We are living in luxury at Uncle Hamish's place in central Hong Kong. Today he was our tour guide. Despite the pouring rain, we had lunch in a HK noodle shop (the food here is WAY yummier than Vietnam), went to the movies - Ocean's 13, shopped in a crazy 6 storey mall with Armani, Prada, Chanel, Gucci etc - I was too intimidated to go in in my grubby teva sandals and the t shirt I've been wearing for 3 months. We also went on a huge walk up a hill so we were level with the sky scrapers, and had HK dinner - wonton soup, steamed pork dumplings, turnip cake, grouper and sweetcorn, and kiwifruit juice!!
And this morning before breakfast we all walked to the supermarket - heaven!!!! We had CEREAL and FRESH MILK for breakfast. And I got some Cadbury chocolate - yet to try it and see if it's as good as NZ.
Hamish has a tiny little apartment, as you do in the city. The whole place is smaller than our living room at Whitcombe tce, and the kitchen is smaller than our toilet!!!! Hamish lives here by himself most of the time, but there are 2 phones and a cell phone, a laptop, a plasma screen tv (which doubles as a computer screen) and wireless internet. I'm sitting in the only chair with a wireless keyboard on my lap, looking at the plasma screen, and out the windows all I can see are other lit windows (we're on the 19th floor out of 40). It feels like I'm Captain Kirk at the control seat.
When we arrived at the airport, we were scanned by an infra red camera (to see if we had a temperature from SARS or something). There is no poverty here now. Especially after coming from Vietnam etc, HK seems like the richest place ever. Even more than Beverly Hills. There are Porches, Ferraris and Jaguars all over the street. The carpark had a Lamborghini flasher than any car I've seen before.
Everything is electronic. You just swipe your card to pay for a train/tram/bus/subway. Everything is so clean. And the freaking buildings go up for miles. I feel like a little ant in a concrete jungle. Except I'm not little, I'm about a head taller than everyone.
And the people look normal here. I've spent months thinking that Asians are just naturally extremely tiny, but it turns out they're mainly just under nourished in south east asia. Here women have bums and boobs just like we do. And there are even fat people!! We haven't seen fat people for 3 months, so it's a bit of a shock. And it makes me realise that I'm not really fat after all - I was beginning to think I was enormous in Asia. I could hardly even fit on a train seat for two people in Vietnam, and no clothes would fit me. Here though, I am freakishly tall, but I'm a normal size again. It all just depends on your perspective I guess.
We had a great day at Ocean Park - think theme park, roller coasters and performing dolphins. It was cool being a mainstream tourist for a day. James was really funny getting scared before the roller coaster! But he thought I was funny screaming as I plummetted to my death on the Abyss.
We enjoyed the night market too - got some great bargains, including a real diamond the size of my fist :)
The airport check in is fantastic too - just show up at the central train station in the city and they'll check your bags through to your flight. So by the time you arrive at the airport, it's almost time to board your plane - no waiting for hours. Go Hong Kong!
