Hong Kong Interlude

After carefully and deliberately distributing our luggage between three bags (these having been left in storage at Carmen’s flat in London - one containing a wooden chair for Talia) our flight to Hong Kong got off to a bad start when we told at Heathrow airport that, regardless of weight, we were each allowed only one bag in the hold, or else pay £120! Nor could I take my computer on board plus a small backpack. Having cable tied our bags – the first problem was to find a knife to open them. The next was to unpack adjacent to the check-in desk, squeeze our belongings into two bags, put some clothes into my computer case, squeeze that in as well and carry the laptop under arm. By the time we’d had to take off our shoes, removed belts, discard our water and an almost empty tube labelled 150ml – the “joys” of air travel were beginning to wear a little thin.

Eleven hours later we landed in Hong Kong, and in complete contrast to Heathrow, experienced the smoothest of smooth passages through immigration and customs, quick retrieval of our baggage, passage through a spacious, well-signposted facility and transferred on a silent, comfortable, high-speed express train to Kowloon where we were met by the Honk Kong courtesy buses that took everyone to their respective hotels - a painless affair that impressed us no end. The Minden – chosen from an answer in the travel section of an English newspaper proved perfect for our needs. Our first impressions of a city environment containing 7 million people which in spite of its towering sky scrapers, busy streets (11 700 road casualties / year) and shopping centres, was so clean and efficiently run - we seldom see equalled. Hats off to Hong Kong!

Adopting the stress free “package tour” approach that we’d found so rewarding and informative in Athens, the first thing we did on arrival was select a number of tours that gave us the widest possible range of experiences. These included a tour of the city, an island tour, a tour of the surrounding countryside (“the land between tour”) and, as a special treat, to coincide with our last night, a tour of the harbour with a seafood dinner. Our first morning we strolled to the Hong Kong History Museum doing our best to disregard the touts trying to obtain business for tailors and noticing how many roads have English names - relics of the “good old colonial days” when the British were enjoying the fruits of a thriving opium trade according to our visit to the Museum where we found a most enlightening historical introduction to our time in Hong Kong!

That afternoon we took a HK Island tour: Hong Kong’s water and 80% of its food comes from mainland China. Luxury items (tobacco, alcohol and petrol) are heavily taxed and the import duty on luxury cars is 110%. However, the various forms of public transport are so good that very few people need to own a car. The small, expensive council flats aptly named “diamond cages” stack skywards and overtime this has impacted negatively on cultural family traditions. Young people are not marrying until they are in their late 30’s because their first priority is to save enough money to buy an apartment, and by that stage they do not want children any longer. Young women in Hong Kong are steadily becoming more and more career conscious and self-sufficient (our guide Kim-Kim worked a 17 hour day with one week off per year and complained about the tendency of eligible bachelors going to China to find a traditional wife prepared to stay at home and do the housework! After visiting the ancient Man Mo temple we were taken on the funicular up Victoria Peak for panoramic views. Here we must mention the detraction caused by smog laden air enveloping the city from our arrival. We heard that a typhoon approaching Shanghai was causing unsettled weather (low pressure) and the industrial pollution that hangs over inland China had been pushed out over Hong Kong and there it stayed for almost 4 out of our 5 days.

Lea overlooking Hong Kong from Victoria Peak (400m asl)

En route to Deep Water Bay and Repulse Bay with the inevitable jewellery factory thrown in, we looked out on the elite suburbs where wealth, along with superstition, reflected itself in a prestigious apartment block overlooking Repulse Bay. A large architectural gap in the structure enables the passage of a dragon living in the hillside behind to move unencumbered down to sea without any difficulty and, if it desires, enjoy a drink from the swimming pool in the complex. A brief stop at Stanley market ensured we’d come back another time via the local bus service! Finally we caught the Star ferry to Kowloon for dinner on the waterfront with a laser show - HK’s Symphony of Lights which lost most of its impact for us due to the smog.

Our boat trip over to Lantau Island passed the runway of the airport and we discovered this was hardly our first visit to the island but the second as we had unknowingly landed here on arrival in Hong Kong! We were taken to the traditional fishing village of Tai O and in the market came across many of the weird sea-foods available for sale – masses of dried seahorses, shark fins and fish bladders – and were intrigued by the trouble taken by vendors to keep their catches of prawns, crabs and molluscs alive using battery operated aerators.
We were given a vegetarian lunch at the Po Lin monastery, the most popular Buddhist temple in Hong Kong with its massive 26m high, 520 ton, bronze Buddha - the “enlightened one” overlooking the place.



