28 and 29 March 2010 - Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Hong Kong is part of China since 1997, but has special status under the Chinese 'one country, two systems policy'. In terms of being one of the major global commercial hubs, nothing much seems to have changed due to reunification, except for continued spectacular growth.

Our sail in - around 6 am - felt like sailing down watery mainstreet of a giant metropolis among a forest of soaring glass skyscrapers of the most daring designs, sweeping roofs of huge museums, conference centres, shopping malls, and long stretches of modern concrete highways, suspended over the harbour waters, the barren stretch of now abandoned Kai Tak airport awaiting development as a space age cruise terminal. Not a sampan or junk in sight, but the old Star Ferries, some still painted the old white and green, and some in psychedelic paint still ply the harbour waters. A few tourists boats hovered around, some breakwater enclosed marinas with either fishing boats or sleek modern yachts. Further into the harbour, cranes, freighters, rows and stacks of thousands of containers. 85000 containers are moved every day, ships turn around within 3-4 hours, unload and load. (No wonder Hong Kong serves as a teaching model for Logistics)

Beyond all that, the lush green and still mist shrouded hills of Hong Kong Island in the background.

A very crowded city, where landfills encroaching into the harbour are normal and frequent, and as soon as they have 'settled', another complex of housing, manufacturing, office buildings are constructed in record time. Popilation grows at break neck speed, much of it from immigrants from China.

Hong Kong actually consists of Hong Kong Island proper, with Victoria Peak rising above it, Kowloon across the harbour on the mainland, and the New Territories, which used to be a backwater rural area, sharing the northern border with China.

Commuting is efficient. Although car and bus traffic clog the roads, pedestrian traffic flows thickly and safely through all green/all red intersections or crosses noisy streets via underpasses. Moving walkways, several miles long, connect entire city blocks, their direction alternating between a.m. and  p.m. to accommodate rush hour traffic. There is an extensive modern Metro (which transports 2.4 million commuters daily), several trains, buses, thousands of taxis, tunnels under the harbour, some trams and the ever present ferries crossing to the many smaller islands belonging to Hong Kong, or visiting Macau, the old Portuguese strongholdnow a Chinese city and modern gambling heaven.

I threw myself into the throng, walked down Salisbury Road, where my old stomping ground, the Ambassador Hotel, used to be next door to the allegedly 'best' hotel in the World, the venerable Peninsular. Well, the Peninsular is still there, genteel British Afternoon Tea as well, except it has been extended heavenward with a couple of hotel towers each about 50 stories high. No trace of the old Ambassador, in it's place stands another double towered Sheraton Hotel.

Nathan Road, shopping street and a long series of 1950's uglies in years past, is still shoppers paradise, but many of the uglies have given way to ultra modern malls and shopping centres, offering again every international fashion brand. Judging by the prevalence of up-end exclusive stores, where even kid's clothing is couture from Dior and Yves St. Laurent at outrageous prices, many of Hong Kong citizens must enjoy wages and salaries, of which the rest of us can only dream. The car traffic apart from taxis and trucks, seems to consist of Mercedeses and BMW's, with a few Maseratis and Ferraris mixed in between.

Lee Ka Shing, the 11th richest man in the world, not only lives here, but 30 % of Hong Kong works for him. The middleclass employs 300,000 Philipino women as nannies, the lower middle class employs as many Indonesions - difference being capability or lack thereof in the English language.

Some of the old Kowloon is still evident, pre-sixties buildings with dilapidated facades, each window graced with an old fashioned airconditioning unit. The walls are covered with placards, store signs, restaurant advertisements, tailor signst, foot massage, acupuncture, cheap travel, Chinese Viasa outlets, money exchange, souvenirs....a bewildering jungle, in which narrow side alleys lead into the odorous, dank underbelly of the glitzy city.

 

Later, I took one of the Star Ferries to  Hong Kong Island, and alit at the old Central Pier. Ferries are free for people over 65 years, which I learned too late. But, at 75 cents  one way fare, that was not a costly error. I took first a bus and then a funicular to 'The Peak' (at reduced senior rates), one quick way to grasp the immensity of the City from the lofty heights of Victoria Peak. Up there, development had morphed the old peak station into another convoluted shopping centre, a multi storied viewing tower replete with dozens of restaurants and shops, with some super exclusive private villas built along the ridge of the Peak. Propably some of the most expensive bits of real estate on the entire globe.

