Given all of its history under both British and Chinese rule, there are many things of interest to see in Hong Kong. The only thing that we knew we wanted to do was to visit the Hong Kong Island Paddling club to check out the potential race site for next year’s Crew Club World Champs. We did some research on- line and ultimately decided to stay on Hong Kong Island. This island is home to the Chinese culture and also to many ex-pats doing work there.
Upon arrival in the airport we were surprised to see “Thermal Scanning” booths that all exiting passengers were funneled through. They were checking for passengers from Europe with signs of fever from the German cucumber e-coli outbreak. We did notice a few people sweating profusely so it was a little un-nerving. Many travelers were wearing masks (something we saw often in our tour of Asia). One nice thing about Hong Kong is the train service from the airport to downtown. It takes exactly 24 minutes from the airport and is cheaper than a cab. From the train depot, we lugged out bags to a taxi stand and were taken to our hotel in the heart of HK Island China Town. Our hotel – The Pacific Island Hotel- was very nice with a friendly staff. We got a room with a great view looking out at the very busy harbor, with ferries shuttling gamblers over to Macau.
Upon getting out of the cab our sense of smell was assaulted. The air was hot and humid and was filled with the aroma of miles of fish markets, raw meat, cooking duck, turtles, frogs, and just about anything else that could be captured, peeled and eaten. We spent our first day just walking the streets and staring in wonder at the items for sale in the fish markets. We had heard in Africa that Hong Kong was the clearing house for the shark fin trade, and tragically, every other store was filled with display cases or piles of shark fins for price tags in the thousands of dollars per kg. The fins ranged in size from several inches to Noa’s height (which could only have been taken from a Great White or Whale Shark). We were seeing firsthand the systematic extermination of sharks on this planet as we looked in horror at shop after shop. Many store owners shooed us away as we looked in, and seemed to know that what they were doing was frowned upon by many parts of the world. More than once we saw four door luxury cars pull up to shark shops to purchase fins for parties or restaurants. It is one thing to read about something terrible happening, and it is completely another to see it firsthand (something we have experienced several times on this journey).
 |
| Giant fins in store |
 |
| just harvested |
One of the bright spots of our visit to Hong Kong included a visit to the HKI Paddling Club. We arrived in the evening just as they were gearing up for a paddle. Practice for dragon boat and outrigger occurred from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. It was a bit late for our tastes but probably prudent for the working ex-pats. We got to speak with several of the members and tour their facility. There was a dragon boat festival just the day before, and many of the paddlers were still recovering from the racing and after party. It seems that there is a dragon boat festival of one sort or another at least once a month.
Some of the paddlers recommended a local beach for us to visit on our last day. We looked it up in the hotel magazine and it was listed as a “surfing” beach, which made Noa pretty excited. So the next day we set out to make our way to the other side of the island where the clean water and nice beaches were. Upon arrival at the beach parking lot we were accosted by two tiny Chinese women “renting” umbrellas and chairs. They had quite a business going since the sand was burning and the sun was hot. As we were taken to our appointed section of sand, we noticed everyone cavorting about in speedos, and became aware that we were some of the only guys in long board shorts there. We also noticed that there was no surf at all at "Big Wave Beach!" We asked a lifeguard where the waves were, and he just laughed and said in broken English “no waves here," and then explained that it was the wrong time of year for waves. So with a sigh from Noa, we rented a rubber raft and floated around enjoying the sunshine and "a break from traveling," eating Pad Thai noodles and drinking fifty cent beers. It was a nice way to spend our last day away from the shark fin sellers and the exotic aromas of the city.
 |
| At the beach |
No comments:
Post a Comment