Hong Kong – Humidity Anyone?

Let it be said right now, Hong Kong is a hot city. Very hot. When you come from Australia, this usually doesn’t present a big problem, but HK has one special flavour to it just to make things a little more difficult. In spring, the humidity level is at about 82% on top of about 27 to 30 degree celcius days. Add in about 8 million people scattered across the central islands and you have a place that is not only extremely busy but also extremely uncomfortable, especially when you forgot to pack in any clothing to match these sorts of weather patterns. Arriving late at night, I dragged my backpack around with me trying to find the shuttle bus to my accommodation, before finally making it on board for the lesiurely hour-long drive.

There was an initial problem to my arrival in Hong Kong that had been sparked by some recent world events that occured about midway through my holiday in Japan. The now infamous Swine-Flu had hit the Americas and Mexico, and the fear of suffering its possibly fatal effects was enough put most travellers on edge, as if the economic crisis wasn’t enough to scare the willies out of the more paranoid among us. Amusingly enough, I had met a guy in in Kyoto who worked at a factory in South Korea than manufactured the safety masks that you often saw people wearing around Japan. While their reasons were to thwart others from catching the common cold, they had become a symbol of fear and threat that Swine-Flu had seemlessly bought about. Always prepared, the man had a small stockpile of these protective masks on him, and kindly gave me one, half as a joke, and half as a way to calm my suspected nerves about the issue. Or maybe he was promoting his product.

Who cares. Either way, I decided to break out the mask on the bus ride to my hotel in HK, even though the coach bus itself had about five passengers. It was a way to pass the time, if anything, so pulling the mask out of its protective plastic bag, I donned it to keep the germs away. After about 10 minutes of playing with the flexible metal nose-piece trying to stop a flow of steam from fogging up my glasses, I eventually gave up. Swine-Flu or not, wearing something as uncomfortable as the mask wasn’t worth it, and as the rest of my time in HK proved, was entirely pointless.

I got up late the next day, about 10am (it’s late when you’re trying to travel), which was also my only day to experience what HK had to offer. Completely unprepared for the humidity, I tried to dress as lightweight as possible, even though it eventually proved to be unhelpful in thwarting the heat. I think I ended up going back to my hotel multiple times just to take a shower. Gross.

I was staying on the northern Kowloon Island of Hong Kong, so I decided to take a walk down to the harbour front to see the more well known part of the city that was situated on the other side. Unfortuantely for me the weather also took a sudden turn towards overcast and windy, which didn’t sit particularly well with the location.

It was along here that I came across the Hong Kong version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Named the Avenue of Stars, it was a walkway along the harbour that was adorned with the concrete placements of many of the territory’s film stars, as well as a number of displays made in honour of their long standing cinematic history. Naturally, I went searching for one of the only HK stars that I actually knew.

I had planned on trying to get to Lantau Island, with the worlds largest outdoor Buddha statue, however after talking to some of the helpful tourism staff I discovered that it would take roughly an hour or more to get there and back, making the whole idea seem more like an expedition that a lesiurely tourist trek. Besides, I had already seen enough buddhas in Japan, and considering how hot it was, I wanted to pace myself. So instead, I wandered back towards my hotel to stop in at the Hong Kong History Museum, which interested me if only because I was so ignorant of the history of the territory. The museum details the beginning of the planets formation, right up to the more modern history of World War II and beyond. I hadn’t even known that Hong Kong was only released from British sovereignty in 1997, having been a trading port and colony of the United Kingdom since 1842. During this time, it also saw the involvement of Hong Kong in the Opium Wars that were fought between China and Britain, which caused a considerable amount of trouble considering HK was somewhere in the middle of the two warring sides. It also didn’t help that the Opium Wars were fought twice during the 19th Century.

After some recommedation about what to do in Hong Kong, I made my way across to the central island to a lookout that gave a good view over the city. Getting up there was part of the fun, as you had to take a steep tram ride that could get you up to the summit. Apparently you could also take a bus, but where’s the fun in that? Before getting to the tram, I took some time to notice the sleek and mosterous buildings that towered over the city below, with their glass sides acting as giant mirrors.

At the top of the summit, you then have to make your way to the lookout that was at the top of the shopping mall which the tram arrived at. As someone who is deathly afraid of heights, it wasn’t the most pleasant of trips, but the view over the city was well worth it.

Ironicly enough, directly behind was some gorgeous rolling green hills that were in stark contrast to the city.

I spend nearly a good hour admiring the view of the city, watching the sun go down as it slowly coated the buildings below in a soft golden light, before the structures themselves began to spark with life. Although the chill of the wind was still present, the cloud cover had cleared up nicely, giving a beautiful view. The lookout, although busy, was also quite nice itself, if only because there wasn’t such a cramming of people into each and every space like much of the areas below.

After returning back to the bottom of the hill, I headed back to Kowloon-side to see the a light show that happened every night of the year as part of the city’s entertainment. Various buildings began to light up in syncronisation to a cheesy music number that played over nearby speakers, with strobe lighting panning across the city. The whole display was mildly impressive, but at the same time felt somewhat tacky and shallow, maybe because it was such an obvious tourist attraction that was purely for light entertainment value.

Afterwards I checked out some of the nightlife in the city, but in the end my final thoughts of the night was how bloody expensive the drinks were. It was hardly what I could call a terribly enticing night out after spending about $30 AUD on only two drinks. That said, I did stumble across an amazing little Japanese Restaurant, with a full vegetarian menu. Finally!

Overall my short stay in Hong Kong was probably just the right amount of time for me. It’s not so much that the city was bad, but the humidity, entertainment and hustle and bustle of it’s people was certainly not to my liking. This short ‘taste-test’ was fine enough for me, and while I wouldn’t strictly say that I would be avoiding Hong Kong in the future, I didn’t feel any strong conviction to return in a hurry. Although if I was to, I would remember to bring shorts.