Hong Kong – it is one of those anomalies of a city. You wonder how it can exist. Buildings shooting to the sky – apparently covering every inch of the small island space available. The ultimate in high end glitzy shopping – Prada, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany’s while steps away there are street stalls selling bowls of noodles for 50 cents a bowl. Seeing people of every type and hue coexisting – the vestiges of its colonial past everywhere – Victoria Harbour, double decker buses and trams – Portuguese dishes blended into Chinese fare. The combination of sights and smells are so unique that you feel as if you have entered a fantasy world where parts of the earth were mashed together into an attic or warehouse and jumbled up before being released. It needs to be experienced to be believed. But beyond that is the ease of managing such a jumbled mess of a city – (anyone who is a speaker of English, needs to thank their lucky stars for having such a benefit in this world). Things are easy to navigate. English is everywhere and any kind of product or food or service is possible.
I arrived Wednesday evening around 8 – two hours behind schedule due to plane delays. I made it my hotel following the directions from my internet map. I told Gordon I was too tired to meet him and his friends for drinks and ventured out to find food. Since I was in a mostly working class neighborhood, there was not much open at that hour and I ended up at McDonalds – my first time in China. I returned to my room, watched BBC world news on the telly and enjoyed my meal with my duty free Scotch, happy to find all the blocked internet sites available. Planned to meet Gordon in the morning. Got up early – can’t help it – and walked across the street to the Harbour area – Sun Yat Sen memorial garden – people doing tai chi and jogging. Went to the Macau ferry pier and checked out the arrangements. Got some coffee and some snacks and MICROWAVE POPCORN! which they don’t have in Nanjing. Back to my hotel and made arrangements to meet Gordon. Drove to Kowloon for dim sum – had to take a number and wait for about half an hour –actually had to wait to get in the parking lot as well! Delicious – but Gordon ordered way too much and he and Chloe – his friend from Beijing – didn’t eat much. After, Chloe had to meet friends from Beijing and we went off to Stanley – a beachy resort spot outside of town – with shops, a pier and British type pubs along the seaside boardwalk. Very quaint and calm and full of expats and their dogs. Gordon shared some of his business and relationship dilemmas and I caught him up on my last year’s adventure of retirement and moving. This is the joy of meeting and sharing with a familiar face in an unfamiliar place. Went back to TST in Kowloon for dinner – incredible variety of dumplings – black truffle, ginseng, cheese – very rich! Chloe met us there and we headed up to Victoria Peak – overlooking the whole of Hong Kong and Kowloon. When we got there, the fireworks for national day had just ended and the view was clouded from smoke. Gordon had a friend at the top who was able to get us in to the lookout area for free and get our picture taken free as well. We waited for about a half an hour for the smoke to clear and the amazing view to materialize. Called it a day.
