Hong Kong

4 July 1996

In 1996 and 1997 my partner and I travelled from Australia, to England, Europe and Africa. These are my journals of some of our adventures.

Leaving Adelaide was hectic. Joan and Don got up early about 5:30 am to start preparing cups of tea and generally to make enough noise to rouse us from our sleep. Nevermind, there were showering and dressing and packing to be done. Poor Joan was left with a continual stream of instructions; post this, change this, ring them, move that,  all unfinished business.

At 7:00 am we headed for our house in Le Hunte Ave to move the stove, hang the curtains and photograph the place before leaving for a year.  Racing to the airport, we checked our luggage through to Hong Kong and settled into the flight to Melbourne.  Not much time there. I bought a novel and thought about buying 30 cent McDonald ice creams for the last time, but instead flew into the international departure lounge, got through customs and onto the plane.  A 767, it had more room and took fewer passengers than those I have flown on before. We sat in a two-seater by ourselves, sharing the window seat.

We left Australia at 11:00 am, gained 2 1/2 hours and arrived in Hong Kong at 6:30 pm local time.

The old Kai Tak airport is located right in the middle of Kowloon; when landing the plane comes in very low over the buildings, you can see the details of the roofs. Very scary stuff.

We collected our baggage quickly, walked straight through customs and out into the heat. Following the instructions from the YHA, we caught the A2 bus to Hong Kong Island Ferry Terminal and then picked up the 8:00 pm YHA bus to the YHA.  As we were waiting with all our luggage, the other backpackers arrived carrying bags of groceries.

Once aboard, we were certain that there were no shops near the YHA nor any place to eat. It was, in fact, isolated, so we decided to cut our losses and return to town in the hope of finding better accommodation. The bus driver happily took our $20 to take us as far down as Victoria Rd. Mount Davis Pass, the final stage of the trip up the mountain, was very narrow and winding and was littered with abandoned cars.

We alighted the bus about one to two kilometres from our destination, Kennedy Town, where Ian, Graeme’s old workmate, supposedly lived. We walked down from there with all our luggage for the year until we found a bus headed towards butcher St. Having been dropped off at one end of the street, we then discovered that we were at No 1 and we needed 165.

Almost ready to give up hope we decided on a cab to Ian’s and if he wasn’t home, then on to a hotel.  Well, we did find 5B Kennedy Mansions, but no one was at home. We weren’t even sure if he and his girlfriend still lived there or that they were still in Hong Kong!

Our taxi finally brought us to rest at the YWCA Garden View International Hotel, a snip at only $880 Hong Kong dollars per night!  The room was clean and modern; TV, AC, bathroom and two single beds. By this stage, my G&T’s from the plane headache was pounding, so two panadol and a quick sleep. By 11:00 pm Graeme was itching to see something of Hong Kong at night, so we headed off in search of food. The town centre is about 2 kilometres away and down on flat land. We window shopped for miles and only found the Hard Rock Café, which by now was a disco, after an hour and a half returned to Garden View, bought a coke, ate packets of airline biscuits and cheese, watch some tennis and went to bed. Sleep.