But, from here the size and height of the hundreds of sky scrapers sank in, a view akin to one of a monstruous science fiction porcupine, where each spine would be a few dozen stories high and packed as tight as the network of roads and streets would allow, and then some - as some were bridged together above the streets.

Next I revisited what used to be quaint fishing villages, with floating restaurants, heavy sampan traffic in the bays, and deserted beaches. Now, Repulse Bay looks like Miami built on a hill (the beach is still purre white sand), Aberdeen has a huge JUMBO floating restaurant with Conference facilities and free shuttle 'sampan' look alikes, and Stanley has evolved into a thriving tourist market place with restaurants 'a-la-French-Riviera' along the esplanade.

Every living language can be heard inthe markets, and in the streets.

But an old temple graces the end of the beach front, with aromatic incense floating from its many joss sticks, and an air of peace and quiet inside. Albeit, the interior is vibrant with colour, where red seems to overwhelm everything else.

Hong Kong at night is a feast for the eyes, with colourful neon lit streets and alleys, some of which turn into night markets and social hangouts - too many in too many areas to count. Topping it all a laser show lights up the sky over Hong Kong/Kowloon skyline every night, music and all, and for 30 minutes every skyscraper flashes, turns colour, lights up in different designs to the rythm of public music, and multi coloured lasers pierce into the clouds above. Amsterdam had the prime spot, right beside the central clocktower in Kowloon, where thousand of people gather every night to watch the spectacle.

 

I decided to visit the New Territories on the second day. Walked to the Holiday Inn, and booked a local tour at 'Senior Citizen' Price, which came to 30 dollars...

The guide for the dozen or so people participating greeted us 'On behalf of the Government' - a recognition of the Benevelont Rule emanating from China is suppose.

Again what used to be extensive farmlland, producing vegetables for Hong Kong, has turned into an almost never ending Mississauge - reasonably prosperous, growing and singularily ugly. Just outside Kowloon is a new manufacturing district on reclained land, where factories are 30 story high rises with a small footprint, and beside are housing developments for the labour force, which only has to cross the street to go to work. There are schools, hospitals, and sportsgrounds etc. Housing developments grant one room with one window to a family, housing 60% of Hong Kong's population, who partitions the room into segments for male and female family members. All  that luxury costs $200US per month, still a fortune for most of the manual labour.

Hong Hong does not enforce a 'One Child per family' policy, however as raising a child and paying for a reasonably good education costs about 450,000, not too many people take advantage of that freedom. One hour for a tutored English lesson costs $ 400 Hong Kong - about $60 US. Newly weds opt for a dog instead - cheaper. But, the dog of course has to be a purebred, and I saw lots of purebreds, and not a single mutt.

Nestled among these suburban highrise sprawl was the Yuen Yuen Institute, a temple/monastry devoted to three religions: Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. All seem to coexist in peace. Some of the religious rules are easy: no killing, no alcohol, no sex, no stealing, no cursing....if one breaks the rules, one descends into one of the 18 levels of hell. The lowest level involves almost eternal punishment by being deep fried in bliling oil. That would clean up the language...as the ascend from those hellish level is truly a tortuous one.

From the main temple I could hear monotonous drumming with a quick regular beat. Monks or Priests gathered amongst the offering of fruit and the hundreds of incense sticks, and started to chant. An Oasis of devout worship and reflection amongst the populous city outside. One remains respectfully just outside the temple door, not to disturb the worshippers. Above the doors hang conical coils of incense, apparently burning forever.

Further north towards the Chinese border, some farms remained, but soon they gave way to mountain ranges covered with lush rainforest - no wonder Hong Kong had 9 feet of rainfall last year, enough to water a few mountain ranges. Beautiful natural parks and reserves are veined with walking trails, hundreds of kilometers of them, great for hiking and picnicking. Many areas are groomed with hundreds of picnic tables and bar-be-que pits, where city folk crowd in during weekends to relish a small slice of nature. 

