May 15, 2004

King Kong does Hong Kong

[This is the sixth of seven log entries that cover our last two weeks. Find the first of the batch and start your reading there.]

There must have been a movie with this title. No, not a porn movie, but a regular one. That's because Hong Kong has so many skyscrapers that King Kong would have a hard time choosing one. Some are offices, some are residences, but in either case they are the dominant element of the landscape. We landed on a clear day, so our first view of Hong Kong was from the air... and it totally blew us away! It's not just the larger-than-life high-tech architecture, it is also the backdrop of the sea, and beautiful green hills. While I detest the thought of living in a skyscraper, I definitely appreciate the fact that it is their very presence which enabled the conservation of so much greenery by packing the people tightly and preventing sprawl.

We got to Hong Kong after another marathon transporation session. Our last day at the TECC had started at 6a and ended at 4p. From the TECC's homestay area, an employee took us on his pickup to the entrance area (just 2km or so), from where another employee at 5p took us on his covered pickup to the Lampang bus stop (about 60km); neither asked for money, and both refused payment when we offered... they took great pride in being officers of the camp who "provide high-quality service". I think I will convert my Ford Ranger to a private bus when I return to Texas... Anyway, at Lampang we got to be present at the (very loud) evening broadcast of the national anthem, at which point all waiting passengers stood up (we did too). At 7:20p our bus took off and we arrived at Bangkok at 4a. A local bus took us to the hostel (oh what fun it is to be looking out for the right stop to get off the bus at 5a) where we got our stored luggage and off to another local bus (now fully loaded) to go to the airport. In-between, there was plenty of walking with 50lb of stuff (from cross-city to local bus stops, etc.). We celebrated the end of the ordeal with a pizza and ice cream cones at the Bangkok airport. When all was said and done, we were left with $0.10 in local currency... we were very pleased with ourselves! Why? You see, in Hanoi, we could give leftover Vietnamese dong to Christine's mom; in Cambodia, we used US dollars anyway; it is only in Thailand (so far) where we had to convert to local money, and therefore --- to avoid getting double-docked in the exchange process --- we needed to estimate our expenses before converting. So having a leftover of $0.10 is excellent estimation!

It was Gulf Air that took us to Hong Kong in 3 hours. Gulf Air is the airline of the Kingdom of Bahrain (in the Persian Gulf) but, strangely, most stewardesses were blondes and non-Arab. We got into the Hong Kong airport around 3p local time. The Hong Kong airport itself was top-notch, with countless tourist information booklets, helpful people, nobody touting tours, hotels, etc. The one cab driver who asked us if we needed a taxi kindly told us where to get the bus when we (politely) responded with our preference to use public transportation. We also bumped onto a Hawaian who started talking to Christine while she was waiting on a line to buy a debit-like card (called the Octopus card) used for public transportation here. As soon as she said she was married, he said how he was hoping she would be single (who wouldn't!), and then gave her a parting gift: a pin with the Hawaii flag on it.

Then we took the bus to our hostel, which is in the middle of nowhere: under a gigantic Buddha on the top of a hill (on Lantau island, where the airport is). The last bus leaves from town at 6:10p, and it was already 6p by the time we had settled in and ready for dinner. Well, being in no-man's-land, all local activity (including restaurants) stops when the Buddha gates close at 5:30p. So we went into town for food: we had a yummy meal at Cat's Street Cafe, but at shockingly high prices given our Southeast Asia meals over the last two months (a whopping $20 for both of us). But in order to get back, we had to shell out $17 for a cab instead of the usual $4 for the bus. Oh well! It was actually worth it because the trip is 20km long and goes through a narrow, winding road. So the bus takes a long time and, due to its higher center of gravity, it can make your stomach less than excited after a good meal.

But that winding road offers gorgeous views from a bus. Lantau's development is recent, and it started when the airport was built on it. Immediately, two nearby towns started growing towards the sky. And then Disney started building Hong Kong Disneyland on the island too. Nevertheless, most of its surface is beautiful parkland, and the narrow streets are virtually indetectable from a distance. By the way, when I say narrow, I mean wide enough for a single car. If you see another one coming, you better figure out which car moves forward/backwards until it finds a passing "lane" (which is just a very short widening of the road). Things get more interesting when wider sections with regular two-lane traffic (one in each direction) are under repair, a very common sight it seems: one lane closes up, and portable traffic lights on each end of the remaining lane allow the two directions to share it. As you might have guessed, our cab driver couldn't care less whether there were lights or not... plow ahead and if another car shows up, we'll deal with it later. The bus drivers obey the lights, but also drive at light speed. And to top it off, there are cows on a particular section of the road, along with the occasional wandering dog. Those peculiarities aside, the roads are all civil engineering masterpieces: they blend with the landscape, there is almost always a sidewalk despite their narrow width, and the hillside has drainage systems to prevent landslides (usually the soil is covered with a blanket of concrete, with openings for some trees and plants).

