Arriving in Hong Kong

I suppose I'll start this journal with my first impressions of Hong Kong (because no one wants to hear about the 15 hour plane ride, at the end of which two small children decided that screaming things in multiple languages at the top of their lungs and then laughing maniacally was funny).

After getting through immigration (which succinctly lacked excitement after being told that they'd throw me out and put me back on a plane without a visa or future travel plans - no such thing!), getting our baggage (which Mr. Lewis had already done as it took him a fifth of the time it too me to get through immigration) and exchanging money (at a surprisingly good exchange rate), we exited the Hong Kong International Airport into the bus terminal. The airport is on Lantau Island, which lies very close to Hong Kong Island. After buying a ticket, something Colin insisted I do myself (as he seems to with all transactions that I'd like to make), we boarded a bus with all of our luggage and settled in for a 30 minute ride to Sai Ying Pun and the apartment.

After getting off of Lantau and passing onto Hong Kong Island by way of a raised super highway that reminded me of spaghetti (if spaghetti were in the movie "Honey, I shrunk the kids"), I caught my first glimpse of the docks and the cityscape behind them. Loading machines took the shapes of large geese, some of which had their heads down into the feeding troughs that were ships laden with cargo; others had their heads up, nothing being loaded to or from the crowded docks along their necks. The city rose up behind these giant metal avian creatures, their size telling of their dinosaurian lineage, but still being dwarfed by the sky scrapers behind them. This of course will mostly be because of the landscape of the island. The ports are all much lower in altitude than the Mid Levels and peaks of Hong Kong island, but it made an impression.

Stepping off of the bus, I looked up and saw my first real sky scrapers (as I've never been to New York). All of the buildings seemed narrow and crowded together with even narrower alleyways in between each. I was strongly reminded of the movie Brazil, particularly the dream scene in which Jonathan Price's character has grown golden wings and flies through the sky scrapers. We lugged our baggage a block and a half to the apartment and took the also narrow stairway up 9 flights of stairs into a dark apartment.

The apartment is larger than Colin spoke of and not bad at all. For those of you reading that have ever been to Europe, it is the size of normal apartments there. Our room is about the size of Nina's room that I slept in when we were in Naples. It is about 6 feet at its widest and two feet at its narrowest (at the door). There are cabinets that provide us with plenty of space and a small twin-size, but nice springy mattress that rests on the floor. The corner desk is nearly clean on top and the shelving underneath well-used, as is Colin's way.

We briefly checked email before trying to sleep for a bit that first evening. We got in about 9:30pm local time.

We got up about 5:30am. Colin went for his run and I got a shower (after a fun time with the electric water heater - a note to the wise: let them heat up for more than 10 minutes). We lounged for a bit and went out to see the city mid morning. Colin took me along his running path and I got my first taste of baozi.

The bakeries here are wonderful! It reminded me a little of the fare that I would get in the bakeries in the mornings in Athens on the way to class. Instead of Tiropita, however, baozi was on the menu. They're little meat and veggie dumplings that are steam cooked and served hot. Delicious.

We walked down to the park and saw all of the people exercising and taking part of group events. There was a tent set up in a little amphitheater, where they were singing Cantonese versions of American songs (I'm pretty sure I hear "Top of the World", but no longer by the Carpenters). In one of the grassy areas a group of women were all putting on loose, pale pink costumes of some kind and getting out fans. As we watched they started practicing for a performance for whatever event was going on in the park that day. I saw a man that looked almost exactly like Mr. Taylor (one of the members at the gym back home), but much taller doing Tai Chi in the park. It was fascinating to watch the flow of it all.

What I liked best was a group of men that were practicing or performing some kind of martial art in a synchronized routine. What I liked best about them was that the group was mostly composed of men with and also led by a man with Down Syndrome. It was fascinating to watch them perform with great skill the intricate movements with a subtlety that would be highly unexpected of them elsewhere in the US. This group and other groups of people with Down Syndrome seemed to be there for the event. It was so nice to see them not being undervalued and being pushed to do things that they were more than capable of doing. I feel like we don't see "special education" children or adults being treated this way in the US and it was refreshing and revitalizing to me. I took a few pictures. I'll see about posting them later.

After our walk to the park we browsed in some stores, looking at home goods and flowers, then came back to the neighborhood for our grocery shopping. We got chicken, oranges and soy sauce to make Orange Chicken (thank you Sarah). When we got home, we were tired and laid down to rest for an hour before starting dinner.

When we awoke, it was 10pm and we gave up on trying to get up at that late hour. I woke back up at about 1am, but Colin slept until about 3:30. Ahhh, changing time zones. So much fun.

After the normal shower and run, we left at 6:15 this morning. As it is Sunday here there wasn't much open, but we walked up to Central, where the Western Amenities can be found. We walked along the edge of the water to get there. It was quite pretty as the sun came up. There where several little park areas for children in which the elderly were doing their morning exercise routines. As the sky lightened there was light fog over the bay and we could see through it to Kowloon (the major western/business district in the New Territories aka Mainland area). We walked through a mall, though most of the shops were closed at this time on a Sunday. At 7 when few shops that that do open started to raise their shutters, we purchased me an Octopus card. This is essentially a city transport/money card. You put money on it (like a debit card) and then swipe it when you get on buses/metro/etc to pay for fair. It's also come to be used in some shops, like the 7Elevens (they're EVERYWHERE - often right next to each other, which is just strange), grocery stores and the like.

After wandering in Central for a bit, we came back and finished getting the groceries we've been needing and are now back at the apartment. It's been interesting. The smells were not as bad as I was led to believe, nor is the as hard or the room as small. The island is really much smaller than I originally imagined and it has only taken us several hours to make our to the places we've gone because I insist on stopping and looking at things and moving slowly so I can see what's in shops. All it all, it's quite cozy, if you can call a large city cozy. Our corner of the island is, at any rate.