Amidst castles and casinos

My husband and I visited Hong Kong a few years back, in the middle of the H1N1 pandemic. At the airport, masked figures grimly scrutinised disembarking passengers for signs of the fearsome flu. Clearing that health hurdle, we took a shuttle to our hotel, where Jamie (the guide for our tour package) awaited us.

 “Don’t you have woollen clothing?” she asked. We did not, for we had assumed that Hong Kong would be warm. Looking around the lobby, we realised that people were cosily clad. Jamie drove us to a mall where my husband and I bought jackets. Armed with those, we found the weather pleasantly chilly.

That Wednesday evening, we ascended Victoria Peak (the highest mountain on  Hong Kong island) by funicular railway. 

At the summit, we were greeted by a nocturnal view of Hong Kong and its many harbours. Victoria Peak also had a mini-version of Madame Tussaud’s wax museum where, among other celebrities, we spotted local hero Jackie Chan. At dinner, we sampled the traditional Hot Pot (raw meats and fish balls in boiling broth). The day ended with our shopping for souvenirs at a night market in Kowloon. 

The following morning, a bus picked us up at our hotel to take us to Ocean Park. Its vast expanse has two parts, which are connected by cable car. We admired the enormous aquarium and the dolphin and sea-lion shows, but liked the Giant Panda habitat best. A friendly keeper introduced us to a pair of pandas that had been there for a decade.

On the third day of our holiday, we soaked in the sights and sounds of Disneyland. Tarzan’s tree-house, the Lion King show and a Winnie-the-Pooh ride stand out in my memory; also Main Street, USA, a fanciful replica of an early-20th-century Midwest town. Nor can I forget the boat trip past delightful dolls singing, ‘It’s a Small World’. As darkness fell, we joined thousands of cheering onlookers for a spectacular display of fireworks at the Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Jamie, who had not accompanied us to Ocean Park and Disneyland, saw us off to Macau on Saturday. After an hour-long ferry crossing, we were met by one of her colleagues, who showed us the ruins of St Paul’s Church. It had been built by the Portuguese, who had administered that former European colony for well over four centuries. 

After a whirlwind tour of Macau’s glittering casinos, we returned to Hong Kong the same evening.

On Sunday morning, we took a taxi to St John’s Cathedral. Mindful of the Swine Flu threat, the priest urged the congregation to avoid contact during the ritual ‘passing the peace’ but to greet each other with folded hands instead. From church, we headed to the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, apparently one of the oldest of its kind in the world. 
There was much to see but we could not linger, as we were catching a flight back home that night. Five days had flown!

Suryakumari Dennison(The author can be reached at [e-mail])