Being walked on......literally.

Let me preface this post by saying that I never had a massage prior to visiting Hong Kong. Yes I’m afraid we are still writing about Hong Kong, but I promise to get to New Zealand before long, just a few more posts.

As part of the massage package offered in the hotel, you could have a sauna prior to the massage. As it was included and as I am always anxious to squeeze the last drop of value from any experience, I was not going to miss out even if I had one before.

After the sauna you were given plastic pants and a robe and asked to adjourn to the relaxation room. I tried to explain that I was from another continent not incontinent, but it made no difference, plastic pants it was. After a choice of drinks, I had the orange juice, you were escorted to the massage room where I was greeted by a typically small framed Chinese lady. As Sharon pointed out on a previous post they are quite a petite nation.

I must admit I was slightly disappointed by this, as I really felt that I needed some brute force to get the “black” knots out of my shoulders. I proceeded to lie face down and before long the torture began. Oh my God could she inflict pain. There were times I wondered whether my frame could actually take the strain and how much oxygen my lungs could actually hold when my ribs were touching my spine. Ever time it eased I would gasp for breath and wondered whether the experience was akin to being killed by a Boa.

I could not figure out how such a slight frame could exert such pressure until I was given a small clue. The masseur proceeded to put the base of her foot into the palm of my hand while putting the other on my elbow joint. She then proceeded to do a small jig which would have made the “Lord of the River dance” jealous. I suspected that she was using her feet the whole time but couldn’t understand how she could balance herself especially when she was using both here feet to give me a “bee sting”. ( A term we used to use in school for when you grab someone’s arm and twist their skin in opposite directions to inflict pain.) Something that takes some dexterity when using your hands!

When I turned around to receive my head massage I notice “two parallel” bars hanging from the ceiling and concluded that, unless she had somehow swapped places with a sumo wrestler, she had been completing a gymnastic parallel bar exercise on my back the whole time.

To her credit I left the room un-knotted and quite relaxed, if somewhat relieved that the experience was over. Sharon on the other hand a much more gentle experience.

Oasis of Calm

If you are looking for a convenient respite from the maddness of the city centre I suggest you look no further that the IFC Shopping Centre roof top garden. Where else in Hong Kong can you have a fantastic meal in a great setting for less that €5!

Located four floors up on the roof of the IFC, the garden is an unexpected treat and a fantastic place to grab a bite to eat. The first thing that strikes you about the space is the quietness and the unexpected sound of birds singing.

Hong Kong has a small chain of gourmet supermarkets called City'super which can be found in most shopping malls. The one in the IFC offers hot take out meals like Thai Green Chicken Curry for about €5. We made our purchases and made our way to the rooftop to enjoy some really good food with beautiful scenery and views over the harbour. There are restaurants proper on the rooftop but they are a bit pricey for a bit of lunch.

Hope the following photos give you a good idea of what was an oasis of calm in a very hectic city.

Cathal

Chester it ain't

Some years ago I was in Chester in England and found the idea of the Chester “Rows” or “Galleries” to be very interesting. Click here Virtual Chester to see details. These are colonnades on the first floor level of the town centre buildings dating back to Roman times which interconnect to form a street on the first floor. They create a town centre which commercially has a double stratum of high footfall catchment making the first floor rental capacity almost as high as the ground floor. A concept that has not been lost on the developers of Hong Kong even if the benefits of the elevator/ walkways seem to have created a similar scenario albeit as a by product of a greater problem.

The elevator/ walkway system in Hong Kong is fascinating not only for its original concept but also for the benefits it has had to the city in other respects. Built originally as a practical way of reducing the demand on the transport infrastructure by creating a serious of walkways and elevators that bring the local denizens from the low lying central area to the mid levels, the project when announced originally was believed by many to be an “April Fools” joke. In reality is has been a major success despite going 500% over budget. Now 50,000 people make the twenty minute journey every day.

