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Up, Up and Away

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Hong Kong

September 30th 2010 00:16

Your text goes hereYour text goes hereWe ended up staying in Hong Kong for nearly a month. It hadn't been our plan but one day seemed to lead to another and our travel schedule was flexible at this stage. Not so later as we had booked for the Trans Siberian Express and winter had already started in the far north.
As this was my first time away from home, the speed of life in HK was racy. Being shuffled sideways off the footpath by elderly Chinese women who always seemed to be in such a rush took a while to get used to. Initially I felt that the street outside our hotel looked like all of Australia out shopping on the same day. I couldn't believe the number of people. Everywhere. All hurrying to do something urgent but looking happy.
In those days we could get $15 for $1AU which took a while for me to believe as I felt like I was paying nothing for everything. The cruel part was that I couldn't buy anything to take with me as I already had too much luggage. I was to learn this later. Taking a suitcase and a bulky overnight bag, matching yes, on a long trip when all the carrying is going to done by you is plain dumb. These days I travel with 11kg maximum, much to the surprise of my friends, and unfortunately, some customs officials.
After a few days, we moved into an apartment with friends of Godzilla's. Two guys who turned out to be very nice, quite unlike her at all. In fact, I began to wonder how the friendship had arisen but then, I was a friend of hers, wasn't I?
Both, as it turned out, had served with the Australian Army in Vietnam, and didn't want to live back in Australia again. Not for the time being, anyway. They weren't drugged up or violent. They just felt more comfortable in Asian society. Of course, one turned out to be using the favours of the maid, a Philipino girl, who attempted suicide now and then at the prospect of having to return home.
I met her on the first day. She opened the door wearing enormous cloths wrapped around each foot. Even when she wasn't cleaning something specific, she made sure she was polishing the parquet floor just a little bit more. I couldn't adjust to her. She earnestly tried to do everything for me. I saw her as a slave and wouldn't let her help me. She then would burst into splashy tears and splutter at me something about how Darren would be angry with her if she didn't serve us. I was in a moral bind not of my making. This colonial business was not for me. After a few days of such pressure, I decided to sit calmly while she fussed around me when Darren and Ray were in the flat, then I would wash the dishes and do my own laundry when they were out. Strangely this produced a gradual friendship between Ada and I to the point where one day, she yanked me gently down the sixteen flights of stairs (the lift was malfunctioning again) and along the street to meet friends of hers. There I sat all afternoon with a Chinese/Philipino family, none of whom spoke much English, being served all kinds of local foods, dandling naked toddlers on my lap while seated on a tiny, red, plastic chair.
This was the holiday I had envisaged. Now it would start, I told myself.
TIP OF THE DAY: TRY TO GET ALONG WITH THE LOCALS BUT REMAIN WHO YOU ARE.

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Posted By: Hannah Morgen - Category: No Category

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The Old Hong Kong

September 24th 2010 06:31

Your text goes hereYour text goes hereClearing Customs in those days took little time. Nobody bothered to pack bombs and nobody spent much time looking for them.
We found a taxi rank outside the airport and watched as a wealthy American woman ahead of us performed a strange feat. Middle-aged and beautifully dressed with jangling bracelets, she gave two heavy suitcases to a very thin, old man who tilted a wooden pole across his shoulders. A suitcase fitted to a hook at each end of the pole. While the woman climbed into a taxi, the old Chinese man hobbled away slowly with her baggage. I hoped it wasn't what I suspected it to be.
But yes. Our taxi driver told me that it was common for such Western tourists to travel to their hotel in a car while one of these poor men was paid 20 cents to walk several kilometres with the luggage, old style. It appealed to a certain sensibility. One keen to pander to the, 'natives', no doubt.
I was in a new land. Little Adelaide was beginning to seem very different.
Our hotel was probably nothing like the destination this woman ended up in but it was all right for us. The plane had set up a vibration underneath my skin and I felt juddery for several days. Hopefully, I thought to myself, I will become a better flyer. (Life hasn't evolved me that way at all.) After a short rest and then a walk around the local area, I'll feel as good as new but no, that wasn't the scenario, was it?
Once we had unpacked and decided which rock hard bed belonged to whom, Godzilla, aka, Femme Fatale, announced that we were going down to the bar which she had spotted from the reception desk. There were some men seated there, sure to be American. (For "American", read, "rich".)
After practising the eyelash flick for a few seconds, she packed her non-working cigarette lighter and galloped out the door.
Being slow, I thought I had better catch up. Poor fool, I.
TIP OF THE DAY: Don't accept every invitation.

