Hong Kong: A ready reckoner

Hong Kong Island

Hong Kong has developed its economy around financial services and tourism. Along with Singapore, it is Asia's financial hub. But tourism has definitely helped Hong Kong's economy a lot and the policy makers in Hong Kong are making sure that the hen continues to lay golden eggs. From my experience of a recent trip to Hong Kong, these are my suggestions to travel there.

Planning: To tour Hong Kong, you need not take help of any of the tourism travel companies. No holiday packages needed. The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) has a very good interactive website, which allows you to plan as per your needs. Click here to visit the website. The website has a whole lot of information to make your stay and sight seeing in Hong Kong a comfortable one.

Travel: Of course, you will travel by plane. To and fro tickets to Hong Kong (from metros in India) are cheap enough and can be purchased at reasonable prices even two weeks before your journey. The best airlines to travel: Cathay Pacific and Air India.

Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Stay: As far as possible, try and stay in hotels near Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon. The reason: This is where most of the tourist spots are located. So, you will not spend too much time travelling to the tourist destinations. If you are looking for guest-house style accommodations (low-cost, youth hostels), then Chungking Mansions is the place to look out for. It has around 80 guest houses. Note that all guest houses may not have a website, so online booking is out of question for some of these. I stayed at Ashoka Hostel, which is decent enough for single travellers, as well as young couples. But be a little careful, as shady characters are seen lurking around Chungking Mansions. Inside the rooms is safe, as there are double locks to enter the premises. Try and book accommodations through third party websites, to avail discounted rates, which are generally not mentioned on the hotel's website.

The Buddha at Lantau

Cash and currency: In Hong Kong, most budget hotels do not accept credit cards. You will have to pay cash in HK$. But do not worry. Carry around HK$ 200-300 from India. Money changing shops are a common sight in most tourist places in Hong Kong. You can carry Indian rupees, and get them exchanged for HK$ at these shops. It is a good idea to roam around a few shops, before deciding to exchange your money. It allows you to decide the best exchange rate for you. Even banks in designated areas will help you exchange currency.

What to see: While the HKTB board allows you to build your own itinerary, you should not miss a few things in Hong Kong. Do visit the Ngong Ping on Lantau islands and the Buddha statue there. It is a magnificent site to be there. Travel to the top either by their ropeway, or by the buses available there. Either way is simply enchanting. Also, after landing in Hong Kong, do not forget to visit the HKTB office, which you will find at major tourist locations. They will help you tailor an itinerary, so that you can make best use of your time. And, do not forget to take a map of Hong Kong from there, it will be useful during your stay.

Bruce Lee

The ferry ride is another good option, if you want to see parts of Hong Kong and how did the city's sea traffic evolve. Take a Harbour Tour with Star Ferry on a afternoon to see different parts of Hong Kong. In the evening, do not miss the Symphony of Lights show, which is held every single night along the Hong Kong harbour. the best place to watch the show is from the Kowloon side, in front of the Avenue of Stars. After the show, get pictures clicked with Bruce Lee, at the Avenue of Stars.

What and where to eat: Food, might be a slight problem if you are a vegetarian. You might not like the Cantonese restaurants, because it is very difficult to spot the differences between various meats. Chinese people eat various kinds of meats, ranging from chicken to pork, sometimes even donkey meat (that's true, I've seen it on the menu of a luxury resort). As is common in foreign countries, Indian restaurants are generally quite expensive. But, you can find a lot of Subway outlets in Hong Kong and Kowloon districts. And fortunately, Subway does serve vegetarian sandwiches as well as non-beef/pork ones. Indian restaurants are there by the plenty, lined up along Temple Street in Kowloon district. If you walk along Temple Street in the evenings, you will find a plenty of South Asian origin people (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali and Lankans) handing out pamphlets and inviting you to have food at their restaurants. There is no harm in collecting these. You can decide if you want to dine there or not, and you also get a choice. Remember, McDonald's and Pizza Hut do not have vegetarian food on their menu. Pizza Hut has only one vegetarian pizza and it might not fill you nicely.

Trek to Duke's Nose

Photo Courtesy: Vinay Bavdekar

Finally, this is a post on an true trek. The trek to Duke's Nose was the first trek of the 2009-10 monsoon season. Duke's Nose is a popular trekking destination in the Lonavala-Khandala valley. You can go there and come back on the same day. Remember, the Duke's Nose is locally known as Nagphani. If you need to ask any locals for directions, ask for Nagphani. Only then will you get an answer from them.