The village of Fanling, almost at the border, still has remnants of it's ancient city walls, which protected the town from invaders and bandits. But the surrounds are also changed from rice paddies to parking lots and housing. Inside the walls housed are crowded so close together, that hardly any light penetrates to alley level. Doors are all decorated at either side with red banners for luck, but under one's feet, drain pipes drain anything from rain to waste into the ancient sewage system. A throng of people was working in the constricted spaces exchanging pipes and connecting whatever....to narrow to make out what they were doing. The whole inner wall area harboured a faint smell of cloaca.

Out to nature again, past a huge wetland area, where cranes and ibis abound, and China laid across the water, looking exactly the same as the rest of the country.

Near the East Coast of the New Territories fish farming is still done in the ancient fashion. Nets are strung between boats, which are almost like a permanent floating village, and seafood is harvested mostly for local consumption. The most famous delicacy seems to be 'cream crab', of which only a few are permitted to be caught each year, hence outrageous prices for a specimen a couple of ounces in weight in any upscale restaurant. Anyway, snake can be on the menu as well, said to be as tasty as chicken.

A curious thing about Chinese language: Hong Kong speaks Cantonese (apart from mandatory English) and Mainland China speaks Mandarin, one cannot understand the other. However, their writing, representing concepts not a combination of letters forming a word, are read equally well by both Countries, as it is exactly the same.

English is considered extremely difficult to learn. Chinese is 'musical' as the same word sounds aquire different meanings depending on their intonation on the musical scale. I.e. the same words, sung differently, could mean "I am hungry' or 'I have diarrhea' - potentially embarrassing for a Westener. Imagine how a Chinese pupil feels, with an ethnic difficulty to pronounce an 'L' and say 'R' instead, when confronted with a word like 'fog', which sounds to him exactly like 'frog' (he would then propnounce 'flog') and fu...k. Embarrassing for sure!

Apart from enjoying an almost 'private' ride on this little tour, we were only about 12 guests, we were treated to some interesting trivia of Chinese traditional medicine. The guide's relative is a 'bone-setter'...anyway, milk is bad for you, tea is good, red meat is bad for you, tofu is good, snake elixir is best against arthritis when it comes from a really poisonous snake...Just like mother told you and Happy hunting.

A Chinese theatre group came aboard in the evening and treated us to a magical dragon dance, perfomed in the dark, only the undulating dragon chasing a ball is visible, and the dancers melt into the overall darkness. A masked dancer  performed an incredibly dexterous dance of changing masks. With quick turn of the head or swipe of a fan, the mask would change without any discernible action - instantly. Colourful and truly a 'different face' of Hong Kong.

Being the Year of the Tiger, the show would have been lacking but for a dance of giant tiger (two men under a tiger costume moving and pouncing cat like) who drank from a magic flask and then spit out mini tigers into the audience. Well,  as a 'Dragon' I missed out on the tiger rain.

My apologies, that all my photos sit 'apart' from the text, instead of being inserted at the appropriate spots to illustrate the writing. But, publishing this blog via limited e-mail capabilities and not on-line, creates a few problems for style and lay-out.

Off to Shangai and the Shanghai River tomorrow - I hope. So far it is so foggy out at sea, and the ships horn blasts regularly every 60 seconds, that piloting up the Shang Hai River may be suspended. May the fog disapear!!!

 

 

26 March 2010 Halong Bay, North Vietnam

Getting here to Halong Bay locaated in the north end of Vietnam was 'Half the Fun'. 

Force 10 winds, i.e. over 60 knots, and mountainous short seas to go with it. The ship pitched, rolled and jawed worse in the China Sea than it did even riding the long rollers of the Southern Ocean. Having about 400 'short term' landlubbers aboard (sailing for 9 days between Singapore and Hong Kong) helped to empty the dining rooms and bars. Not too many had their sea legs, never mind their sea stomachs.

The barf bags were displayed out and about in every corner of the ship, the elevators had returned to clanging their wires, the swimming pools sloshed over, and things were in general quite miserable and - to top it all - quite chilly.

