Give it a whirl: from top, Kongharbour at night; left to right: t'ai chi lanterns for sale at in Hong KongPark; Stanley Market; the tranquillity beyond the golden sands of Repulse towers, at the foot of Baybeach; looking Victoria Peak; the down on it allfrom the Cantonese classic, Ritz-Carlton's spa pool, steaming dim sum; 118floors above the city aboard an authentic streets; neon-lit Nathan Chinese junk in Hong Road,

THE DRAMATIC ARRIVAL to breathe (and then gasp at the 1Hong Kong isn't like other cities; it vertiginous real-estate rates). I turn my doesn't get you all bright-lights excited back on viewing platform and mall, for then let you down with a concrete the birdsong and leaf-shade of the round- conveyor-belt journey in from the airport, peak path. It's not all mine - I pass buggy- catapults you straight into pushers, lovers, bow-legged grannies, your own film set. Mine feels like a post- pampered handbag poaches - but there's apocalyptic mash-up of 007, Logan's Run, peace. Glimpses of harbour between Mission Impossible and Blade Runner: camellia leaves and viburnum berries, the monumental sweep of the suspension the distant city hum. And, a the funicular bridge, the juggernaut sideloader cranes tram drops back between apartments marshalled portside, the obelisk sentry of (so close I can see whose houseplants the 50 Om ICC tower. Skyscrapers at the need watering), a black kite hovers, then foot of hills, skyscrapers on top of hills, lands metres from my head, all feathery skyscrapers neither halfway up nor down knickerbockers and ruthless talons. hills. Man-made canyons, elevated walkways, all so emphatically, futuristically FINDING SOMETHING GONE urban I'm momentarily surprised to see 4 Keeping up is hard to do. Even short real people walking on real pavements. conversations with Hong Kong insiders soon turn to one subject: change, pace of. GROUNDING YOURSELF WITH It's not just blink-and-miss businesses, they 2 RETAIL: THE STREET-LEVEL VIEW say, whole buildings disappear overnight. Time to zoom in and get out among it, Outsiders stand little chance, especially the best way I know how - shopping bag given the vertical sprawl. Bars massage in hand. Of course real people walk on parlours and under-the-radar 'private real pavements; the streets of Hong Kong kitchen' restaurants exist on upper storeys island's designer-label Central district invisible to idle street-brow ers. So across are thronged. Gradients help me keep my Victoria Harbour in Kowloon, I houldn't bearings as I weave through the be surprised that a friend's tip-off, Tim Ho stallholders and daily shoppers of Graham Wan restaurant ('Michelin-starred dim Street's wet markets - nests of fresh sum for pence!'), is now a mobile-phone noodles, tubs of bean sprouts and wind- shop. Mobile man sighs and hands me a dried sausages by the bundle. More pre-scrawled address. What the shiny new suitcase-friendly pickings are to be had location lacks in atmosphere, it makes up further west on Upper Lascar Row: for in delicate prawn dumplings and silken beneath bamboo scaffolding, stalls pork cheung fan roll ,served at lightning overflow with antique photos, ornamental speed to keep the snaking queue moving. Buddha ,retro Mao trinkets, canopies of para ols and lanterns. My fistful of HK COLONIAL IRRIGATION dollars goes to the Likely Lad Rodney 5 When in expat territory, do as the Bewes lookalike owner of Yuan Heng expats do: on Friday evenings, say my spice shop - I leave with Szechuan peppers ex-London pals Anna and Donald, that's and scrolls of cinnamon, all totted up on G&Ts at the Captain'S Bar. Antique maps, his abacus. chilled silver tankards and tinkling ivories make the c1ubby, red-leathery lounge feel RISING ABOVE IT ALL older than the 50-year-old Mandarin 3To every city its Eiffel Tower. Here, Oriental it sits in. It's a class apart from the must-do viewpoint is Victoria Peak the other expat drinking I spy later in high above Central, where everyone comes party district Lan Kwai Fong. A suited>