How to get there?Take a train upto Khandala station. When you get down at Khandala station, walk along the tracks in the direction of Mumbai. As you reach level crossing, you can see a temple on the right hand side, when facing Mumbai. Start walking on the narrow path besides that temple. You will reach an abandoned railway track going steep uphill. Walk along that track till you reach the Tata Power reservoir. Enroute, you will also see signboards pointing towards the "Nagphani" route. At that point, you will see a small upclimb route towards your left. Take this route and climb the mountain.

Once you reach a flat top, you will come across three routes. One to your left, the one in middle, and one on the right that goes steep uphill. Take that route. We took the route in the middle and got lost, till a local and a trekking group who had already gone to Duke's nose got us back on track. From here, it is a almost well marked path to Duke's Nose. It is possible that you may stray away and reach some other peak. For this, keep asking every person you meet for the path towards Duke's Nose or Nagphani. Also, this route is towards the right side of Duke's Nose, which means if you get lost, try to search towards your left. Most of the path has good foot marks.

You should be able to locate a semi-developed road. Once you locate it, the Duke's Nose is the only hill next to that road. The last upclimb is straight forward in terms of the path to be followed. After your trek, you might want to come back to Khandala or go to Lonavala. Going to Lonavala is easy, but the route is long. To come to Khandala you will have to re-trace your path, which might be difficult.

An alternate path to the trek is to come to Kurvande village from Lonavala and the Duke's Nose is one straight climb from here. This is the easier route, but you may miss out on some very good scenery if you follow this path.

What should you carry: You need to carry everything. Water, snacks, stuff to eat, etc. Nothing is available at Duke's Nose. Infact, once you leave Khandala or Lonavala, nothing would be available. The entire trek lasts for about 5-6 hrs. So, carry stuff accordingly.

Trip to Vasai Fort

Photo Courtesy: Vinay Bavdekar

Again, not a trek, technically But then, an enjoyable trek, if you wish to be in isolation, away from the hustle bustle of the city. Walking endlessly, along the walls of the fort, staring into the creeks, this is a wonderful place to be. The Vasai fort or Bassein fort, is a sea-facing fort built by the Portuguese to protect their township of Vasai. So, there is no trekking upward or downward. The fort is also undergoing restoration, so you might see some activity going on there.

Reaching Vasai fort: Take the Virar bound local from Borivali/Andheri/Dadar. If you are lucky, you might also be able to board a Vasai Road bound local. The frequency of Virar locals has now improved considerably. Get down at Vasai Road station. It is advisable to start as early as possible. The Western Railway has now put up the latest local timetable on its website. So, you can have a look at the Virar local timings before you start out.

Walk down to the ST stand. From the ST stand, there are buses to the fort after every half-an-hour. The destination is Killabunder, the last stop on the route. If you are reaching early, be prepared to share space with fish, dried wood (as source of fuel) and lots of other utility stuff. There are shared autorickshaws too, but they carry four people (3 in the passengers' area and one next to the driver). So, if you don't want to wait for the ST, this is another option. The fare per person is just a little bit more than the ST (if 4 people are travelling).

At Vasai fort: This fort is nothing but a collection of ruins. You can climb up and walk along the wall of the fort to witness everything around Vasai fort. You also get a scenic view of the Vasai creek. Since the west-end of the fort doesn't face the sea, you view the sunset. On the wall, there are places where you can climb down to the inside of the fort. You can visit the ruins. Some structures are still in a shape where you can make out what they used to be. Cathedrals, stores, barracks, meeting places, soldier stations, churches, and many more structures. Go down to the jetty for a closer view of the Vasai creek. All in all, you may be able to spend 3-4 hours at Vasai fort. It is essential to wear full pants and good pair of socks with shoes as the area is full of wild trees and shrubs that have grown hapazardly.

Facilities: The fort is situated near the fishing village. So, you may get stuff like snacks, mineral water, cold drinks, etc. at the village shops. But do not expect meals like lunch over there. You will have to come back to Vasai city or go near the railway station for that. So, it is advisable that you carry a fair amount of mineral water, snacks, etc. along with you. Also, it is advisable to return to Vasai Road before sunset.

Matheran trip

Technically, this is not about information for a trek. It is more to do with a trip to Matheran by the toy train. Treks to Matheran are there but I haven't done one to comment on that. Last Thursday, we went to Matheran by the toy train. It is an interesting journey but needs careful preparation. We were in Matheran only for the day, i.e. we started in the morning from IIT and wanted to come back on the same night.

Now, many of us may think (like we thought) that the toy train can be availed easily. This, unfortunately, is not true. The time-table for the toy train can be found out here. The train at 7:30 runs only on weekends and gazetted holidays. So, the first train available to Matheran is at 8:50 AM.