This tour scheduled a cable car ride but weeks before a gondola had fallen off - Horrors for Hong Kong! Digressing - Just prior to us immigrating to Australia a decade ago an article appeared in the South African newspaper about “Omo” land - referring to Oz as a highly regulated society and in comparison to Africa we found it so… However, Hong Kong takes the cake. Never before have we seen quite so many signs (many threatening prosecution) telling people what not to do! From pushing in queues to spitting, littering, fishing, lighting candles, smoking, you name it … feeding birds included! Instead of the cable ride we were taken to Cheng Sha beach. My! My! Having lived in Natal with its shark protection measures it was amazing to find all Hong Kong’s beaches protected by shark nets resulting from one shark attack that occurred along the coastline. Every swimming beach is enclosed by nets, inside of which is a boom to prevent people swimming near them. Despite the beach being empty when we arrived, there was a bevy of lifeguards in attendance. One in a stainless steel observation tower; another on stand-by with a motorised rubber-duck and shark warning flags; another waiting in a fully-equipped onshore clinic; and yet another sitting on a pontoon anchored offshore in the centre of the swimming area. All these precautions together with notices about not swimming during thunderstorms; when the water temperature reaches 24°C; for 3 days after rainfall; at dusk or dawn; and - just for good measure - notices about protecting one’s eyes and skin from UV radiation! This is called “duty of care” and the Chinese take the matter very seriously. Returning to Hong Kong using the local ferry from Silvermine we were stunned by the number of bicycles parked in rack after rack stretching for ever at the terminal indicating the number of commuters using this service. We’d love to have seen the mass exodus at the end of the day

Our Land Between Tour took us out into the rural portion of the New Territories which extend 60km inland towards China revealing Hong Kong to be surrounded by mountainsides covered in dense forest, reminding us of rain forest in places as we ascended Tai Mo Shan (Hong Kong’s highest mountain (annual rainfall is 2 000mm). Not much subsistence farming any longer as the local vegetable farmers have long since sold their plots to property developers.

Temple visits gave us an understanding that ancestor worship is an all important belief. We saw many memorial halls where the walls are filled from top to bottom with the ashes and photographs of people’s ancestors. There is not enough land available in Hong Kong for people to be buried in a grave, so 7 years after being buried the bones are exhumed, carefully cleaned and incinerated. The relatives pay astronomic prices for space in the halls, the most expensive being those at eye level. They purchase, and subsequently burn, all manner of things made out of paper for their ancestors to use in the next world. The Yuen Yuen Institute illustrated all this very clearly. A shop selling everything made of paper from clothing, watches, money, radios, mobile phones and foodstuffs – all of which are burnt as offerings on funeral and memorial days, the smoke taking these things up to heaven. George was reminded of the day he found a Chinese $200 000 note blowing around the Karrakatta cemetery in Perth and not knowing any better, thought he’d stumbled across a massive fortune. “Not so” said the bank manager – “but it would be useful for playing monopoly”!

At our next stop, the sight and sounds of the construction machinery busy extending a massive multi million dollar development - Beverley Hills, contrasted sharply with the simplicity of the Sam Mun Tsai floating village that we had come to see. As we walked out on the breakwater we stepped over the rough and ready cables and pipes supplying the floating platforms - homes to the fishermen with water and phones for fax / email contact. Generators provide electricity. We wondered about the countdown on what may be considered the “blight on the bay”?

Saturday night and we delightedly took our sunset cruise on a traditional Chinese junk taking in the upper reaches of Victoria Harbour lined by a multitude of towering buildings, all illuminated in different ways flashing and sparkling their reflections across the waterway. Even the moon was shining her silvery trails amidst all the glitter and glamour. Arriving at Lei Yue Mun Fish Market we warily stepped through the wet passages passing an amazing array of live marine delicacies awaiting consumption from menu orders of the many seafood restaurants that back on to the market in every direction. Specimens of which we’d never seen the like of… Elephant nosed clams looking the most gruesome!



Our table of eight turned out to be from Australia, all of an age and like minded, that it made for good conversation between the different courses that came our way. A post- prandial walk took us along the by now, for us, often trampled Avenue of the Stars to visit Temple Street Night Market which turned out to be exactly like we’d seen depicted in travel books.

Our last day was spent on the harbour wandering through Art Galleries and a craft market totally free of mass produced “made in China” goods as found elsewhere in the world! Instead, perfect examples of ingenious thinking, crafted by hobbyists who love what they do.