Apart from the original concept, the by products of this elevated pedestrian system has had a fascinating impact on the shopping behaviour of the local people. Hong Kong central is almost an inverted city with cars and public transport on the ground level and the pedestrian “footpaths” elevated onto the first floor. The developers and retail providers have not forgotten about the 50,000 potential shoppers that use these walkways every day either, creating a fascinating serious of both purpose built and redeveloped shopping malls which have a direct relation with the walkways. In the central area there are numerous shopping malls/ hotels etc. which all interconnect directly via walkways and pedestrian bridges. One can walk for hours through endless shopping malls without ever touching “terra firma”. It would seem that for the first time in my life I have experienced a city where the “first floor” is commercially more viable in retail terms than the ground floor a concept that most modern retail developers would scarcely believe.

The yellow line on the map below shows the pedestrian walkways. The red coloured blocks are the shopping malls etc.

Bia Hong Kong - Part II

We intermingled International cuisine with Chinese food during our stay and although it’s touted as fusion food, I’d count our meal in Felix as an international meal. To explain further, Felix is a Phillipe Starck designed restaurant on the top floor of the Peninsula Hotel, with absolutely fantabulous views. Before we left Ireland we were told that if we felt like treating ourselves in Hong Kong, Felix was the place to go. We decided to book a table there for our last night in Hong Kong.

Felix was a real treat. From the dedicated luxurious lifts that swoop you up to a dizzy height (they also spectacularly dim the lights upon arrival at the restaurant), to the dual frontaged bar, the incredible view, the well designed serving pods, Felix has a serious wow factor, oh, and two g&t’s cost you €18!!!!! So, hands down I think it counts as our most expensive meal we have ever had ever, anywhere. The views are spectacular, the experience was unforgettable and the food is excellent. We had a really great night. We didn’t take any photos of our meals but we couldn’t ignore deserts….
oh, and here’s one which will give you some sense of the décor, just ignore the pensive look (oh, ok, then I was a little inebriated by that stage).

Just in case you might think Hong Kong is a precursor to how we’ll be living in New Zealand, be under no illusion, real life commences when we reach Wellington. We’ll be treating Auckland and Hamilton as part of the holiday (before the long real life holiday in Wellington begins).

Sharon

Bia in Hong Kong

Getting something to eat that would please both myself and Cathal was always going to be a challenge. Cathal isn’t the greatest fan of Chinese cooking and refuses to eat Chinese at home. In Hong Kong we thought we probably wouldn’t have much choice! On the first evening we arrived when we went looking for food we didn’t veer far from our hotel. We were quite tired and jetlagged and chose an inexpensive eatery on Kimberley road that a lot of locals seemed to be enjoying. A quick look at the menu confirmed that we both could get something to our liking. Whilst seated I took a more expansive look at the menu and saw some things that didn’t quite whet my appetite – Pork small intestines and Pork Liver Congee or how about Pork Giblet congee or my personal favourite Chicken Feet in Black Bean Sauce– yummy. We weren’t put off however and had a reasonably pleasant meal. After that we relied quite heavily on the guide book to steer us in the right direction.

We bought the Lonely Planet Guide to Hong Kong and not once, not twice but three times we sought out certain restaurants to discover that they were no longer located on the street to which the guide book referred – very annoying. A quick check of the guide book revealed that it was published in 2006 so we couldn’t have bought a more recent version. I guess the pace of change is rapid in Hong Kong.

After our first experience of authentic Chinese Cuisine we strongly soldiered on but I’ll admit we did upgrade a little when we chose our next Chinese eatery – Fook Lan Moon, touted as one of Hong Kong’s top Cantonese restaurants. It was a great experience, we were served Jasmine tea on arrival and topped up with tea throughout our meal. On the minus side though I felt very uncomfortable with the amount of attention you get from the waiting staff. You are literally watched as you eat your meal so that your every care can be catered to. Someone wasn’t watching me closely enough though. I had a really hard time managing my fatty and grisly chicken with chopsticks and resorted to the best eating implements I know, my own hands. Well, the Chinese aren’t all that graceful themselves when it comes to eating and it seems anything goes.

Desert was a first – I chose the traditional Chinese desert – sweet soup! I have to say it was the highlight of my meal and I will definitely choose it again when the opportunity next presents itself.

