Fresh Seafood

It doesn't get any fresher than this, for dinner mom wanted fresh seafood, so we took the outer ferries (35min) to Lamma Island. We had steamed abalone, fried crab, steamed fish and other seafood goodness.

It is such a nice restaurant, if you want to call it that, it's just a bunch of tables next to the docks, you go and pick out what you want and they cook it for you, fresh.

High level dim sum

So after all that reminicing we went to meet dad for dim sum lunch back at Times Square mall. The restaurant is actually on the 12th floor in the mall. Space is just so tight here they actually have 13 floors in the mall, including the restaurants.

Because of this new Times Square mall, this whole neighbourhood became commercialized, we can see residential appartments converted to multi-level storefronts. It's quite weird looking, you can see the guy who didn't sell out looking at the 3rd story storefronts next to his balcony.

We went up to one of those shops, this one a Mao themed book store, all English books translated into Chinese. I'm there to hang out and use their WiFi access.

It is such a neat store, cafe, and gallery for Mao themed art pieces. There was a white woman there who bought a tonne of books and art.

In the cafe, they took the covers from the little red book (Chairman Mao's quotations) and put a drinks reciepe there instead, cute.

I found out that my parents actually have that book from the Great Leader on the coffee table for leisure reading... It's like the second most published book behind the bible.

“Atom bomb goes off when it is told. Ah, what boundless joy.” - Mao, 1964

Dad then went on commenting on the wisdom of the struggle for the Chinese to get the atom bomb, without it, China can not possibly be as prosperous as now.
It does make me wonder about the Iran situation, are they trying to pull a Mao? Mao quoted the Russians that the Chinese would "rather have the atomic bomb than trousers"

Old School

We then walked to my primary school just to reminise, another Catholic all boys school complete with strict headmasters, an "enforcer" teacher, a loud mouthed care taker, a PE teacher who doesn't mind kicking your ass when you screw up, prefects, assistant prefects, school uniforms, prayers, school choirs (I was an alto), and recess time soccer.


so we decided to stop and take a photo of this, as I drew this scene on one of the hand made mother's day cards when I was little.

Down the stairs is the main student entrance and playground, the gates are locked during recess, obsessive parents/grandparents would reach through the gates to feed/comfort/smack/wipe sweat off the children.
During PE or recess time, we routinely kick soccerballs into the waterworks plant over the fence, but they have now built a park there instead.

It is also hilarious to see during the recess 1000 desparate kids trying to go to the same washroom, the lineups are long, pushing and shoving can lead to a domino effect: where kids are on the floor on top of each other crying out because they just lost "containment", the kids standing next to the trough peeing just stepped into it, mass chaos and suffering. I have experienced 2 such cataclysms myself.

Ah, fond memories.

Chrysanthemum is not just for Chinese tea

We head back to Happy Valley for another cemetary, taking the famous HK double decker tram.



Trams are really cheap to take, only HKD$2 per trip, or $0.30US, regardless of distance. When I was young I always wanted a party on a special for-hire tram. I still think it is cool, you can see those antique trams once in a while hired by tour groups or other functions.

Anyway, we took some chrysanthemum for offering and repeated the same process.

Cemetery

What do you do with all the dead people from a crowded city of 7million? Pave over entire mountain sides and pack them in tight, of course.
The scale of this place is incredible, it wraps around the other side of the hill too.


How about living is close to a near vertical cemetery? Imagine waking up with the great view.

Respect for ancestors is very deeply ingrained in the Chinese culture, we believe that our ancestors watch over us, and their approval or disapproval of our behaviour determines part of our luck.
Each year, there are actually 2 public holidays dedicated to honor the ancestors, the Qing Ming festival, and the Chung Yeung festival. These cemetery hills will be full of people paying respects, bringing flowers, wine, roasted ducks or other foods for offerings.

We only brought flowers, the routine is usual, try to find the right grave amidst the millions, offer the flowers, bow three times and say something to report recent family happenings. We'll be expecting another new family member this year, etc. Then we bow again before we leave, saying "excuse me, sorry" to the people whos graves you had to step on because they are packed too tight.

