For those who’ve never had the thrill of landing at the old airport in Hong Kong, ‘Kai Tak’ was better than any amusement park ride. You enter Hong Kong airspace from the west, fly over the outer lying islands, then make a steep right bank to land in downtown Kowloon. Let’s get this straight: not two miles from downtown, right in downtown. The glide path takes you over blocks of apartments where you can see people hanging out their washing. I’m guessing you are no more than 200 feet above some of these………its breathtaking!!! You finish up on this long runway that pokes out into the harbor, the only runway, surrounded by water on 3 sides with one flight every three minutes.
Stepping off the plane onto the tarmac I remember saying to myself, “Wonder how long it will be before I get to board a plane out of here.”
Passing through Hong Kong customs the guy pulled me over and asked to look in my bag. Back in Sumatra I’d picked up an 18 inch machete and had this inside my backpack. “Um let’s see, sweater, underwear, t-shirt, MACHETE!” I looked at him as if to say “How did this find its way in here?”, when he said,
“This okay, flick knife not okay.”
“That’s right,” I said, “those flick knives very dangerous.”
After repacking my ‘safe machete’ and cashing my wad into HK dollars I boarded airport bus #1 for downtown Kowloon.
The pot smoking Aussie had lent me his Lonely Planet guide for an hour and I had figured out where in Hong Kong was my best chance of finding cheap accommodation. I exited the bus outside a building called Mirador Mansions on Nathan Rd. This building was located next to possibly the most infamous guest house in the World, the 14 storey Chungking Mansions.
As I prepared to enter a stocky English chap approached me and asked if I needed somewhere to stay. He led me to a 7th floor guest house run by a steely eyed Bengali. I was to get to know Dave Nurse better as my time in Hong Kong progressed and ended up thinking that he must be one of the most well known people in the colony.
Okay, finances were tight, saving money was at a premium and so I checked into a dorm room which contained three bunk beds. That meant six people who’d never met each other all sleeping in a space fit for two. Didn’t matter, as the afternoon progressed and the neon signs of downtown Kowloon started to come to life I knew, at least for tonight, I had a place to sleep. The Eagle had landed.
My bunk was the last one available, the top bunk right next to the window. I almost felt like if I rolled the wrong way I would end up on Nathan Road, seven floors below. Right outside my window was a giant yellow banana, the sign for the Banana Leaf curry house.
To be honest, living right on top of the action was exciting and having a tiny budget made every decision a tactical necessity. I soon found that the cheapest food around was McDonald’s. The 24 hour branch in Kowloon had alternating waves of shagged out westerners mechanically going through their eating motions. One of my first roommates was a guy from New Zealand, we’d basically checked in at the same time. We talked about getting jobs and how vibrant this friggin place was, you nearly got knocked over stepping out onto the sidewalk. That night we walked the half dozen or so blocks down to the harbor and just sat there drinking Carlsberg’s and watching the scene across the harbor with all the neon and everything.
The following day I went out to the bars looking for a job. “Not hiring,” “sorry no jobs,” were the responses. Depressed, I once again ended up at McDonald’s at midnight wondering where all this was going to lead.