Our next culinary treat involved Afternoon Tea at the famous Peninsula Hotel. We arrived at 3.30pm on Sunday afternoon and queued for over 45 mins for a table. Neither of us would normally do such a thing but we really wanted to experience another of the “must do” things in Hong Kong. As it turned out it was totally worth it. Isobel, I thought of you the whole time we were there, hope the pictures give you some sense of the atmosphere. The Christmas decorations at this hotel are spectacular, very classy and jarred totally with our experience of Christmas in the hotel we were staying in – synthesized Christmas musak piped throughout the hotel assaulting our eardrums.

I have a bit more to say on the food front but Blogger just isn't co-operating picture wise so I'll just end it here for the moment. More deliciousness to come.

Sharon

Origami

During my many visits to the IFC shopping centre I was intrigued by the lengths the various shops would go to make the experience more memorable. I was fascinated in particular with elaborate paper installations throughout the shopping mall only to find out that there were 4 art installations by a show piece designer named Zoe Bradley.

What follows are pictures of some of the installations but the pictures don’t really do them justice.

Cathal.

The story so far

Hi all,

Well we made it to Hong Kong safely, the flight was uneventful but long!!! We had organised a pick up from the airport to our hotel and when we arrived we were very glad we didn’t have to think about how to get ourselves there. So, below I’ve listed a short summation of our time here in Hong Kong so far. We’ll be back with pictures, we've quite a few to trawl through, we'll probably do that on our next 11 hour flight which will be on Tuesday to Auckland!

HK Highs & Lows

Highs

Star Ferry at night – from Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. At this time of the year all of the skyscrapers are lit up with various seasonal greetings. Very pretty.

Shopping – oh, where to start. The shops are huge, well stocked, seemingly open all hours, and oh, so seductive. Everything is on sale or is tied into some promotion. You can expect at least a 10% discount off the listed price. It is impossible not to end up shopping even if your intentions for the day are sightseeing. To allow you cross busy streets you are navigated underground through a warren of department stores before you finally emerge on the other side. It takes a strong will not to get sidetracked. We had a long shopping list for Hong Kong and we knew we were going to spend a lot of time in the shops but on our first very positively we are not going shopping day we got sucked in almost immediately. It has to be said though it’s such a part of the city and is a tourist attraction in itself. There are so many higher end shopping centres with nothing but designer labels it’s hard to see how they all can survive but with a population of almost 7 million I guess the $ must be there. One of the best shopping centres we found was Times Square in Causeway Bay, 10 floors of retail therapy with a good mix of designer and more affordable brands! We bought runners, backpacks, a camcorder and an iPod here. The value in electronics is not as good as we would have thought prior to arrival but saying that you will still make savings over the same goods back home, but it’s not so good that you would veer from the shopping list and be tempted by other electrical goods. Cosmetics and perfumes are good value though!

The Street Architecture – I’ll leave that one to Cathal to describe but even I was impressed.

The Peak Tram and the journey back down from the peak – feels like a vertical drop – a definite must do for any trip to the city.

Cleanliness of the city

Politeness of people everywhere

Cathal’s first massage! Maybe I should let him elaborate but lets just say he was walked on – literally.

Very efficient and user friendly transport network

Pacific Coffee Company and their free internet.


Lows

Still having a bad cold in Hong Kong and getting a lot of scared looks every time I sneezed/coughed or blew my nose. Think I should have been wearing a medical mask. A lot of people wore them on the streets.

Fake Handbag and fake Watch hawkers – like anywhere these people are just annoying.

Eating my first full meal with chopsticks – a painful experience. I mean if I can manipulate a pair of knitting needles why oh why can’t I eat with chopsticks!!!

Chicken – fatty and grisly – everywhere, from cheap and cheerful establishments to restaurants where we paid over 20Euro for a chicken main course. (Liam & Sheelagh – the chicken in The Grand Paella is 1st class by comparison).

Christmas muzak in hotel

Clothes shopping when you are a UK Size 12 – the equivalent of XXXXXXXXXL in Hong Kong – depressing.

Hong Kong Museum of Art – disappointing to say the least, the contemporary art section wasn’t even open.

Walking the legs off ourselves every day.

Don’t know if I can call it a low but we’ve been on the go so much here I haven’t had time to either knit or read – a relaxing chilled holiday this ain’t.

Sharon