Paying Respects

This morning mom and I went to my grandparents cemeteries. It's all the way out at Chai Wan, on the furthest east corner of the HK island, while we stay on the west side. This is the same trip I used to take everyday to attend secondary school, I walked/ran all the way down the hill and then catch the subway train from the west most station all to the way to the east terminal. I sort of enjoyed it, but it was probably expensive becuase of the subway fees.
. I take the subway all the way from the dot on the right to the dot in the left.

The reason I studied all the way out in the sticks is due to my poor scores in the standardized test when I was 11. Basically, the giant government computer decided that I really should start studying basket weaving school (band 5, worst schools) early, because I'm so dumb that I'll probably need a few years to pick up the skill. It's probably a bit of a disgrace for my family, so they used some connections (some school board directors) to get me into a band 3 school.

And that band 3 school is all the way out to the east side of the island, a catholic school. I have no idea what my family had to do/give up to get me into the school. I still remember at the interview the headmaster pointing his finger at my head saying "Don't think you are special, I can still kick you out even though you know someone." The name of my benefactor was never mentioned to me by the headmaster, teacher or my family. Whoever it was, thank you, I had a great time meeting east side friends. And I turned out to be the top scoring student that year.

Apparently that wonderful "band" system was cancelled in 2000, I have no idea what the alternative system is.

Mother likes to remind me that I really am a band 5 basketweaver, and that I really should not harbour too much ambitions about life. There is wisdom in that that I failed to learn from, and I will have an unhappy life because of it.

Mo Pics

Got some day 3 pics, still no videos yet.

You democratic weenies

The other day I walked by a newspaper stand, and on the SCMP's (HK's leading English newspaper) front page was an article about mainland's conditions for universal suffrage in HK. It was based on a writing from a mainland law expert.

The conditions include:

- Article 23 has not been passed;
- insufficient patriotic education;
- lack of community consensus;
- too soon for the redistribution of economic power;
- no law in place to govern political parties;
- equal participation in politics not yet achieved.

...said the Democratic Party was misleading Hong Kong people through "blind worship of universal suffrage", which was "just one kind of democracy".

He said Hitler and Mussolini had come to power through elections and were "experts at inciting people’s emotions". Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian had used his election-eve shooting to play on the emotions of voters.

"Even in the United States, which has 200 years of democratic history, most of its presidents were only of mediocre calibre. There have been few outstanding or talented ones," he said.

Umm.. what a brilliant piece of writing... umm.. I always thought that these HK people are not patriotic enough to vote... It'll be like Canada allowing the existence of Bloc and Parti Quebecois, see how counter productive it can be.... HK needs the stability of a one party system... yeah...

Hot Spot!

We went down to the busy mall called Times Square at Causeway Bay to look for a spare battery and charger for my camera. We looked through 9 glorious floors of shopping mall, and finally a sales person tried his best to outfit me with some aftermarket look alike products, saying "if you wedge it together it'll work"... I'm afraid I'll have to keep looking.

Anyway, I was wondering why there aren't any signs for Wifi hotspots or some sort of internet cafes.. It seems that hotspots are so pervasive around here that you can pretty much assume there is one around ay public place. I could not obtain an IP from i-Cable provider, so I ended up connecting to PCCW HKD$48 for 200 minutes.
I only have enough time to upload some scaled down pictures, the videos will have to wait due to bad Codec on my tablet.

So here they are : Day1 Day2

Hoity-Toity

Dad drove us to the members only HK Jockey Club for dinner, they have a marche/movenpick sort of food court. The place is intentionally exclusive, high on top of Happy Valley on a steep road, you can't get there without a car. The parking lot is full of shiny Porches, Mercs, BMWs, Volvos, Land Rovers, and other status symbols.
I didn't see a hummer though.

The food court is pretty family friendly, kids running around everywhere. You can tell how hoity the place is by the high domestic helper to family ratio. There were a few families with more than 1 helper, and there was a family that had 2 helpers for the 3 family members!

I am sort of torn about this domestic helper issue, Hong Kong imports tens of thousands of them from the Philipines. Most of them are treated badly and living in terrable living conditions, but I guess it is worth it economically, or else these Filipinos would not come.

