Hong Kong - Feb 2006

Before reading, you may wish to brush up on Hong Kong.

MONDAY (or TUESDAY?)
Monday was full of bad omens. A woman on the Parking Spot shuttle freaked out when she realized she left her ID in her car. I went to check my bag (less hassle w/a connecting flight) and the line was full of grumpy people complaining about United combining First Class with Premier. Yeah, now the rich snobs have to stand in line with us little people.

When I got to the gate, the United guy there announced that there was a storm moving south from San Francisco and all flights in/out of SF & LA were delayed. At the current time, our flight was supposed to arrive in SF at 12:16. Guess, what- my SF to HK leaves at 12:17! Not gonna make it. He even went so far as to load a weather image on the computer and put the monitor on the gate counter so everyone could see it.

He revised the departure time (originally 9:58) to 11:00. Then 10:45. We finally got off the ground at 11:30.

I learned from my past delayed flight that United automatically rebooks you if there is another flight. So when I got in, I was rebooked for a new flight (2 actually- SF to Tokyo, then Tokyo to HK) that was leaving in 5 mins. So I booked it to the gate (no time to pick up any food!) and got on the flight in time.

I thought this would mean going without any food for 20 hours, but they did serve a meal on the first flight. It was horrible. Something meatloaf-ish. But I wolfed it down anyway.

I had a really brief stopover at Narita, then jumped on the next flight. At the gate my ticket brought up some kind of error when they tried scan it. They she said "Oh, you've be upgraded to Business Class for free!" Sweet!! It was a 747-400, which meant I got to go UPSTAIRS! Neato. Big reclining chair. I had a fancy shrimp, scallop and cuttlefish w/veggies dinner. It almost made up for all the delays, except that I would be arriving in Hong Kong at 11:00PM instead of 7:00PM. Not only did that mean very little sleep for the next day, but poor Elaine (Scala's Hong Kong employee) would have to pick me up at the airport at 11. Fortunately I shot off an email from my phone so she didn't end up waiting there from 7, and could show up just before my flight arrived.

Somewhere over the Pacific I crossed the International Dateline, so I was arriving Tuesday night instead of Monday. Elaine was there, thankfully. We took a train to a central station, then taxi to the hotel. I crashed as soon as I got to my room.

WEDNESDAY
I'm staying at the Cosmo Hotel. It's very trendy. You get to pick what color room you want. The room numbers are on the floor instead of the wall. The building used to be the Chinese Government office before the 1997 transfer of Hong Kong from British to China. I'm on the 16th floor- nice view.

Some of our training students are staying in nearby hotels, so we all meet in the lobby before catching cabs (very hard during Hong Kong morning hours) to the International Finance Center (IFC) where the training will take place. Elaine has rented a conference room there.

We have five students. One from Hong Kong, two from Shanghai, one from Beijing and one from Taiwan. All pretty young, in their 20s to 30s. Some speak a little English. Elaine does plenty of translating.

In typical Asian tradition we all exchange business cards. You present your card with both hands. They do the same. As you collect cards, make sure not to give someone a card you just received instead of your own. That's very embarrassing.

For lunch, we head outside to a well-known HK restaurant called Yung Kee. So far eating in Hong Kong has been very interesting. Sometimes more like Fear Factor, but so far everything has tasted really good even though it didn't look so great.

For an appetizer, we had something called a "million year" egg w/ginger. Looked like the green eggs from Dr. Seuss.

The main course was served "family style" with everyone sharing. They put out separate chopsticks that you use to pick up food and put in your bowl. Then you use your own sticks to eat. Complicated.

Main course included goose (with the head as a garnish), bbq pork, a salami "pizza", prawn with pine nuts, beef w/noodles and another plate full of noodles that looked like chow mein. All very yummy.

Training went pretty well. I went through the usual topics, with translation in both directions. They have good questions and are pretty quick learners.

For dinner we went to a seafood restaurant called Tai Woo. Fish tanks in the window. That's your dinner swimming in there. (The place for lunch does the same for the goose & pig, but at least they're already cooked in the storefront display!)

