The (Modernized) World of Suzie Wong!

(That's actually the title of a book, sans modernized, written about Hong Kong way back in the 1950s. I enjoyed it; however, it isn't what I'd call "P.C." There is some debate about how the book affected stereotypes surrounding East Asian women. It is an interesting read nevertheless, especially comparing the Hong Kong I experienced to the world it was over 50 years ago! Ok, onward and be warned: This is going to be one hell of a long entry. I'm sorry!)

My trip to Hong Kong was, in a word, spectacular. The sheer volume of the place was a bit overwhelming at first, especially coming from oh-so isolated Amakusa, as was the ever present sticky humidity, but Honk Kong has a presence that draws you in almost against your will. Maybe it's the history, maybe it's the unique blend of people residing in this compact, bustling place, maybe... who knows. It's definitely one of a kind and a place best experienced in person. Not even the power of the written word can do it justice. I invite you all to save up and make the journey yourselves, then you'll understand!

Our plane landed in the late afternoon on Saturday. The trip itself was amazing! Cathay Pacific has the best service of any airline I've even traveled with. On the 4 hour flight to HK, (with a layover in Taipei) we were given TWO, really tasty meals and, wait for it, FREE beer and wine. I almost didn't want to get off the plane, a definite first for me! The airport was vast and a bit intimidating, the customs personnel were even more brusque than usual, and a seemingly solid wall of smoldering humidity greeted us as we walked outside... yes, we were not in Japan anymore, Toto! Luckily, we quickly found the bus we were told to take to the hotel and (JOY!) it was a double-decker! Unfortunately, the bus driver seemed to believe that traveling at any speed over (what seemed to be) 40 miles an hour was completely out of the question. Thus it took us F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to get to the damn bus stop; however, on the bright side, it gave us ample opportunity to gawk and point and be 100% silly tourists. That was fun!

The first major dilemma we faced in our travels was finding the freaking hotel. I'd booked the place because it was cheap and seemed to be a pretty central location. (Aye to the former, nay to the latter, alas!) We'd written down directions and everything, so I thought we'd be ok. HA! Overly confident, that's what I was! The directions said something to the effect of "get off at the Saigo stop. Walk back 50 meters and take a right on such and such street. The Ajisan Guesthouse will be on your right." What we didn't know, and apparently the Ajisan didn't know either since they gave us the directions, was that our damn bus stopped at a DIFFERENT Saigo stop. After we'd walked for a good 100 meters we were starting to get a bit concerned... and annoyed because dragging luggage in a crazy busy city in 150% humidity is the opposite of fun! Luckily there was a big department store right on our path, so we slogged in and inquired at the help desk. (By the by, these help desk ladies were the ONLY friendly help desk people I came across in HK. I do mean only!) They consulted a few maps and were finally able to point us in the right direction. A few more minutes of searching and confusion followed, the hotel was in a residential building which made it more difficult, but we finally found the place and checked in.

A note on the hotel is absolutely essential. This place was hilarious and mildly ghetto. Our room was tiny, tiny, think NYCity apartment tiny! There were two bed with just over a foot of space dividing them. The air conditioner worked just fine but it was really, REALLY noisy! We couldn't have the thing on at night because it was so loud! Our bathroom was tiny and had a pair of rubber shoes in it. These were necessary because the bathroom WAS the shower as well. When either of us took a shower, (turning the water heater on 30 mins before, of course), everything got wet: the toilet, the tp if we forgot to put it up, the sink, everything! The real kicker came on the second or third day when we wanted to charge the batteries for our cameras. Sorry, folks, no can do! You see, our room didn't have any outlets! Sheesh, who's ever heard of a hotel room with no outlets?! I mean, wtf?! Well, at least it was cheap... and we do get what we pay for, don't we! :)

OK! Moving on! We were crazy busy every day we were in HK. We usually left the hotel at around 8:30-9 in the morning and didn't get back until after 8 every night. This was a bit of a problem when it came to breakfast since most places in HK, including Starbucks, didn't open until after 10. Thank goodness for small bakeries and 24-hr 7-11s, that's all I have to say! Our first night out and about, after we finally found the thrice-blasted hotel, we just wondered around and took everything in. There were so many lights everywhere that I seriously didn't realize the sun had gone down until we passed a side street and I noticed it was dark. That first night consisted of a lot of wondering and ogling at everything! We saw two really big shopping centers, (YIPPEE!) the World Trade Center and Times Square. Unfortunately, the East Asian obsession with labels runs rampant in HK as well, so I didn't even want to go into any of the stores for fear of soiling a $1,000 garment with my dirty, bourgeoisie hands! (Ok, I'm overstating it, but seriously, I'm scared to touch expensive things!) After a yummy dinner, where I first realized that there is a difference between Japanese and Chinese rice AND chopsticks, we called it a night. It had a been a long day and traveling is exhausting.

