hong kong

by the time i had worked out that i needed to get the a12 bus, the sunset was fast approaching. in the far distance in the direction of downtown, storm clouds were brewing. the airport was some way away from hong kong island, and we crossed a couple of amazing bridges. then the skyscrapers began to appear on the horizon, with the dock-side cranes. it went under the tunnel from the kowloon side of the mainland to hong kong island itself. the image of the skyscrapers and the impending storm reminded me of the dark broody atmosphere of the futuristic cityscape which was the backdrop to bladerunner.

i decided to get off one stop after my intended one, just to see the skyline of kowloon from causeway bay. it was a mistake. the bus went past and then some more. the driver noticed i hadn’t got off and asked where i wanted to go. causeway bay, i told him. he shook his head. no, you’ll have to go right the way back at the next stop, he told me. i then told him that my real destination was queens street east and he kindly told me where to go to catch a tram in that direction. as i wandered about, i found the metro line and worked out where to go, and just as i was arriving at the sikh temple, it began to bucket down. lady luck was looking out for me once more.

hong kong was hot and humid. it was also an expensive place to stay, i was told. my mission here was to get a visa for china. bodash had suggested that i try a travel/visa agent here.... he had had got a 3 month visa from here, applied and received the same day and so no need to stay overnight. i had found the sikh temple by a quick google search when i was in nepal, and their website mentioned that there was accommodation available for short-term stays for tourists. i asked for the manager of the temple and told him my plan, and asked if it was ok to stay for a few nights.

fortunately, there a was a bed free in one of the rooms and i got introduced to the other occupant. prashant was in hong kong to do a cisco computing exam, and was due to leave the next afternoon. i told him he could come with me and we could take a look around kowloon together after i got my visa stuff done and before he had to take his flight back to india. he showed me where to get dinner - the langar provided the usual temple fare of chappattis and dhal and sabhji.

so the next day, we were up early. we took the star ferry over to kowloon to get to the visa agents place. the woman at the office there asked me what type of visa i wanted and got me to complete one sheet of an application form, i got my photo taken with a blue background, and i got a receipt. she told me to come back at 6 that evening. we wandered around kowloon for a while before arriving back at the ferry terminal to take the ferry back across to hong kong island. the weather was still heavily overcast and threatening to be stormy, and so hot and humid.

when we got back to the temple, (again just before the heavens parted), i told prashant the cheapest option to get to the airport: a metro to tung chung station and then a shuttle bus from there to the airport. i helped him with his luggage to central station and we said our goodbyes. i went back across on the ferry to pick up my passport with the chinese visa. i paid $680 hong kong dollars for this very efficient service.

back on hong kong island, at central station metro, i heard my name being called. i looked around. i heard it again and saw where it was coming from. and then i recognised him. “oh my god, i’d never thought i’d see you here!”, he was exclaiming. he was genuinely shocked. i was just pleasantly surprised to see him - this sort of thing was happening to me on a regular basis. i had first met ritchie when we were both teaching at ef language school in bournemouth. he was my neighbour at the digs the school had provided for the teachers for the summer teaching session. we had a chat for a while – he was a teacher at a primary school, settled in quite nicely, good social life – and then he had to go meet his friend.

back at the temple, i discovered that prashant had taken the key to the room with him. it was my fault – i had given him back the key, even though gurmail had seen us make the handover, so that he could take his luggage from the room and forgot to ask for it back. damn. gurmail wasn’t happy when i told him. he made me wait half-an-hour whilst he was finishing with what he was doing before looking for a spare key. luckily, there was another, but for sure i would have to pay something to get another one cut.

in the end, i decided to leave the next morning. i got back the deposit from gurmail minus something for the key. i thanked him for letting me stay at the temple, bowed down in front of the holy book as is customary at a sikh temple, and left to get the metro.