HK people in general are a exploitative bunch, so these foreign women are no exception: They are alone without family support, can't speak Cantonese, and look different. So there are horror stories that surface once in a while, but I'm pretty sure it's just the tip of the iceberg.
HK is a crowded place, so family of 4 packing into a 1000 sqr-ft flat is considered to be quite well off. But where can you fit a domestic worker with under 1000sqrft? They end up literally sleeping in closets and storage rooms.
The exploitative attitute of the HK people will not change any time soon, so I think they should just stop importing people into such compromising situations.
But according to some stats, there are 140,000 Filipino workers in HK, stopping this practice will have tremendous economic impact to HK and Philipines.

Lunch and an accidental reunion

We went up to Caine road to grab a cheap bite to eat. We had some pretty traditional HK stuff for HKD$30 each (CAD$4.3), drink included.

Then the store keeper recognized us, and made chat with us. Brother Hung, as we call him, is a second cousin of sorts. Apparently his aunt decided to open up this crack in the wall restaurant, and he works in it. It's so small that you actually have to walk outside around the building to access the men's washroom (not that rare, actually).

Just by the sheer number of shops you see, you can tell the entrepreneurial spirit is built into the culture. Starting a business is really no big deal, it's just a living here.

SOHO

I don't know why they need to make a district called SOHO to sound like London or New York or something. But this area is choke full of it's own character. Shops and vending booths practically bursting onto the sidewalk, thousands of different stores line the streets in this neighbourhood.

Mom and I searched here in vain to look for a spare battery for my Xacti camera. The camera store owner even said he uses the same model, but he's all sold out. There is a whole row of camera shops, right next to the stone steps street where we had breakfast this morning. Apparently, my dad used to run up and down this street for fun when he was a small child, and my uncle fell
.

No China

I am caught in an administrative limbo, the pass to go into China will take 12 work days to process instead of the expected 3 days. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it, I cannot try to apply for a visa using my Canadian passport either, because I never announced to the central government that I want to give up my Chinese citizenship.

I am pretty upset, I will not be able to see China at the level of detail that I wanted, and I will have to reschedule some flights if I want to see China at all. I suppose I'll have to spread any anti-revolutionary thoughts here in HK only.

Mom said that we should go to see India instead, because she wants to see the Taj Mahal.

The smart HKID process was a breeze compared to the "return to China" permit. I can write in English, instead of having to squeeze any Chinese characters out. I went in, and I was done within the hour.

The smart HKID office opens till 9pm tonigh, 9pm on a Saturday! How many Canadian government offices open on Saturday, let alone 9pm? Amazing.

I noticed an anti-racism poster in the office, strange, that a government is concerned about racial discrimination in a monocultural society.

5.5 day work week

I almost forgot, the standard work week is 9-5 Monday to Friday, 9-1 Saturday here in HK. So my mother and I went with father to grab some Chinese style breakfast, it was a quick stroll down the escalator to the top of central, less than 10 minutes. Weather was hot and rainy.

After some banter between my mom and dad, we headed off to the IFC mall to burn some time until the Chinese Travel Center opens at 9am. Mom made me walk through the mall, she said I should see what stores are in there. So I went through 3 out of 4 floors of it, it's a huge, beautiful, hi-class mall, they have Godiva. Apparently the rent there is double that of other premium mall spaces. It helps that it's sitting right on top of the Hong Kong subway/airport checkin station.

I didn't feel comfortable walking through the mall before it opens, stores are all closed and people are just walking through it to get to work. There were security staff dressed in black suits and ear bud communicators every twenty paces, I felt very uncomfortable, I don't like their suspecting eyes. What's wrong with a young guy with shaved head walking through your high class mall before it opens?

Computing in Chinese

It's nice that all the websites and browser now automatically detect my locale and language settings. But I think I can get sick of reading Chinese windows quick.

For example, the create new post link on Blogger says "build", wtf is that supposed to mean?

Luggage

Apparently, they screwed up writing down the addess I stay at, so they delivered it to the other side of the island. It was around 12:30am when they actually delivered my backpack back to me. Yay, real cotton undies.

