The Hong Kong Experience

I’m in between my ‘grown up’ jobs at the moment and, other than being a lady of leisure for two weeks, I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to take a break from Melbourne and catch up with my old man at an exotic half-way (from Scotland) location…

As Papa Lorimer had already booked his flights to mainland China, the location of some father daughter bonding was pretty much set without any further thought… destination Hong Kong.

I had never really experienced HK before, other than a sorry 4 days at the end of 3.5 months of backpacking round Asia Pac. My only memory of the city was floating around Victoria harbour, on an old Star Ferry dinner cruise boat, cursing the minute I signed up to an ‘all inclusive’ dinner/entertainment cruise. I wanted to do something ‘special’ on my last night of my backpacking adventure….However, hazy memories consisted of the stench of the ‘authentic’ fishy food, me being the youngest person on-board by around 40 years (with only 2 others speaking broken English), the most horrific karaoke dance rendition of the YMCA I have ever endured and menacing thoughts of jumping overboard were stuck very firmly in my head…. But maybe it was time to give this place another go…

A city once under British rule and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and the South China Sea, HK is known not only for being one of the world’s main financial centres but for being one of the most densely populated cities in the world – and I can certainly vouch for that. As soon as you step off the plane, swarms of people engulf you in a chaotic frenzy that you have no idea if you are actually walking or just being swept along in a tide of bodies whether that be on the city’s cobbled streets or in the vast maze of its underground metro system.

Hong Kong is a city of contradictions, where the wealthy live like opulent kings and the poor collect cardboard for shelter. Freshly chopped meat carcasses are exposed to dirty lane ways whilst designer jewellery and bags drip from every counter on every corner with every outlet rammed.

I guess I didn’t know what to expect but HK opens your eyes to a city where East has met West and the marriage of the two has thrown up a juxtaposition – old world China intermingled with the dream of the Western wealth…the city overwhelms you (with or without a dinner cruise)…and here are the photos to prove it…..