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Posted By: Hannah Morgen - Category: No Category

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Plane Tension

September 20th 2010 07:48

Your text goes hereYour text goes hereWell, my first flight and already my travel companion had turned into Godzilla! I couldn't believe it.
At work, she had always seemed so pleasant. Funny even. Now those voices came to me. Other people who thought she was difficult. Harsh.
Perhaps this wasn't the time to be thinking about before. I was in the now.
All would be well, I thought, once we touched down at Kai Tak Airport. It was probably first plane jitters that had made her so uppity. I would be kind and make compromises, forget that she had spoken to me like I was a none too efficient maid who had just thrown up on her best silverware.
Touch down? Frolic, sway and splat were more like it! The name of the airline will not be divulged, except to say that I have never used it again irrespective of how popular it is.
Later I realised how short the Kai Tak Airport runway was and that the ocean was within stumbling distance, but at the time we bounced from one wheel to the other, I was blissfully ignorant. First on the right, then on the left. Each time with a hard, sharp thud that bounced us back up for a brief second. It was like the plane was hell-bent on reaching that concrete as quickly as possible. Flight staff with worried faces scuttled down the aisles, plunged into seats, donned seat belts and jammed their faces to the windows.
The overhead lockers opened and passengers' bottles of Duty-Free landed on heads, shoulders and laps. A bottle of vodka broke on impact with a man's bald head two rows in front while babies let out horrendous cries. A scream issued from the rear where I learnt later one woman had had a heart attack while another went into labour. Food galleys that had broken free of their stewards ran up and down the aisle with the movement of the plane, clearly picking up speed as they went. Some passengers' arms were scratched or plain old knocked about by the metal boxes as they rushed past us.
After several minutes of rocking from side to side, both wheels were on the tarmac but then the plane just would not stop wooshing forward. The brakes were on but the plane ignored them. A strange noise behind us like a strong gust of wind told me that the parachute balloon had been activated, as a last-ditch effort to stop the plane before it fell off the short runway into the ocean.
Dimly, I wondered which ocean it was. Strange, how your mind abandons you at critical moments!
Eventually the plane stopped, albeit at an angle. After the sound of manic shuffling, the captain, in a shaky voice, told us over the loudspeaker to stay in our seats until injured people could be carried out. That process took nearly an hour. Before the landing, I had drunk a can of Coke and three cups of coffee. By now, my eyes no longer focused and I was afraid to stand up in case the Dreadful occurred. I could not feel my pelvic muscles let alone expect to be able to control them.
When the order came to stand and leave the aircraft, everyone was overjoyed. I tried to think positively as I looked at the queue in front of me. How would I ever proceed slowly along the aisle, down the stairs and into the building without ....... Let's not think about it.One minute, I thought I was going to die a squishy, wet death. Next, that prospect was totally forgotten as I contemplated public humiliation. My, my, aren't we deep?
Godzilla gave me a nudge from behind. Having chosen the window seat, she found me blocking her exit into the aisle. Gently perceptive as I was soon to discover her not to be, she stated, "Come on! We can go now. What's holding you up? Honestly, you are always so slow!"
Your text goes hereTIP OF THE DAY: Don't expect compassion when you need it most.

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Posted By: Hannah Morgen - Category: No Category

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Who am I?

September 19th 2010 04:00

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Well hi there,
I'm Hannah Morgen and I would love to share with you my travel experiences which sprawl over many years, replete with mishaps, scintillating horror and just plain fun.
[ Click here to read more ]

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