SEK KON. (The New Territories.) Nov 11th
A train from Kowloon runs right up to Fanling near the border.
By train you can travel 1st, 2nd, or 3rd class. We went 2nd class. It was very clean & freshly painted. The windows let down very low to give you a clear unrestricted view. The 1st class is very similar to our 1st class in England. All the time there is a vendor for English sweets walking up and down as well as some one selling fruit.
The engines are very big and powerful. They are run by Diesel and are rather like a huge box. When we came back to Kowloon everyone was allowed to clamber over the engine. The stations are perfectly normal except for all the tropical vegetation: tall bamboos, palm trees, banana trees etc. At each end of the coach there is a little metal railing, no door, between you and the track. It is possible to stand on the small platform here for a really good view. The train steams through Kowloon City which has been very truthfully described as a "concrete jungle", past the army playing fields at Boundary Street, to the suburb of "Yaumati". About here there is a cloth dyeing factory and long strips of brightly coloured cloth can be seen hanging over frames to dry in the sun. Seen from the train, these bright colours look most effective. Here are squatters houses set in the hills and made of cardboard.
After going through a long tunnel, you finally emerge into the country. The green covered mountains are still in the near background but every available piece of flat ground has been tilled for rice, runner beans, cabbage, lettuce and tomato plants. They are all laid out very neatly in rows with no weed to be seen. In several places the rice had been cut for harvesting and only the stalks were left in the greyish coloured mud. The fields are very small and have tiny raised up grassy paths separating them. As the fields went higher up the mountain so they became terraced to allow each field to be drained effectively and also to use every available space.
Both men and women work in the fields: some of the women even had babies strapped to their backs. They all wore trousers and wide brimmed hats. However, they strongly object to having their photographs taken and throw clods of earth and threaten you with pitchforks. Therefore you have to get your camera set up beforehand and be completely ready to take a photo before they realise what you are doing.
Instead of cows, the people harness buffalo to do the ploughing. For this all they use is a sharp piece of stick which digs into the ground as the buffalo walks along. When the rice is cut, it is threshed by hitting the stalks against a plaited bamboo framework and letting the rice grains fall through. This is an effective though rather wasteful method.
Most of the women wore black amah jackets and trousers and some had the Haaka hat. This is a flat piece of bamboo with a hole in the middle. Round the edge is a flap of black material, gathered and stitched to the brim. Others wear the normal coolie type hat, one of which I bought for 1$ 50c. Everybody seems most industrious.
What I noticed most of all, was the great quiet everywhere. It seemed as if this could have been going on for centuries without change.
On the hillsides, I noticed rows of little pots - these being pots containing the bones of their ancestors.
When the train reaches Tai-po Market an Army truck takes you to Sek Kon. This is a typical English town. It has a shop, a cinema and a church. The houses have their own gardens and are the married quarters of the Army camp here.
Sek Kon R.A.F. Station is a couple of miles further on. Here, they fly Venom and Vampire jets. It takes about three minutes by plane to get to Kai Tak in Kowloon. The R.A.F. were very friendly - even to the extent of letting Pam & I sit in the C.O's Venom!
Altogether this was one of the most interesting days I've spent so far in Hong Kong.