Back to the future

Hello to everybody around the world - here we go again: new country, new culture, new luck, new everything... It is true, when we were waiting at the airport in Delhi, we were rather tempted to hijack the plane going to Paris but what would you have thought about us had we quitted our travels just when it got a little rough?! No, we had to go on and so the plane took us to Hong Kong - and into a different world! No more life-threatening rickshaws but an amazingly efficient public transport system including metro, tram, busses, ferries, no more stinking dirty streets used as garbage dumps but spotlessly clean, well-paved 6-lane roads, no more crumbling buildings and worn down hotels but sparkling sky-scrapers, modern city houses and spotless hotels, no more honking, shouting and cow-lowing but an almost scarry "silent" city (at least for our tortured ears), no more aggressive people starring at us, shouting at us, trying to rip us off and following us around selling grandma but quiet, super friendly, respectful and laughing Asians, all well-dressed and all well behaved... we truly had the feeling of having travelled into the future! This was paradise for us!

The first two nights we spent on our own, sadly suffering again from our last food-poisening in Delhi and not being able to visit half of what we wanted but then we met another member of the Hospitality Club and Vincent showed us around town quite a bit and made sure we got a more local approach to the city and to the food (very tasty and good but I have to get used to the consistency...). Thank you Vincent! On the picture you can see us in a turning restaurant at the 66th floor of one of those skyscrapers. Particularly after India, we were very impressed by Hong Kong's skyline, the skyscrapers and all the luxuries of a Western life and we couldn't get enough of the views.



We explored the Financial District and the habor front during day and night, trying to get as many different impressions of the modern, glittering building fronts as possible. However, we were also very, very surprised by the numerous green spots the city offers! We had imagined Hong Kong as a terribly crowded concrete jungle but the fact that the city spreads over several islands and the buildings mainly pop up around the ocean side and the green hills in the back are left untoughed gives Hong Kong a very special, outstretched, and laid-back feeling. Of course, we also climbed up one of thoses hills, the most famous one, and the building you can see in the pic is right up on top of Victoria Peak! Awesome walk and awesome views! Ah, one of the pictures below also shows the light spectacle they show every evening at the harbor front. Even though the lights were not quite synchronous with the music it was still a very nice way to marvel at the illuminated skyline!



Regarding the green of Hong Kong, we spent two days being surprised at how easy you could actually get out of the major city center and into a very relaxing and enjoyable environment. Having rented a bike brought us out into the New Territories and into a region of well-kept beachfront promenades and set-back reservoirs where kids were letting fly their kites and it introduced us to some very fun types of bikers as you may see in the picture. People were actually driving around everything in those three-wheelers, from groceries, to dogs, children, grandparents,... :) We also walked up other hills and discovered some very beautiful beaches we would never have suspected in this region, the water being amazingly blue and clear!

Overall, Hong Kong was a very pleasant surprise for us and we even prolongued our stay a little, even though our budget was not happy about this decision (we'll have to come back for sure). However, we were rather reluctant to leave this new-found comfort and we felt as if we needed to stay much longer to really charge our batteries again for more chaos, long hours on buses and trains, more poverty, more hassel and struggle to get around,... What was waiting for us out there, behind the "Chinese" frontier? Another India with one billon people and all the trouble that comes with such a huge and underdeveloped country? What would China be like once we left the rich coastal regions? Our stomach was grumbling when we got on the train to Shenzhen to cross the boader and take our first night bus to go West!



PS. Das hier ist ein Spezial fuer Papa. Mama, du musst ihn mal fragen, ob er das wiedererkennt und dann verraten wir ihm die Preise! :)