My parent's couldn't get a cable modem installed because the technician said the wire is too noisy, and they didn't want to subscribe to the competition's DSL service, so they stuck with dial up..

It's just a waste of time to upload pictures and movies through dial up, I'll have to upload them when I find a faster connection.

What I learned from my last trip though, is that pictures should be sorted as soon as possible, because they stack up fast.

Tomorrow: apply for new Hong Kong smart card ID, and the pass to go into China.

Once I get the smart card HKID, I will not need to see customs officials when coming to HK, there are automatic kiosks for that function. This is the kind of card that Bush wants to implement at the US/Canadian border.

Apparently, if you have a choice, you should always go with the HK pass to go into China instead of using the Canadian passport. Or else you can be given the gwai lo treatment, and that can't be a good thing.

The application for the China pass is all electronic, you walk into the kiosk, look at the camera and use the touch screen --- same technology that will be used to sell Olympic tickets in Beijing.

Climb the hill to get home

After dinner dad went back to his office to do more work, so me and my mom decided to take the treacherous climb back home, 135 meters elevation in 1 km.

Actually, we just took a series of escalators up to Conduit Road where we stay. It's a damn good idea, because it moves the residents up and down the hill without clogging up the roads. Hmm, suddenly that Toronto bike tubes idea doesn't sound so strange anymore.

This escalator path actually livened up the businesses along the path, all kinds of cafe's, bars and salons are openned there. Because all the expat gwai-lo's and upper middle class live up at mid level on the hill.

Speaking of expats, lots of them here in central, you have expat Americans, F.I.L.T.H.'s (Failed in London Try Hong Kong), Indians, etc. Gives me a glimmer of hope that I can survive here if I had to.

Dinner

We took the minibus again to meet dad for dinner in the basement of Connaught Center, my favorite building when I was little. Just because it's has circlar windows and looks like a Go gameboard, I think.

We had crab with sweet vinegar, it was great. I took the 2 pieces that I intend to have, and got a hairy eyeball and a scolding from dad. You see, in Chinese culture, the main courses are shared with everyone at the table, so you don't just take a couple of pieces and pass the plate on, you just take one piece at a time. Otherwise you can appear rude and hoarding food.

Keep that in mind.

Clean

I really can use a shower after the long flight, and just being in HK's hot humid weather. But I don't have my luggage, no change of undies, mom sympathetically suggested that I can take some of dad's.... No.. Way...

So I broke down and opened a packet of 7 Eleven's Disposable Panties for Men, Free Size. Dispite the fact that I have touted the virtues of such an invention, I have never actually used one in my life. I really think of it as a last resort sort of thing, there is something about the fact that it's made of paper, that it's called panties, and it's "Specially selected and distributed by The Dairy Farm Company Limited" that makes me want to avoid it.



It's one size fit all, and it's meant to be a travelling sort of product, so it doesn't give me the ... coverage that my briefs usually have. Don't get me wrong, it's providing support for the right places, but I still feel that my ass is half hanging out.

Last leg home

Well, not really, I never really "lived" in this new apartment in the mid level section of Hong Kong Island. We used to live down the street from here when I was little.

The airport train takes you into the heart of central, I really can't say "downtown" because the central business areas' are spread out on both HK Island side and Kowloon penninsula side. It's pretty convenient, you can actually check in you luggage in central station, and go directly into the terminal.

After the train, me and mom hopped on a minibus, a quick tag of the octopus card and off we go. (sort of like Dexit from downtown Toronto, except you can use it to pay for transportation as well) Minibuses are really cool, it's almost like taxi, it takes you places where regular buses don't. The red minibuses can roam on any route the driver wants. The green minibus took us directly home for HKD$5, almost right at the doorstep.

Where's my mom

I wrote down my mother's cell number wrong, and I couldn't get in touch with my father. I'm 2 hours late, and I have no idea where my mom is.
What am I to do? Turned on my super expensive roaming and called cousin Brian, but he didn't have my mother's cell. Good news is, he and his wife are expecting a baby.

Eventually mom found me, so now all of you know that the HK airport has arrival halls A&B. There is a screen that shows you both halls, but if you missed it, you're in for some confusion and roaming charges.