Family style again. First out, Sesame Chicken. Okay, pretty basic. Then Abalone (like oyster, slimy and chewy). Then Alaska crab in rice congee. Then some beef thing. But then... the main course. Earlier the waiter came out with a plastic bag and a fish swimming in it. He asked some questions and the others studied and poked at it. He took it back and brought out another. Now those two fish were sitting on serving dishes, mostly intact but steam-cooked. One had a black bean sauce. You have to know which parts are good to eat, so I left that up to my table mates. They would pick out pieces and drop them on my plate. The fish was really good! And just as I read in the Lonely Planet book, it is customary to offer a guest the meat from the head of the fish (the fish's cheek). It's okay to decline, but a sign of respect if you accept. I did, and it was fine. Very small and tender.

Finally for desert I had a sweet yam soup. Kinda like pea soup, but with yam. For desert. Go figure.

By desert I was yawning constantly, so they dropped me off at the hotel and I instantly fell asleep.

THURSDAY
I got up in time for breakfast at the hotel. There are two choices "American" and "Continental". American is eggs, toast, beans and ham. Hmmm, sounds British to me. But it was tasty! Continental is just coffee and pastries.

Another day of training customers. We're becoming good friends now.

Lunch was at a local cafe called La Fontaine. Lots of westerners, and western food on the menu. But I still manage to find a dish called Thai Fusili which resembled Pad Thai but with fusili pasta instead of the usual kind.

On our way to dinner we stop at Hong Kong's "Times Square" - not a square but a building with the same name. Lots of stores, mostly cosmetics and clothing. They do celebrate New Years here too.

For dinner we take the subway to a busy area full of people, and go to a crowded restaurant with very small rooms and lots of tables. This is "where the locals eat." We order a bunch of dishes for sharing including fish balls (ground up fish meat rolled into balls), cow stomach (yep! you heard that one right), and a few others. The stomach very chewy. I have a "lemon coke" to wash it down. This is Coca Cola with real sliced lemons (versus the lemon flavor in the US version).

After eating, we walk around the streets of Kowloon and Tsim Sha Tshui. These are very busy areas, full of people, stores, restaurants and cars. All kinds of electric & neon signs light up the neighborhood. Some buildings are really old and run down, some are brand new shopping or office buildings. We pass by some shoe stores- all the shoes are in plastic shrink wrap. I suppose that way you can see them and they take up less room than boxes. Electronics stores abound, crammed with every possible mobile phone, digital camera and notebook PC. Reminded me of Fry's. But not as overwhelming as the shops in Tokyo's Akihabara district.

Another long day... no problem falling asleep when I get back to the hotel.

FRIDAY
I grab a quick coffee at the hotel before heading over for the last day of training. Today we cover the last remaining topics, then open discussion and questions.

We have lunch at another local cafe near the building. I order seafood red curry. It has shrimp and some squid-like thing. The curry is spicy. Very good.

Before dinner we take the subway to Tsim Sha Tshui and walk over to the harbor area. We stop to watch a nightly tourist event called Symphony of Lights. It's like fireworks, but with lasers and neon.

All of the buildings across the harbor light up in sync with music and voice for a 15 minute show. The harbor skyline looked pretty cool to begin with, so this was a visual treat. Especially when you consider those are 20,30 or higher story buildings changing color and blinking. Here's a little background on how the light show was made.

We were having a late dinner so before the laser show we grabbed some ice cream cones. I had mango ice cream. Mmmm. Then We made our way to a nearby shopping mall. I had mentioned eating at a restaurant in New Zealand where you cook raw meat in a boiling soup. This is called "Hot Pot." Well there just happened to be a good one at the mall, so we decided to head over. The NZ version was a buffet, where at this one the meats are brought to your table. That's okay because the place is really crowded and the tables are snugly close together.

A big bowl of broth is set in the middle of the table on an inset stove. The menu is a check-list where you pick your meats. Here's what we had: eel, pork, beef (two kinds), pig cheek, cow stomach, bone marrow, fish balls (like before), dumplings, a paste made of ground up fish, and chicken testicles. So... how about those dumplings? Some things take longer to cook, so we'd put in, say, the fish balls, then cook & eat a few pieces of beef in the time being. The balls are done when they start to float on the top of the broth. By the way, no one had the guts to try the chicken. Read up on Hot Pots.

