THE RAF TO HONG KONG - PART 2
by Tony Alger
Like the Star Wars trilogy this is the first episode of my RAF trip to Hong Kong. I had been married for 6 months and my wife Lynda aged 18 accompanied me to Hong Kong. When we reached RAF Brize Norton we were informed that as I held the lowest rank on board my wife and I would be sat in the very rear seat of a VC10 aircraft which faced rearwards straight into the engines. No frills then!
We arrived at Kai Tak airport on a Friday evening 24 hrs after leaving the UK (with a stop over in Cyprus) to be met by a family liaison officer who pointed us to a waiting Taxi and told us to ask for the Shamrock Hotel Nathan Road. My instructions were to report to RAF Station Kai Tak on Monday morning.
We arrived at the hotel in a sea of local people going about their business and to a pair of young newly arrived Europeans this was very scary as at that time as we were very much the minority out there. After unpacking our clothes we made our way to the hotel restaurant where the price of food was way out of our pocket, so we settled for a round of chicken sandwiches for our dinner.
On the Saturday we ventured out and found our way to the harbour area and visited a market where the sight of live snakes, frogs, and countless chickens being slaughtered in the streets and their meat being laid out for flies to land on made us even more uneasy about eating out. So we returned to hotel before dark and once again visited the same restaurant for a dinner of chicken sandwiches.
On Sunday we shook ourselves down and decided to hit the town head on ..no more whimping out we were going for it big style. We returned to the harbour area but this time to the Queens Building which was the port where many Cruise Ships stopped and the price of everything rocketed unless of course you could prove you were a resident. I showed my RAF ID card and mentioned RAF Kai Tak and promptly got 80% off a meal in a restaurant ..yes 80%!
At the time the Vietnam war was still raging so there were a lot of American Troops docking there on R&R (Rest and Recreation) with bulging pay packets amassed from not spending anything whilst shooting Vietcong, so they were hitting the town hard. Naturally, the locals were cashing in on this.
After eating our first decent meal since arriving we decided to find a quiet bar on the way back to our hotel and found a place called the Lion Inn. We sat inside and ordered a couple of Coca Colas and then I noticed that there were lots of scantily clad girls at the bar with very old gentlemen who were pushing money into all sorts of places. We quickly drank up and returned to the hotel.
Monday morning came and I was to now report for duty. My biggest challenge was leaving my young wife alone and after a tearful goodbye I made my way to Camp. On arrival I was pointed towards the Guardroom where I was inspected and told that I needed a haircut and so was marched to the barbers there and then. After this humiliation I was taken to stores and issued my Khaki uniform which was standard tropical dress. I was then marched back over to the Guardroom for an interview with the RAF Police regarding security and general awareness of living in what was effectively a communist state. Well you could have knocked me down with a feather, not the bit about how vulnerable we all were, because if we lined up all the guns and ammunition in the world facing across the Chinese border with Hong Kong and kept firing 24 hours a day, we would never kill the enemy because as soon as we killed one another would be born in the North of the country and by the time he travelled down to the border he would be old enough to fight, but the fact that the Lion Inn, where we were last night, was on the list of the most dangerous establishments for foreign troops and that it had claimed two lives in the past. Bloody hell, me and the missus were drinking in there!! Safe to say I didn’t mention anything about it.
After my security briefing I was marched over to the Families Officer to arrange accommodation for my wife and I. Of course once they knew my rank they laughed and said given your time in the RAF you do not have enough grading points to be given RAF Married Quarters therefore you will have to rent outside of town amongst the locals. How would I explain that one to the now terrified missus? Well, I was given an address in town to meet a local landlord to arrange a flat somewhere. They also gave me an envelope to hand over to him when I got there, so off I went with the ‘good news’ for the wife.
The next day we went to the address I was given. It was the most run down building you could ever imagine. It reminded me of some of the bombed ruins I used to play on as a kid. There were rats everywhere. We found the main door and rang the bell. A middle aged Chinese gentleman came to the door and invited us in. He offered us drinks and food and was very welcoming. Then I realised why. He had opened the envelope the Families Officer had given me and there was a bundle of US Dollars in it which I later found out to be $1000. In 1972 that was a fortune and I had carried that through the streets without I thought. I was pleased that no one told me what was in it!
After our refreshments the landlord ushered us out to a waiting car - a Mercedes! and we drove off out of town finally arriving at Mei Foo Sun Chuen, a large housing estate which I later found out was considered at that time to be the largest private housing development in the world.
We made our way to one of the blocks at the far side of the estate, got into the lift and got out on the 18th Floor. As we entered one of four apartments on that floor we were greeted with the most spectacular views of Hong Kong harbour you could ever imagine. It slowly dawned on me was this was something special - especially when the guy showed us round the Amah’s (Servants) rooms which were set off to the side of the lounge. The only down side was it was furnished with cheap RAF Married Quarter furniture which had seen better days, but oh, that view! It was to die for!
We moved in and my routine for the next nine months was to collect the $1000 dollars in cash from the Families Officer each month and take it to the landlord where beer and food was always on tap. We were now starting to feel a little bit more comfortable and were moving on to better things …but that’s another story for some other time.
