We are now in Hong Kong City, trying to take it all in and failing miserably. Too big, too foreign, too multi-faceted to digest it all. A true metropolis of the future, strongly reminding me of the mega-cities in the 2000 AD comic books I read as a child (you might know them under the name of the main character, Judge Dredd --- the movie sucked, by the way).
Our last day at Lantau, we went to our usual bus stop quite early --- before the gift shops in the shadow of the gigantic Buddha opened. We noticed that the bus stop for buses arriving from Tai O was filled with six or seven dogs grooming themselves. Maybe they were waiting for their owners, who are also the shop owners, to arrive from a night at home, in Tai O! How sweet! On our part, we boarded the bus and then the metro (called MTR: clean, fast, with excellent signage) and headed for our next hostel. That was another bargain deal, at a wonderful natural location up on a hill (but somewhat out of the way). And it made me wonder why I'd ever want to stay in an expensive hotel... maybe when I'm older, but, right now, cheapness comes first. And until an expensive hotel adds to its list of features the mosquito-free room, all other features are not worth the extra buck to me. In fact, hostels are better mosquito-wise because, once I eliminate them, no maid will come in next morning in my room, leaving the door wide open for a new pest brigade to fly in while she cleans.
Once we settled into our new room, which means after I killed the first four or so mosquitoes, we went back to town for a walk. In fact, we followed one of the walk routes proposed in the Hong Kong Tourism Board publication; all others we had done were great, and if you ignore the occasional sales pitches ("The shops can help you arrange shipping of large items back home."), there is loads of good, free information in the Board's publications. Hong Kong city reminded us strongly of an enlarged version of San Francisco's Chinatown:
Our walk ended at The Landmark, one of the Hong Kong City skyscrapers. We were looking for the offices of Japan Airlines, based on the address listed on their web site last month; turns out, they moved 18 months ago to the mainland side of the town (Kowloon). Man, somebody did some major budget cuts in their web team! That flop aside, The Landmark itself was a sight worth seeing: so many luxury stores in so little space! The Landmark, like many other developments in Hong Kong has a vast footprint, and so it has a presence on Hong Kong maps. Similarly with the other developments. In fact, when we asked the concierge of The Landmark (who spoke perfect English and had graduated from the University of Hawaii) for the new location of Japan Airlines, he simply replied "The Gateway" --- street names take second place to building names since, in effect, they are small villages in themselves. In postcards, you get to see the latest, fanciest ones, but when you walk around town, you also see the older, delapidated residential skyscrapers, with broken windows, rusty air-conditioning window units, discolored concrete, and clothes hanging out of the windows to dry.
We also passed by a Jockey Club outlet. Jockey Club is an organization for organized betting on horse racing. Like the vice tax in the US, it collects money from people who lose their bets, pays out the winners, and the commission goes to fund charities or other projects helping the community, such as hospitals, schools, even our hostel. I sure hope the US sees the light some day and treats narcotics just like other drugs (alcohol, tobacco), ends its present crime-sustaining prohibition-like policies, and instead legalizes all drugs but taxes the hell out of them... that way, junkies can effectively pay for their own healthcare costs. But I digress...