SATURDAY
We've taken the subway before, so this time we take a double decker tram from our current location in Wan Chai to the Admiralty area. The tram reminds me of street trains in Philly or cable cars in San Francisco, except it's a double-decker. Space is limited in Hong Kong, so everything grows vertically.

We look for a Dim Sum style restaurant, which is easy- they're everywhere. But it's not easy to find one that doesn't have a long wait. On our second try we find a place with immediate seating for two. The Dim Sum I've seen has waiters pushing around carts with different food and you flag one down to get some. This is a more "upscale" place where you make your choices on a paper check-list and they bring the food to you. The food is exactly the same as the last Dim Sum I remember - pork buns, shrimp in rice dumplings and other noodle-based things. I've noticed that most restaurants don't provide napkins, so it helps to carry along some of your own.

I can't believe it but I've gone a whole week without entering a Starbucks. There are plenty of them, just like every other city in the world. But somehow I've managed to resist the urge. Just when I though I would give in, we noticed another coffee shop across the street and ended up going there instead. During training I had overheard a conversation that in Singapore and Thailand, coffee (usually iced coffee) is served in plastic bags instead of cups. The bag is held closed with a rubber band and you poke a straw through to drink. In offices, it's not uncommon to see people hang their coffee bags next to their desks or on their office doorknobs.

I wanted to get some Chinese tea, so we stopped at a tea store called Ying Kee Tea House. They've been in business since 1881. They have fresh tea leaves you can pick from as well as pre-packages. Tea leaves have a wide variety of smell, taste and appearance. The store manager gave us a quick lesson in tea making and serving. We even got to try a few types. Some are mixed with other plants or flowers, or have been exposed to scented steam like Jasmine.

There are even teas where the leaves are hand-rolled into balls, twists, or other shapes that unravel when they're put water. Making tea is a very intricate process - if you want to do it right. The leaves have to be put in water for a certain time at a certain temperature, depending on the type of tea. Done properly, you can reuse a serving of leaves up to 4 or 5 times, and each time it will have full flavor. For some teas, you actually pour out the first pot and start another. This is to rinse away impurities from the tea making process. There are exotic teas that are only grown in certain areas of the world, or are seasonal. Usually these teas should be used within a year to get the full flavor. Then there are other rare teas that were grown long ago and aged, so the older the better for them.

For dinner we chose something that was not like other places, but somehow familiar. Everyone eating here is Asian, yet the menu lists (in Chinese) hamburger, sandwiches, eggs & omelettes, etc. Just like a diner in the US, but a little different. I had a corned beef omelette- and it was pretty much what you would get back in the States. There are only so many ways you can do eggs.

We ended the day scouring the open-air markets of Temple Street in Tsi Sha Tsui for souvenir gifts. There are alot of cheap looking items, but I managed to find some nice things that identify with China but have a personal touch.

SUNDAY
In the morning I make my first solo venture on the Hong Kong subway. Tickets are pretty easy to get if you have change, using touchscreen kiosks. Otherwise you have to stand in a line to pay with cash or credit card with a live person. On the kiosk you select your destination & number of passengers, and it displays the fare. Then you keep feeding it coins until it reads zero. Most locals have an Octopus card, which is a reloadable debit card usable at transit stations and some shops. They just swipe their card over a square on the turnstile without even slowing down.

People stand at markings where the train doors will line up, then pour into the car when it arrives. If someone is too close to the doors on the inside, the doors re-open and a recorded voice says "Please stand back from the doors" in Chinese and English. If they don't move, it happens again. One time this repeated four or five times. That must get really annoying.

For lunch we have rice congee, which is rice cooked until it becomes mush & served like soup. It comes with your choice of seafood, chicken, vegetables, etc. This place is a real local hangout. You grab a table and just yell out your order. (Elaine took care of that part.) I had mine with chicken, with a fresh made bread that you can dip in the congee. Then when you want to pay you shout again and they calculate your total by looking at the dishes on your table.

Today's excursion will be to one of the smaller islands of Hong Kong, which we'll get to by ferry. You can choose either the normal or the fast ferry. The fast one is about double the speed but not as scenic.

