the horror, the horror > travels in indochina

Hong Kong: give me five every moment

A man on Nathan Road walks past wearing a t-shirt that says “give me five every moment” in block black letters. This more or less sums up Hong Kong.

Hong Kong radiates capitalism like Adam Smith’s fever dream. Every alley hides three shopping malls. Seemingly everything is for sale in endless variety- from the sidestreet tat at the Night Market to the glittering obscene genuine articles at the designer stores. Restaurant menus present dozens (sometimes hundreds) of choices. The magazines are obsessed with the finest gradations of status and consumption (an entire article on the best personalised numberplates?). It feels like you can be whatever you want in Hong Kong so long as you have the money to back it up.

The superstructure of this gilt edifice is made up (mildly paradoxically) of thrift, industry and civic pride. Everywhere you go (at least in the touristed parts) there is someone sweeping the streets- even the construction workers periodically down tools up brooms and push their dust into the gutters.

There is a sense of obsessive orderliness throughout. Each slope and ramp in Kowloon Park has its own prominent individual serial number: I imagine a rapid regrading response team dispatched with klaxons and sirens in case of any loose paving or deviance from the mandated 25′.

There’s not much opportunity to get lonely, either. Everywhere you go the teeming masses of humanity poke , jostle, elbow and nudge you. I have realised the real real purpose of umbrellas is to provide a bubble of personal space using the sharp spokes. At Ocean World we learned some hard lessons about getting between chinese and panda viewing. At one a man egregiously pushed in front of us wearing a t-shirt that said “after you.”

We’ve had some amazing food here, including the whole dim sum experience, and some sublime Xiao Long Bao (dumplings filled with stew). A regular feature of this blog will be my adventures in unusual cuisines. By this standard Hong Kong was pretty tame although I did have whole deep-fried baby pigeon (with head still attached and a slightly quizzical expression on its face) at the dim sum restaurant and stir-fried frog at the night market. Frog is surprisingly delicious- yes it tastes like tender chicken- although a bit fiddly with the wee bones and tiny spine. In a similar vein, Hello Kitty icecreams are also pretty good.

In less exciting news, I’ve been inadvertently lessening my attachment to the material world.  Thus far I had my UK passport, my cell phone and some money stolen (at Auckland airport no less) and broken my camera.  Thank goodness for insurance, eh?

Here’s a random experience:

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Occupational Safety & Health World:

This exhibit is part of the HK Science Museum. In a masterly display of cutting-edge 80s animatronics Dr Safe (who only has about three moving parts and consequently pops and locks like Mr Freeze) introduces us to the hazards around the workplace including Uncle Explosive, Auntie Irritant and Harmful Jr (a good MC name I reckon). Just between us, I think that Uncle Flammable and Auntie Oxidising have a bit of a thing going on.

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Anyhow, we’re off to Thailand this evening so we’ll see you in Bangkok. We’re planning on alternating posts at this stage so Sara’s up next.

Ka kite and much love

Jeff and Sara

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