Does This Album Remind You of Your First Days in Hong Kong?

[GammaGlobulin]

Dear Friends,

 

What do you recall about the first moment you set foot in Hong Kong?

Does this album remind you of those seemingly halcyon days?

 

Some guys from Scotland might have set foot, earlier, in Hong Kong, but not many who still remain here reading these words.

 

Do you miss the old Hong Kong?

 

Personally, I do know that many guys from HK have come here.

 

Do you miss the color (colour) of the sea around Hong Kong harbor, some sort of leaden gray with its slightly fetid aroma?

 

Do you miss riding on the Star Ferry, or did you prefer the basements in Kowloon?

 

Do you miss the cheap ferry fares?

 

Those fares were held steady for many years, until...they were suddenly not.

 

This is not just a matter of nostalgia getting the best of us.

Hong Kong really did change, never to be seen again, after those days.

Such a loss.

But, never mind, the Red Flag has now risen, and nobody here, worth his salt, will ever return to HK, again, maybe.

 

 

 

 

How much would you give to go back?

That is the question.

 

 

What a fool believes, could be almost anything.

And, the fools may have destroyed Hong Kong, for good.

Probably, but who really knows.

 

 

[papa al]

No.

[GammaGlobulin]

As much as we love Thailand, did we not, honestly speaking, love Hong Kong, even more?

 

[GammaGlobulin]

 

Virgin

[GammaGlobulin]

Back in the day, almost everyone in Hong Kong and Thailand were virgins.

 

And, everybody preferred virgins, back then.

 

Even, Suzie Wong was a virgin.

 

Hong Kong was far more interesting, then, than Thailand is now.

 

Believe me.

 

Chinese girls are super smart.

[GammaGlobulin]

33 minutes ago, papa al said:

No.

Well then, do you recall this?

 

[1FinickyOne]

ha ha.. yes, I remember the runway... was first there in 1974.. don't remember much about it...

 

Did business there in the 80s.. fastest business city on the planet... 

[GammaGlobulin]

9 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

ha ha.. yes, I remember the runway... was first there in 1974.. don't remember much about it...

 

Did business there in the 80s.. fastest business city on the planet... 

Those were the good old days when business was conducted with civility.

 

Now, unfortunately, you may be stuck with Shanghai, or worse.

 

Commies stink, as everybody knows.

 

Or, as one who enjoys business, do you prefer a Marxist-Leninist playing field?

[GammaGlobulin]

Why?  Why was Hong Kong so much more interesting in the 60s and early 70s than Thailand is now?

 

Do you know?

[chalawaan]

I never saw HK until 1999 two years after hand over. 

By which time the famed Kai Tak landing approach was history too, as the new airport was in service. 

Still, it became one of my favourite cities, and as I was in my late 30s I seldom left without a hangover! 

The buffet supper at the Royal HK yacht club was a Roast Beef Colonial Extravaganza! Members and guests (visiting aircrew were guests) enjoyed one of the best deals on the planet! 

If you were savvy you knew that genuine perfume and colognes were way cheaper downtown than at the airport.

We used to buy pirated DVDs, particularly porn, ???? from shady top floor enterprises dotted around the street market in Kowloon. 

The Chinese food was ineffably scrumptious, especially when Cantonese crew members generously shared their favourite hole in the wall eateries. 

 

Years later in Portugal, I befriended a former Commander in the RHKP, he was in the Maritime Division, and his stories of adventure on the harbour made me wish I'd signed up back in the 70s!

His police pension was not too shabby either, €3000 a month! 

I wonder if the CCP have since ended those colonial payouts, it's very likely! 

 

 

I was last there in December 2019, arrived at dawn at the end of a Japan /Taiwan cruise, it was already falling apart. 

 

Male African refugees skulking menacingly in pedestrian underpasses, anti-china graffiti everywhere, visible signs of riot damage and street fires.

 

It was and is heartbreaking. 

 

 

There's a documentary on YouTube following ordinary Cantonese as they migrate to the UK.

Better than living under Communism, but moving from HK to the UK is probably something they'll never get over, I wish them well, and hope they do well (they will!) and at least improve the sad state of Chinese takeaway in the high streets!

I hear most of them have a hidden "authentic" menu for their own kind, while the drunken chavvies get the vile fried slop they know and love! 