104 Sunday Times Travel December2013 H

THE NEON'S ON AND I'M D IS IS THE REAL LIGHT SHOW AND PEOPLE ARE OUT ARTIFICIALLY LIT FORCE

December2013 Sunday Times Travel 105 ADDRESS BOOK

STAY Shang Palace YMCA of Hong Kong (Kowloon Shangri- (Kowloon: 00 852 2268 La: 00 8522733 7000. wwwymcahk. 8754. shangri-Ia. orq.hk), Doubles from com: mains around £101. room only. (25) Two-Michelin- (Kowloon: starred Cantonese. 008523400 1000. Cafe Gray Deluxe hotel-icon.com: (Admiralty: 00 852 pictured). Doubles 39681106. cafegray from £141. 8&8. hk.com: mains Kowloon Shangri-La around (32). Harbour (Kowloon: 0800 028 views from the 49th- 3337. shangri-Ia. floor and ex pat- cornl, Doubles from friendly Euro dishes £251. 8&8. at the gorgeous Mandarin Oriental boutique Upper (Central: 00 852 House hotel. 25220111. mandarin Bo Innovation oriental.com). Doubles (Wanchai: 00 852 2850 from £375. 8&8. 8371. boinnovation. The Peninsula com: menu (95). (Kowloon: 00800 28283888. peninsula. DRINK corn). Doubles from Lock Cha Tea House £382.8&8. (Admiralty: 00 852 28017177.lockcha. EAT com: tea about £4.50). Tim Ho Wan (18 Hoi Honi Honi (Central: Ting Rd. : 0085223530885. 0085223322896: honihonibar.com). mains around £1.40). Third-floortiki bar. Bookworm Cafe Captain's Bar (Yung Shue Wan. (Mandarin Oriental: Lamma: 00 852 2982 00852 2825 4006). 4838: mains around city type leans from a first-floor-bar plus foie gras, wagyu beef and mango. The (4). Hippyish cafe. DO balcony, pouring beer into the mouth of treat-em-mean no-reservations policy keeps Megan's Kitchen Ritz-Carlton his mate on the pavement. Thi i where food hipsters keen. And head chefs - next (Wanchai: 00 852 (Kowloon: 00 852 mainland Chinese touri t come to snap day I spot 22 Ships' guy dining at Yardbird, 28668305. megans 22632100. ritz Brits in action. Proud moments. where the bare-brick decor and scrum for kitchen.com: mains carlton.corn). Pool seats are the same, the tapas Japanese. around (8). access for non-hotel WATCHING THE LIGHT Chicken wing yakitori with shichimi Yardbird (Sheung guests from £64. 6 At 8pm every evening those Mission spice powder is the business. Wan: 00 8522547 Hong Kong Foodie Impossible scrapers come over all Disney. 9273. yardbird Tours (00 8522850 For 15 minutes, lasers flash, searchlights GETTING AWAY FROM IT ALL,ABIT restaurant.com: 5006, hongkong strobe and rainbows flicker from buildings 8Reading about Hong Kong's beachy, mains around £10). foodietours.com). on either side of the harbour, all hikey, less inhabited island ha me 22 Ships (Wanchai: From £55. choreographed to music. You can watch it picturing Manhattan-meets-Maldive - 0085225550722, Aqua Luna (00 852 from Kowloon's waterfront and hotels but meets-Milford Track. Which isn't quite 22ships.hk: mains 21168821. aqualuna. I go the whole cheesy hog and get a ticket how Lamma looks as the ferry docks at around £11). corn.hk). From £16. on red-sailed Aqua Luna, the harbour's Sok Kwu Wan pier - a narrow concrete last traditional wooden junk. It's so path leads past fish-tank restaurants, much easier to ponder the Pos:-Modern mud flats and up over a scrubby hill. But juxtaposition of ancient and modern with a little nature goes a long way: a few a Luna Breeze clinking in my hand ... elephant ear trees, a giant black-and-white butterfly and paddling in the friendly FOLLOWING THE FOOD TRENDS waves of Hung Shing Yen beach - I'm 7 By the ti me I fin ish th is sentence, sold. The cross-island hike i tamed with another food trend will have stormed railings, public loos and pretty pagodas Hong Kong, but when I visit, it's all about for breath-catching. But the most built up small plates. At 22 Ships, owned by it gets (power station aside) is the line of London wunderchef Ja on Atberton, those cafes in Yung Shue Wan and the huddle of small plates are Spani h-i h; the menu stilted fishermen' hou es over by the pier. tick off [arnon; morcilla, Padron peppers, The low-rise calm remind me of the Scilly

