#10 Keeping Moving - Travelling to Hong Kong and Thailand
An interlude of travel, transportation and eating noodles
Hello,
Predictably, I started my holiday to Hong Kong and Thailand with the firm intention of writing ten minutes a day, every day. I succeeded in doing this for about four or five days before trailing off because I was too busy having fun. As a result, this blog post will be a little different… dispersed ramblings from the beginning of my travels with some general life updates at the end. I found it interesting to see my anxious state at the beginning of this holiday with the awareness of how I currently feel (which is pretty damn good!) but more on that later.
Reviews (Loosely)
Air China (the flight through Beijing towards Hong Kong) - 6.5/10
I'm writing this section in Beijing Airport with the tiredness that gives you physical pain behind the eyes and a tendency for self-loathing. However! The show must go on. In the afternoon of the 3rd of October, Molly, Harrison and I set out to Heathrow Airport. Bedside small issues of overground doors not closing (being resolved by men using their big round biceps and a cheer from the carriage) and a hiccup of a moment where we thought we hadn't actually purchased tickets whilst being checked in, the journey to our airplane was a success.
I'd been nervous about taking Air China because apparently these days, everything makes me nervous. Obsessively googling Reddit reviews of a cheap airline is generally not a good idea. Surely my baggage was getting lost, my flight was to be cancelled or we wouldn't be served food! The latter half of my worry was made worse by the fact that we forgot to input vegan meals on the website before the flight... Honestly, which website though? The flight was so cheap that it felt like the website we used evaporated as soon as we put our bank details in.
So yes, I was expecting bad things. Things like toilets not flushing, headphones not working for the films, the touch screen of my tiny TV not working. All of these things happened. And you know what? It was absolutely fine. No, it wasn't the British Airways luxury I was used to as a child and yes, we did have a very intense security check in China that drained the blood from my face but, for the money (less than £700 from London to Hong Kong to Thailand to London) I think I'll take it! Travelling is crap anyway and while yes, a few added luxuries like nice toilets and mini toothbrushes are very cute and definitely add to that feeling of comfort, it was fine. Because of the time difference, it ended up being a day of travelling and I can see how some people would feel they need something a bit classier and cosier. However, if you're able to switch off from that for 24 hours, I recommend it. Here's to hoping my bags are on the other side of this flight
Arriving in Hong Kong - 10/10
I am writing this section with a small hangover lying in a T-shirt and pants in my Airbnb. My T-shirt has the word ‘Jamaica’ written on it. I have no idea how I acquired this t-shirt. I have never been to Jamaica. Sometimes I worry about wearing this shirt and being accused of cultural appropriation if somebody asks me whether I've been to Jamaica and I say, embarrassed, because I'm wearing a tourist-style top that says ‘Jamaica’ on it, ‘No’, but then I realise that this top doesn't represent Jamaican culture and honestly, who the fuck is going to read into that? #anxiety
Anyway, I'm in Hong Kong! That was just a side-track comment. It's 32 degrees outside, I just turned off the air conditioning and it's already getting warm again. I have a sore throat from smoking too much. On the flight over here, in China, I bought ten packs of cigarettes for £18.82. That's less than £2 per pack. I am not proud of myself. This is just something that I did.
We arrived in Hong Kong before seven and got a red taxi from the airport to our temporary home near Marina Cove in Sai Kung. The taxi was cheap and the journey was long, beautiful and dark. Outside we watched as thousands of tiny window lights twinkled from hundreds of skyscrapers set against backdrops of huge navy blue silhouetted mountains. A set of impossibly high flats subsumed by random, taller blocks of flats, somehow double their size. It is not like London here. I am so proud to share Hong Kong with two of my loves, Molly and Harrison.
After dropping off our bags, we quickly headed into Sai Kung town. It’s a strange thing to go to a place you have called home for so long but haven’t seen in ten years. Particularly, I found the highways to be instantly recognisable in this bizarre homely way. I could feel where we were, sense it in lost memories at the back of my consciousness - everything was the same yet different. And this logic applies to me too, I am a different person with many of the same parts of me interwoven into the core of my thought processes and behaviours. And suddenly I can feel where I have come from in a way that I haven’t been able to connect to in years. My memory is so poor that it is only when I’m confronted with the dirty terrace of Bacco, the shisha bar that I learned to blow smoke rings in, ten years later, doing the same thing, drinking, smoking and chatting with my loved ones, that I begin to recall being a teenager, to feel it in my bones.
What else?
In just two days we have been for a buffet with our Cantonese friends, explored the shopping centres of Tsim Sha Tsui, haggled for ridiculous fridge magnets through Mong Kok market, taken the Star Ferry across to Central, drank beers in the street with school friends at night, played cards in a playground surrounded by other people drinking beers in the street, made new friends, swam in a waterfall and walked along Sai Kung pier, all while enjoying delicious food.
