On the road again!!
I’ve just looked at the date of my last post and realised that it was back in February. Where has the time gone? There have been a number of distractions this year and somehow over the summer months when we’re attending to the garden in Italy, blogging recedes from the mind. However, not for the first time, I am intending to be a more regular contributor to my own blog!
After the last post, which was while we were in Phuket, we moved onto to Kenya for a magical seven weeks both up-country and on the coast at Mtwapa for a month. It was here that the alternative distractions that hit R&R productivity really kicked in – I have been writing a novel for a while and the soothing sound of the waves breaking on the beach a few feet away from where we were staying got the creative juices flowing. They are still flowing – the book ain’t finished yet, but it’s coming on. In the meantime, Gail has finished her book – a children’s book called ‘Patrick’s Birthday Message’ – which I was also involved with, helping her to computerise the illustrations. More on all that in another post.
So with my book and Patrick, and a visit from all the family to Tuscany in July time has been flying by.
We returned to Phuket in November to move into our newly-finished apartment in the hills behind Kamala (sea views, soft breezes moving the balmy air and very noisy cicadas: idyllic!) and spent three weeks sorting furniture before heading up to Hong Kong for a month, which is where this post is being written.
Rather than spending our month here in a hotel, this time we explored the possibility of a serviced apartment and have ended up in Aberdeen on the south of Hong Kong island in the excellent Ovolo apartments. The room is small but a very creative design and large windows have maximised the space. I’ll be writing a post on the place shortly.
Meanwhile here’s a nighttime shot of the view from the bedroom area looking up Aberdeen harbour.
The real reason for writing this post was to get moving on the blog again and to say just how much we are enjoying being back in this wonderful city again. It’s the same every time – you get off the plane in one of the most efficient airports in the world, your arrival is seamless and friendly at immigration (ours is helped by being permanent residents and therefore merely having to swipe our ID cards and offering a thumb for a print reading), pick up your luggage and by the time you’re on the way into the city, you feel like you’ve never been away.
On the Buses
We use public transport all the time in Hong Kong. It is amazingly efficient and inexpensive; the buses seem to run everywhere, and so these days does the MTR – the underground railway network. With an Octopus card in your wallet/pocket book/pocket/purse, payment is easy. And these days you can use the card to pay for things in many other outlets; it’s not just for travel. A good alternative to big buses are minibuses which ply even more routes than buses and just as cheaply, If you are having to make a journey where the buses/minibuses are more difficult, or too many changes are required, there are always taxis. The flagfall is currently HK18.50.
To give an example of the very low cost of it all, we recently made a trip from Aberdeen to Tai Wo in the New Territories. That involved a bus to town (Admiralty), then trains on three lines, so two changes. The whole journey took an hour and the total cost was HK$20 (€1.93 or US$ 2.57!).
Aberdeen
A little warmer than its namesake, ‘Little Hong Kong’ as it’s known in Cantonese, is a bustling town on the south of Hong Kong Island. It has a natural harbour formed by the island of Ap Lei Chau, onto which over the last thirty years, the population of Aberdeen has spilled from the boats to new housing developments. I imagine that more Aberdeen people live on the island than in old Aberdeen. The harbour is always busy, with innumerable fishing boats arriving or departing, depositing their catches in the wholesale and retail fish market that runs along the main channel, while the traffic that runs up and down the Aberdeen Praya Road never seems to cease.
The town itself has all the usual shops, including a good Park’n'Shop supermarket that seems to have most things. Like everywhere in Hong Kong these days, people are friendly and helpful. There is a promenade that runs along the harbour from where tourists can take sampans for a harbour tour, sampans to one of the floating restaurants, or ferries to the Lamma island or Po Toi island. Or they can simply wander and enjoy the ambience. Cyberport is up the road with a good cinema.