Rule 4: Do not wail against the flow

Rule 4.

Rule number 4 on the Central to Mid-Levels Escalator is “Do not wail against the flow”; which, when you think about it, may not help much with escalator-riding but is not a bad fortune-cookie phrase to live by.

I noticed the rule as we made our way down to the harbour to have yum cha in a great place which had at least three things to recommend it. First, it was recommended by our local friends Andy and Ying; second, it had a view of the harbour; and, third, the food had labels in English. That last proved invaluable and we had a scrumptious meal.

We then sat around and debated what to do with our afternoon. We were all feeling lazy and so decided not to wail against the flow and just went back to the apartment to play 500 and do some homework.

About 4 o’clock we headed out again to try the Peak Tram experience. The queue was substantially less than two days ago but still enough to make us pleased we were being zen and not wailing against the flow. The Tram is a funicular that dates from the 1880s. Back then there were three classes, the first two of which were reserved for colonial officers – the third was for ‘others and animals’. Today it’s just a mosh-pit of pushing and shoving to get the best seats. Once aboard though, it is a cool, steep ride up the mountain through lush jungle; and although it doesn’t gain you a huge amount of height it has the huge advantage of cutting out all the switchbacks that walking or driving involve.

Hong Kong night.

Now when we bought the tickets we refused to buy add-on tickets to the sky terrace viewing platform, figuring we could see enough without. Of course when we got to the top we found that the building was cleverly designed to hide all views but that from the paid-for viewing platform. So we decided to walk further up the hill to the park at the top. It was a very steep walk in the humidity, past houses and flats that must be the premium Hong Kong addresses. So we were pretty sweaty and tired when we achieved the top only to find we’d walked into the clouds and could see only a few feet in front of us. Time not to wail against the flow again.

So we descended out of the clouds and returned to the area at the top of the tram to search for some food. Then we got lucky and found a pizza restaurant with premium views and a table right by the window that they managed to make available for us. The clouds lifted and it turned out that the pizza was excellent and the view as the Sun went down and Hong Kong turned on its lights was fabulous. We had a great meal and a great time watching the lights, finished off with gelato enjoying the cool breeze outside.

Finally we decided it was time to go home and went back to the Tram. The queue finished just after the sign saying ‘One hour from here’. Did we wail against the flow? Nope. We caught a taxi.

1 thought on “Rule 4: Do not wail against the flow

Leave a Reply