I feel so lucky to have grown up here and that appreciation is really present while I look out of the minibus windows onto huge mountains of jungle and wildlife. There's something really strange about going back to a “home” when you've already created another home somewhere else. I am repeating myself but it has been ten long years of change and growth and parties and sex and friendships and joy yet so much of Hong Kong is familiar to me. I am suddenly a teenager texting at a bus stop, pissing in a bush near a park, drinking on a pier, smoking weed up a beautiful hill. Yet all of this is so long ago. What I felt was behind me, what I had forgotten rushes back to me in a flushing stream of childhood innocence and mistakes and running down a hill in just my underwear and a t-shirt with my friend, crying on a bus and camping on beaches. There is so much significance that I hadn't realised was so formative to who I am today. And Molly and Harrison are on holiday. Everything is new to them. I am on holiday in a place I used to call my home. It's a lot. I have completed so many steps.
Having a cold on holiday 4/10
It's kind of okay because this is a long holiday. If it were a weekend break and I was ill the whole time I'd be pretty pissed off. That being said, it doesn't feel great. I slept with a sore throat and intermittently turned the air-conditioning on and off, on and off. Seriously, I swallowed two paracetamol at 10:30 pm, didn't sleep all night and checked the packet in the morning after an anything-soothe-me-please-god-bath only to see the paracetamol I took was caffeine-infused. What a horrible mistake. I am only a sensitive little ant. Ouch. Anyway, we ate some bean curd meant to taste like duck and (maybe?) sweet and sour chicken and on only three hours sleep, we got the minibus to Choi Hung. We were headed to the M+ Museum.
From Choi Hung we took the MTR (which was a lot emptier than the weekend) to Yau Ma Tei, walked a long time on an industrial-type highway and eventually reached a shopping centre. Harrison and Molly found the shopping centre impressive. We sharked through, following a single sign about the M+ Museum. After asking several people for directions, we arrived at the museum only to discover it was closed. Not the best experience for a groggy girl with a snotty nose and a growing pang of hunger in her stomach. We all agreed a curry was in order.
We took a quick stop at the famous Chungking Mansions where leaflets were thrown in front of our faces like emojis on a live stream. Alas, we already knew where we were going, Saravanan, a vegetarian Indian restaurant on the first floor. And hey, it was pretty good! We were satisfied, not impressed by anything other than the Indian vegan meatballs, but satisfied. From there we got the ferry and the tram to central. I was on the hunt for vegan bubble tea having spent most of my teenage years shooting tapioca balls at friends in school uniform. For some reason, when we eventually found the vegan bubble tea shop, I chose the jasmine bubble tea. It was okay but not quite the same trip down memory lane. The balls were also not so much balls, but tiny black cubes. Why? I do not know.
The feeling of illness had settled into me and my general disposition was lethargic and a bit down. Wth?? Still, we persevered and I'm so glad we did. We took a red taxi to the peak tram.
The Peak and Peak Tram - 9/10
If you have been to Hong Kong for any period of time, it’s safe to assume you've been to the peak tram. It's a rite of passage, and for good reason. Like wow, even the waiting room is beautiful, decorated with giant screens of wildlife and birds, filled with the sounds of tweeting and rustling branches. The anticipation for something exciting gradually builds as you slowly move, just one person in a giant crowd of heads, into the tiny glass oblong that is The Tram. Seated facing forwards on an upwards slant, The Peak Tram looks like a thick rollercoaster, perhaps the Grandfather of Thorpe Park’s Stealth, slower, wiser and imbuing a sense of safety into your mind. It was light when we started the journey and once the ten-minute uphill ride was done and we'd been truly suckered in by the gift shop, the sky was dark.
There's something remarkable about standing over five hundred metres (1,811 feet if you want to be old-fashioned about it) in the air overlooking the glittering lights of the Hong Kong skyline. You can't beat it. “What a city”, as Molly's dad said in response to her photograph of the view. It is, to put it bluntly, epic. My only sadness was that in the nighttime, there's very little to do up there, the restaurants are expensive and it feels like there could be a little more, activity-wise. There is, of course, Madame Tussauds, for no apparent reason… but let’s not talk about that. Perhaps the lack of activities is the beauty of The Peak? They don't faff about (bar the bizarre wax figures of willing celebrities). No, it's all about the view. Beautiful, in a way, that a view so impressive is celebrated so sincerely. Even though I felt a bit under the weather, sitting up against a cement wall that we'd climbed to watch the shimmering lights and flashing colours of the city felt incredibly special. I loved sharing it with Molly and Harrison.
Tap Mun (Grass Island) - 10/10
My favourite part of Hong Kong is Sai Kung, where I grew up. Sai Kung is known as the “back garden of Hong Kong”. It is the countryside of Hong Kong that plenty of people are unaware of. This secret is both a good thing and a bad thing. Sai Kung seems like it should be shared but like all great secrets, there is the sense that sharing it might spoil it. I've never been good at keeping secrets anyway.
