Before I regale you with tales of Hong Kong, I need to get something off my chest. I was told to expect people to move slowly in Hong Kong, and that I should prepare myself to stop speed walking everywhere. I thought I was fine with that. I even thought I was doing well with the hordes of hobbling old women in Japan. Yet here I am in HK and all I can think is ‘If someone doesn’t pick up the damn pace I’m goin Third Reich style on this crowd. ‘ JESUS CHRIST do these people move slow. Its not just the old people (of which there are lots at all hours of the day and night) that saunter through the streets of HK, adults and kids alike all go along with it. And if this isn’t frustrating enough, no one moves on escalators.
While this might not seem like a big deal, the city is full of deep metro stops, malls, and mountains. All of which contain lots of escalators that are just begging me to march up them. In DC I wouldn’t hesitate to elbow my way around the occasional douche bag ‘esca-lefter,’ and I would obviously get out of someone’s way if I wasn’t walking up. The people of HK do not share my sentiments. Maybe everyone here is a master of time management and can leave 20-min early to tip toe their way everywhere, but I doubt I will master that skill ANY time soon.
Anyways, enough complaining. I am back in HK and its wonderful. I literally do not know where to start, and I’ve only been back for a week and a half! Without getting too annoying and happy happy joy joy sounding I’ll start with my lodgings. I live in an area called Yau Ma Te in Kowloon (Google it if you really want to know more) in a hotel. Thankfully past groups smoked enough things in my program’s former housing complexes that we now spend the semester in a hotel rather than dorms (throwback to Thurston anyone?).
The room isn’t huge, but it works. I get all the amenities of living in a hotel, along with all the disadvantages (i.e can’t cook food, do my own laundry, etc.). It’s a great location, and I live with pretty much everyone I know here. My roommate is a really cool guy from Chicago that goes to GW, and I’m sometimes a little terrified of how much we agree on things.
Classes seem pretty easy, and compared to GW they are a joke. I have no classes before noon (thank god), but go till 8:30ish most weekdays. The professors are a mix of Chinese, Aussies, and random expats.
I won’t go on about school things, because I personally hate hearing about other people’s classes, friends, schedules and other study abroad things I’m never going to see or remember. With those boring details aside, lets talk about the interesting aspects of Hong Kong.
As an American product of supermarkets and Costcos I am constantly amazed that other cultures don’t get all their shopping done at one or two places. The economic capitalist in me shudders at how inefficient going to multiple specialized markets for goods is, but there is something to be said for the local markets of Hong Kong.
For instance, I went to the bird market. I walked via the flower market, via the aquarium market, via the ladies market, via an electronics market. The markets are rarely more than a few blocks long, and you can find pretty much any variation of what you need there. They are something that everyone must experience in HK, and they’re impossible to avoid if you walk anywhere in Kowloon.
The only downside of the markets is that they move EVEN SLOWER than the rest of the city. My friends and I thought we had found a solution to this by walking through alleys, but ended up extremely lost. We DID however manage to find a hotdog place (which my Chicago roommate and I were extremely happy about). But like most ‘Western’ places in Asia it was odd and nothing about the dog was anywhere close to what I expected or wanted (I’ll use this opportunity to reemphasize that this continent has no idea what mustard is).
The food in HK is great and… interesting. You can get every type of Asian food imaginable obviously, and there is Chinese food galore. My two favorite Asian food experiences were a Chinese place that seated us in the street on a plastic stool, and an Indonesian restaurant that had a Happy Birthday theme 365-days a year. On the other hand, Western food is imitated here… poorly. I ordered pizza and was offered a curious choice sauce of tomato or Thousand Island Dressing, and quite surprised to find that my cheeseburger had a option of cucumber and squid. Unfortunately it seems like the damn Canadians or French have been here since I am in a constant battle to communicate how I don’t want ANY damn mayonnaise on my food. Obviously Western food has made it here in name, but the details are still being hammered out.
One place that is the same everywhere is, of course, McDonalds. When you are in a rush, need something cheap, or simply want to get exactly what you order the golden arches are always there to save the day. I still refuse to order more than about five things off their menu, but I a terrible part of me is comforted by the greasy shit they serve. My only qualm is that they give out ketchup like its Brittany Spears’ dignity and the world is surely going to run out if you ask for one more packet. Seriously, I could deal with a little less stank eye when I ask for more than one more packet.
Hong Kong is the world’s most vertical city. This is a fact I love. Skyscrapers, big buildings, and epic skylines all appeal to me and confirm my faith that I will always be a city person. Though something I could not quite figure out was why so many buildings from the 80s were still around with AC units hanging off their sides. Eventually it became apparent that if you knocked down one building, you would pretty much have to demolish the entire block because things are built so close together here. Apparently the Brits used to do it more, but the Chinese have more important things to do nowadays.
To contrast the hyper urban feeling of the streets, Hong Kong is essentially settled around a bunch of mountainous islands that are very steep and very green. I live on the 12th floor of my building, and my view is of the side of one of these mounts that is about 30-feet away. I found it interesting that the HK government is constantly pouring concrete all over their mountains to prevent erosion and landslides. To use my Grandmother’s favorite descriptor, it’s really neat!
P.S. What entry would be complete without a mention of something sketchy or less than sober? In a few short days here I have found some awesome bars and supermarkets. I mention the supermarkets only because their wine is cheap ☺. In terms of awesome bars there is a place called Balalaika (sound it out). It’s automatically a win because Lenin’s bust is at the entrance, but the rest of the Russian watering hole is awesomely unique. A regular bar is available for regular people, but for the adventurous (or people who prefer being cold over anything else like me) there is an ice bar. Essentially it’s a walk in freezer in which you wear fur coats and do shots of a variety of vodkas (I refused to let my friends order non-Russian vodka at this establishment). I would absolutely love to go back, order a bottle of vodka with a few people, and let my alcohol blanket slowly replace the fur until I was ready to do the Booz-ahol Shuffle out and around the neighborhood.
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