Golfing buggies are a serious form of transport on Lantau Island.
I decide to hotel on Lantau Island because it’s easy to access from the airport. Lantau seems to consist entirely of residential accommodations and schools. The hills are solid with high-rise residential apartments. Perhaps this is where the workers live, commuting to Hong Kong island via ferry. The ferry takes 25 minutes to make the passage and it takes me about the same time to walk from my hotel to the ferry terminal. I don’t see any shops or quaint eateries serving bacon and eggs and coffee on the way. Everyone is running here! The kids are doing there before-school exercise and others are doing the same. Dogs are very popular and they come in all shapes and sizes. Curiously I see very few Asians. They’re mainly Caucasian. Traffic is very ordered and golf buggies are a serious form of transport where they share the roads with busses and cars.
I spend the day walking the streets of Hong Kong city in a state of semi directionless. I didn’t come prepared for here at all, with little research (well…no research). Up front it is a modern bustling ordered city where business suits are the norm. But a bumbling walk around the back streets reveal a charming side to the place where narrow hilly streets are solid with quaint authentic Asian eateries and shops. But this authenticity is compromised sadly by the attention given to Halloween. Ghoulish decorations fill the streets and businesses.
The day is long. I’m catching the ferry back to Lantau after dark and the sky scraping city towers light up in mesmerising displays. One such structure has all of its sides lit up in an animated display that has me scratching my head. How do they do that? There is money in this town. Porsches and Mercedes vie for space on the narrow back streets with double-decked busses and trams and service vehicles.
angusmccoll 