 

 

Edited August 19, 2022 by chalawaan

[GammaGlobulin]

13 minutes ago, chalawaan said:

I never saw HK until 1999 two years after hand over. 

By which time the famed Kai Tak landing approach was history too, as the new airport was in service. 

Still, it became one of my favourite cities, and as I was in my late 30s I seldom left without a hangover! 

The Buffet supper at the HK yacht club was a Roast Beef Colonial Extravaganza! Members and guests (visiting aircrew were guests) enjoyed one of the best deals on the planet! 

If you were savvy you knew that genuine perfume and colognes were way cheaper downtown than at the airport.

We used to buy pirated DVDs, particularly porn, ???? from shady top floor enterprises dotted around the street market in Kowloon. 

The food was indescribablely scrumptious, especially when Cantonese crew members generously shared their favourite hole in the wall eateries. 

 

Years later in Portugal, I befriended a former Commander in the RHKP, he was in the Maritime Division, and his stories of adventure on the harbour made me wish I'd signed up back in the 70s!

His police pension was not too shabby either, €3000 a month! 

I wonder if the CCP have since ended those colonial payouts, it's very likely! 

 

 

I was last there in December 2019, arrived at dawn at the end of a Japan /Taiwan cruise, it was already falling apart. 

 

Male African refugees skulking menacingly in pedestrian underpasses, anti-china graffiti everywhere, visible signs of riot damage and street fires.

 

It was and is heartbreaking. 

 

 

There's a documentary on YouTube following ordinary Cantonese as they migrate to the UK.

Better than living under Communism, but moving from HK to the UK is probably something they'll never get over, I wish them well, and hope they do well (they will!) and at least improve the site state of Chinese takeaway in the high streets!

I hear most of them have a hidden "authentic" menu for their own kind, while the drunken chavvies get the vile fried slop they know and love! 

 

 

I have watched the three-part documentary, just as you have.

 

Perhaps, this is the culmination, meaning the bleak end, of all the good things that Hong Kong once had.

 

Anyone who lives in Hong Kong can decide for themselves if they prefer life before 1996, or after.

 

Deng Xiaoping once, probably apocryphally, stated something about flies.

 

Deng is said to have said:  "If you open the window for fresh air, you have to expect some flies to blow in."  (Although, one doubts he ever did say such a thing.)

 

But, what actually happened, is that, once the CCP "recovered" Hong Kong, this blessed former colony has been filling up with commie flies.

 

One guesses that, these days, one cannot keep the CCP flies from infesting almost anything, and everything.

 

So solly!

 

 

Edited August 19, 2022 by GammaGlobulin

[StreetCowboy]

I stepped off the plane at Kai Tak with two colleague compatriots who had worked in Hong Kong the previous year as graduate and student.  We met the young lad's brother and went for dinner and beer (as I recall, it may have been a liquid dinner), and the Chinese waiter says:
"Whair'r youse boys fi? Ah'm fi Dunfermiline"

Anyway, somehow I woke up the next morning back home, and as no-one else had woken up, I went down the street, down the hill, down to some shops selling all-knows-god-what; it looked like you were supposed to eat it, but I cannot imagine why.

Down that street, to the main road, with the clanking trams festooned with Chinese advertising, and across the road...

And my ears pricked up.

I followed the sound of the pipes, and there, down a side street, in the courtyard of the Royal Hong Kong Ambulance Corp Logistics Depot, was the Ambulance Corp pipe band in full tartan regalia having a Saturday morning practice.  
"Aye, mebbe this'll be a'right" I thought to myself.

Some months later, the police were called to our handover party, which had started on a chartered tram and subsequently adjourned to our company apartment.  Twice, if recollection serves me well.
We didn't test their patriotic patience any further.

[StreetCowboy]

Does this song remind you of your first trip to Hong Kong?
 

Edited August 20, 2022 by StreetCowboy

[zzaa09]

8 hours ago, StreetCowboy said:

Does this song remind you of your first trip to Hong Kong?
 

Better chance he's making up such a tale. 

[GammaGlobulin]

On 8/20/2022 at 9:59 PM, StreetCowboy said:

Does this song remind you of your first trip to Hong Kong?
 

What?

 

Are you nuts?

 

Still, nice, however.

[StreetCowboy]

19 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

What?

 

Are you nuts?

 

Still, nice, however.

This song does not remind me of Hong Kong.
It does not even remind me of Redcar

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by StreetCowboy