We went to Kowloon Town

On Monday I met up with Amy, who Judith introduced me to and we went to the Hong Kong history museum. There I learned about China the past 100 years, how they turned to communism to throw out imperialism, and then turned to socialism to throw out communism. This is where they stand today.

The museum also contained a history of Hong Kong, a place occupied by both the British and the Japanese. The trip to the museum was followed by the light show (again) and a trip to the night market. Then a trip to the zoo/botanical garden the next day. Here are das fotos:


Hong Kong Street Scene in Wan Chai





Old Skool Violin





Me mit giant statues in the Hong Kong history Museo





So glad I don't have to enter one living in HK





Ladies Market in Kowloon (For men and ladies and everyone)





Statue on the walk of stars





Light show again





The Night Market





Hong Kong is like San Francisco with a lot of hills, so they have movators.





Another Hong Kong city scene





Toys at the indie basement place where I got the My Little Airport tickets





Soy Milk in vending machines instead of soft drinks. This is so how the world should be.





A night scene of Fortress Hill, my neighborhood in Hong Kong




This evening I went to Mong Kok in Kowloon (pronounced Cow-loon) to buy tickets to the My Little Airport show this Friday. There I meet Ray who gives me a high five when he finds out I am going to the Friday show and agrees to meet me at the metro stop and guide me to the show. We talk My Little Airport, mourn the loss of Nicole, and then talk more indie. Turns out he is a sports commentator for Ping Pong. We then talk about the upcoming Asian games to take places in Hong Kong before my cell phone starts ringing. It is Kim (the guy from the airport who I have kept up with via email). He is setting a time to meet tomorrow so he can show me where to shop.

K: where are you now?
P: I am in Mong Kok.
K: Too expensive! I meet you tomorrow. Bring walking shoes, it will be cold, dress in layers. Don't keep your money in one place. Different pockets, don't let the shop keepers know how much you have.
P:Got it.

And so I am lucky to have Kim, possibly the world's most frugal person, as a guide to Hong Kong shopping. For if there is one thing which predominates in Hong Kong it is shopping. In most Western cities you have cafes and bars lining the streets. In Hong Kong you have retail. Electronics, shoes, clothes, food. Sometimes it spills over into the streets. These are the ultimate business people. Not good, not the best, the ultimate. Go anywhere in the world, and you will find a grocery run by Chinese. Frugality combined with respect, dedication, and hard work, help get these guys there. Perhaps their only flaw is that they are too focused on efficiency and customer service. You barely finish your plate and a drink before it is whisked away, and while you could sit at a restaurant for hours after, the whole feel of the culture tells you to do otherwise. Hong Kong is for moving on, ever on. Keeping on. But the people are so friendly and helpful. I met Kim at the airport and now he is meeting me to show me around. I met Ray at the indie record shop and he will meet me also. It is just so nice. Feels like home.

Weekend mit Judith

Friday class ended and one of my fellow students, Alice from Italy, invited me along to meet a friend and see the giant Buddha. The friend turned out to be Judith from Germany, who is currently working in Beijing as an intern for a German engineering company, and was in Hong Kong to renew her visa. Turns out a lot of people working in China come down to Hong Kong for a few days to renew their visas back to China.

In any case, Judith had it in mind to see most of the major sites of Hong Kong within the space of a weekend, and didn't mind having company. Pushing back the hazy feeling that 13 hours of jet-lag can create I was happy to tag along with Julia for a tour that included:

1. Going to Launtau island and riding a tram up to see a giant statue of Buhdda.


2. Running to see the nightly light show along the water.


3. Catching another tram to the peak to see a birds eye view of the city.


4. Catching a ferry to Macau island to see the Portuguese ruins, try a bunch of snacks, and see the Las Vegas style casinos (plus leave $5 HKD richer)


5. Going to Lan Kwai Fong in Hong Kong to streets full of expats and bars


6. Being the only white people eating traditional dim sum on a Sunday morning


7. Going to Stanely on the opposite side of Hong Kong island to walk the tourist shops, listen to an acapella group sing Puccini, and take a coffee.

Here are the photos:


Before Buddha buy Hello Kitty Paper Towel...



View from the tram on the way to Buddha...



Ohhhhhhmmmmmmm.........



