Another update!
Currently beginning Saturday morning here in Hong Kong.
Yesterday was pretty busy. For starters we took a tram ("ding-ding" -- picture from the second floor on the left) over to the Star Ferry, which took us to Kowloon. A trip around the newly created "Avenue of the Stars" brought us to plaques for some of HK's major film contributors, including my great-aunt, and a statue of Bruce Lee.
We then toured the sites of Kowloon, and by sites, I mean places of import to my family when we were living there. The apartment we lived in when I was born, still standing just the same. The new building that has sinced replaced the 2nd building I lived in, but I still have a picture next to the address placard. Then a short walk to my preschool, where I spent a year and a half of my days. I really only have one memory to show for it, but it was still neat. Apparently they're going to take down the school, the church it's associated with is retiring the school.
Then it was a walk down memory lane for my dad and his friend who's been our guide here. We went to their high school, where they tried to remember which classes they had on which floors. Then, it so happened that there were two other guys doing the exact same thing - one local guy, and one guy from Canada, apparently a year below my dad and his friend. The four of them reminisced for awhile, including lots of pointing as they tried to remember what happened where.
Then we had a great lunch as a really popular (and a true hole-in-the-wall, for those who don't know what those are) Muslim Chinese restaurant where we had an all-beef meal. We ate a LOT (a theme during this trip), and loaded up for the trip out to the Big Buddha statue on Lantau island. We took the newly finished Ngong Ping 360 gondola cable car up the mountains (picture below) to the base of the statue （also below), scurried up some 200+ steps to see the Buddha. The cable car has really sent a lot of additional tourists that way, as the statue was a lot more crowded than I vaguely remember from 10+ years ago. The whole idea (the cable car, the little mock village chock-full of souvenir shops) seemed a little bit like an exploitation of a popular tourist attraction, which is, we must remember, a Buddhist statue owned by a Buddhist monastary. Next to the yelling tourists and smoking foreigners, there were those who quietly said a prayer to Buddha.
The rest of the day was filled with visiting various markets on Kowloon. First, the busy and popular Apliu Street (a few pictures down), filled with stalls of electronics. And I'm talking electronics - everything from power tools (at least 4 stalls of piles of power drills, and other weird stuff), to older TVs, and even light bulbs. Right next door was the Golden Computer Centre, which is like a small indoor mall, but instead of shops, they have crowded tiny almost stall-like stores, each selling much of the same thing. PS3s, XBoxes, DSLites, PSPs, anything, you name it. Also, computer parts - I know several people who build their own who would've had a field day there.
Next came dinner at Lei Yue Moon, sitting at the Kowloon side of the gate to Victoria Harbour. It's a little like Pike's Place on crack. Again, like Apliu, stalls and stalls of the same wares -- this time, live, swimming seafood. Like if you go to a Chinese grocery store, but also with things you've never seen, like live squid, giant fish, everything. You pick out your dinner, and then, you choose from one of the neighboring restaurant. The stall then delivers your picks, along with their preparation suggestions to the restaurant, who serve it up to you for dinner. We had tons of seafood, shrimp, giant shrimp, fish, seasnails (yes, seasnails, witness the picture), tiny abalone, everything. I think any foodie would have loved an experience like this. The whole market is pretty much all about the food -- the freshness, the cooking style, the food.
No, the night wasn't yet over, as we went to Temple market, yet another street market full of stalls. These stores sold everything - clothes, trinkets, random accessories. And just down the street was lanes of fortune tellers' stalls, at least 30 in a really small area.
Interesting theme -- several markets with sellers selling the same thing. All coming down to an issue of marketing -- how much they'll bargain, or how the fortune teller is dressed, or how persistent the seafood sellers are.
Speaking of bargaining, I can't make a living doing it. I feel bad when I adjust the price low, cause even though they sell it and are still making profit, they always end with a "oh well, you're getting a real deal here, I'm barely making any money".
Not sure what the plan is today - probably lots of wandering around. Sounds like we're heading out somewhere way far in the New Territories for dinner tonight. I've added a few pictures here, hopefully a few more from the past few days later.
posted by Jon @ 10:01 AM
0 comments
