopped a couple of miles from our hotel and declared that the road was shut for a festival so he couldn't go any further.  This was not good news.  It was dark, hot and crazily busy and noisy, with people, cars and assorted animals everywhere.  To our driver's credit, he dragged over a cycle rickshaw and helped to negotiate a fare for us.  A cycle rickshaw was the only way we could move through the streets and people closer to our hotel.

Being driven on a cycle rickshaw is something I will never get used to or feel comfortable about.  Our driver (rider?) was a very skinny old man with legs that looked like they could snap at any moment.  This man propelling Phil and me through the streets for a pittance felt wrong.  The streets were teeming with people and blocked with other vehicles and festival floats so we spent most of the journey with him pulling us along rather than cycling whilst we clung on to the rickshaw and to our bags.  Ordinarily, I would have got off and walked but that seemed more dangerous and we stayed put for a long crawl up to the river.  By this stage, it was clear that Varanasi is India on steroids - hot, crowded, smelly but throbbing with energy and life, and more so than anywhere I had experienced in India before.

 The view from our seat on the cycle rickshaw

The large Ganesh festival float blocking the street ahead of us

The final stretch of our walk to the hotel

After being turfed off the cycle rickshaw and weaving through crowds of chanting Hindus, we found our hotel through a maze of tiny streets much to my relief.  I have never been more thankful for a clean bed and air conditioning, and had dinner on the roof terrace overlooking the Ganges and lights of the city, a magical sight (from a distance).  It was clear from the clientele at the restaurant that Varanasi is firmly on the western tourist trail as nearly everyone else was white - there were more foreigners than we sometimes see in a week in Mumbai!

Varanasi is all about the Ganges and people do everything in it; bathe, wash clothes, drink, swim, subsume the dead and generally dispose of anything and everything (all this happens concurrently and in close proximity to each other).  The Ganges in Varanasi is undoubtedly the filthiest stretch of water I have ever seen and yet drinking the water from the river is considered to be holy - we saw hundreds of people bottling river water to take away.  The best time to see the Ganges is at dawn and on one of the small rowing boats that can be hired by tourists.  We were up before 6am and negotiating with the boatmen by our hotel (quoting unbelievable prices - some tourists must pay crazy money) and before long (and after some hard bargaining) we were moving very slowly up the river observing the morning activity on the river bank.

This was incredible and there were hundreds of people up and bathing along the banks, all chanting morning prayers and splashing a lot.  People were washing clothes on the banks and the city was already up and busy at the early hour.  All sorts of rubbish floated past, including a particularly unpleasant bloated dead dog, but the locals seemed unperturbed.  Despite the craziness, I have to admit that the setting of the old city on the river is spectacular and the morning mist over the river created an other-worldy atmosphere which felt very special.

Sunrise over the Ganges

Our oarsman.  He was rather sluggish! 

There were lots of boats on the river at the early hour 

Having a morning wash 

More morning cleansing 

 Morning exercise

One of the more impressive buildings overlooking the ghats 

Pilgrims washing their clothes in the river 

Looking back up the river 

Clothes drying in the sun 

Cremation ghat with extra wood at the ready

The banks of the river are lined with ghats which are embankments made in steps of stone slabs along the river bank where pilgrims perform ritual ablutions.  Some of these ghats are used as cremation sites where the dead are carried to the river and burned on a wood pyre before the remains are put in the river.  We saw one of these sites, including very large piles of wood, though avoided seeing a cremation.  I would have felt disrespectful watching this so I'm glad we missed it whilst on the river.

Aside from the boat ride, we spent our time in Varanasi wandering around the warren of tiny streets in the old city (wide enough for one or two people to walk, but no more) soaking up the atmosphere (literally, it was hot and humid), including a walk along the ghats lining the river.  I'll admit that I found Varanasi challenging and the crowds of people left me feeling bereft of personal space.  It is also exceptionally filthy, with piles of litter and flies everywhere. There are lots of cows roaming on the streets and, as much as I like cows, this adds to the aroma and it being somewhat muddy underfoot.

Saying that, Varanasi is a unique experience and we saw lots of travelers happy to spend lots of time in the city absorbing the culture and intense spirituality.  I do recommend visiting Varanasi to see an extreme example of human existence but watch out for the tourist touts because they are a pain - Varanasi is not unspoilt in this respect.  I also admired the fervour and passion of the pilgrims and other devotees that we saw - seeing others living a life so different to ours is an eye-opening experience.

The highlight of my day in Varanasi was an unexpected one; a visit to a local lassi shop (the "Blue Lassi Shop"). This establishment was recommended in our guide book and we stumbled upon it so popped in for a drink.  The shop is a small room with a couple of benches and walls covered with pictures and notes from previous (mainly western) customers.  The shop is run by a man who took it over from his grandfather and offers a vast choice of fruity lassi flavours.  I went for banana and pineapple and Phil tried an apple one. These were brilliant.  The shop owner spent ages painstakingly mixing fruit, yogurt and ice before presenting two delicious creations in big clay cups.  No one was sick afterwards and the taste was heaven in a clay cup.  The only sad point was having to break the clay cup afterwards (as is normal in India) but I would highly recommend these lassis to anyone visiting the city.

Top quality lassi 

An inquisitive cow 

A rare example of a very public toilet

The bizarre part of our lassi experience was during our wait for the drinking when we heard a commotion outside (chanting, bells ringing) before watching a dead body being marched past on a stretcher, covered in a colouful shroud.  The lassi shop is apparently on a main route to a burning ghat...

Honestly, I am pleased to have been but was also pleased to leave Varanasi.  Phil loved it though and found the energy of the city to be an incredible experience though it was a little bit too incredible for me.  I would encourage others to go, but go with your eyes open, and for as long as you can manage.