I felt 57% more enlightened:



Statues give offerings to Buddha...



Buddha's view...



Meine Freundes Alice und Judith:



Prayers at the temple:



Und das temple:



Snap shot of the light show, which is hosted by the sky scrapers in the area...



View from the peak: The "Postcard" photo...



Macau Island from the Ferry:



Street of Macau, packed with people and with vendors giving samples:



The ruins of Sao Paolo, an artifact of Macau's Portuguese past...



Taking a photo from the floor...whaaaat???



The butter crumble cookies they make there...



Sample?



Happy cakes...



Macau is "little Vegas"?



Not so grand actually...



Judith pointing out the holiday decorations of the snowy weather Macau will never see...



On the way to Stanley:



View of Stanley Plaza...



A mangrove tree...yes...



vaser es schoone.




After all this I say bye to Judith and wonder how she managed to create the job she did in Beijing at the age of 22, and I also wonder how she had the gusto and the togetherness to plan such a weekend...Maybe it is because she is living in Beijing, a place renowned to be bustling and active and accomplishing things at an unprecedented rate? Your environment affects you deeply, make no mistake. Or maybe Judith is a driven person who wants to get the most out of life, and travel surely does it.

Now I feel like I have covered most of the sites of Hong Kong, and I am willing to let any more of them come as they may, while I try to get to know the little neighborhood where I find myself and all the people in it, and if they will laugh a little less as I learn to speak Chinese. :)

Arriving in Hong Kong

I left from Raleigh to Chicago for a 1 hour lay-over. I wondered the halls of the terminal, as you might do knowing you are soon going to be confined to a seated space for 16 hours. Right by the gate for the flight to Hong Kong was a foreign exchange terminals. I know they are a bad deal, and that there would be on-lookers who would look down on me in pity, but thought it would be good to have some HK dollars for the bus just in case.

Sure enough, a man (mid 50s / Asian) comes over and starts shaking his head as I am exchanging travelers cheques. He is wearing one of those fly-tackle fishing jackets with 20 pockets on the front. He comes over to talk to me and tell me what a bad deal I got exchanging my 40 U.S. dollars and how much better the rate will be at Hong Kong banks.

It is a good thing though because the advice starts:

"Don't go to ATM, OK? ---- Service fees"
"If you go into a shop and the person is wearing better clothes than you, don't buy there. OK? It is for tourists. Bum around see this watch?"

He shows me a flashy watch with a silver band and 3 clock counters on it.

"How much? How much you think?"
"I don't know, $15 dollars maybe"
"2 dollars, 2 dollars U.S., have fun, find deals"
I make an impressed face, but I am not really blown away or anything.

I guess I could buy hot property in HK, why not? Someone is going to do it...or then again, maybe not...

As the conversation progresses to things to do in HK in general I take out my guidebook and point out how it is from the library. We are having a frugal off. He brushes it off as mere common sense. In my experience there are two kinds of people when it comes to money. Those who find pleasure in spending it, and those who find pleasure in accumulating it. The extreme people in this latter group take frugality to another level, it is a passtime, a sport. I am probably one of them.
Anyway, my new friend introduces himself and promises to guide me through the airport in Hong Kong and so he does. He introduces himself, his name is Kim.

In between we fly over Alaska and the North of Russia to go south to Hong Kong. We do this because with globes a straight line isn't the shortest distance between two points, and it is better to go to the north pole where there is a much shorter distance to go around the world. And so we fly over ice. It is crystal clear and I take many photos. The sun sets and an hour later rises again. People close the shutters in the aeroplane. Below is ice, below is the border between America and Russia, but there are no people down there, no signs of life, or politics, and therefore no war or struggle or conflict. Just ice, lots and lots of it, and snow, and how the wind had combed it, and the sun hits it in patches.

Landing in Hong Kong is great. The climate is humid and warm and pleasant. The people are pleasant, trim, fashionable, and internationals. A French girl sees my backpack and comes to give me a day pass on the underground that she couldn't use, she is on her way out. Kim leaves me at the buses with his email, and I have a friend in Hong Kong. Things are off to a great start. I ride a double decker bus on the top and take videos going in to the city. I miss my stop, and have to walk to find my hostel. On the way I buy a tooth brush, and tooth paste, and ice-green tea, and a persimmon. I find the hostel, but they are overbooked, and so we go to the dorm room and clear out backpacks and laundry from the floor, and lay down a mattress, and put sheets on it, and soon, I will go pass out there. The clock is 13 hours ahead here and if I wake up early from jet lag I will try find some people practicing Tai Chi in the park that Kim told me about...