Maybe the fast driving and violations of the traffic lights are part of the Chinese influence on Hong Kong, maybe it's always been that way (after all, cab drivers everywhere consider themselves above the law). It's my first time here, so I have no basis for comparison. I was just a bit surprised to find many people who spoke very little English: the cab driver, a security officer at the airport, bus drivers, a "host" at McDonalds (these are uniformed ladies who direct you to the cashier when you walk in... I have no idea why that's necessary; incidentally, I went in to ask for directions to an ATM, not to eat). Maybe it's in the low-paying jobs where English speakers are rare.

Our second day started with a late breakfast/early lunch at a vegetarian restaurant under the Buddha statue --- $17 for more food than both of us could handle. But we needed the energy as we were about to embark on an ambitious hike to the island's tallest peak (Lantau peak) at 934m (we started at the Buddha, at 520m, for a vertical gain of over 1000ft). The hike offered us some wonderful views of the island, esp. the Buddha on the way up and the town of Tung Chung and the nearby airport on the way down. In between, and at the peak, we were lost in fog and the rolling clouds and could see nothing; so instead we filmed Gorillas In The Mist starring me as the gorilla and Christine as Dian Fossey. We also enjoyed a hike without the sun beating down on us as in Southeast Asia. Finally, throughout our hike we followed the laws as requested by the plentiful signs: no spitting, and definitely Don't feed feral pigeons (I still don't understand how one can tell the difference between a feral and a non-feral (domesticated?) pigeon...)

We then took the bus to Tai O, a Chinese fishing village. It is charming, lacking skyscrapers (and English speakers) and instead having a few small government housing projects (think nice, clean houses, not ghettos) and plenty of traditional houses on stilts. At one of the projects, we saw a seesaw, and Christine and I jumped at the opportunity to play, and ignoring the restriction that nobody over 12 can use the playground. As for the traditional houses, they are mostly wooden huts, but there are many an odd structure made of sheets of metal bound tightly by rope (Hong Kong gets typhoons). As an example of Chinese enterpreneurship, when we got lost and found ourselves on a pier with a fisherman's boat, he immediately offered to sell us a ride up and down the canals; of course, he did so by speaking Chinese to Christine as many other locals tend to do.

Here are some other notable impressions from Tai O:

  • I didn't see any roaches. But I saw plenty of small crabs. I wonder whether they are a pest.

  • Some fish are sold Chinatown-style (live, from buckets filled with water), some are sold after they are dried. The funny thing is that for some fish, the fishermen bind their heads in a towel why they are hanging to dry in the sun (head down); no clue why. The sight of many fish out to dry looks more like mafia victims ready for execution (to sleep with the other fishes).

  • As in most fishing villages I've visited, cats were everywhere. One house had 7 cats hanging around at its entrance.

  • The only beach of the village is filthy with trash despite strict laws and stiff fines for littering (the fine for spitting is $180). And it's next to the pier and the police station! That aside, the village was very clean; while it looked like Vietnam a bit (narrow streets, short houses, small family-owned shops at the front of the house), its cleanliness was completely unlike Hanoi's permanent stench.

  • The Buddhist Fat Ho Memorial College is at Tai O. I wonder if the admissions office congratulates the freshman class with: "We know you look forward to being a Fat Ho".
Our last activity at Tai O was dinner --- a baked crab for Christine and yummy fried noodles with vegetables for me, all for $13. On the way in, I noticed an interesting sign on the door that looked like a legally required one: No-smoking seating unavailable (all other restaurants have it too, reading either unavailable or available as appropriate). Nice touch! And on the way out, I noticed that the 5 dollar Hong Kong coin looks like an Oreo cookie, with two larger-radius discs with serrated perimeters sandwiching a smaller-radius disc whose perimeter contains letters. Funky!

As on the first day, we had little transportation options to return to the hostel. Instead of getting a taxi (couldn't find one), we took the bus half-way, and then walked 4km uphill to the hostel. The walk was nice, quiet, and peaceful except for the occasional mooing sounds coming from the sewers. I have no clue what animal makes them, but the theory of cows living in sewers is somewhat unlikely. Anyway, add the morning hike to this walk, and we arrived totally wiped.