Crowning our visit was the pleasure of checking in our luggage and receiving boarding cards before we’d even got to the airport. The whole efficiency of the operation being just as impressive departing as it was arriving.

Rubber Tramps visit Greece

We planned to fly in and out of Athens, spend a night with a college friend, see Athens next day and then begin island hopping. Instead Greece unfolded another way… Our night with Pinkie and her husband Christos became a week! Their wonderful hospitality, caring and central location in Glyfada despite being their busiest period at their Language School added a special dimension to our trip.

Pinkie & Lea reunited after 40 years outside the language school

On checking out travel possibilities to Kos with a Travel Agent we discovered a 4 day Classical Tour inland that covered all the places that Lea’s Dad had mentioned in his 1965 Community Development Tour of Greece with 50 Rhodesian Chiefs. A visit to Greece was twofold for Lea as somehow it held the key to her Dad’s love of Greek Mythology and ancient history that came about after the Chief’s Tour and her Gran had always spoken of a deep desire to visit the Greek Islands. But as life will so often have it the plans made on her retirement at 78 didn’t come to pass as Granny Lassie died in her office just week before. We booked four tours that encompassed an interesting variety of places for us in the very limited time we had available and these proved a successful choice.

We arrived soon after wild fires in Greece (supposedly lit by arsonists) had received world wide coverage. In making our booking of the tour through the Peloponnese we were warned that there was little left of the countryside to see. Rumours abounded - the museum at Olympia had been burnt down. Olive trees wiped out leaving a shortfall of 12 000 tons of olive oil from the region. To conspiracy theories revolving around property developers being the perpetrators enabling them to buy the scorched, so-called valueless land, from farmers and shepherds at ridiculously low prices. With elections imminent some accused the opposition party to be responsible, while others considered international terrorism a likely cause. Whatever the case, from what we saw, we concluded that the severity of the fires had been exaggerated. Knowing full well that the vegetation would recover we couldn’t quite understand what all the fuss was about. Possibly the rumours arose from the smoke that no doubt engulfed Olympia’s museum… We found it unscathed. The scant ground cover under the olive trees meant that apart from a few singed trees on the periphery of the orchards, they too had remained largely unharmed. As luck had it the 4 day tour we made in a large coach with 4 Canadians, 2 Australian girls and ourselves was a joy. A private tour - courtesy of the fires!

Before leaving the UK we had been warned about Athens … “dense traffic, smog-filled air, crowded sites and museums, intense summer heat, a city in chaos, of constant noise …”
We missed the worst of the season’s heat fortunately and the abundance of yellow taxis in Athens (60 000 of them said to be serving the demands of the population); the prolific amount of hooting and the lack of road markings were amongst our first impressions of the city. This, as well as parked cars covered in grime, litter that lay thick in the gutters alongside the roads and men constantly flicking their wrists associated with the distinctive sounds of worry beads (go-bo-lossi). Contrary to this negative description we were amused by the taxi “chatting” at intersections and generally found the hooting to be a form of anti congestion communication!

Our visit to the Acropolis (meaning ‘city’ on the ‘hilltop’) as one of the most famous ruins in the world was memorable. The Parthenon and the temple of Athena Nike were both thickly clad in scaffolding due to costly restoration work following after American experts botched it first time round! The crowds of people were dense yet it did not detract all that much from the experience and the views over Athens were absolutely stunning.

Lea amongst the crowds at the Acropolis

However, take heed, all the stairways leading up to the Acropolis are crafted from marble and over the decades of pedestrian access (at rates in excess of 10 000 visitors a day) these slabs have become highly polished and lethally slippery. We saw several unwary tourists clutching at the air as they fell on their backsides and for much of the time found ourselves hanging onto each other like two old dodderers! Below the Acropolis, set among gnarled old olive trees, lay the ancient Agora (market place) and a magnificent museum containing all sorts of artefacts from the Acropolis. There were beautiful examples of bronze work (the griffon’s head being a favourite), the early use of glass and of the moulds used for making the folds in garments when carving marble statues. We’d just learnt that the three “enemies” of Greek antiquities were Man because of his inclination to plunder. Oh dear, in their National Museum an empty room has been set aside to remind visitors of the Greek antiquities currently residing in the British Museum! Secondly, Early Christians for demolishing idols and knocking the heads off anything that resembled a God! Thirdly, earthquakes… Situated on the north Aegean fault Greece is a seismically active region with 20 000 earthquakes, mostly minor, having been recorded over the last 40 years - the last severe quake being in September 1999. Thinking about it there are probably several other “enemies” – atmospheric pollution (acid rain) and flooding for example.