Luggage Disaster

Not only that we had a delay before take off, they also had to send 70 pieces of luggages on the next plane. After 30 minutes staring at the carousel, then I get to line up with the other 69 unhappy passengers to fill out forms to get my backpack delivered.

Mom was waiting outside. 2 hours, probably.

Note to self:
Pack at least a change of underwear and toothbrush/paste in your carry on luggage.

Long Flight

I strategically deprived myself of sleep the night before, playing GuildWars so that I can sleep on the plane and get a head start on the jet lag.

I got a window seat and went to sleep right away before the safety videos.
An hour later something woke me up and we are not even in the air yet, I thought it was a pretty lame bad dream. But apparently they had a problem starting an engine and spent the whole hour fixing it. I was suddenly overcame with a sense of dread, like I really shouldn't be on this plane, I really should not leave Toronto for so long, it's a bad idea.

The engineers have just fixed the engine and cleared the aircraft to fly the next 16 hours to Hong Kong.

Sweet, this is a direct flight from Toronto to Hong Kong with no stops, so if we had to land somewhere around the north pole, I'd be pissed.

Anyway, this flight path gave me a good view of northern Ontario, and perhaps some of NWT. There are lakes everywhere, roads weaving in and out of communities, I just kept thinking that it's really spread out and I don't want to live there. After an hour or so of staring at the ground, it became very bright outside and I had to close the window shade. Probably clouds, or ice.

The lady who sat next to me is a healthcare worker from Waterloo, she's going back to the Philipinnes for a month. She brought up the usual immigrant story, used to be a professional, credentials mean nothing over here, no money to study and get recertified. She said she didn't want to go back to school anyway, and being an RN really isn't worth the trouble.

Drifts back to sleep, interrupted by airline port, airline instant noodle, airline smoked salmon salad and airline beef. Peeked outside, still bright with whiteness.

Watched the end of Pride and Prejudice, life is good if you are in an aristocratic family. Nice houses, servants, wicked line dance parties with Keira Knightley.

Sitting on a chair for 16 hours sounds like a relaxing activity, but it's not, my ass hurts. I was however, served by the 2 prettiest Air Canada attendents I have seen, not the usual grumpy old francaphone guys. This time it's a young Chinese girl with braces and a lush lipped Angelina look-a-like. Sorry guys, no pictures.

Waiting for the flight

As I sit there enjoying my reasonably priced breakfast burito, I noticed this old man(>60's) siting next to me listening to his mp3 player and reading latest issue of Maxim. I wonder how many copies of Maxim are sold at airports to married men who are alone for the next couple of days.

Leaving for the flight

I procrastinated until the last minute to pack, took me an hour and then I'm off around 7:30am (2hr15m before flight) in a taxi.

On the way there, I made small chats with the taxi driver. He's an Indian guy who's been driving for 2 years and he's mad as hell about it. Apparently he was also in Sydney before he came to Toronto.
Somewhere in our conversation I mentioned that Toronto is sort of nice place to live, then he just snapped, what's so good about living here? Transportation totally sucks compared to Sydney, the trains/subways there go everywhere. They keep complaining about not having enough population to support the infrastructure, but look at the traffic on the streets! it's packed! Government here is so bloody stupid. In Australia, car insurance is $400 per year, and the gas prices do not change minute by minute, so if you factor in the cost of transportation, plus the fact that you don't have a cold winter, it's cheaper to live there, and those little things keep people happy.

I guess since he's a taxi driver, his perspective is transportation based. But he does have a good point. Sydney is just as cosmopolitan as Toronto, and the Australians also have a universal healthcare system.
I ran out of time, but I was going to tell him that, Toronto is nice to live in because I live there.

New Adventure

Well, I'm 7 days away from leaving for my next trip, it'll be the longest trip I've ever taken.

On April 27, I'll be leaving for Hong Kong, then do some sightseeing in China
On 17th May I'll be in Istanbul, then do some sightseeing in Europe
On June 15th I'll be in Vancouver, then do some surfing in Tofino
On June 27th I'll be back in Toronto.