You see, my mind veered off into politics because I saw George Bush today at the Hong Kong Madame Tussaud's. Actually, I didn't pay to go in, but he was on one of the advertising billboards reading "A Perfect Experience With Your Favorite Superstars". Dubya was a marginal guy, relegated to the side, with other superstars in the center... none of whom looked like my "Favorite Superstars". In fact, besides Pierce Brosnan, I didn't recognize anybody else... I guessed they must be local celebrities, and Christine confirmed this guess when she recognized a good chunk of them from the Hong Kong flicks she watched in her childhood: Andy Lau, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan. I also failed to recognize Yao Ming and David Beckham, being the sports ignoramus that I now am; when I grow old I'll tell my grandkids "When I was young, I lived in a country where people played soccer all the time. And I played too. I used to be 7 feet tall and kick the ball so hard it would deflate. David Beckam and I were good friends and rivals on the team, but he became famous when I quit my soccer career to to marry that old witch in the kitchen you call grandma." Yes, well, anyway, seeing that cultural adaptation of the Madame Tussaud's made me wonder what Disney will do at the Hong Kong Disneyland currently under construction... have the Emperor Palace from Mulan replace Sleeping Beauty's castle? That'd be cool... And talking about cultural differences, here is part of the summary of the movie My Sassy Girl from a pirated VCD we saw in one of the stores here:
One night, Kyon-Woo meets a terribly drunken girl. He is ashamed to help her, but once he does, a deep sense of responsibility has been developed within him: he decides to heal her pain.In the US, you'd probably read something like
One night, Kyon-Woo meets a terribly drunken girl. Despite being shy, he decides to help her. Can his deepening affection heal her pain?The bottom-line is fairly similar, but the emphasis on personal feelings of shame and responsibility is miles apart. A final experience demonstrating our cultural gap: we walked into a building called The Western Market which houses a German bakery and other stores; that's where Western ends. There was an exhibit going on presenting clothes, other personal items, and vinyl record covers of a lady named Teresa Teng. There were large posters reading "Teresa you are the best" and "Teresa love you forever", a projector showing her sing, and an explatanory sign... in Chinese. We also saw her face on the Madame Tussaud's billboard above. Clearly she is a local superstar, but neither Christine nor I have any clue who that revered celebrity is. I bet somebody is reading this and thinking we are uncultured jungle baboons for not knowing who she is.
Returning to our day's activities, I saw the Madame Tussaud's billboard at the lower Peak Tram station. This tram takes people (mostly tourists) from sea level to (near) the top of Victoria Hill at 552m. The view was fabulous, and the 3km walk around the peak (another walk route suggested by the Tourism Board) was quite wonderful --- excepting the perennial mosquitos, which are as prevalent as in Southeast Asia, but I was too stupid to drop my guard assuming otherwise, so I got bitten. We got there before sunset and left after nightfall, so we saw both day and night views of the city; interestingly, the night views are dynamic because some building have time-varying lights (changing colors or forming changing patterns). There are a few villas on the peak, so, as expected, we saw a lady walking her dogs, and a few nannies walking kids or dogs. There is also a small mall where we visited a toy store with the unfortunate name Kiss My Kids, whose front entrance has the even less appealing sight of two bears humping each other. Or maybe I have a dirty mind. Finally, another interesting billboard by the Tourism Board featured a Welcome to Hong Kong message; there was also a photo of typical locals where all 20 people were Asian except for one white man who looked like a cook; I somehow doubt that cooks in Hong Kong can afford homes on Discovery Bay.
We finished our day with an expensive dinner ($60) at the Mövenpick restaurant on The Peak Tower (where the tram ends): the food was a spectacular all-you-cat-eat buffet, and, being the regular cheapskate that I am, I got the buffet and Christine got a single item from the a-la-carte menu (and munched salad and dessert off my plate). The sashimi and the lamb kebabs were enough to make the buffet a good deal, but where I really took advantage of it was in the ice cream... I've missed Austin's Amy's Ice Cream a lot, and so Mövenpick's excellent tiramisu flavor hit the spot. By the way, the justification for the high price is probably the view, not the food quality: Hong Kong is spread under you from the restaurant's big windows. Except that the windows are filthy and so the view is blurry; and you are so busy getting stuffed, you don't even care to look outside. I guess the view is there to entertain the wife, while the man pigs his heart out. Honk, honk. Yet I'm still mean and lean, and I've gotten to the ridiculous point of having to wrap my belt around two belt loops to shorten it enough to keep my pants up (yes, I'm using the last hole too).
The day ended with a mad dash from the lower tram station to the hostel's shuttle bus pickup spot. We made it, got home, and rested. The next morning was damp, but thankfully there was no rain. We headed for Kowloon, which is on the mainland-China side of Victoria harbour (but still part of Hong Kong, of course), via the Star Ferry line; I was impressed when I noticed that the specific boat has been in service since 1958. After visiting Japan Airlines to purchase our Japan rail tickets (available only to tourists, and only outside Japan), we headed for The Peninsula, a hotel with plenty of old-world elegance, including a Cartier store in the lobby for our shopping convenience. It is famous for its afternoon high-tea, served in the lobby, and featuring miniature sandwitches, pastries, crumpets, and tea for $30; I did not see a Cartier diamond and tea combo meal. If you want to playfully fantasize you are a British couple of The Empire for an hour, listen to a (live, of course) quartet play classical music, receive superb service, enjoy the atmosphere, and gawk at those who are actually staying at the hotel (unlike you cheapskates), then it's by far the best place to do this; one piece of advice: bring your own microscope to find the assorted solid food. Christine enjoys this sort of short fantasy escape, and she looks way more European than me when she sits in cafes. So I encouraged her to do this --- after all, I have my own expensive quirks (see above for my Mövenpick indulgence). But she knew that this wouldn't be my cup of tea (har, har), and I'm pretty sure that it takes two to role-play British Royalty, not one plus a sarcastic baboon... so we didn't stay. Instead, we then started following another walk route suggested by the Tourism Board.