Photos:
The Chicago Airport, which doubles as a disco from 1-5 a.m. weeknights..





A photo of a plane for my nephews...





A circle rainbow type thing? I think, anyone know? (It is under the wing...)





Ice over Alaska / Canada (This was sunset)





Snow covered mountains on the Russian side...(This was the sunrise an hour later)





Hong Kong Airport and a photo of Cathay Pacific official airline of HK...

Democracy Needs Some Exercise

I worked the polls today for the local election. This meant spending 6a.m.-8:00p.m. in a church and checking to make sure people are authorized to vote before giving them a ballot. We, however, only had 45 people come to the polls, leaving a lot of empty time in the day to read Gödel, Escher, Bach, chat with other officials, take an interest in the surroundings, drink lots of free coffee, and of course, appreciate America at its finest. During election day. The time to exercise that well defended right to vote.

My chief judge, a women in her late 50s, folded her arms and looked out the window at the vacant parking lot "You know what really irritates me? That people don't come out to vote. People in other countries die for this." She looked like Clint Eastwood in any movie you care to name. Cars whizzed by on the road oblivious.

"Yeah" said Bill, my co-worker and former Vietnam veteran in the air-force. The kind of guy who saw people die to defend that very right. I think Tom my other co-worker would have also agreed, as he was in WWII, but he was too absorbed with trying to get the laptop to work.

"Would you like some hot apple cider?" One of my co-workers offered. I have to admit I was tempted. It was early, and ignoring my usual inclination not to drink sugar on an empty stomach I had this vision of some piece of authentic Americana. This quaint old lady who had grown up at a time when things were done properly. Hell, this cider was probably fresh from the apples in her garden.

My heart sank when she said it was sugar free, and there I was confronted with a envelope full of powdered apple cider. It was quintessential Americana alright. Everything that is right and wrong with this country all at once. I politely declined. In Frankfurt they pressed apple cider from fresh apples right on the street, and sold it. I didn't mention this fact, it always leads to awkwardness.

"You know what they say about retirement" Bill said, "You are too busy to do anything".
The chief judge laughed.
"Yeah" she said, then she walked over to me and gave me a pointed look "and if your're retired I am going to slap you".
I pursed my lips and looked down at the table. Clint Eastwood alright.

45 people came to vote. An old Italian couple who had the best accents, but had been here for 18 years. An 80 year old African American woman, and another who was 22 with two kids, and to top it all off, an Irish woman. It is the minorities and foreigners who take the most interest. Particularly in these small elections. And they deserve credit for it.

Next Trip: Hong Kong

I am going to Hong Kong from November to December. It should be a good trip and probably quite full of tourists since the winter months have good weather. I will take courses in Cantonese there...

Bridget Bardot

It is 12:15 in the afternoon and here I sit drinking half a glass of Shiraz and eating some 99% cocoa Lindt chocolate, a memento of Frankfurt. I look out the window and contemplate how much of this is truly living. It is true, comfort is nice, it is what we crave at work. What I really love doing though is reading about science, curing curiosity, so to speak.

So in the next few weeks I am finalizing my applications to graduate school and planning a winter trip to Shanghai. Did I just write that? I think to myself..."Yes", I answer.

This world is melting miracle.

Another Chapter

I just got back from a night walk in the suburbs of Cary listening to C.S. Lewis's book Till We Have Faces, looking up at the sky and feeling I was in the fiction world Lewis was describing. For that is what suburbs are, a blank canvas for which to project our dreams and fancies.

I kept walking and thought of this new virtual internship I am starting. Building a gene annotation database for genes involved in biological aging. It seems perfect. Walking further I felt like I was breathing in digital air. A kind of incarnation of artificial life from a Michael Crichton novel. Like something that burned, and felt wholey strange and new.

I started to walk back to my house and looked at the stars in the sky and how they faded under the glowing brightness of the street lamps...