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| Star Ferry, photo by Ken in Hong Kong |
Monday April 2 1984
Wake up call at
5.30. Eggs and sausages again. Bus to airport. Under an overpass a sign for the
Penson Kindergarten and Nursery, featuring Mickey Mouse wearing an Uncle Sam
suit. [The kindergarten is still in Bangkok but doesn’t seem to have a webpage.]
On the way to the
airport we saw two passenger trains of four or five carriages each. One was
silver with a yellow stripe, t’other was blue and yellow. Also passed Thai
temples with gold flashing like gold flashlights in the morning sun; some were
very narrow and high.
At airport, changed
122 baht for $HK40. This left me with 19B, so I bought six postcards 3B each.
2B each at other places.
Things not
mentioned by lack of remembrance at time of writing:
There are a lot of
timber mills along the klongs; they must use the logs floating in the river
(tied up).
The klong people
use the water for everything; perhaps they have immunity to any greeblies that
might be in it. You can see into their dwellings – TVs, clothes, people already
dressed, people doing chores, sleeping Dogs and cats.
Young lads always
in evidence as swimmers – I don’t know what the girls do all day, we didn’t see
many.
One often sees
monks in the silken orange robes and bare feet walking around the streets (one
in a car). Women are no allowed to touch them – it is absolutely taboo.
I saw very little
cigarette smoking.
Sometimes it’s hard
to understand the Thais’ English. Some waiters are good, some not so good, but
smile a lot. Bell
boys like to practise their English in the lifts.
At the hairport my passport was stamped by V. Bumpensilp.
The plane was an A-330 and I am getting to know people [of
our group] and their names better now. I had an aisle seat in the
middle. It didn’t matter about not having a window seat as Hong
Kong was cloudy anyway. Arrived about 12.30. The customs lady
(Chinese) asked me if I had anything to declare, like what sounded like
‘moneywallets.’
“Do you have any
moneywallets?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. “I
have some traveller’s cheques.”
It turned out that
she was actually saying ‘marijuana’.
Never touched the stuff.
Change $40 to $HK252.80
We were driven to the hotel in a
fleet of long green Mercedes-Benzes. Checked into 906, again with Arthur, who’s
not feeling too well. The room is at the back of the hotel, facing a blank
wall. A wonderful view if you like bricks.
Shortly after arriving, I rang up
the Clements. Bill invited me over Wednesday evening. [Bill
was an officer in the British Army; they had been our neighbours for a couple
of years in Canberra.
He was on a posting to Hong Kong before going
to another country which the Chinese weren’t to be told about.] He
sounded very, very English. Then I went for a walk, pricing cameras. A Canon
AE1-P body is about $AU100 less than the duty free price in Australia. Put
in print film for D&P.
Went to New World Centre, which is
massively made of red marble on the shore of the harbour. There are myriad
shops and sections. Well worth a visit, even if to have a Hawaiian Ham Steak
and Pineapple at Maria’s for $33 incl. tax. Then went along, past
under-construction-almost-completed Coliseum (complete with outdoor sculpture
exhibition) and caught a ferry to Wan Chai at the terminal near the station.
$1.50. It was the Hunghon Ferry Pier.
I walked from Wan Chai through
Central District, past Chester Garden and through a shopping mall (Queensway Plaza).
The buildings around this place are impressively impressive. The new blocks,
with large windows that is, all have that glass insulating stuff. The gold is
gold-looking. There are lots of buildings still going up, and it’s interesting
to see the outside lifts move up and down very often. Sometimes there’s a flash
of light and sparks as a welder welds, or a knucklehead hits his head on a
beam.
Sparks remind
me – at the Thai cultural activities at the Rose Gardens,
the fight between the man and the woman was with real swords, apparently
prepared so that sparks would fly when they are struck together.
I decided to look
at Pottinger St.
for Kinefoto Ltd. I found out later I was in it without realising. Some
sections of it are sealed off to traffic and there are stalls selling fruit,
leather goods, linen, shoes etc etc. It is narrower than I though it would be
and quite steep. I went too far that way, and too far up this way, and too far
back again; but it was interesting seeing in the shops. Eventually I found a
sign saying Pottinger St.
I was up the top end, so I went down until I located the shop, but I didn’t go
in.
I bought a Hi-C
orange drink for $1.70 and made my way to the Star Ferry terminal. There are
walkways from the bus terminal to the pier. Undercover is paved with those
wonderful dimpled tiles; exposed in the open, the tiles are smooth and slippery
when wet. It was wet. Bad choice of design, I’d say.
The weather today
has consisted of very very low cloud and a little bit of rain and more than a
bit of wind, which is good because it clears away the exhaust fumes in the
street. I hope the weather clears up while we are here.
The Star Ferry
costs 70c first class (top deck) or 50c second class, bottom deck. It takes
seven minutes to cross the harbour. I went 1st class and back to the
hotel at about 6.30-7.00. Neon signs and shop lights are very bright. LeeKee
Boot & Shoe maker Ltd.
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