Have you ever visited one of the U.K. overseas territories (E.g. The Falklands, Bermuda, etc)? How different are they to the U.K.?

7 comments

1. I worked in Gibraltar for a few years, it’s like a sunnier England, with a side of Spanish. They have their own pound notes/coins but it’s still pounds, and you spend sterling. There’s a red telephone box as you enter Gib from Spain. They drive in the right, which makes it easier moving between Spain and Gib. 30k people live in 6Km square, most of which is taken up by a massive rock, so space is tight

2. Gibraltar. I don’t know what looked more pinched and miserable – the people or the apes.

3. Gibraltar. It was like the UK on a really sunny, warm day. I liked it but it’s not somewhere I’d want to live. Too cramped.

4. Idk if this counts but my father lived in Hong Kong for 2 decades and he said it was like Britain people drive on left side, street signs are in English with Chinese underneath and views on fashion and lifestyle were very liberal. He summarised it as if England was Chinese majority and smaller.

5. Akrotiri, outside the actual military base, is basically the same as the rest of Cyprus and besides some weird police cars you’d not really know you’re not in the Republic of Cyprus

6. Have been to Bermuda. It’s weird, very Americanized but very beautiful. There is a lot of history there but has been left to melt away. The towns look like most tourist places shops restaurants etc. but the countryside (not a lot as it’s a small place) has red post boxes and phone boxes. The will accept dollars and pounds as well as Bermudan pounds. There are a few businesses there like kpmg or earnst and young so there are a few cunts live there you know the arrogant POS types. There is an old fort there which has a museum it’s ok but there is such a wasted opportunity there. My dad always wanted to go there but never managed it so I scattered some of his ashes there. I was also coming out of a restaurant and bumped into Montel Williams shook his hand (very rough) but was a nice guy. Would recommend and stayed at the princess with private pink beach access.

7. So I grew up for a time in Hong Kong.

   It’s highly westernized in that everyone speaks English and there is a real western culture to the place. But Hong Kongers are fiercely independent and view themselves as distinct from Chinese and not British either.

   The place has a lot of sights and smells that are just very different in places. Lantau island is like living on a tropical island, with weird fauna and strange flora. We used to play on the land next to the house and there was a banana tree and this spikey bush that brought you out in a rash. Often we’d go up the mountains and go to the pagoda, taking views out to the sea and stopping for an ice lolly.

   In Kowloon, the streets smelled of BBQ meat, vendors washing up, fruit and vegetables and other harder to place smells. You’d walk into a department store and get hit by a wave of cold air from the industrial aircon but walk back out and it’s like you could drink the air it was so soupy. The street stalls are all hawkers selling things at marked up prices, you’d expect to knock 70 percent off the price of things if you were good (and you were still overpaying).

   Philippino workers are the backbone of the economy. Au pairs, manual labourers and other service positions. They got together on their days off in central and had a meal – it’s a weird tradition. I remember we had an au pair who left her kids to look after us, that never really sat right with me. She was wonderful and I often wonder how she is.

   We used to take ferries all the time. It was part of living on an island and having to go to mainland. You’d end up taking a catamaran 4 times a day sometimes, like taking the bus. Uncatalysed diesel still vividly brings me back to leaving harbour.

   Back in the early 2000s, Hong Kong had all the electronics and computer markets. We used to go to the legit ones and buy all sorts of gadgets and knock off video CDs and games. We’d also find fake versions of Gameboys and PS2s with a whole host of titles to boot.

   There is a huge Chinese influence – but not mainland Chinese, Cantonese. Cantonese people are marginalized and have had the CCP try to squash their language and culture. As a consequence, Cantonese is spoken by Hong Kongers and mandarin fairly reluctantly. From what I’ve been told, this is changing these days as china tightens it’s grip. But much of the food you know as Chinese food is really Cantonese. Trust me when I say the British Chinese food is a pale imitation of what you get over there.

   It’s a fantastic place to visit and a bustling hub of life. It’s a crying shame what china is doing to it, but I’m pretty sure the Hong Kongese won’t let it happen without a fight. If you have an opportunity to visit, do it. They even have a Disneyland now, I remember watching the dredgers to reclaim the land it sits on when I was a kid.