Hong Kong Tourism

Today in Hong Kong I went to Café O for lunch w/ our friends visiting from cold Michigan. Then on to the aviary, where there are beautiful exotic birds sitting for us to photograph. Hong Kong is great that way- there is a large park downtown with a huge Aviary that has a suspended walkway for visitors to walk amongst the flittering inhabitants.
There is also a zoo of sorts that has cages of monkeys, huge tortoises, and even orangutans! My favorite! There is a little family of a big hairy daddy, and petite lovely mommy, and a playful little hairy monster baby.
In the park today a group of singers is assembled at the roman stadium singing opera, accompanied by live music!
A couple dressed in wedding attire is getting their picture taken by the pond with little turtles sitting on top of each other in the background.
It's a holiday and it is sunny and warm so the whole city seems to be here in the park.

Later Jill and I go to photograph the Peak Tram from the unique vantage point of the Kennedy Rd stop. When the first tram comes by we realize we are standing a little too close for comfort!
We are standing on the faded yellow line at edge of walkway, but the tram comes RIGHT to that yellow edge! We watch it come up towards us and away up the peak and wait for it to come back down and into the tunnel where it will pick up the never diminishing line of tourists waiting to climb the peak on this relic.

Dinner at Causeway Bay Market, outdoor eating or inside a stark 3 walled room gorging on fresh seafood, spitting shrimp shells right onto the table, drinking luke warm beer, this is the fun of Hong Kong! It takes having visitors to do these things!

Offerings for Blessings

Went to Wang Tai Sing temple to watch people praying and shaking fortune sticks out of a jar for the Winter Festival.
Many brought their food offerings from the day before: whole chickens still in their Styrofoam containers, the oranges, roasted pork.
This temple is famous for its fortune tellers and is packed with locals paying tribute and praying for the coming year.

Winter Festival

Today in Hong Kong it is the Winter Festival- or the first day of Winter. It is a special day for Chinese people.
Today Chinese families will set out food in front of their doors: a whole roasted chicken, maybe a duck (depending on your origin- Fujianese, Cantonese, etc.), 4 oranges, 4 apples, a carton of bananas, 3 cups of wine, and 3 bowls of rice and wine, and some vegetables. All is set out in bowls outside the front door and then the family prays for 40 minutes.
The interesting thing is that the TIME when the food goes out is very precise and depends on the zodiac- more precisely the zodiac of the elder of the family, most likely the father. The woman who cleans my apartment will celebrate at 8:35 tonight because her father is a Dog.

After the prayers everything must be eaten, all of it.

Shopping paradise

Today in Hong Kong I went Christmas shopping. Of course if you have all the money in the world there is no limit to what you can buy: Tiffany jewels, Louis Vuitton bags, Jimmy Choo shoes, Hermés scarves, Omega watches, Prada sunglasses, Chanel suits… or knock-offs of these things. But Hong Kong is also famous for antiques and cool design and interesting clothes. There is a shop called G.O.D.- which stands for Goods of Desire. Actually, it has a Chinese name of three characters, Ji Oh Di, which means “Better Living” (or something to that effect). This place has interesting things for the home, from furniture to rugs to lighting. The founders of the store have their own line of bags and clothing, using their trademark design of silkscreening several images of Hong Kong to make a continuous view of the sight. For example, I have a bag that has old Hong Kong mailboxes all over it. Another popular design is the photos of Hong Kong residential housing, repeated so that it looks even more dense. It makes for interesting stuff. It is fun just to browse.

Christmas shopping

Today in Hong Hong I went to pay for my boyfriend's Christmas present, a handmade pinhole camera by Zero Image (http://www.zeroimage.com/), made right here in Hong Kong. These are beautiful cameras made of teak with brass knobs and hardware.
Finding where to give my money was a little difficult mostly because I forgot to bring the address. The office is on a small street behind Times Square, but there are several interesting shops there. Adding to the confusion, I was actually just giving money to the guy’s wife at her office, a cubby hole about the size of a walk-in closet with 3 girls working at computers on “design.” I hand over my money, for something that can basically be made at home with a shoe box, with no chance to look at the various choices or learn how it works, to a young girl translating for the wife in this small graphic design studio upstairs in the Workingview Commercial Building (another interestingly named office building). I cross my fingers that I won't be too surprised by the final product which they will start work on once the money is in hand. The website explains it pretty well though, so I am hopeful.

Down the street a young guy hands me a flyer for 20% off at his store Select which sells “exclusive and preloved clothes.” I like the term “preloved.” I go upstairs to check it out. Even with the 20% off the “preloved” designer labels are too much for my wallet. Including the “designer” gap cardigan that is over $100. I don’t think I can justify paying that price for a cotton sweater from the Gap of all places. Evidently Gap is not readily available in Hong Kong and, being American, calls for a high price. But if you are in the market for designer clothes, especially obscure things from Japanese designers, Select is a good starting point. 2/F 1A Yiu Wa Street, Causeway Bay, behind Times Square. Tel 2838 7010.

While in the dressing room Mrs. N calls me to continue the interview for tutoring her son to get into the English Schools Foundation. It has been about 5 weeks since she told me she would call back so am surprised to hear from her. She wants me to bring the computer for her son to work on and do the exercises I will have prepared for him. I don't think so. She also wants to know, again, what I will be working on with him. I tell her I don't have a computer and that I need to know his level first before I can know what to prepare or how much work will be needed to get him ready. I will probably have him write a sample essay after I have talked to him. She wants me to send him a topic to write about so that he can have the essay already written so that he doesn't have to waste time during our session. Fine. I will email him a topic tonight if she gives me his email. She thinks it is better that I send it to her. That way she can make sure it gets done, etc. Ok. So she starts to tell me her email address. I am, of course, stuck in a dressing room with one arm through a too-small sweater and the other holding the phone to my ear while the rest of me is without clothing at all. I tell her that I do not have a pen, could she text message me her email. She says she will do that. Never get anything from her the rest of the day.

I leave my umbrella at the store as I leave in search of the Central Library to maybe study some Chinese. I get to Pho Saigon in Wan Chai and realize I do not know where the library is after all.

Birthday dinners

Today in Hong Kong it is my boyfriend's mom's 80th birthday. (We think. The Chinese have a funny way of counting age. First of all, one is 1 year old already when born. Then, after a certain age, they add ANOTHER year. So she keeps saying she is 81, but Sister-in-Law is pretty sure she is 80).

All is settled and we are going to a special place to have roast suckling pig and the special abalone that his brother had bought a long time ago for this special occasion. The restaurant is a non-descript Chinese restaurant with not too clean tablecloths and terrible décor. But evidently the food is great. The pig IS great and I eat more than my share. The other filler dishes are good, but the abalone is the thing we are supposed to ooh and ahh over.

I personally don't get it. We each get one dried abalone the size of 2 matchbox cars which cost about half of the cost of the whole dinner. It is drenched in a sort of sweet/fishy non-descript brown sauce and has little flavor of its own.
A little fishy. Texture of chewable rubber.
All in all not bad, but not worth the hype and the price (in my foreigner's opinion). As a way to find common ground I tell them that my uncle free dives for abalone and then pounds it, dredges it with flour, and fries it with lemon and butter. So delicious. Sister-in-law wrinkles her nose and exclaims, “What a waste! You don't get the aroma and the texture.”
Isn't that the point? I guess each to his own and there is no accounting for cultural tastes!