HONG KONG 1989
Monday 2-Tuesday 3-
We leave Miami at 7am on United, go to Chicago, then to Seattle. The flight leaves 1 hour late. 13.5 hours later, we arrive in Hong Kong at 6:30pm. We clear customs and take a taxi to the Kowloon Hotel, right behind the famous Peninsula Hotel. I go to the front desk to check in. I’m getting the Red Carpet treatment and I don’t know why. The assistant manager personally checks us in, then turns us over to a young Chinese girl named Amy, who escorts us to our room. She explains the features of the room. It has a mini-bar, a safe, a phone in the bathroom, a hairdryer, and the TV is hooked into an electronic control system with a terminal by the bed where you can control the TV, find radio stations, receive and send messages, faxes, check your bill, get a weather report, latest currency rates, book reservations at the hotel restaurants, shopping info, even play computer games. The room had fresh flowers, a box of candy and a basket of fruit. It was on the 16th floor so it had a spectacular view of the harbor between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. The hotel is 3 blocks from the Star Ferry terminal, an ideal location right on Nathan Road. After unpacking, we took a little walk around the neighborhood, then had dinner at the hotel. Crystal had giant prawns in lemon butter, and I had a steak with a black pepper sauce, excellent to say the least. We finally turned in at 11:30. We’ve been up for 32 hours, so sleep came quickly.
Wednesday
We were up at 7am, had coffee in the room, then, hit the streets. We shopped our way up Nathan Road to see the Ritz, where I stayed on my last visit. It was under construction, soon to be the Ritz Plaza. We took the MTR (subway) back to the Kowloon and dropped off the morning’s purchases. We booked tours at the hotel, for dinner tonight, at Jumbos, a famous floating restaurant, in Aberdeen Harbor, then, we’ll visit a street market. Tomorrow, we’ll go to Macau and into mainland China.
But this afternoon, we have stuff to do. We had lunch at the Beverly Hills Deli in the new World Center, then took a Star Ferry (10 Cents to ride in first class) over to Hong Kong Island. We walked to the Peak Tram station and rode it to the top of Victoria Peak. It has a great view of the harbor and the New Territories, north up into China. They have a free bus back to the Star Ferry terminal, and for another 20 cents, we were back at the hotel, where we got ready for dinner at Jumbos.
A bus picked us up at 6:30, then, stopped at an overlook for pictures, with the harbor in the background, then on to Jumbos. A small boat ferries you out, since it is a floating restaurant, where you are greeted like royalty. There were about 10 of us on this tour, so we were all at a large round table, where we were served an authentic Chinese feast. Some dishes were unknown, but delicious. We were then taken to the Poor Mans Nightclub, a street market, where we walked around for a while just looking. It’s like a large flea market. We arrived back at the hotel at 10pm.
We got up at 5:45 to prepare for the China tour. A van picks us up at 7:15 and takes us to the Macau ferry terminal in the Western District of Hong Kong Island. We get on a gigantic hovercraft and make the 40 miles to Macau in 60 minutes. The hydrofoils can do it in 35 minutes. We are met by a Chinese girl named Monica. There are an assortment of nationalities, Australians, us, and 3 Big Black Mommas from Chicago. I mean BIG. For the first part of the tour, we load 18 people on a 16 passenger little bus, made even more difficult by the BBM’s, who each take up a seat meant for 2, each. But somehow we all get on. First stop, a little craft market high up where you can see into China. This seems to be more important than the historical sights. Among the wares are some genuine fake watches, Rolex, ect. So I buy me a genuine fake Cartier. Crystal gets a Rolex. $25 each.
Down the hill we go to see what’s left of a church, St. Pauls, built in 1602 by the Portuguese. It’s quite impressive after you make it through the street vendors. Next we go to the border with China, where we change to a much larger bus, with room for all, including the BBM’s. Monica takes our passports through customs for a Chinese ‘chop’(immigration ink stamp). She also asks us to declare all of our watches and cameras, since we must come out with exactly what we brought in. Great- why are we all declaring 2 to 4 watches, depending on what we bought back up the hill? No problem, she says, it happens all the time.
About this time, Crystal makes an interesting discovery. None of the bathrooms have toilet paper in them, so our new Australian friends supply her with Kleenex tissue, until we can find our own supply. We have lunch at the Zhonghan Palace Hotel. We meet our new co-guide, Su, who is brought to tears right away, by a very in-efficient hotel staff. We end up at a table with the BBM’s who gobble up everything in sight and drink most of the soda brought. Several big bottles of beer are on each table, and since no one at my table drank beer, I did OK. Each table got a big roasted chicken, head still attached, like wise with a fish. We didn’t starve, but you had to be quick to fend off the BBM’s.
Back on the bus, we next visited a 200 year old farm village, where we were free to roam around. The people were either begging or selling, but seemed to be happy, considering the poverty they live in. We were invited in to a private house, where we were offered baby mouse or snake wine, our choice. We declined.
Next we visited the birth place of Dr. Sun-Yat-Sen, the father of modern China. A very impressive place. Our tour guide Su was brought to hysterics, when we lost an Australian. They had moved the bus while we were touring the place, and he went back to the original stop. I guess if you lose an Australian, they shoot you for not bringing every thing out, that you went in with.
