Hong Kong - I can see China!

My mid-afternoon flight to Hong Kong meant I could have a slow late breakfast, stop in at the local laundromat and easily walk to the airport only 20 mins away. That's how you cruise along for a day's departure to another country. La de da de dah 🎶

Sorry no Uber or Grab cars allowed in this airport mmm..

Departing from Chiang Mai for Hong Kong

I worked very hard to get a good window seat for my Chiang Mai flight to Kong Kong with the best northerly view possible. Hong Kong is now accessible by a recently completed 54km sea bridge to Macau and hence mainland China and it's the longest sea bridge in the world. With my clear-sky view I could see the full length of the bridge and also the massive southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in Quangdong province to the northwest. Apparently known as the ‘Silicon Valley’ of Asia. Hard to imagine a city with a staggering 20 million citizens. So now the Chinese ‘motherland' has an umbilical cord to Hong Kong.

So was I landing in China or Hong Kong? Or is it just one country, two systems? We know of Hong Kong’s British colonial history and then succession to China in 1997. China’s State has allowed Hong Kong to continue as an ‘Administrative’ nation with a reversion date of 2047. Considering the pace of China’s economic and infrastructure development it would not surprise me if that date expired a lot sooner. China’s numerous worker’s cities have grown geographically and economically so fast that Hong Kong's economy is now dwarfed by them which means that Hong Kong appears to have lost it's leverage as an argument to keep China’s ambitions on hold.

The international airport is on Lantau Island and then it was an easy metro train ride across the bay to downtown Kowloon where my hotel was. I like to keep as close to metro systems for ease of getting from one space to another and avoid taxis and buses. I had already used the metro systems in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok so Hong Kong was very easy to navigate. I've been impressed with each city's ways of moving thousands of people in any given moment with the average fare around A$2

I had already researched for cultural/historial places, local western supermarkets, street food locations and even cinemas as I'm a movie addict. After checking in at the hotel and doing all the shopping domestics I headed for the Cantonese markets and street food. I ignorantly said that I don’t speak Mandarin and was kindly corrected by the hotel staff in Hong Kong ''we speak Cantonese". Oh..well then in that case I'll be fine.

A modern Toyota taxi that looks like something Russia built in the 60’s

The left one for tomorrow's lunch

A double-decker tram to move the minions

Ouch! $798 Hong Kong Dollars for small packet of Tasmanian cherries.

I’ll let you do the maths,

Crossing the harbour from Kowloon district on the mainland to Hong Kong island and the central district

Hey what happened to my penthouse view?

Hong Kong Bay

Well there’s another use for bamboo

A visit to an Asian country would not be complete without at least one visit to a Buddhist icon. In this case the largest Buddha statue I have seen so far. It's not hard to find and most probably visible from a passing satellite. It's located close to the Ngong Ping Village on Lantau Island - the same island for Hong Kong's international airport.

Get the metro to Tung Chung station then walk across to the cable car station and up you travel to Ngong Ping Village. I think you get a better view looking down not up so I caught the very cheap local bus up for a cable car journey back down later.

They like their steps

It was generally an overcast day but clear enough for good views of the Hong Kong skyline and bays. After arriving at the village I settled down for lunch surrounded by Chinese chatter, gongs and Ravens (Crows in Australia). It was such a peaceful space after negotiating Hong Kong hustle an hour earlier and my first impression of 'remote' Chinese village life. The Po Lin Monastery is close by where I left a stick of burning incense as an act of respect.

Looking back towards the giant buddha

Hong Kong from above - massive sirport