A Visit to Hong Kong

Not looking at all like tourists,
here we are at the Jumbo Floating
Restaurant. Alas, this restaurant
closed in 2020 and sank in 2022.

In early May, 1984, we took our first vacation. We thought our Thai might be good enough, so we signed up for a Thai language package tour for a 5 day trip to Hong Kong. I don’t know if we understood everything the Thai tour guide said, but we never got left behind, so we did OK language wise and it was a nice group of people. Plus, Thai language trips were a lot cheaper than those advertised in English!

In 1984, Hong Kong was still under British control and was world renown as a place to pick up electronics, cameras, jewelry, etc. at a steep discount.  Fifty years later, Hong Kong is still a shopping “promised land” though I think true bargains are harder to find. I note in my diary of the time that “we bought a lot of stuff” so we must have taken advantage of some of the discounts. The only thing I remember buying is a Citizen brand watch. It’s been a good watch as I wore it regularly for a few decades and it is still working (or at least it was the last time I tried it). Marcia remembers an embroidered silk cloth we framed and still have hanging on our wall as well.

Tiger Balm Garden - 1984

Hong Kong was also notable as it was our introduction to Tiger Balm. At the time, I don’t believe we were yet familiar with Tiger Balm as an ointment, but Hong Kong’s “Tiger Balm Garden” seemed to be a ‘must see’ stop on the tour. It was certainly a colorful and distinctive stop and got us curious about what Tiger Balm was all about. Marcia, with troublesome sinuses, was quick to become a Tiger Balm devotee. She used it all the time we were in Thailand and would go to great lengths to get a supply on our trips back to Thailand even after we were based in the US. Imagine her delight to discover it was also available in the US though we only found it in more recent years.

Marcia overlooking some of the
Hong Kong Skyline - 1984

To my bumpkin eyes, Hong Kong’s skyline as a backdrop to the harbor was dazzling and to highlight the skyline, an evening harbor cruise was on the itinerary. On that cruise, as dazzling as the skyline, was a seafood buffet that featured delectable abalone. I’m sorry we contributed to the demise of the species as now-a-days it is largely endangered, but it was certainly tasty. But equally dazzling were the huge scallops that we encountered for the first time. We’ve had large scallops since then, but none we remember as being as good as that first experience in Hong Kong.

Flying in and out of Hong Kong’s former Kai Tak Airport was an interesting experience though at the time, I had flown so little I didn’t fully appreciate it. Even so, I thought it was kind of fun in that after a steep turn going into the final approach for a landing we would fly through a narrow gap between buildings. The buildings seemed very close. I guess there were urban legends saying that passengers on the right side of the plane could see what was on TV in people’s apartments as the plane was landing. That’s highly doubtful, but a good story. I also heard stories that some pilots liked flying into Kai Tak airport as it was an opportunity to really fly the plane. Others thought the airport was dangerous. I suppose it is like driving on curvy, hilly mountain roads. Some appreciate it as a chance to truly drive the car and some (likely the passengers of the person enjoying the drive) find it scary. Here is a link to a YouTube video about the Kai Tak airport that gives some visuals as to what it was like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0bxgcJZrro

We were soon to have other, more brief visits to Hong Kong as in our early trips to and from Thailand, either Hong Kong or Tokyo seemed to be where we would have layovers. As time went on though, Hong Kong seemed to fall out of favor with the airline scheduling algorithms.