Next was a stop at a shopping center for tea. Crystal found her own Kleenex, so she was ready for a pit stop. The bathroom she visited was so ‘unbelievable’, she took the camera back to get a picture.
The trip back was through Chinese farm land, full of duck farms, fish ponds, rice paddies, water buffalo, and people working harder than you can imagine. Back at the border, 3 very hard looking Army types, armed with automatic weapons, boarded the bus. Crap, everyone thought, they’re going to count our watches, but they just stared at us for a while, then, got off.
After going through Chinese customs, Macau customs, a hovercraft ride back, then going through Hong Kong customs, we finally got back to the hotel. A very interesting day.
We were up at 8 for a shopping day. We had breakfast at the Hyatt Regency, where I had stayed on my first trip. They had a great brunch. We visited all of the stores run by mainland China. They had great values on pearls and tacky souvenirs. A Mr. Steven Wan had been trying to meet with me, so at 4pm, we met him in the lounge. It seems that there had been a miscommunication between the hotel and our travel agent, and they thought I was a corporate big shot, scouting out hotels for future stays. That explained the first class treatment we had been getting. I told him that the Kowloon Hotel would be first on my list of places to stay, if anyone asked when I got back. That made him happy.
We had dinner in the Pizzeria, a very good place in the hotel. I had King Prawns, Crystal had the Dover Sole. Then we took the MTR up to Temple Street for the night market. When I was here in 1987, I walked the market just about every night just to people watch. It had more clothing and less junk, but was still interesting. We walked back down Nathan Street. I remembered a 7-11 down a side street that sold liquor, so I picked up pint of Dewars to cap off a hot, sweaty, and crowded night. The night time harbor view is still awesome. More shopping tomorrow.
We take a taxi to Stanley Market, on the other side of the island, and spend most of the day prowling around there. Many great bargins on a lot of different things, probably mostly fake designer things, but well made fakes. We’re leaving for Singapore at 6 tonight so we head back to pack.
SINGAPORE
We arrive at the Hyatt Regency in Singapore at 2am. We are sent to room 2014. We unpack a little, then, discover that the A/C doesn’t work. We call down and are moved to room 2016. Same thing, but we’re too tired to move again. Next morning we go to the front deck and let them know the problem. It seems that floor is being remodeled, so they move us to room 1508, in which everything functions properly. We have the best brunch of my life in the California Room at the hotel. Steak, lobster, prime rib, the works. We have been looking forward to a ‘Singapore Sling’ at the world famous Raffles hotel, where it originated. So we take the subway to Raffles City. By the way, the subway stations are air-conditioned. They fine you $50 for spitting on the street, littering, or failing to flush a public toilet. It’s a very clean place. We discover that the Raffles Hotel is not at the Raffles City stop, it’s at the City Hall stop. When we finally find it, it’s closed for renovations. So we go back to the hotel to set up our tours for the next few days. We have dinner at ‘Petes Place’, a very good restaurant in the hotel, where we have our first Singapore Sling, and last for me. It tastes like cough syrup. Then we sit in the Waterfall Lounge for a while before calling it a nigh. The A/C is working fine.
Up at 6:30 to catch the bus to Malaysia. Cross customs at Jahore Bahru. Next stop, the An-Wa pottery factory, where the bathrooms are the talk of the tour. It seems like they take all of the colorful pottery that breaks and do mosaics on the walls and floors with it. It’s very colorful. We visit a small pineapple plantation where we are served fresh fruit, and also see how the people live. We arrive in Malacca for lunch at the Ramada, the best hotel in town. Then we get some walk around time. The city is 500 years old, originally settled by the Dutch, then, taken by the Portuguese. We visit the oldest Chinese Temple in Malaysia. Up a hill to an old fort where some of the bones of a Saint are located. The rest of him is in Goa, on India’s west coast. Now for the 3.5 hour ride back to Singapore.
We pick up a city tour at 8:30. This will show us the many different cultures that make up Singapore- India, Chinese, Malay. They all have their own section of town. We see an exhibit of Chinese Art, 1650 to 1910 at the museum, we visit an orchid shop, (the orchid is the national flower of Singapore, and they are everywhere), up to Mt Faber for a view, then to the National Botanical Gardens for a lot more live orchids. At the hotel, we have lunch at Brannigans, an Irish pub style restaurant with Guinness of course.
In the afternoon we take a harbor cruise on Mr Tangs Chinese Junk. All the way around Sentosa Island, where we see the harbor defenses from WW2. We see the Royal Yatch, Britannia, so I guess the Queen is in town, too. Dinner at Plums, in the hotel, then, pack for the trip home.
We fly back to Hong Kong, for a short layover, then, board a stretch 747 for the trip to San Francisco. A stretch 747 will seat around 400 people I think. This was before the no-smoking thing happened. The last 10 rows or so were designated for smoking. Crystal and I both smoked at that time, so we were in the last 2 seats in the rear of the plane. What the Chinese folks would do, was to rotate smoking seats. A guy would come back to smoke and someone who had just finished would let him have his seat. This went on for 14 hours, all the way back to San Francisco. We were dying. In fact, when we finally got off of the plane, Crystal had to find the airport doctor to check her sinuses. He recommended not flying back to Miami for a few days, but that was impossible, so she chanced it and didn’t have a problem, as long as her inhaler held up.
We both went and got hypnotized shortly thereafter, and haven’t smoked since.
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