A few of the intrepid Grand Worlders were scheduled to enjoy their private 'Captain's Dinner' that violent night, dressed in their finest formal evening gear, enjoying 'meet and greet again' cocktail party, observing a collection of long stemmed wine glasses waiting to be swept of the sparkling white table cloths, and a multi course gourmet dinner accompanied with a superb collection of wines.

Of course, we all went - or better - stumbled to it, and partook in this very elegant and scrumptious event. No wineglass spilled it's precious contents, and the food served in the elegant Pionnacle Grill was outstanding, and we ate the whole works with gusto.

We had hoped to arrive earlier than scheduled in our next port, to gain a few extra shore hours in Halong Bay, a wonder of natural beauty. However, the night gales slowed us down and we arrived as per original schedule instead. Deeper into the recesses of the China Sea the waves laid down, and the chilly air was filled with a golden morning mist.

A beautiful sail - in, with many people out on deck watching the glorious scenery glide by. Eerie limestone karsts, some bare rock, some covered with lush vegetation, rise steeply from the sea, like the undulating back of a 'descending dragon', the 'Ha Long'. The bay's origin is shrouded in ancient legend. A fierce dragon once terrorized villagers across the countryside. A brave warrior set out to destroy it and frightened the dragon so much, that it fled away to throw itself into the sea. As it scurried away, it's tail carved gouges and crevasses along the escape route. When it finally dove into the sea, water splashed into the holes, and leaving the rocks as they are seen today.

There are about three thousand of these islands and islets, some have tiny beaches, some indeed look like humps of a mythical dragon, some contain deep limestone caves and vaulted secret chambers, none have water. Therefore there is no human inhabitation, except for the odd lighthouse or temple. A few floating fishing villages hide away in secluded coves nestled between the myriad of islands. Four hundred thousands Chinese Junks form the major commute. Unfortunately most are now diesel propelled, and only a few last traditionalists use the famous colourful Junk sails to move silently amongst the mystical rocks.

 

Ourt ship slowly made it's way along a dredged and buoyed channel into a busy anchorage just off Hong Gai, a small port at the north end of Halong Bay.

Anchors down, tenders launched before we even come to a final stop. Everyone gets ready to transfer ashore for a quick stroll through the village, and to check out the local treasure offerings. The authorities cleared the ship in no time, the first tender filled with eager travellers, and the stairways filled with more awaiting their turn to be tendered ashore.

 

Well, that was when the green uniformed authorities decided to retract their clearance and start the whole thing all over again, everything is immediately paralized. The little tender, which had just cast off returned and 'hovered' outside the boarding platform, the rest of us commenced 'hovering' in the hallways to observe happenings. Not much going on, except a bit of stalking about by stern faced officials, long silences and gazing at ships clearance papers, then someone said that the local Chief Immigration/Customs official did not understand English, then the 'office table' provided to the officials to process us through landing card stampings was in the wrong place, or maybe the wrong colour. Then two smaller fold up card tables were lugged out by the ship's crew, and placed on either side of the ship's two security scanning stations. Chairs were brought, no - they were the wrong ones for the dignitary's rear end. Other padded straight chairs came out instead. The ship's staff tried to keep the all-powerful authorities from slowing things down even further or boycotting our stop completely, and the patient travellers from getting rebellious. They broadcast calming comments - and murmured a few not so calm and a little more pointed. (If this gue wants a different chair again, I tell him what he can do with it, one of the Dutch Crew mumbled)

An hour passed. Still no clearance, and that AFTER we had cleared the prevous Vietnamese port without any delays just a day hence. Patience wore thin, more so with the crew than the waiting guests. More minutes crept by, then another half hour... no progress...departure time for a couple of scheduled tours came and went, people returned to their rooms tired of waiting, some sat down on the exit stairs.

No clearance yet....I had an afternoon tour which would depart - via Junk - directly from the ship, and was not too sure whether there would be sufficient time left beforehand for a short land based morning expedition.

 

After almost two hours, things got to a tense point, and OUR heavy gun in the shape of our Captain, appeared at the clearance station/cum ships tender platform to see what irked those pesky officials in their red starred peaked caps.

