Tuesday,
13/11/2012 – 152 A.D.
Today it is five
months since we got up at three in the morning, left a dark Southport and got
on that aeroplane at Manchester. Five months??? You could have a baby in that
time! Well, not quite. But it’s still a while. Are we drifting aimlessly
without purpose, or are we focused on wisdom through purpose? You decide.
We’re getting up
later and later, it was always bound to happen. Now the alarm tends to go off
about 08:30, but it’s nearer 09:00 when we resign ourselves to rising and going
to face the bathroom designed for Lilliputians. Soon it will be midday before
we even bother to shake a leg. Oh, the sloth! Oh, the wallowing! Oh, the guilt!
Give us a break – we’ve been on the road for five months. And when we did
finally crawl out of our pits…we did a bit of admin. Groundhog Day!
[Can you tell what it is yet?]
[That's right, it's the top of the nearby mosque.]
Today we wanted to
have a walk around Kowloon and see what it had to offer. Markets. Four of them
actually. I was starting to get a bit twitchy about turning up in Shanghai and
freezing my bits off, so was keen to check out which winter garments were
currently in with Hong Kong market traders. Not many, as it happened. November isn’t
winter as far as they’re concerned (is it technically Autumn in England as
well?) so the stock was still mostly light clothing. Any of the kind of puffer
jackets that Tim is after didn’t yet contain sleeves – apparently they’ll be
coming a bit later.
[I do hope Tim is checking out the market stall's goods, rather than this woman's...]
We had lunch at a
Chinese fast food chain known as the Café De Coral, and bloody good it was too,
both for taste, value and size of portion. I had some kind of diced pork and
sweetcorn with rice dish, but Tim’s spicy beef with a cheese sauce looked even
better. If you ever find yourself over here and fancy some quick and convenient
Cantonese cuisine, then check it out. After feeling really full, it was quite
tough walking back through the fish market, where all kinds of marine life swim
about in front of you, just waiting for you to tell the stall owner that you
want fish X slaughtered for your tea that night. Plus the live frogs crammed
together in a net was a bit of an unsettling sight.
After that came
the “Goldfish Market”, which was basically just a street lined with pet shops.
At least I think (make that hope) that the animals were meant for
pets, rather than for any other purpose. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures
of the cute little kittens and ker-azy little puppies playing with each other
because we were politely told no photos, but before that I was able to capture the
sight of all tortoises great and small…
Further along in Kowloon, down Shanghai Street, which is known as one of the most traditional streets in the city, we saw that part of the road had been cordoned off by police and lots of people were looking up at one of the buildings. Was someone about to jump? Was a loose aircon about to fall from its precarious brackets? Was the Hong Kong police budget underspent and they needed to balance the books by using up expensive hazard tape? Dunno. We stayed and watched for a bit, but when you don't know what's going on it gets boring after a while.
At the end of Shanghai Street we came to Kowloon Park, which features all of the modern parky amenities you'd expect from a place like Hong Kong. And regular readers of this blog will know just how much Timbo and I lurve strolling through parks. Tim is also very much into his photography, but unfortunately while strolling through the park he was struck down by a very strong case of lens envy:
That’s just a
ridiculous size, isn’t it? Speaking of size, my follicles were still getting a
bit long and, as I hadn’t really done a great deal with the day, I decided I
should mark it with a haircut. Rather than pick out a specific place, I simply headed for the nearest barber’s pole I could find. The place was several floors
up and had “salon” in the name, but I figured they cut bloke’s hair as well.
And they did, even though I was the only bloke in there, though all of the
choppers were men. I managed to negotiate myself a price because I didn’t want
a shampoo or blow dry, but even with the lesser amount I realised I probably
should have got the locks cut in Vietnam as it would have costs me a fraction
of the price. But to be fair to the lad who gamely snipped away, he worked to
strict precision. Unfortunately though, he didn’t speak much English, and that
had been the main reason I’d waited `til Hong Kong. Every time he asked me
something and I replied, he shouted, “Vincent!” and senior-snipper Vincent arrived to translate my requests for more off
the top, not so spiky at the sides, etc. But all in all, I was pretty pleased
with the end result.
Upon returning to
Chungking Mansions I found the following burning slowly outside of the door to
our section of the building:
A fire hazard?
Possibly, so I blew it out. Then I realised it was part of the Indian festival
of lights celebrations.
After five months
on The Road around the world, I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Diwali from
Hong Kong!
Wednesday,
14/11/2012 – 153 A.D.
The journey down
the stairs in gorgeous Chungking Mansions…
We went back to
one of the markets we hit yesterday. I had seen a jacket that fitted okay, but
which I’d ummed and aaahed about. Tim wanted to buy some trinkets which I won’t
mention in detail in case you find them presented to you in wrapping paper in a
month and a half. And can I just mention that we are yet to see one advert for
Christmas on television – bliss! As for the jacket, well, I tried it on again
and it didn’t seem to fit quite as well as yesterday – must have slept at a
funny angle. I wasn’t going to go any higher than 200 Hong Kong Dollars and the
stall owner wouldn’t budge below 300 HKD (she even turned her back on me at one
point – a sure sign I’d gone into the haggling far too low). In the markets
here we’re constantly seeing stall owners chasing after people with lower
prices, but this one was playing hard ball. Tim found several of his purchasing
efforts frustrated as well. I guess this isn’t Cambodia and the Hong Kong
traders don’t have to take as little as they can get!
It may sound like
Tim is always buying trinkets and things – he is. This afternoon he sent a load
of them back in a cardboard box, which I helped him pad out with a couple of
things. That’s the third box now that we’ve sent back across the seas to
Southport. May it arrive safely! What to do with the rest of the afternoon?
Pick a museum, any museum…erm…let’s visit the Space Museum, as we haven’t visited
one of those so far on our trip. Although we hadn’t known beforehand, the Space
Museum turned out to be free on Wednesdays – great success! And very
informative it was too.
[A monolith from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey? Nah, just a skyscraper `neath the November sun.]
Come the evening
we returned to the place where we started our Hong Kong journey – down by the harbour,
looking out at the night time skyline. At 20:00 every day something takes place
called A symphony of lights which
features a light show from the tops of some of the skyscrapers backed by music.
And it was a bit crap really! Well, it was okay, but there was no grand finale and
the music was a bit cheesy. Plus when you’ve seen 4th of July fireworks
by the Mississippi in New Orleans then you set your standards a little higher
than what we saw tonight. But the crowds didn’t seem too disappointed. And I
wasn’t disappointed with Hong Kong in the slightest. It’s a place with something
for everyone, where modern meets traditional, and you can get cheap electronics
by the bucket load. And Chungking Mansions wasn’t that bad after all, but I
will not miss being asked the following questions by dodgy-looking blokes at
least ten times whenever I come and go from the building:
“Tailor-tailor-tailor?”
Should have said, “Got a suit in Hoi
An, mate. At least I think I did.”
“You want watches –
genuine copies?”
Should have said, “How can you have
a “genuine copy”? Think about it…”
“Hello, Sir. Something
special?”
Shouldn’t have said anything…didin’t say anything!
That’s it for the
Hong Kong Hustle, bring on the Shanghai Special!
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