Like the Star Wars trilogy this is the first episode of my RAF trip to Hong Kong. I had been married for 6 months and my wife Lynda aged 18 accompanied me to Hong Kong. When we reached RAF Brize Norton we were informed that as I held the lowest rank on board my wife and I would be sat in the very rear seat of a VC10 aircraft which faced rearwards straight into the engines. No frills then!
We arrived at Kai Tak airport on a Friday evening 24 hrs after leaving the UK (with a stop over in Cyprus) to be met by a family liaison officer who pointed us to a waiting Taxi and told us to ask for the Shamrock Hotel Nathan Road. My instructions were to report to RAF Station Kai Tak on Monday morning.
We arrived at the hotel in a sea of local people going about their business and to a pair of young newly arrived Europeans this was very scary as at that time as we were very much the minority out there. After unpacking our clothes we made our way to the hotel restaurant where the price of food was way out of our pocket, so we settled for a round of chicken sandwiches for our dinner.
On the Saturday we ventured out and found our way to the harbour area and visited a market where the sight of live snakes, frogs, and countless chickens being slaughtered in the streets and their meat being laid out for flies to land on made us even more uneasy about eating out. So we returned to hotel before dark and once again visited the same restaurant for a dinner of chicken sandwiches.
On Sunday we shook ourselves down and decided to hit the town head on ..no more whimping out we were going for it big style. We returned to the harbour area but this time to the Queens Building which was the port where many Cruise Ships stopped and the price of everything rocketed unless of course you could prove you were a resident. I showed my RAF ID card and mentioned RAF Kai Tak and promptly got 80% off a meal in a restaurant ..yes 80%!
At the time the Vietnam war was still raging so there were a lot of American Troops docking there on R&R (Rest and Recreation) with bulging pay packets amassed from not spending anything whilst shooting Vietcong, so they were hitting the town hard. Naturally, the locals were cashing in on this.
After eating our first decent meal since arriving we decided to find a quiet bar on the way back to our hotel and found a place called the Lion Inn. We sat inside and ordered a couple of Coca Colas and then I noticed that there were lots of scantily clad girls at the bar with very old gentlemen who were pushing money into all sorts of places. We quickly drank up and returned to the hotel.
Monday morning came and I was to now report for duty. My biggest challenge was leaving my young wife alone and after a tearful goodbye I made my way to Camp. On arrival I was pointed towards the Guardroom where I was inspected and told that I needed a haircut and so was marched to the barbers there and then. After this humiliation I was taken to stores and issued my Khaki uniform which was standard tropical dress. I was then marched back over to the Guardroom for an interview with the RAF Police regarding security and general awareness of living in what was effectively a communist state. Well you could have knocked me down with a feather, not the bit about how vulnerable we all were, because if we lined up all the guns and ammunition in the world facing across the Chinese border with Hong Kong and kept firing 24 hours a day, we would never kill the enemy because as soon as we killed one another would be born in the North of the country and by the time he travelled down to the border he would be old enough to fight, but the fact that the Lion Inn, where we were last night, was on the list of the most dangerous establishments for foreign troops and that it had claimed two lives in the past. Bloody hell, me and the missus were drinking in there!! Safe to say I didn’t mention anything about it.
After my security briefing I was marched over to the Families Officer to arrange accommodation for my wife and I. Of course once they knew my rank they laughed and said given your time in the RAF you do not have enough grading points to be given RAF Married Quarters therefore you will have to rent outside of town amongst the locals. How would I explain that one to the now terrified missus? Well, I was given an address in town to meet a local landlord to arrange a flat somewhere. They also gave me an envelope to hand over to him when I got there, so off I went with the ‘good news’ for the wife.
The next day we went to the address I was given. It was the most run down building you could ever imagine. It reminded me of some of the bombed ruins I used to play on as a kid. There were rats everywhere. We found the main door and rang the bell. A middle aged Chinese gentleman came to the door and invited us in. He offered us drinks and food and was very welcoming. Then I realised why. He had opened the envelope the Families Officer had given me and there was a bundle of US Dollars in it which I later found out to be $1000. In 1972 that was a fortune and I had carried that through the streets without I thought. I was pleased that no one told me what was in it!
After our refreshments the landlord ushered us out to a waiting car - a Mercedes! and we drove off out of town finally arriving at Mei Foo Sun Chuen, a large housing estate which I later found out was considered at that time to be the largest private housing development in the world.
We made our way to one of the blocks at the far side of the estate, got into the lift and got out on the 18th Floor. As we entered one of four apartments on that floor we were greeted with the most spectacular views of Hong Kong harbour you could ever imagine. It slowly dawned on me was this was something special - especially when the guy showed us round the Amah’s (Servants) rooms which were set off to the side of the lounge. The only down side was it was furnished with cheap RAF Married Quarter furniture which had seen better days, but oh, that view! It was to die for!
We moved in and my routine for the next nine months was to collect the $1000 dollars in cash from the Families Officer each month and take it to the landlord where beer and food was always on tap. We were now starting to feel a little bit more comfortable and were moving on to better things …but that’s another story for some other time.
