or: A Mistake is Possible Even With Great Public Transport

 

 

 

As expected, I’ve been visiting people, eating dim sum (and a few other things too) and returning to some of my favourite places around Hong Kong before I leave in eight days.

I am staying at my final place before heading off again. It is in Tung Chung which is a town on Lantau Island. This is the island where the airport and Big Buddha are and one of the islands I have lived on many years ago. It has its own train line into Central and cuts across Kowloon too.

I was fortunate when one couple I was visiting had bought tickets for a show at the HK Arts Festival when they went on sale. Many of the shows book out months in advance so this particular couple shops pretty much as soon as the schedule is announced. Very well organised.

As a result, they had a spare ticket for Bosch Dreams. Bosch was a 16th century artist who inspired many others ranging from Dali to Jim Morrison. Somehow the show covered these two, as well as some acrobatics, trapeze work and an analysis of a major work of art in the most unique way I have ever seen. Then there was the music… wow!

After seeing the show, we met the director (one of the other guests knew him) before going to The Peninsula for a few beverages. Their upstairs bar has an amazing view across Victoria Harbour over to Central and I like to take guests there or see it for myself from time to time. The lighting is stunning and it never fails to make me appreciate where I am and how I got here.

I headed to the MTR station to catch the train back to Tung Chung. It was around 12.30am and some of the announcements over the loudspeaker were advising that a few of the connections were no longer available. None appeared to impact me. I soon found out that was because my train had already stopped running. The train conductor who informed me was unable to let me know how else to get back to Tung Chung and said I’d need to go to Customer Service anyway so I can get back out of the gate and that person would be able to assist.

I did this and was told to take exit J and then I forgot which bus number he said…

Out on Nathan Road, I saw the bus stops and began to read the multitude of bus timetables. It was dark, I was peering and another woman came over to assist. We worked out I’d need bus N1 or N1A and one would likely be there in about 20 minutes.

It was a little chilly and when a bus came within 3 minutes that said 1A, I hopped on.

I shouldn’t have yet it did give me a chance to thaw out for a bit.

I realised the bus was taking a long time to reach one of the streets I would expect it to take to reach my destination (there are only a few possible ways to cross the Harbour) so at the next stop, I went and asked the bus driver if I was on the correct bus.

I wasn’t.

He didn’t know which one went to Tung Chung either.

I was somewhere in Kowloon. Kowloon Bay, Kowloon Tung, I had no idea. It didn’t really matter either.

I hopped off and then started peering at some other bus timetables.

It seemed a bus to the aiport would be the best option and I could then take a taxi from there. There are only certain taxis that go to Lantau which is why I was leaning toward this option.

After about a 20 minute wait, I re-read the timetable and it dawned on me that I was on the wrong side of the road. The bus going in this direction would have come from the airport rather than heading toward it. It’s an easy mistake to make when half-asleep, a little chilly and after a few beverages.

I crossed over a major walkway, saw another MTR station and then even more bus stops. Among them was a Customer Service Centre and I thought the person there would be able to help me find the correct stop faster. I was wrong. Not only had he not heard of Tung Chung, he didn’t know which bus was going to the airport either.

I started the long walk, reading timetables until I reached the end of the bus stops. There was no stop for the airport.

It was at this point I called for an Uber.

Two hours since leaving The Peninsula, I was back in Tung Chung.

Five minutes after that, I was asleep.

 

* Thanks to ABBA for the title to this post.