The fleeting sight of the Changing Guards caught from our passing coach definitely required closer inspection that after the agora we walked back to the city through the Plaka to find the Voulis and on the hour we watched this ceremony from start to finish and if Lea could have had her way, we’d still be watching… Whether it’s the Changing Guards at Buckingham Palace or the Guard change at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington – USA, the rigor involved is the same. However, the unusual footwear and high stepping, foot-waggling legwork of the Greek Evzones enhances this spectacle.

The fast moving traffic travelling on the “wrong” side of the road according to our pre-conditioned minds made crossing the roads a hazardous affair – particularly for Lea who finds crossing without the aid of the “green man” at traffic lights traumatic. One especially stressful occasion arose the day of our “one day island cruise” We were waiting outside a hotel pick up point on the edge of a busy 6 lane highway into Athens, our coach well overdue, when Lea noticed a lady emerge from thick bushes growing on the median strip that separated the traffic flows, waving a piece of paper. It proved to be a signal for us to cross the road and join the coach awaiting us on the opposite side! With hearts in our mouths we managed to cross the first three lanes successfully and seek refuge on the island but, when faced with crossing the next three lanes, it became a case of every man for himself. George abandoned Lea and made a quick dash, leaving her to cross in her own time. Everyone on the bus watched this terrified lady looking in the wrong direction waiting for a gap in the traffic, and wondering how long it would be before we were finally on our way. No such thing as “duty of care” in Greece! We were so late boarding the ship that was to take us on our cruise that virtually every seat had been taken. Each deck jammed packed with people and we landed up sitting in a lounge with 4 Indians (one of whom reminded us of PW Botha, die “Krokodil”!), masses of Japanese playing card games and a crowd clapping and singing along to Greek songs being played by wandering minstrels. The austerity of the many islands we passed were a far cry from the postcard impressions of white sandy beaches we had in mind. At each of the islands of Poros, Hydra and Aegina we were given time off to wander – Here we found the quintessential street cats, donkeys, floating markets and the blue shuttered white houses that epitomise Grecian villages and many pistachio stalls!

One mule to another on Hydra

On the way back to Athens a sudden storm blew up bringing rain, and a chilly wind that generated a heavy swell. This did wonders to clear the smoke haze hanging over the Peloponnese in readiness for our “Classical Tour” the next day.

Our coach followed the “fine cliff hanging road…” past “the site of naval battle of Salamis (480BC)” and stopped in “New Corinth – to see the shipping canal through the isthmus” all mentioned by Dad. Two major engineering projects in this area…The first, impressive to Dad and ourselves, is the 6 km long Corinth Canal dug through the isthmus between the mainland and the Peloponnese to facilitate the movement of ships between the Aegean and Ionian Seas. Subsequently back in Perth, our friends Des & Liz provided us with another perspective of the Corinth Canal, as they had sailed through in their yacht a couple of months previously.
The second, opened in 2004 in time for the Olympic Games, is the 160m high, 2.2 km cable-stayed bridge over a narrow section of the Ionian Sea that facilitates communications with Italy and Western Europe. The bridge built by the French at a cost of 770 million Euro is a remarkable feat of engineering considering the weak sediments on the sea bed, the high seismic activity and possibility of tectonic movements.

This classical journey of 1 300km undoubtedly had the deepest impact on us. Beginning in the ancient amphitheatre of Epidaurus, which is famous for its acoustics, came a magical moment we are unlikely to forget. In the hubbub of the milling crowds broke the sound of a mother singing to her small son seated way above her - a spontaneous, spine chilling performance in its simplicity that instantly silenced everyone and afterwards resulted in resounding applause. Amidst the ruins of Mycenae with the concentric shape of the graves circles, the massive cyclopean walls and the conical / beehive shape of the treasury of Atreus to the stone stairways and chevron patterns prevalent among the stonework at Olympia, came our first realisation and understanding why Dad had felt such a great affinity to the Ancient Greeks. So too, did we recognise similarities in the stonework and form of Zimbabwe Ruins. Recollections of the stone work that Dad had so enjoyed doing in all his gardens dating back to his bachelor days in the 1920’s, came to mind. Even his daughter’s gardens, have contained touches of his handiwork. Not to mention the careful selection of rocks that went into the building of “Dangamvuri”, our family home. We were both acutely aware of his presence out there.

We found the setting of Delphi, known as the geographical centre or “navel” of the world, nestled below the rocky walls of Mount Parnassos and overlooking a deep fertile valley of olive trees stretching for ever, to be the most inspiring of the sites visited.

