Year of the Oxo cube from the Phase 2 Gold Coast!

The year of the Oxo cube

It is the Chinese New Year, and the year of the ox. It might as well be the year of the Oxo cube as far as I can see. It is very reminiscent of a new year I once spent in Fort William with a bunch of climbing and skiing friends. Unless you are part of the family, or 'in the know', the only experience on offer is empty streets with a cold wind blowing up the dust and old fish and chip papers. Last night in Hong Kong there were warm lights behind drawn curtains concealing generations of families eating traditional Chinese New Year food and wishing themselves and others good fortune and wealth for the next twelve months. This was pretty much the scene as arrived back from a tour of Tsim Sha Tsai and Wan Chai. Even today there is a noticeable lack of people and even less things to do. The weather is overcast and getting colder, again. People are still in doors celebrating, I think.

My apartment has good views over the harbour and a spectacular back drop of mountainous coastline. I prefer open spaces rather than downtown and the air quality must be much better here as well.

From the front door

From the front window

Temple Street in Tsim Sha Tsui has become a little bit more seedy in the three years since I last visited, although the atmosphere is friendly enough and the stall vendors don't seem to push too hard to make a sale. But behind the stalls and in the nearby streets there is under world, and if you keep your eyes open you can see shifty characters coming and going into small doorways that reveal dimly lit steep stairs leading into a place where the kind of welcome you would receive is questionable. Dark coated men there one moment and vanished the next, police vans round the corner, exchanges made, honour put on the line. All this yards away from the unsuspecting tourists fresh from the cruise liners or just bunked up in the Backpacker Hotel. Fascinating place.

Butcher's shop near Temple Street

As I walked down Nathan Road I am sure I was accosted by the same tout, now three years older, who tried to sell me the same fake Rolex. Also his friend who insisted I visited his tailor shop for a new suit ready in three hours. This is the land of rip off goods and get the cash and run quick hustlers.

One of the great sights in the world is the Hong Kong sky line from the Star Ferry, and at $2.20 per trip, which is about 20 pence in the UK, it must be one of the cheapest tourist attractions anywhere. I crossed over to Wan Chai and made the short walk into another Hong Kong urban canyon. It easy not to look up whilst in these tall narrow concrete channels, but if you do you will see that people live and work here and many do not actually leave this neighbourhood very often. Lockhart Road is the main artery of Wan Chai humanity. It exists under a swarm of non stop unrelenting shoppers, where unrepentant beggars, who have fallen out of Hong Kong's irrepressible march in pursuit of the material world, look up in hopeless despair knowing they have nothing left to hide their dignity. Lockhart Road; the stomping ground of Suzy Wong who was known by every sailor in the Pacific Ocean. Her legacy is immortalised in the notorious go go bars shielded by neon, glitz and a promise to go to a land that doesn't exist. Lockhart Road; home to some of the finest gourmet restaurants in Hong Kong. It is all mixed up into a crazy, colourful cocktail open to everyone and anyone. But beware; this road has Hong Kong's finest traders who are much more skilled in helping you part with your cash than you are at spending it!

Wan Chai from the surrounding hillside

I left the excitement behind and retreated back to my oasis on the self styled Gold Coast in Tuen Mun, New Territories. I greeted the new year, renewed my resolutions and wished myself good fortune as I crumbled an Oxo cube into my vegetable stir fry. Happy New Year from Hong Kong!