HONG KONG
British Eagle ( now defunct ) flew us to Hong Kong in Feb 1963 . The flight took us about two days as we stopped at Palermo , Istanbul , Bombay , Bangkok and then eventually HK . It was a propeller driven aircraft. Jet travel was then in the early stages .

The battalion was deployed to to the New Territories in two different camps about three miles apart , Sai Kung & Erskine . I, with B Coy was in Sai Kung which overlooked a Chinese fishing village of the same name .

A Coy had arrived a few days before us and their subalterns had already been down town to explore Kowloon . We were more than happy for them to show us the ropes for they had discovered the bars where the girls were topless . I managed to get separated from the group but did remember the good advice I had been given : " Get in a rickshaw and ask for Steamer Point :  you will find a taxi ; say Sai Kung no see meter  ". That way you got back more cheaply as the taxi driver could pocket the fare . I think I said Sek Kong which was 40 miles in the wrong  direction but the driver twigged and said NO you Leicester you Sai Kung .

One quickly  learned the tricks of the trade . In HK you never agreed with the asking price you simply bargained for everything be it trying to buy a camera or vegetables. That is unless you were a gullible American tourist . In fact later we played this game of seeing what Americans would pay for an item and then trying to get it for half the price . We of course had no intention of buying an ivory tusk on our salary .

Sai Kung was again another of those Nissen hutted camps . The officers mess was one of these big huts but it had a nice patio which overlooked the fishing village. Looking over the harbour you could really capture the atmosphere of HK and the Chinese as the junks with their lanterns came back into port , the sound of Chinese music and just a sense a the industry of the Chinese . When you went into the village and explored the markets with fish stalls well that was just a whole new experience.

Military wise HK was fairly peaceful at that time , no riots . The police were well equipped to deal with riots and if we were deployed it would have got to the shooting stage .Things changed when Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in China but was 1966 . Then there were problems with the Red Guards on the border
One platoon task was to deploy to a police station on the River into China. The station had a flat roof and we observed and logged all the traffic going up and down the river. As the platoon commander you had accomodation on the roof and were only allowed to leave for meals . It would be a long week up there on the roof . However , on one stint I did manage to read all 1,367 pages of Les Miserables . Meanwhile below me a stream of Chinese airhostess would be visiting the HK Police Officers below . Had I joined the wrong outfit !

Looking into China there were paddy fields as far as the eye could see . When I went back twenty five years later there was a complete new city, Shenzhen which is a special economic zone ie China's answer to capitalism .

Think I will continue later as sometimes I seem to press the wrong button and it all vanishes .