After yesterday's exhilarating run along the beach in relatively warm sunshine, and mastering the washing machine technology, I felt I was gaining control again and wanted to go and explore Hong Kong. I was somewhat blase in my thoughts about catching public transport and in hindsight I judged everything in terms of Singapore. Hence I purchased a single shuttle bus ticket to Tsuen Wan MTR and felt content in my bubble as we trundled along the highway. The suspension bridges linking the New Territories to Lantau are a spectacular engineering achievement, with the cars, buses and trucks pailing into insignificance in the magnitude of the structure which can be public transport infrastructure and art and engineering all at once. Staring in amazement at this sight only succeeded in making my bubble more secure and comfortable. We soon arrived at Tsuen Wan and I left the confines of the shuttle bus to enter the mayhem of Hong Kong. I suddenly realised I had to be sure where to catch the return bus but in the midst of the masses and concrete I thought I would be lucky to remember. I ventured into the local malls and lost myself amongst the rich variety of everything this frenetic life has to offer; restringing tennis racquet's, music tuition, hair cuts, dodgy food, clothes, shoes, trinkets, Buddhist relics, pets, more hair cuts, mobile phones, and on and on. I settled for a hair cut and was treated to a wonderful display of multi tasking as my 'stylist' (sic) attempted to tend to four customers at the same time. Naturally as the foreigner I was last in line but with the least hair!
Outside the atmosphere of the Chinese markets was more intense and walking along the pavements and dodging the traffic was at first entertaining but soon I decided to catch the MTR to Mon Kok and walk down Nathan Road. I was entering a kind of twilight zone where the railway line was a tentacle of some big slimy monster inviting me to come inside and travel to a world where the promise was greater than the reality of the experience. The train was full all the way and soon we arrived at Mon Kok. Leaving the train there was a seemingly constant mass of humanity travelling out of the station balanced by a equal mass of people coming into the station. This was shoulder to shoulder crowd swarming, or in my case shoulder to elbow because Chinese people are at least 20 centimetres smaller than me. My naive plan to walk down Nathan Road was looking ambitious but I persevered for all of ten minutes and then just turned around and was sucked back into the MTR station in the same unceremonious manner I was spat out. Plan aborted!
In the sanctity of my apartment I looked up the population density of Mon Kok: 417,680 people per square mile and to give you idea of the scale of proportion, the density in Kensington and Chelsea is 34,565 people per square mile. Twelve times more people, and I thought London was crowded! (http://www.demographia.com/db-dense-nhd.htm)
It has to be experienced to be believed and now that I have I will deposit it into the category of 'been there, done that' and concentrate on exploring the open spaces of the hills and mountains. And that is the contradiction of Hong Kong because outside the intense cauldron of humanity which promises so much but has so little, there are beautiful islands to explore where there are traditions and gentle pace of life with landscapes that seemingly promise so little to the uninitiated town dweller but have a far greater reward to those of us who are adventurous .
Outside the atmosphere of the Chinese markets was more intense and walking along the pavements and dodging the traffic was at first entertaining but soon I decided to catch the MTR to Mon Kok and walk down Nathan Road. I was entering a kind of twilight zone where the railway line was a tentacle of some big slimy monster inviting me to come inside and travel to a world where the promise was greater than the reality of the experience. The train was full all the way and soon we arrived at Mon Kok. Leaving the train there was a seemingly constant mass of humanity travelling out of the station balanced by a equal mass of people coming into the station. This was shoulder to shoulder crowd swarming, or in my case shoulder to elbow because Chinese people are at least 20 centimetres smaller than me. My naive plan to walk down Nathan Road was looking ambitious but I persevered for all of ten minutes and then just turned around and was sucked back into the MTR station in the same unceremonious manner I was spat out. Plan aborted!
In the sanctity of my apartment I looked up the population density of Mon Kok: 417,680 people per square mile and to give you idea of the scale of proportion, the density in Kensington and Chelsea is 34,565 people per square mile. Twelve times more people, and I thought London was crowded! (http://www.demographia.com/db-dense-nhd.htm)
It has to be experienced to be believed and now that I have I will deposit it into the category of 'been there, done that' and concentrate on exploring the open spaces of the hills and mountains. And that is the contradiction of Hong Kong because outside the intense cauldron of humanity which promises so much but has so little, there are beautiful islands to explore where there are traditions and gentle pace of life with landscapes that seemingly promise so little to the uninitiated town dweller but have a far greater reward to those of us who are adventurous .
I have always found Hong Kong too much of a compromise, its an amazing clash of cultures and wealth.
ReplyDeleteMy first stint in China I struggled but eventually accepted its indifference and way of life, Singapore is a great place to prepare you for is Hong Kong so you should feel right at home sooner than later.