The toy train has five coaches. Of these, three coaches are second class seating reserved coaches, one is a first class seating reserved coach, while the fifth is a second class unreserved coach. The tickets for the train can be booked online from IRCTC's website. If you want to try your luck, reach Neral station atleast one-and-half hour before the train's scheduled time of departure. This is because, the number of seats in the unreserved compartment too are fixed. The ticket window for filling up the unreserved seats opens up 45 minutes before the train's scheduled time of departure and you can expect a big rush for the tickets, especially on weekends and holidays.

If traveling from Mumbai, it is better to take the Karjat local and get down at Neral. The Deccan Express does stop at Neral, but it has chances of getting delayed and thus you may end up missing the 8:50 train. The Karjat local timetable can be found here.

The toy train journey is about 2 hrs. Once on the top, you need to pay an entry fee of Rs. 25/- per person to enter and roam around Matheran. This is collected by the local governing body and is used for the upkeep of Matheran. At the same place, you can find a map which shows the various points of interest in Matheran. Use that map and roam around Matheran. Motorised vehicles of any kind are banned in Matheran. Hence, all touring is either on foot or on horseback. But I would favour going around on foot as you can enjoy the weather and the locations at your will.

While returning, the last train is at 4:30 PM. On weekends and gazetted holidays, the last train is at 5:30 PM. So, if you have no reservation, again, be in line by 2:45 PM to stand a chance of getting the return ticket.

Facilities: Since Matheran is a popular tourist place, everything needed is available over there. Food arrangements are excellent and there are a number of eateries to satisfy your hunger. The type of food ranges from Maharashtrian to Gujarati and South Indian to Chinese. Bottled water too is available in the various shops and stores over there. However, be prepared to pay more (even on M.R.P. items) as all the items are hauled up from Neral/Karjat. A safe way is to carry some snacks and water with you from your home itself.

Trekking to Karnala

Reaching Karnala: This was the most recent treks that I did. To get to Karnala, you must first get to Panvel. If you are in Mumbai, you can get to Panvel by the following routes- a) On Central Railway line: get to Kurla and board the train to Panvel on the Harbour Line (I think it is platform 6 or 7). b) Western Railway: Get to Dadar. At Dadar, change to Central Railway local and get down at Kurla. At Kurla change over to Harbour line and catch the train to Panvel. Another option for people coming from Andheri side, is to board the Harbour Line train to CST, get down at Wadala and at Wadala board the train to Panvel. Check here for the local train timings.

Once you arrive at the Panvel station, ask for the Panvel ST stand. The Panvel ST stand is a 10 min walk from the railway station. Have something to eat at the ST stand. Since you are likely to reach the ST stand in the early times of the morning, you will have to contend with the road-side vendors. But be assured, they serve good vada-pav and kanda-bhaji (onion-bhaji). Being early business hours, you can expect hot bhaji and tea at the vendors.

Alternately, people from Mumbai, Thane, etc. can take the ST buses from Mumbai Central, Parel, Thane and Kalyan depots to reach Panvel. Even for people coming from other parts, viz. Pune, Nashik, etc. (except the Konkan region), it is better to reach Panvel. These cities are connected by the state transport service to Panvel.

At Panvel ST stand, look for the platform from where जनता गाड़ी leaves. You can ask the paper vendor for the platform from where buses to Karnala leave. Generally these buses connect to smaller villages in the vicinity of Panvel. So, better ask the conductor or co-passengers whether the bus goes to Karnala or not. The stop at Karnala fort is not well marked, so request the conductor to remind you when the stop arrives.

Facilities at Karnala: At the base, there is a rest house. You can request the care-takers of the rest house to prepare some lunch for your group. However, make this request before you set out for your trek. These people will not prepare anything for you if you ask them after finishing your trek. At the top, there is no source for drinking water. I would not trust the small ponds of water at the top. Most of them are in a state of disuse and hence unreliable. Therefore, carry adequate amount of water with you. Also, carry a few snacks with you.

If you do not wish to dine at the rest-house care-taker's residence, there is a restaurant named "Hotel Fort View" that is 20 min walk down the ghat. Ask the guard at the check post for directions. The hotel is decent and is reasonably priced.

Stuff to carry: Adequate amount of water, reasonable amounts of snacks. Water is almost not available at the peak, hence be sure that you have enough.

Documenting Trekking preparations

I am not an avid trekker. But, I do undertake two-three treks every year. The most difficult task of undertaking a trek is gathering information about reaching the base. Also, not much information is not available about the facilities at the pinnacle of the trek. Of course, one needs to ask friends, but what if they are not informed enough? With treks in India, sometimes Google too fails to pop-up good information.

Therefore, I thought of writing this blog, which will have good info on reaching the base of the trek and about the facilities available near the trek. I hope this serves as the Google to new trekkers.