106 Sunday Times Travel December 2013 Isles. Imagine if they were a breezy half- tools form a kitchen-view table), I watch Fan(cy) footwork: above, t'ai chi inVictoria Park; hour ride from Canary Wharf ... a chef plant the finishing touch - a freeze- bellboys in The Peninsula hotel; the vertiginous Bank of China Tower. Opposite, traditional boat backed by dried spring onion 'twig', tweezered into steely skyscrapers; inside the Ten Thousand Buddhas' HITTING RUSH HOUR a wooden ake box of onion and lime Monastery; Michelin-starred scallops at Bo Innovation 9 You know you're getting to grips with foam and morel 'soil'. Look weird, ta re a city when you can urf its rush hour amazing. There's more playful arti try and China but here in the ew Territories ju t on public tran port. I reach Kowloon' precision-kitcheneering for the following north of Kowloon, I suddenly feel closer. underground MTR station bang on 6pm, dozen or so courses. Petits fours arrive in ju t a crowds multiply, determination ers half a birdcage. It's clever, good-looking, TRAVELLING BY CITY ICON in, commuters throw caution to the wind great-tasting - dinner a entertainment. 12 ew York has the yellow cab; and actually walk up and down escalators. London, the double-decker; Hong Kong, Full-on, but organised, yellow- hirted LOSING COUNT OF the Star Ferry. A 20p ticket gets me a top- platform staff direct passengers to emptier 11THE BUDDHAS deck seat with naturally air-conditioned carriage, where illuminated route maps I'm not sure whether my favourite view of Victoria Harbour, teeny boat show direction, location and connections. Buddha is the one holding hi robes up and mega tanker navigating the water I come unstuck when I run out of coin; over spindly legs to have a paddle the between tern kyline. Sailor wear natty queue at ticket counter; am given change one on a donkey with floor-length blue uit, and it's genuinely convenient not ticket; return to ticket machine queue. eyebrows, or the one wearing armour - 15 minutes from Kowloon to Central. Moral of the story: invest early on in and a fierce frown contradicted by his That's HK 1, yLon O. a prepaid Octopus card and sweep camp 'I'm a little teapot' pose. But it' through like a pro. been a long whittling proce s, there are EARS POPPING EN ROUTE 9,997 more to choose from at this hillside 13TO RECEPTION DINING FROM A BIRDCAGE monastery in Sha Tin. Its pavilions and Did I mention that part of thi town are 10 'Dead garden' - a name unlikely pagodas have views of huge bamboo quite high-rise? loon learn that arriving to shift many M&S ready-meals, but clumps, wooded slopes and (of course) at a building's door is not arriving at your responsible in part for jammed reservation more tower blocks. People puff their way destination. I'm off to the Ritz- arlton spa lines at Bo Innovation, among the up the Buddha-lined hill to waft bundle for a swim in the highe t pool in the world twinklie t of HK's Michelin-starred of incen e, rattle devotional ticks, have (118 £Ioors up!), in the ICC, HK' talle t restaurants. From my ring ide seat (six their fortune told. I've never visited building. But getting to Kowloon MTR >