This island is famous for a local windsurfer Olympic champion who practices there. There's a beach that is crowded with weekend vacationers in the summer. Today it's raining, not to mention out of season, so it's pretty empty.

We stop by a temple that people pray for good fortune when fishing or traveling at sea. The temple is recently restored, but there's an even more noticeable upgrade next door- a basketball court.

One way to see the island is to rent a bike. You can go around the entire perimeter this way. But the rain is starting to pick up so that doesn't look like a fun option.

So we walk along a path that goes past the town & beach and up into the hills. With the rain we won't go the entire distance, which would take us to a famous pirate's cave. But we do get some nice views of the coastline and other islands in the distance.

On the return trip, we pass through the center of town, surrounded by open air shops and restaurants. The place has a rustic feel. Many of the buildings are very old, and the shop owners live in the back or top floor of their buildings.

For a snack we get a Hong Kong favorite- a soft waffle folded up & filled with heated peanut butter, condensed milk, sesame seeds and coconut. This is really yummy- I have to try this at home. The shop also has hand made candies which you can see in various stages of production. But it's getting close to dinner time, so we look for a place to eat.

We see a Thai restaurant that looks pretty good, so we stop there & order yellow curry and soup. The curry is really good and reminds me of Thai food back home. But then we get something I never had in LA - a coconut drink that is really a coconut. The top is sliced off and you get a straw. The juice is very sweet, and you can scrape off the meat inside with a spoon. The curry, soup and coconut hit the spot.

After dinner we take a look at a seafood restaurant where the "menu" is in water tanks out in front of the shop. There are live prawns, crab, cuttlefish, abalone, clams and more. It's getting late so we catch the next ferry back to the city.

Back in town, in the Mong Kok area, at almost 10pm on a Sunday the streets are packed with people. Hong Kong is always a lively city. After thinking about it all day I decide to make a purchase of a new digital camera. The sales guy at the store offers a decent discount and throws in some extra items (memory card, tripod & case). Even at the same price, in the US I'd have to add 8.25% sales tax, plus shipping if mail order. So this looks like a pretty good bargain. The sales guy runs in the back and brings out a US cable for the battery charger, which came with a UK plug. That makes it no different than buying back home. This works for cameras, but maybe not for computers which many have different language keyboards or software.

MONDAY (x 2)
I get up the next morning and take a bus from the hotel to the Airport Express train station, which just happens to be in the same building where we were having the training. The Airport Express is really convenient- you can check your baggage at the train station, get a ticket which is usable on any train to the airport that day, and then just relax or sightsee until you need to get to the airport.

There are a bunch of shops in the building but one in particular had a very attractive smell that turned out to be a place called Pacific Coffee Company. So I got a coffee and made myself comfortable in a big easy chair. I'm near the cashier counter, and can people watch as they line up for their morning cup of java. There's something comforting about seeing others who share the same addiction, err, pleasure in coffee. Behind the counter, the barista shouts out drinks as they're ready- "Grande latte! Tall cappuccino! Small espresso!" A chalkboard at the coffee shop reads "If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. - Mother Teresa". What a great way to relax before a long flight.

I enjoy my coffee for a while, then head to the train. On the way I pass a McDonalds which has a side area named "McCafe" which is just coffee and pastries. This McDonalds has a greeter- a person in uniform welcoming people and guiding them into line. How formal for a McD's.

I really didn't get to see the Hong Kong airport when I arrived. I was dazed from nearly 20 hours of travel and ready to crash at the hotel. For the return trip I get there early and had some time to kill, which is not a problem as the airport is huge and full of many different shops and places to eat. I had a mango tapioca pearl drink (with the extra big straw for the tapiocas), and wandered around the electronics shops to see what was popular and/or new.

On the flight they served a ramen noodle bowl which came with chopsticks and a spork. The spork really doesn't hold soup, so you have to drink from the bowl. This is fine for most Asians, but I could imagine it being a little awkward for Westerners. Not to mention slurping up the noodles with your chopsticks.

Well, this about wraps up the journal of my journey. We're probably about halfway to San Francisco as I write this. It's funny that the flight left at 12:40PM, but since we're crossing the international dateline, it will arrive at 11:30AM. I basically get two Mondays in a row.

Here are more of my photos from Hong Kong.

Until next time!