The third day started with a trip to the nearby Tan Tien Buddha, which was built by the Po Lin monastery (not by the monks themselves --- they hired a Chinese contractor) in the late 80s. It's a 26m-tall bronze statue, and a very pretty one --- his expression is serene, the green hill is a perfect setting, and the clouds that occasionally go by reinforce a sense of heavenly detachment. Of course, the same clouds also prevented us from seeing the wonderful views one is expecting to see from the Buddha. The base of the Buddha is an exhibition hall that contains few interesting items: some murals with the story of the Buddha, and some information and photos from the construction of the statue. There was also the text of the speeches given during the inauguration of the statue, including a very nationalistic one by the Hong Kong bureau chief of the Chinese News Agency --- with such inspiring observations as how the Buddha faces to the north, towards the capital of the motherland. The centerpiece of the exhibit was two Buddha relics, which are rice-grain-sized crystals (legend has it that, when Buddha died, some 9000 crystals were created during his cremation, and monks then spread them around the world) --- since the closest you can get to them is 4 yards away, the relics are invisible to the visitors... go figure. The majority of the hall's walls were covered with photos of people and Chinese written under each photo; I have no clue what they were, though I'm guessing it's some sort of offering for the deceased.

After the Buddha, we went for a vegetarian meal at the monastery's restaurant --- good food, and lots of it! Our energy level was running low due to lack of sleep (relative to the level of activity), and so we slept on the bus to Discovery Bay, which was the last spot on our list for Lantau island. It has nothing that fits the typical description of a tourist destination --- but it was absolutely fascinating, much in the same way that a country bumpkin enjoys a tour through a gated Southern California community. In fact, that's pretty much what Discover Bay is: a residential neighborhood, catering almost exclusively to foreigners. There are no gates, but several areas are off-limits to "unauthorized persons", though the beach is public, and very clean. There are tennis court fields, and today's equivalent, the golf course. People go around in golf carts; all the ones I saw had white women driving them. Children are taken to their beach/gymnastics/skating class (as evidenced by the kid wearing a swim suit, leotard, or skating safety gear) by their nannies, which are non-white (according to Christine, they are from the Phillipines). The dogs were being walked by the nannies too. Of course, there is the Discovery Bay International School (which probably offers an excellent education, if it is like many international schools around the world). And we also bumped into skating class, conducted by a white teacher, with all white kids in the class, and all but one non-white lady waiting in the benches. Residences are almost invariably flats in gigantic skyscrapers, the few exceptions being small seaside condos. It all felt so sterile, even I felt like a dirty intruder.

An oddity of almost all residential building is that there is no central air-conditioning; instead, each flat (or possibly each room) has its own unit. I doubt that's due to the age of the buildings; maybe it's a public health concern (to prevent contaminated air from an apartment where a person has the flu to infect everybody else in the building). Talk about public health warnings, the Hong Kong government sure takes prevention seriously: in the buses, there is a sign that says "Passengers using public transport should: [...] Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth", and parks have signs reading "Allow your dog fouling in public place will risk prosecution". There are many other public service announcements on billboards and notice boards for littering or other reminders of the law, such as "Waiting will be prosecuted" (which translates into "No Parking, No Stopping" for cars), or "Naked light prohibited" (which translates into "No open flames" at gas stations).

Our day ended with a trip to a grocery store --- one that is like any similar store in the US (HEB, SafeWay, and the like) except for the choice of goods... the cheese section in tiny, while fish is sold Chinatown-style, caught from a pool of water, banged on the head with a mallet a few times, scaled, and nicely packaged for the customer on the spot. Heck, that way, you have no doubts where your food came from. On our part, we got some fixins for a picnic at our hostel, and called it a night after watching Terminator 3. That was a rip from a Thailand DVD, which --- you guessed it --- was a pirated copy. How do I know? Three easy clues:

  1. The bottom edge of the film was not perfectly horizontal, as if the copy was made by filming a movie theater screen with a camera that was slightly tilted.

  2. During the opening titles, a couple of names were cut off, because the camera's field of view wasn't wide enough to capture the full movie screen.

  3. As soon as the end-titles started rolling, you could see a person get up from the front row, and his shadow obscure the text.

  4. Subtitles were in English, Thai, Malay, and "Indonesia". But the English subtitles were clearly the result of a non-native speaker writing up whatever he understood --- the text was not at all true to the spoken dialogue.
Anyway, we also bought a Hong Kong international phone card since our pre-paid AT&T calling card doesn't work here either; as usual, when people speak English, they are extremely courteous and helpful as was the 7-Eleven clerk that helped me figure out the local calling card system. And we made our hotel reservations for Japan.

Tomorrow, we are leaving nature island and head for Hong Kong city. King Kong will hit Hong Kong after all, with Dian Fossey following his tracks. <Insert loud baboon growl and chest pounding.> Posted by Toli at May 15, 2004 06:36 AM

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