Date: 14 Mar 2011
Arriving into Kowloon at in the evening, we took the train to catch the daily impressive symphony of lights in Hong Kong harbour. Apparently, foreigners and mainland Chinese tourists view this spectacle at least once during their stay here. After the show, (sadly the commentary that day was in the Cantonese dialect), we proceeded next to find our quarters for the night. On another day, and travelling with another person, KW would probably be staying in a fancy posh HK hotel. Unfortunately for him, he’s with me, and add to that the exorbitant hotel room prices here in HK, we will slum it out in Kowloon.
Living Large In Small Spaces
Back in Kowloon, we walked along Nathan Road, wherein lies our destination. Chungking Manor, the setting for Wong Kar Wai’s 1994 masterpiece, Chungking Express. Chungking Manor is actually an old apartment building located in the Tsim Tsa Shui area of Kowloon district. It lies smack along the busy Nathan Road, overlooking a sea of traffic. Within Chungking Manor lies dozens of little establishments offering cheap lodging. And further down the road, a similar building offers the same. This one, Mirador Mansion, was the one we ended up in.
The ground floor of the building is made up of many different little shops, and a cluster of money-changers. The maze-like corridors of shops could certainly do with better lighting. At the staircase landing, someone will undoubtedly come up to anyone who looks like a non-local, and offer cheap lodging, at fairly reasonable prices (they have to, if you think of it, just because of the intense competition for customers). So unless you know specifically where you want to go, or have plenty of time to shop around for a place you like, it makes sense to follow the person and check out his place.
In our case, it was a lady that offered to show us her guesthouse, which is actually a cluster of rooms on one of the floors inside the building. The “office” where they work out from is one of the apartments. The lift is dingy, slow, yet there was constant traffic of people going up and down. Similarly, the corridor is grimy, with dried stains which looked as though a trigger-happy betel-nut chewing auntie had passed through. “Well, I’ve been in worse”, I comforted myself. The lady passed us the room key. “I mean, how bad can it be right?”
Surprisingly, once we turned the key, the interior was a clean, bright room, with twin beds, nice white sheets and a tiny bathroom. Not what I expected, considering the outside corridor. It was very tight quarters though, with the door opening narrowly missing the corner of one of the beds. No matter, the room was sufficient, air-conditioned even.
Out we go for dinner. Again, as elsewhere in Hong Kong, space is a premium. The pizza joint where we had dinner was yet another example of making full use of limited space. A short flight of steps wound up to the 2nd floor (1st floor was a storefront), and led to the 5x3m waiting area. Indeed, the eatery seemed like it was set within the confines of a 5 room Singaporean HDB flat.
Savouring Bits of Hong Kong
Recall the story of the 5 blind men feeling various parts of an elephant, with each concluding with different ideas of what an elephant is. Hong Kong here is the elephant, and with so many things to do, different visitors would have different experiences. Some think of HK as a big financial center, some know it as a cacophony of noise within the side streets, offering cheap eats and street charms. Yet others consider it an outdoor heaven, outside of the city lies expanses of hills and trekking opportunities. Me? I’m the blind man who sees it as a shopping mecca. Mongkok, Kowloon was where we headed for. Stores and stores of electronic gadgets line the streets. Step into one, look around. Two shops down, another gadget shop. And then another. It was hard not to get into the groove. I ended up purchasing a new Asus notebook, a pair of cargo pants off Esprit (buttoned pockets are great for travelling) and more fancy gadgets.
One final thing. The HK metro system has a direct line that goes to the HK International airport. Known as the Airport Express, it goes from Hong Kong station down to the airport station. The brilliant thing about this Airport Express is that it conveniently allows tourists to check-in and deposit their luggage at the Hong Kong and Kowloon stations. How’s that when you want to continue shopping without lugging your gear about!
HK definitely deserves repeat visits. All you regulars who go there frequently, will surely agree.