Expats and Steak at the Mandarin

When we arrived we had been greeted like royalty by the manager of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and shown to a luxurious suite on the seventeenth floor. It had a spectacular view of the harbour, busy with yellow and black tugs, green and white ferries, grey naval and police boats, little varnished sampans with yellow canopies, rusty freighters, container ships painted in brilliant blue, craft of all kind churning up and down the restless water, gantries and cranes, wharfs covered in rubber tyres. There were junks rushing by laden with vegetables and hardware goods, fishing boats going in and out. The sampans and junks were fantastic; they were like nautical Dodgem cars, driven by elderly ladies or men, ferrying passengers and merchandise. Food was even being cooked on these little junks, to be delivered boat to boat – like floating kitchens. And, of course, there were the mountains and the very tall high-rise blocks surrounding the harbour – Aberdeen Harbour. Fascinating.