I finally won my battle of wits with the HK weather on Friday, when it was a glorious sunny day. I planned to head to the Kowloon side and repeat my city walks adventure over there and quickly found myself once again surrounded by Chinese locals as they went about their normal day with me wondering aimlessly amongst them.
Doing some research the night before with my friend, I realised that there was a burgeoning underground Record store scene that I was intent on locating. Having a few jotted down, I slowly began to track them down one after the other but kept hitting empty lots and closed doors. It seemed to me that this underground scene didn’t want me to find it.
After a while I gave up and continued to the usual tourist spots including an old Chinese Temple famous for its Fortune Tellers. After being harassed by several of these would-be-oracles I continued and found signs directing me to the Nan Lian Garden. This, I am convinced is the best kept secret of Kowloon. A simple Chinese garden with a fairly unremarkable gold painted Pagoda make up the bulk of the area that is contained within two very busy roads. However, once you enter the space, the noise completely disappears thanks to some cleverly hidden sound buffers and well placed artificial streams. After a little while walking through this area I took an unexpected turn up some steps and found myself entering what could easily have been a medieval Chinese Palace. This was the Chi Lin Nunnery, and I fell in love as soon as I saw it. What struck me as the weirdest juxtaposition since arriving was the sight of seeing this Nunnery with the tall High Density Housing Towers in the background. Never have I seen a better example of the old and new ways existing side by side. Unfortunately, as much as I would have loved to spend a few more hours there, the park was closing and I was running late for a long overdue reunion.
Shortly before I left for HK, I got in touch with another old friend whom I had not seen since 3rd year of University. Not able to pass up this chance to catch up with him, I organized a meeting that day after he finished work. After a lovely catch-up meal we headed off to the last place left on my checklist – Victoria Peak.
Initially a small settlement high above the chaos and clutter of HK Island, this area quickly grew with the construction of a tramline that connected the CBD directly with the Peak. From there, you were granted 360-degree views of HK Island – perfect for that final picturesque image of HK I was looking for.
The next day, I was due to fly back to KL at night, so I spent the morning with Brian tracking down some Record Stores. After a short while, we struck gold and found several open. Brian, not being a Vinyl owner was interesting in the anally retentive nature of these shops and the old school feel of the vinyl’s themselves. After buying two for myself, (one being a famous Cantonese signer and the other a Clash album) I started my friend off on the road to Vinyl oblivion. Knowing that he was the perfect person for just such a collection.
And like that, I found myself sat at a café waiting for the flight with my friend. Hong Kong had taken a lot out of me physically, but had given me so much fond memories. I was glad to have finally seen the place with my own eyes and experienced the metropolis but I knew that I would return again at some point at another time in my life.
