Hong Kong, Tuesday 3 November
One of the things I love about Hong Kong is that it is a full on, in your face, like it or leave kind of city. The buzz of the neon seems to emit excess wattage into the streets and the waves of people rushing to shop, eat, shop are relentless. The other thing I like about it is that having a friend that lives here means I know where to escape to take a breath in stylish serenity before I take on the next wave. Not that I have had a hard time off it I assure you.
Lisbon to London, airport lounge, movies and little sleep later, touchdown (The Time Traveler’s Wife – cute, a bit Benjamin Buttony but relatively faithful to the book; Julie and Julia – fun, Meryl Streep is big as Julia Child and it’s faithful-ish to the book; and I hate Valentine’s Day – the formulaic follow to My Big Fat Greek Wedding with the same leads –ok for a rainy day and when there is little DVD choice at the shop).
Once I pulled my knees out from nostrils and got my legs to work again after being squashed in Pacific class, we went straight from the airport to a local hotel to catch one of the Auckland girls coincidentally also in town. Surprisingly after two stiff gins I was not on the floor (but really should have been) and so after a couple of hours headed out to the glamorous sounding Gold Coast where I am staying.
Time on my hands and an Auckland girl in town…the only option was lunch in Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) in Kowloon which meant I got to talk and talk and talk and to sip my second kiwi chardy for weeks, I was on Cloud 9. Nothing, nothing, nothing tastes as good as our own home brewed. Then with a flight beckoning we said our goodbyes and I headed up to Nathan Road and ventured into some unknown shopping streets for an hour getting completely lost. The thing about being lost in Mongkok or Wan Chai (the world of Suzy Wong) is that it all looks the same. The landmarks are hidden by the same looking buildings displaying the same looking signage and the same looking Chinese characters. I tend to just look like I know where I am going (which is what often gets me into trouble) and in this case used my now honed and toned intuition and found my way back to the harbour side…which turned out to be only three or four streets away. I walked the couple of k’s up the Promenade, dodging hundreds of Chinese tourists, to catch the Star Ferry back to Central to meet Carmel who had finished work for the day.
After a restorative gin at the top of the very calming IFC, we headed to Causeway Bay. The first real stop (there were some distractions on the way) was the fabulous Hong Kong style shop GOD. Stands for ‘Goods of Desire’. I have previously spent some time in the Soho store – it is very funky - but this the mother ship was much bigger and it would be easy to spend a couple of hours just pottering around it (in fact we almost did). If I lived here I would be an investor. An induction into other local highlights and how to get in and out and home leaves me well prepared to re-visit.
To celebrate life in general, no other reason required, we went to a lovely Chinese restaurant called Ovalogue. Old Hong Kong, old Hong Kong building, modern fit out, modern Chinese fusion food. Asparagus skewered prawns, duck pancakes with special sauce and beans with spicy ground pork. Yum. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. (Apparently I have not given enough detail on the food…for those of you interested in more I will update you further when I see you, suffice to say I am having Vogel’s toast for breakfast). We joined the other content locals on a late bus home and managed to stop talking long enough to throw ourselves onto the road before the doors closed at our stop.
I have noticed a couple of changes in Hong Kong since I began coming here:
1. The central area has become cleaner than clean comparatively. The sweeper upper people are everywhere and someone always has a little sa sa brush ready to sweep the leaf away from your feet.
2. In the little shops many many more of the shop staff smile and say hello. They still insist on following people around the store and advising the colour range and style options of items that are of absolutely no interest but that’s the arm twist of Asia – a little friendliness is a big deal.
3. Just like Europe there are some major city revamp underway. The area where the Star Ferry used to be is now completely demolished leaving a big brown hole across the central waterfront as it waits development. The Central Ferry Terminal has moved a few hundred metres and is all new and clean. In the end the cash strapped talk of 2009 seems to have made little difference to municipal spending everywhere I have been. Perhaps that’s the point and local authority funding injections are timed for easier transition, then again maybe such decisions were cast two or three years ago or that life just goes on allowing opportunists to point to impending economic hardship elsewhere to strengthen their case for change. I doubt lifestyles here have suffered looking at the size of the boats moored in the Gold Coast marina, just a shame that the Annual Pollution Index (API) is necessary and no doubt indicates the toxicity of a great day on the water.
Pic is the Hong Kong Gold Coast… and the neighbours’ place. Pollution is the haze in the background. Last week the API was 170. Today it is was between 64 and 71 (Central was 113). This is considered high. Anything over 101 is considered unhealthy to sensitive groups.
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