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station, directly beneath, is only the half of it. It's nine escalators and miles of CHEF BRINGS HIS CLEAVER DOWN. polished mall before 1 even glimpse daylight. More e calators and lift rake CKASYO E, WE HAVE me higher, all the way to the 103rd-f100r reception. The swim? Like the weather BOWLS OF TENDER SPICED MEAT round the outdoor hot-tub: a blast. plate, splosh of Darjeeling in porcelain ... SQUINTINGAGAINSTTHE PIGGING OUTWITH LOCALS Afternoon tea at The Peninsula, the 17 NEON GLARE 14 How to tell which hole-in-the-wall 85-year-old Kowloon hotel that's the By day, there's a certain dingine to the joint will give you rhe best feed of your city's olde t, i a colonial-era institution. streets of Kowloon: buildings are too 10 e life, and which will entence you to day But, like Bond with his Q (Roger Moore together to let in much sun, and it' all le of hotel-bathroom arrest? I wish I knew wooshed in here in Man with the Golden poli hed than Central's swanky sidewalk o I sign up to a Hong Kong Foodie Tour Gun), this is one tech- avvy octogenarian. or 's charming higgle-piggle. thar'Il how me local places for local In-room tablet-control are 0 advanced By night, the neon' on and I'm dazzled, people. It's fantastic. In four hours, our I actually find them easy to use and wi-fi by ads and shop signs running along and guide, Silvana, whips u round six cafes in in the Rolls-Royce is the icing on the cake. acro s the street. This is the real light show. the Sheung Wan district I'd otherwise have And people are out in artificially lit force, missed, weaves local history and culture DRINKING IN TOP-DECK VIEWS eating fi h balls on skewer, taking delivery into her explanation of dishes, feeds us 16 Mr Whippy, Pizza xpress and of fruit for tomorrow's market, clacking won ton oup, pork buns, sugarcane juice dodgy pub I can get at home. After mah-jong tile under ration walkway. The and custard tarts (bought from bakers a quick ouvenir-haul from its market, Temple treet ight Market, till going displaying them on metal trays - it means I decide British- ea idey tanley on after midnight, i the place for tar Wars- they make their own). In the barbecue ' outh coast, is not for therned U B tick and crucifixion-therned pork hop, a place de igned more for easy me (I much prefer the Chinese-seasidey ai T-shirt: '1 Saviour + 3 ails = 4 Given'. cleaning than diners' comfort, whole pigs Kung, out east amid country park line the wall waiting for their moment and empty space, with it incense-hazed NICE CUPPA CHA in the oven. The chef brings his A4-size Old Town and bubbling-tank eafood 18 Sometime the best e cape are cleaver down on the chopping board and, restaurant ). My bu journey there, on the right in the thick of thing. And 0 it i with quick as you like, we have bowls of rice other hand, is a corker. Front row, top deck Hong Kong Park, a cool plodge of green topped with tender spiced meat. Dreamy. on the 0.6 from Central gives me Sikh among the bu ine district's monoliths. temples, double-decker tram and the huge I zen out in the t'ai-chi garden, kick hoe THE007 HOTEL Happy Valley racecour e. Then - ta da! - off for the pebbly foot-rnas age path 15 Genteel tring quartet, politely Repulse Bay all manicured golden and (good for the sole), pick one of 50 brew murmured conversation, clink of fork on flash boats and jump-on-in waters. in the Lock Cha teahouse. Andrelax.a

~_Get me there ;If SAl KUNG GO INDEPENDENT GETAROUND Cathay Pacific (020 8834 8888. Hotels can arrange airport cathaypacific.com) flies five times transfers. butthe 24-minute daily from Heathrow to Hong Airport Express train costs 90p Victoria Kong. from £629 return and one-way to Hong Kong and Harbour Kowloon connects to 40 destinations Kowloon stations. where you can - inChina through sister airline also check infor the return leg. Dragonair. Virgin Atlantic (0844 Fares. timetables. maps and apps Sheung Wan - Central 209 7777. virgin-atlantic.com) has for the easy-to-use MTRpublic Victoria- daily Heathrow returns from £676. transport system are available Peak BA(08444930787. ba.com) has at .com.hk. Get a prepaid Heathrow returns from £674. Octopus card (£12. including refundable £4 deposit). Taxis are GO PACKAGED cheap and abundant and work on Cleveland Collection (020 7843 meters. Ifyou book ahead. via a ~ 3597 c evelar d :0 ectton.co.uk) hotel or restaurant. say. they cost ~ has five nights at he Mandann about 40p extra. Ifyou want them -YUNG SHUEWAN ~ Oriental from £1.695pp. 8&8. to cross the bay from Hong Kong ~ -STANLEY ~ including Heathrow flights an Island to Kowloon. or vice versa. ~ transfer Virgin Holidays (0844 you also have to pay the £4 toll. - SOK KWU WAN ~ 5573859. virginholidays.co.uk) plus 80p-£1.20 extra for the ~ has five nights from £940pp. room return journey. The Peak LAMMA ISLAND ~ only. including four-star Kowloon Tram costs £2.25 single. ~. accommodation. Heathrow ~ flights and transfers. Or try FURTHER INFORMATION ~ Thomson Worldwide (0844 050 See the tourist board website on a. 2828. thomsonworldwide.com). discoverhongkong.com.

December2013 Sunday Times Travel 109