We first visited a garden where exotic birds are sold, along with food and cages; it was strange seeing wild sparrows (or should I say "feral"?) come visit their caged counterparts --- or, rather, come by to eat the seeds that the prisoners threw on the ground. The birds' song was cacophonous, but plentiful. Next to the birds was the flower market, where all sorts of beautiful flowers were on sale --- including some airbrushed ones, with human artists "improving" upon nature by adding a fluorescent touch. Fuuuugly!
We then went to a street market for the locals (as evidenced by the lack of tourists) --- the same items were on sale again and again... purses, soccer jerseys, video CDs, sexy lingerie (and a few more):
BLUECROSSAn interesting sight was the occasional seller that sported a P.A. system and gave live demonstrations of their wares, such as cable ties or towels (I still can't figure out why a towel needs a demonstration). Finally, my personal favorite stall: on the one side, jewelry for the women; on the other, porn Video CDs for the men... fun for the whole family!
Not too sweet be cool
EAST SIOTH STOFF SYARLET AV
SOLLEOVEW SROOKLYR M.Y.U.S.A.
Next was the pet market, starting with fishes (including a very peculiar goldfish that is virtually spherical), and moving on to turtles, lizards, tarantulas, scorpions, and the usual bunnies, hamsters, cats, and dogs (none of which appeared old enough to be rescues, unfortunately). The shops were clean, smelled fairly well, and some had very strict rules about the handling of animals to prevent disease transfer (to, as well as from, humans). The oddest sights in this market were a happy, well-fed cat sleeping on the sidewalk next to a display full of hamsters... like me in a fresh sashimi bar! And also a store further down that sold fur, with the stuffed head of a dog on one end... how Cruella De Vil!
We then went by a regular indoor food market that was virtually identical to those we had seen in Southeast Asia... except that it was spottlessly clean, without a single fly on the premises. Our market trips ended with a walk through the Temple Street night market (because it's open late) which is just a tourist trap: I saw very few non-Asian people, and the items for sale were mostly tourist kitsch. By the way, to clarify, the bird market is in shops inside a garden, the flower market is again a bunch of flower shops on the same street, and so is the pet market. The food market is indoors, and all other markets were stalls on the street. As a result, we were outdoors most of the time, taking in the pace of the city... crowded but clean, with more neon signs that Vegas. People were handing out flyers, but nobody was pushy; except for a group of Indians touting a tailor shop, who asked me twice -- because we went through their street corner twice --- "Are you Mexican?". Huh?! Si, Señor? But, as usual, those pushy folks were the exception (and even those guys were harmless); in fact, I was very impressed with the MTR staff when Christine wanted to use the restroom: there was no public facility, so they let her in the MTR station control room!
The day ended on the harbor. On the way there, we passed by the electronics stores: it is a myth that prices in Hong Kong are cheaper than in the US. These days, if you buy something off the Internet from a reputable (e.g. somebody with a good rating on Yahoo Shopping), out-of-state (to avoid the sales tax) US merchant, you get just as good a deal or even better (and you get warranty support). What is definitely true is that the average street price is somewhat lower; but for consumers that are willing to spend even a little bit more effort looking, bargains are just as good in the US.
The day ended on the Avenue of the Stars, a recently opened tourist attraction imitating the Hollywood area where sidewalk plaques are dedicated to film industry icons. I recognized pretty much nobody, Christine got some easy ones, and the other "stars" were treated by all tourists as just another pavement tile --- nobody stopped to look down.
By that point, Christine was exhausted. You see, she got yet another
sore throat/allergy thing going. I think she has tried cough drops
from every single country we've visited this year. Maybe she is
allergic to me.
Posted by Toli at May 15, 2004 06:36 AM