Some conversation between our BIG mand and their BIG man, and who knows what it took to finally allow the 'all clear' to be announced. Guests cheered, officials stamped landing cards happitly seated at their preferred furniture, we all smiled a Good Morning at them, just to watch their reaction (tentative and incredulous smiles), and tender boarding commenced in earnest.

 

Generally, for visits ashore, the most popular places are the Gulf of Tonkin (a war site as well), Hon Gai the small village we visited ashore, and Tra Co beach resort. Cat Ba Island, across from our landing, is a National Park fringed with hundreds of picturesque lime carsts,  is a popular destination for eco tourists, backpackers and avid hikers.

 

For us, by now both 'shopping and exploring time' was cut short, as well as being severely reduced for the hopeful vendors lining the esplanade for at least a mile. I checked out some of the stands: intricate wooden carvings, jade statuettes and jewels, hand embroidered bags and wall hangings showing Vietnamese motivs, beautifully crafted packaged chop sticks, colourful embroidered sarongs and cheong sams, and pearls, pearls, pearls and pearls again. Every shade from white to black, pink to sea green, every size, a great choice of quality, and with uniformly low prices.

I could not resist, and bought a couple of pink pearl necklaces (pearlfishing is widely practised within the island archipelago). This extravagance set me back a couple of ten dollar notes, but the pearls look precious....and they are genuine, and beautiful.

Back to the ship, where a long flat barge had been made fast to the offside of the ship. The tenders used  starboard access, and the barge used port. The barge was our floating dock for a flock of large junks to nose in and load a never ending number of us for a leisurely cruise around Halong Bay, and a convoluted walk through one of the many caves, stalactites and all.

No sails, but a tranquil glide across the Bay, in between a few of the miriad of Islets. Junks and sampans everwhere. We arrived at Dau Go Island, where we disembarked the Junk in Vietnamese style. The bow of the Junk, adorned with a dragon's head of course, nosed up to something like a concrete breakwater, which is sculpted to form a series of rounded ridges, doubling as steps. Very steep, and 'rounded' for sure, so not much room to put down a foot, and the distance between these 'steps' requires agile knees, not something many of our guest still call their own. Consequently, one unfortunate lady took a ride down this 'landing' and ended up in the mud coloured water between several Junk noses. She was fished out by many helping Vietnamese arms.

The cave itself, cathedral like, lit up in Disney fashion, filled with grand halls, stalactites, small lakes and many lime stone columns, was worth everyone of the 200 steps one negotiated to clamber around it's intricate and vast interior. There are hundreds of these caves, some holding artifacts of humanoids long since extinct on not yet identified, and most have their own myth and legend to make it unique to Vietnamese culture and history.
If getting off the Junk was fun, getting back on again seemed even more so. The pick up site was at another stone dock. There a whole flotilla of large junks was jostling for position, shove and push, ram and crash...it did not matter. They forced their way to the dock wall, just held still long enough  to have everyone negotiate the even craggier and more dilapidated round ridges (I had to sit down even to reach the first one with my foot), board up a couple of rickety boxes, climb past the carved dragon's face (one figurehead on a neighbouring junk was crushed in the onslaught), and up a varnished ladder to the upper junk deck, where laquered chairs and cool drinks/beer awaited out pleasure. Only a few victims, as far as falling down the dock is concerned, no one ended up in a Vietnamese hospital. .

Getting out of this 'parking lot' mess had less to do with navigation than brute force. A lot of hollering, banging, crashing later - collisions at sea are de rigueur - we glided off again, amongst the most fascinating scenery imaginable. Small sampans, all with fisher father and mother and a couple of toddlers, would come alongside, with bananas, dragon fruit, leeches and coconut, displayed on top of the sampan roof, and offered for sale to the passengers.

The toddlers are all adorable, and not too many visitors can resist buying a few fruit - en route - held out by those tiny hands across the water. The little kids just climb from dad's boat onto the side of the junk, no life jacket and with short legs appropriate for a two year old, hand over the fruit, grab a one dollar bill, climb across the watery gap again, and dad pockets his wage.