Our short, plump guide who Lea named the “flying fox” due to the voluminous black garment that billowed around her and our remarkably skilled bus driver both deserve a mention. Packed with character, Elena has been in the guide business for 39 years following in her father’s footsteps and there is no doubt she knew every twist in the road. She drew a sharp distinction between ‘tourists’ (empty-headed, uncaring sods on the look out for souvenirs) and ‘visitors’ (like us!) and was not afraid to yell at tourists doing unsafe things, or ask nearby tour groups in museums to be quiet in no uncertain terms.

Matching the majestic inselbergs of Niassa and the granite kopjes of Zimbabwe are the towering pinnacles of granite that occur behind the town of Kalambaka in central Greece. Unbelievably striking was to find old Byzantine monasteries, some dating back to the 15th century, perched precariously on top of them.

We visited two monasteries that had become nunneries, St Stephen (Agios Stefanos) and St Barbara Roussanou. From each we enjoyed stupendous views, looking over the edge of the cliffs - some sculptured like Uluru by wind and water - wondering what it must have been like building and servicing these places hundreds of years ago. Some had even been “bombardized” (using Elena’s terminology) during WW2.

A wonderful comradeship developed over the four days and we all felt a measure of sadness as each couple was dropped off at their respective hotels in Athens. We were sent back to Glyfada in a yellow taxi, and for once it was George who found himself nervously cringing after noticing that the driver was using his left knee to drive while he busied himself doing paperwork, answering the phone, making calls and then dismantling his mobile phone on his lap! All during the 17km ride home on the highway, congested with traffic moving between 80-100km/hr. Lea quite unaware of all this.

Catching the overnight ferry to the island of Kos, we disembarked at 5.00 the next morning while still very dark and walked through a picturesque fortified harbour in the gloom and found ourselves a bench outside the walls of the castle and waited until the sun rose over Turkey, a mere 5km away. Hundreds of frenzied little birds greeting the dawn mirrored our mounting excitement – and with no buses to be seen, we began walking out of Kos town along the coast to find the Beach Resort where our Ramsden family had been scheduled to arrive during the early hours of that morning. Once there, we sat on the beach eagerly awaiting a glimpse of a familiar face! Eventually a bleary eyed Dan emerged, wondering how he was going to retrieve his windsurfing gear abandoned at the airport. So began two nights and barely two days of idle, carefree family time together.

Squeezing illegally into their little family room added to the enjoyment along with eating custard filled donuts, visiting nearby sulphurous hot springs (therma) that run into the sea, and eating Grecian meals in the local taverns.

Finally, sad in the knowledge that we really had no idea when we may all meet again, Dan took us to Kos airport at the crack of dawn to catch our flight back to Athens, and from there on to London. We had loved every minute of our 10 day visit taking in Athens, central Greece and four of the 1 400 islands that are said to lie dotted among the blue waters of the Aegean and Ionian Seas.

Family Holidays

Our “family business” took eight months to complete. In a nutshell, it comprised:

25 January – 16 March

Enjoying time with Saxon and Paul in Perth awaiting the birth of our first Australian grand-daughter, followed by two weeks with Talia Paige Gee who arrived on 2 March 2007

Our family in Australia... Saxon, Talia, Paul and Harley dog

17 March – 18 April

Flew to South Africa, staying in Somerset West with our Wortmann family while popping in and out of Cape Town to be with Keith & Colleen in the lead up to the arrival of our African grand-daughter, Ella Malaika Begg, who arrived 14 April 2007

Our family in Africa...Keith, Colleen and Ella

Days later, en route to the airport for our flight to London, we arrived at the hospital to say goodbye to Colleen and had the joy of seeing and cuddling Ella, just out of ICU.

19 April - 2 September

Back in the UK for the summer it was hard to believe we were in Battersea Park with Carmen enjoying magnificent spring weather so like the start of the autumn we’d left behind us in the Cape.
Spent four months with Justine, Daniel and our three English grand children.

Our family in England... Ruben, Dan, Kiki, Justine and Otto.

Felt especially privileged to look after Otto, Roo and Kiki while Justine and Daniel went down to London for a music festival and later, when Justine and Daniel took a break to go diving in the Red Sea. Our plans to go on outings were knocked out by a summer that didn’t materialise. Instead we experienced thunder storms and flooding on a scale never seen before.
In early August took a three day trip to Poland to see Auschwitz.

3 – 15 September

At the beginning of September left for Greece, returning to London for the weekend with Carmen (15-17 Sept) before flying back to Australia via Hong Kong (18 – 23 Sept).