Hola Hong Kong!

Hong Kong Skyline

I wanted to put a quick update on Hong Kong.  To catch you up I have been back in Fukuoka for a little over a week and have begun settling back in after a 4 day professional development in Hong Kong.  Yep I get payed to travel for professional development.  You can all be jealous now.  Anyway onwards to HK(as the cool people call it)

To put it succinctly Hong Kong is a living contrast.  A former western colony now steeped in the east communist Chinese control and it shows.  Unlike Japan where conformity is the norm, Hong Kong is loud and in your face. 
Upon first entry it's easy to get awed by the sheer size of your surroundings.  Large buildings stretch toward the sky in what can only be described as a showcase of engineering and architecture.  That said the first night there was rather hum drum.  I got into Hong Hom, grabbed my hotel room keys and wandered a bit.  The local area is not quite what you'd expect and a bit projects like but for the most part unlike home I never feel unsafe.  Getting tired and late, I called it a night.

The next day I was up early and on my way to Heng on.  One nice thing about Hong Kong is that English being a former main language is pretty normal and everyday in Hong Kong.  It had been a while since I had been able to speak my mother tongue with some authority.  At the conference it was pretty mellow with a great assortment of food.  The highlight, at least for me, was buffet watermelon.  Give the fact a watermelon can sell anywhere from 14-30 dollars depending on the season I ate as much as humanly possible forgoing other foods.

This was actually typical for most days so I won't get into it much.  The nightlife however was different every night.  Saturday I was pretty much on my own but some of the people at the conference pointed me out towards Temple Market.  Essentially temple market is a bunch of tents propped up on a street selling counterfeit goods.  It is quite easy to find, like I did, a decent set of Dr. Dre beats knockoffs and haggle your way from 500$ HKD to 150$ HKD.   In truth it is a bit of a tourist trap where people go to buy fake goods.  The quality of fake goods ranges from absolutely terrible to pretty decent but still fake.  Knowing this I take care to keep hold of my wallet as these kind of areas bring out the pickpockets.  Not blaming them, if I was pick pocketing it's where I would be.  After walking around and eventually picking up my fake headphones(which are decent quality despite being knockoffs), I chose to get some dumplings.  Finding a quick hole in the wall filled with chinese I get the recommended Shrimp dumpling noodle soup.  It was fantastic...until I bit into the shrimp.  To be honest I have heard of the rumors of sewage and pollution going into Victoria bay and these shrimp inside the dumpling tasted just like that.  I finished the noodles and soup but couldn't bring myself to eat more dumplings.  Wandering a bit farther I found a different place which actually had an array that were quite tasty.  Filled up and with a couple of take home gifts I called it a night.

Sunday came and I met up with an old coworker and her son, a former student.  They took me out to a place in central which had some pretty damn decent mexican food.  Having been away from California for a bit it was nice to partake in some authentic Tex Mex.  After knocking back a Chimi and a tecate they lead me around town.  I got an excellent tour of the city including the Star ferry and the Hong Kong version of the walk of fame complete with a  Lee Jun-fan (AKA Lee Siu Lung) statue and star.  Of course there had to be a pose off.  I won.  We walked quite a bit and saw the bulk of the city and my surrounding area.  One thing that was really interesting is Sunday is the day off for the Philipino maids.  They all gather in one particular place and basically stage a sit in and hang out.  They aren't really protesting so much as an enormous group of them hanging out that you'd think they were protesting something.  Later upon my return I will reflect how many Phillipinos there are in the world to my coworker Raffy who throws out a number of around 100 million.  Considering there are about 1/3 that many people in California and California has 1.5 times as much space I had to make references to rabbits.  Raffy giggles and says remember that's only documented Phillipinos.  If I haven't said it before Raffy is a good guy with a sense of humor. 

Monday is pretty much my last night and I decide to hit the bar districts Wan Chai and Admiral.  Wan chai is a mixture of regular bars and "bars".  To put it in perspective one lady tried to pay me 20 HKD to come have a free drink in her bar.  A first for sure but I had to pass as I know that 20 HKD isn't going a long way in that kind of bar.  More than that however was the worry I would catch some sort of communicable disease being that close to those places.  Granted I've been to enough US places like that at some point in my life where you could make the same argument.  There was this one time in Iowa.... Yea never mind.   Still, the club had been given the name of San Francisco and I was almost tempted to go in for that very reason.   I kept walking and eventually wound up at another Mexican Joint called Coyote.  I went for a burrito de carne asada this time and stuck with Dos Equis for my drink.  All in all a halfway decent mexican joint.  One thing about Hong Kong, becomes clearly apparent during the rest of my walk.  No matter what hour, what section, or what condition you are in, there is always a party going on here.  In a way I'm glad I'm discovering Hong Kong now and not in my more youthful years as this is a party town and I'd have missed even more of my twenties than are already an alcoholic blur.

Tuesday morning I grabbed a cab and headed back.  Back to reality and away from the bright lights and shimmer of Hong Kong.  I will go back there eventually.  It is, a great place to be.