We passed one of the many floating fishing flotillas/villages, who seem to 'live' in certain small bays, where people fish, dive for pearls, sell their wares and conduct Karaoke sing alongs each night for their evening entertainment. I can just imagine: sounds of Broadway et al with a Vietnamese flair echoing off these towering cliffs during a magical moonlit night.

 

Back to the ship, to catch the tide, the waters are treacherous here. Back to the Chinese Sea, with her high winds and even higher swells.

Now, bouncing around again, sometimes there is a faint whiff of cleaning agent wafting along a hallway....another poor Aussie succumbing to Neptune's unrelenting force.

 

24 Mar 2010 Ho Chi Minh City - Sai Gon

The history of Saigon reaches back to 2nd Century, when Vietnam was part of the Funan Kingdom. Then the Chenla Kingdom took over around the 7th Century.

1200 AD it was part of the powerful Angkor Kingdom. Kublai Khan invaded in 1284. Chinese armies did the same repeatedly in the 19th Century. 1861 the French appeared.

Saigon flourished, mostly benefitting French Expats. But in the 1960ies it was crawling with contractors, western businessmen, fashion designers, military personnel, journalists and a host of spies. The city gained a reputation for seaminess and 'anything goes', day or night.

Then followed what the Vietnamese call the 'American War', and total collapse after 1975. Only at the end of the 20th century, Vietnam had started to recover, and now Saigon holds about 9 million inhabitants, a lot with cell phones, briefcases, and palm pilots.

I took a bus transfer to the City, about two hours along a crowded highway, lined with the odd rice paddy, glimpses of water buffalo herds, dozens of storage yards for earth moving equipment, graders, forklifts, dozens of road side eating and drinking establishments with palapas outfitted with hammocks beside the tables, hundreds of delapidated shacks and sadly deteriorated concrete buildings, shops and curious statue sellers, where figures of Catholic Saints stood side by side with seated Buddhas and Hindu Deities made of white plaster.

On the highway, a moving mass of container carriers, mopeds, cars, trucks, buses and everything else in between. Construction in progress the entire 70 miles distance.

We left the bus at the luxurious Rex Hotel downtown Saigon, just beside the French inspired ornate candy-cane Hotel de Ville or City Hall. A wide avenue with hisbiscus, frangipani, palms, fountains and  a prominent statue of Ho Chi Minh led to the main shopping street, the Dong Khoi St. I took a left turn, which led to Notre Dam Cathedral, another somewhat Gothic inspired church with colourful stained glass windows - very European - , and the Central Post Office, which looked like an elegant railway station designed by Monsieur Eiffel.

Then I doubled back I wandered down Dong Khoi to the neo classic Opera House, then onto the Old Market. Here, Asia showed itself again at its most authentic with more stalls crammed into the huge building than one can imagine. Some passages are so narrow, that only one person at a time could pass through, and that only sideways. A few oddities, like pickled shrimp or seahorse, or cobras inside bottles filled and sold with some alcoholic libation, strange creatures of the sea, and medicines against any and every ailment known to Asian man. Of course the heat was almost intolerable.

Soaked and gasping, I managed to buy some Chinese artists brushes from street side vendors. They are much more reasonably priced here than in Canada - and the choice is endless!

However, only four sweaty hours at my disposal to 'explore' a minimalistic version of the huge city. Just enough time left to enter a deligthful small bistro called 'Lemongrass' and enjoy a truly incredible Asian lunch together with two truly enjoyable cold beers. The taste of authentic Vietnamese cuisine is subtle and light, very flavourful - I truly savoured it. 

I did not have an opportunity to visit many of the attractions Saigon has to offer, such  as the magnificient gardens and parks, museums and galleries, or the infamous Cu CHi Tunnels, extensive underground passages, with living quarters, storage areas, trapdoors and dead ends which the Viet Cong used during their war on Saigon. Nor did I see any of the many Temples, Pagodas and Buddhist Shrines which can be found all throughout the City, and specifically Cholon,  nor the War Museum where the Vietnam War is depicted from the opposite side and a different perspective than our North American version.

An informative introduction to Vietnam, and to Saigon, a city busting at the seams...