Flying to Hong Kong is one of the big bargains in air travel, and spending time there can be one of the world's great gastronomical excursions.
United Airlines www.unitedvacations.com offers round trip air from the U.S. West Coast plus five or six nights in a deluxe hotel for $800 to $1,000. Another $50 gets you a flight from Miami.
Frommer's Budget Travel www.frommers.com has several tempting options, including a $599 package covering round trip air, five nights in a hotel with Chinese breakfast, and a city tour.
You arrive at a spectacular new airport geared to getting you into the city as quickly as possible. Clearing immigration and customs is the barest formality, with more than adequate personnel to assist you. Carts are available to carry your luggage to the airport train or bus. The train whisks you to Kowloon or Hong Kong Island, where free shuttle busses take you to your hotel. You'll need Hong Kong money (about 7.5 Hong Kong dollars equals one U. S. dollar) for your train ticket, but you can exchange money as well as purchase the ticket at a handy airport kiosk.
Our impression of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island: people, designer shops, malls upon malls, hustle and bustle! We stayed in the New World Apartments next to the Cultural Center and on the water facing Hong Kong Island. Star Ferries transportation, a hop/skip/jump down the promenade, cost 30 cents (U.S. — and for the remainder of this article prices will be given in U.S. currency) for a 10-minute trip between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.
A "must do" is the funicular ride up to Victoria Peak to lunch in the Tower. This cantilever restaurant manages to serve excellent food for a reasonable price and gives you an unsurpassed view. I had the ham hock luncheon special for about $10; my wife enjoyed the quiche for $7.50. By the time we were finished, the entire bill for three people with beer, food and desert was $38.41. Across the street with a view of the south side of HK Island was a McDonald's packed with kids eating Combos for $2 to $3.
Having ridden up the mountain, we decided to walk down one of the many paved paths. HK Island has the world's longest escalator. It goes one direction at a time — geared to the locals going down to work in the early morning, and back up thereafter. Tourists can ride up, then walk down and, by bearing to the right, end up in the antique section. Kowloon has separate flower, bird, fish, vegetable, and clothing markets. Hong Kong has a central market for food items (at the lower end of the escalator), plus a banking section and separate markets for antiques and dried foods.
The bird market is a block of birds and crickets. Many Chinese men raise birds ranging from macaws to larks. Most of the species we saw were relatively small. Crickets are for good luck and are known for their singing. At the flower market, two blocks of cut flowers and plants, cars were constantly pulling up to pick up orders and trucks were constantly arriving to replenish inventories. As with most of Hong Kong, it was a case of optimal operations in minimal space.
The antique stores are simply overwhelming. Some offer authentication of their merchandise, but at a price. Many "antiques" are of recent manufacture. Generally speaking, you get what you pay for, but only the most naive would pay the asking price. If you are clever or stubborn, you can purchase many items for 40 to 60 percent of the initial asking price. Most pieces are not tagged, and the merchant gives you the once over before announcing an opening price.
One of our better meals was a Sunday brunch East Indian buffet. The diners were predominantly Indian, and British with experience in India. Most patrons seem to know each other, and the cooks went out of their way to do themselves proud. Thank God for yogurt, which was most helpful in the transition from Indian buffet to Western tummy. The cost came to about $15 each plus drinks.
Another memorable meal was a special weekend high tea at the New World Panorama overlooking the Straits of Hong Kong. It featured crepes, cheeses, raw fish, cream soup, fresh fruit – a cornucopia of excellent food. The total was $42.78 for three persons enjoying a killer view and eating as well as at any Virgin Islands luxury resort.
The most expensive meal we had was at the Golden Elephant, a Thai restaurant on the Kowloon strip. We paid $71.52 for a peak-hour dinner, plus $3.18 for tea and $9.54 for beer. Pricing and offerings at this luxury buffet vary with the time of day. We were most fortunate to sit next to a gentleman from Taiwan who talked us through many of the items that we didn't recognize. We cooked many of the items in a hot pot on the table, sampling the soup as we went along. Fish, crab, prawns, goat, duck; raw, smoked, cooked, sauced, plain; you name it, we ate it. Dessert was mostly bland to cover the spicy items, but was also a bit eclectic including instant fruit Popsicle and cotton candy.
We spent many glorious hours in multiple malls with multiple floors featuring designer goods. Now and then you could find a real bargain, and my wife came home with several silk suits. There are factory outlets in Hong Kong, but many of them are a real pain to find. Trips to the New Territories are possible but really eat into one's travel time.
One glorious day we took a ferry to Lanna Island and walked the length to eat seafood — along with a couple thousand other people. We landed in the midst of a wedding, trekked across the island in a solid worm of humanity, two abreast, and still found a table on the water with plenty of interesting food. The ferry cost a couple dollars, the succulent repast with three dishes and two beers came to about $20, and we had a wonderful time watching Chinese families eat.
Beer in Asia comes in a 750 liter bottle and costs under $1in the stores and $2 to $3 in restaurants. Seated at the table behind us were three Philippine maids on an outing. They ate five or six dishes and drank multiple beers. The Chinese family next to us appeared to be mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, a maid and a child 8 to 10 years old. They had a wonderful time talking, laughing, and eating so many dishes we lost count.
We spent another glorious afternoon at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. Our Yacht Club of St. Thomas membership was reciprocated, and we indulged in a full curry buffet while playing at being posh colonialists. While most of the club members are Asian, the tone is still most British. The killer buffet cost $10.33, and our bar tab was $5.83 for the afternoon.
The Hong Kong Symphony was preparing to participate in the Beijing millennium celebration, and we were able to hear their presentation for about $5 at the Cultural Center. This outstanding complex has multiple theaters and chamber salons for concerts, recitals, plays, operas and musical productions. It also has a grand gallery displaying artifacts and a space museum.
We spent more than an hour strolling through the HK Convention Center, a winged building that must be experienced to be believed. It covers multiple city blocks of waterfront landfill. The two main convention halls are so immense that I suspect either one could accommodate all of downtown Charlotte Amalie from the Emancipation Garden post office to Rothschild Francis "Market" Square and from Back Street to the Waterfront.
In addition to fine ferry service, Hong Kong has an excellent subway, good buses and moderately priced taxis. We chose to walk most of the time and to use the ferries when necessary. We always felt safe, and everyone we dealt with was most hospitable. We would recommend Hong Kong to anyone.
Next: China By Train