Growing up in Sai Kung has meant kayaking after school and barbeques in jungle hideaways on the weekend, swimming in rockpools and speedboats to tiny islands. My wonderful childhood friend, Frankie, met us in Sai Kung at one of the new local coffee shops. There are several that have opened up, particularly in Old Town Sai Kung, they all appear very cute and independent. Frankie and I shared a massive hug, we sipped up our iced coffees and got on the bus to the pier. We intended to go to Tai Long Wan, which entails an hour’s hike to a long stretch of white-sanded beach with a tasty seafood restaurant tucked away at the entrance. Regrettably, we’d left it too late, we’d missed the early boat and the sun was too high in the sky. Instead, we ventured over to Tap Mun, otherwise known as Grass Island.
Tap Mun is 1.69 kilometres squared. We walked around the island in less than an hour. There was a concrete path for us to follow and we looked out onto mountains, islands, the salty ocean, and fishing boats. The island is small and spectacular. It is a popular place for people to get delicious seafood on the weekend, deep-fried squid and shrimp fried rice. But you know me, I’m vegan! I’m just trying to paint a picture for all you carnivores. The fisherman’s village was built in 1964 and the small concrete houses there are brightly painted blues, yellows, greens and pinks. Just thinking about the colourful homes, rich greenery and people speckled about the island gives me a nostalgic, happy yearning. I wish we could have stayed even longer.
Unfortunately, many of the restaurants were closed but we found a small place appearing to have only one frying pan on a hob outside. Frankie, whose Cantonese is very impressive, ordered for us. Surprisingly, I could get the jist of what they were saying. I enjoyed the part where, directing her attention towards Harrison and I, Frankie said, ‘No meat, no fish, no egg,’ and the chef simply responded, ‘So, what do they eat?’ She cooked us up some soy noodles, choi sum (delicious garlic vegetables) and fried rice. We shared three Tsing Tsao’s and had great chats. Thoroughly enjoyable. After the meal, we headed to the pier, got in a ferry and then bussed back to Sai Kung. It was Taco Tuesday at a restaurant in the square so we tacoed up, drank plenty of beer and smoked far too many cigarettes. What are holidays for?
And then…
It is after Tap Mun that I stopped writing and really settled into my holiday. I write this now, at the desk of my day job, looking out onto a grey sky. I know that now, eight hours into the future, it’s the evening and Hong Kong is hot and colourful, lit up with electricity, bursting with the busy scents of Cantonese food and swaying with oceans, monkeys and nature. I can’t be there now but it is still out there, a living, thriving thing. That being said, a lot has changed about Hong Kong and Chinese restrictions are slowly infiltrating freedoms for the individual. Films have to be screened before they’re displayed for censorship reasons. Chinese flags are everywhere and CCTV cameras are rampant. It is not easy to have this glimpse into the enclosing future of Hong Kong and to know there’s a very real possibility that if I leave it another ten years, it’s likely that Hong Kong will not be the same safe, beautiful haven it has been for so long.
There is so much more that we did, so many special places, so much tasty food and so many adventures. Thinking of it now I am overwhelmed with the memory of the place, it is magical and I am so vastly grateful that I got to go back and share it with the people that I love. I only wish I could go back more regularly.
Not only did we go to Hong Kong but we also travelled to Bangkok for five days. We stayed near the Cabbages and Condoms restaurant in Sukumvit. Shreksy. What did we experience in Bangkok aside from a restaurant decorated with condoms? I will try (and fail to) summarise it in a few lines: night markets, neon lights, contemporary art, the endless party music of Koh San Road, a poor excuse for an infinity pool, tuk-tuk rides, huge expansive highways, delicious food, buddhist temples, sunset boat rides, legal weed and laughter, plenty of it. I’ll let the photos do the rest of the yapping (this blog is long enough!)
I am reminded of what Molly said about it being the sign of a good holiday when you can leave feeling satisfied and excited to get back to your home. I just think - How lucky am I? How lucky were we? I’m very proud that I saved money for this entire holiday. It is the biggest expense I’ve ever spent and it was so worth it.
Apologies for not reviewing anything concrete and just spamming you about my holiday. My next blog post will be much more structured, I promise. Still, there is a message here, not that any of you need a message, particularly from me. But yes, the message is more than simply, HOLIDAY GOOD. It is that sometimes you can feel awful, and I mean, crying nearly every day, hating the people around you, despising your job, I’m talking anxiety overload-awful. When that feeling lives in you for an extended period of time (a couple of weeks, perhaps a few months), it can feel incredibly draining in an am-I-always-unhappy(??) way. It’s important to take a break somehow - to reassess. Of course, this isn’t easy for everyone, for many people, even. It might mean not socialising for one weekend, shutting yourself in your room and doing some cold hard journaling. Or perhaps you have the luxury of being able to book a train to Brighton or Dorset and can stay somewhere for a little while. Maybe you just need to take a mental-health day off work (upon reflection I wish that I did this). I highly recommend you do these things or at least some small act to attempt to reset yourself a little. Brains can get sticky and muddled, make sure to look after yours.
PS. If anyone has any questions about vegan food in Hong Kong or Bangkok, I would be happy to answer. I could have made a whole blog about the food but I am not that organised :)!
