Goodbye to Old Hong Kong

View from our room at the Dorsett Monkok. Monkok in Kowloon is a vertical city and the most densely populated area on earth.

 

 There is nothing like travel to create a bond with a place. Since flying through and visiting Hong Kong, I have followed the struggles of the city with more interest and fear for its people than I might have otherwise. Sadly, I only have a handful of photos after leaving my camera in the backseat of a cab on our last day. Some family in Hong Kong, may have my photos on their wall.

A classic view from Victoria Peak. We tried to get there, but with limited time, didn't have time to wait in line. Photo from Wikimedia

 My wife and I have flown through Hong Kong several times. It was often cheaper to fly to Hong Kong and get a cheap flight from there to Manila than to fly directly to Manila from LA or San Francisco. In 2017, we did a long two day layover to see the city. I can also add the Hong Kong airport to airports I have spent the night in. Gina and I spent an uncomfortable night on a metal bench with a young man from Malaysia on his way to the U.S. to program aircraft black boxes. 

Riding the classic Star Ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island

I feel fortunate to have had a glimpse of Hong Kong before it became just another Chinese city. What was special about Hong Kong was its existence as a multinational global city state, a powerful mix of Asia and the west, a place to translate the world to the world. What has happened to Hong Kong has the feel of the creeping totalitarianism of the 1930s and the end of something very special. If we could only go back to the handover in 1997, Hong Kong could have become a powerful independent city state similar to Singapore. At the time of the handover, the belief was that Hong Kong would modify China, but the opposite has come to pass.

A Monkok street. I was fascinated by little bodegas packed with so much stuff, there was hardly room to move.

While we were there, the mainland government had parked their new aircraft carrier the Laoning right in the bay for all to see. It was a not so subtle message to some. I had wanted to walk by the site of one of the bookstores where the owners had been snatched away to the mainland for selling salacious books about the communist leadership, but there wasn't time. I remember thinking how similar the Macau to Hong Kong bridge,then under construction was to the Crimea to Russia bridge across the Kerch Strait. Like Hitler's 1944 original, both bridges are physical and symbolic umbilicals of colonization.

Hong Kong island in the background and Star Ferry to the right.

Hong Kong felt like the city of the future. It has a cyberpunk vibe with juxtapositions of the hyper-modern and the ancient at every turn. My mind was blown.I hope that we can do another layover in the future and spend another day or two looking around, even under the new restrictive environment.

We spent most of our first day in Kowloon and about a half a day on Hong Kong island. We walked around, took the subway, rode the ferry, visited a few parks and stopped at a museum. We even tucked into a Starbucks on the Duddell Street stairs.  There wasn't enough time to see it all, but we got a good taste. As a life long urban hiker, I like nothing better than to don a backpack and walk the urban environment.

There is something magical about a dense urban place backed by hills and fronted by water. I've felt the same vibe in Oslo, Bergen, San Francisco, San Diego and even Duluth. I think it has to do with some ancient need in the recesses of the mind to see a way out. The sight of forested, unpopulated hills on one side and open water on the other are pleasant, but at some deep reptilian level provide us direct, visible routes to safety. A place like Hong Kong juxtaposes some of the most compact density on the planet right next to spaces where you can go miles without seeing the man made. I would sure like to hike some of those trails one day.

I was able to book two nights at the Dorsett Monkok for about 90 dollars per night, a bargain for Hong Kong. Even in the pandemic and after the China stranglehold, the price today is still about 111 dollars. The hotel had the standard tiny rooms found in Asia, with just enough room to walk around the bed and a tiny wall mounted table. This is a style I prefer because there is so much wasted space that is never used in in an American hotel room. 

We ate in several great restaurants and had a number of great meals. To save some money, we cooked a few meals of noodles and boiled eggs using a water boiler that I always carry.  The hotel had just about everything nearby, so we also had fruit and vegetables as well. To be able to heat water for an instant meal or coffee anywhere, anytime, saves money and stress when in a strange place.

As democracy seems to be receding in so many parts of the world, is Hong Kong's fate a harbinger for the future?