The next day, we got up early and set out. We'd decided to take the Peak Tram(http://www.thepeak.com.hk/full/en/peak_tram.php) up Victoria's Peak, the place where all the rich people lived back in the day. It was on this day that we first realized that nothing was open before 10. We passed a Starbucks at just before 9am and the doors were locked, it was a sad thing. After searching for what felt like hours, we finally found an open coffee shop just around the corner from the Peak Tram. It was delicious... partly because I was freaking starving and partly because I don't get to indulge in coffee shop food on Amakusa so I miss it. Then we headed to the Peak Tram. It was really cool! It goes up the mountain at a pretty good pace and, man!, that mountain is steep! I would hate to walk up that thing, my legs hurt even thinking about it! It took about 20 or so minutes to get to the top (don't worry, I took pics!) and then it took another 10-15 mins to get to the top of the building and look down. We persevered, made it to the top, and looked down upon the beautiful... fog. That's right, we couldn't see a gosh darn thing. It was windy and cold too. But, dammit, we made it and it was neat! We also walked all the way around the top of the mountain on this gorgeous walking path. I was struck by how many foreigners were around, walking the path for exercise because they live there or were crazy tourists like ourselves. (There just aren't that many gaijin on Amakusa, so I know every non-Japanese on the island!) After all that walking we were getting pretty hungry so we decided to head back down and find some reasonably priced food. The restaurants on the Peak looked yummy, but they were not priced for people traveling on a budget.

We took the tram back down, (it was even more fun going down! The buildings look sideways!) thanked our lucky stars that we got there early, (the line waiting to get on the tram was now HUGE) and headed out to get some dim sum. City Hall's Maxin Palace is a famous and popular dim sum restaurant, so we decided to eat there. The wait was a testament to it's popularity, we must've waited for a good 40 mins for a table, but it was well worth it. Dim sum, steamed buns filled with various things, is delicious! I couldn't believe how good the food was! The service was a bit iffy and, well, strange. These ladies walked around pushing carts of different kinds of dim sum. They stopped at tables and asked us if we wanted anything. We got a good variety from the first lady, two of three different kinds, but she wouldn't leave. She really wanted us to take some pork filled bums. I don't eat pork, Erin already had some, so we didn't want anymore. I said no a couple of times, she kept asking, I said no again, she then said "please" and tried to put it on our table! I had to physically stop her and say "NO NO NO NO!" It was a bit shocking! Aside from that, everything was wonderful!

After lunch we headed to find the world's longest outdoor escalator. It was created for the people who live on the mid-levels yet who work in the city. In the morning, the escalator goes down and in the afternoon it changes and goes up. Super cool, I loved it! We got off at Nathan Rd. to look at the various hip stores and antique shops that made the street famous. I got an awesome dragon bracelet too, yes! At the end of the street, after an hour or so of browsing, we found Man Mo Temple. It was filled to the brim with incense! Incense coils on the ceiling, huge sticks of it in pots beneath the coils, and hundreds more in front of the shrines to Man and Mo. It was so different from the shrines that I'm used to in Japan. This place was just ornate, with gold, green, and red from floor to ceiling! Absolutely beautiful! By this time, lunch was but a distant memory, so we headed out to find some food. We ended up in the Wan Chai district, a place of ill-repute in the olden days, because I'd read about Agave, a Mexican food restuarant, and I had to go. It was everything I could've hoped for! There was even a friendly waitress, which is an oddity and not the norm in HK... in my opinion anyway. We drank margaritas, munched on amazing nachos, (thus temporarily satisfying my Mexican food craving) and had an absolute blast! There was a British style pub across the street, so we hit that place up afterwards and took a taxi home in the wee hours of the morning. A great second day!

Monday dawned and we were a bit, ahem, sleepy but the humidity made it pretty difficult to sleep in! Thus we headed out to make the best of the day. We took the Star Ferry from HK island to Kowloon on the mainland. Kowloon is a whole different animal! Much more touristy and much less business-y. I've heard that a lot of locals avoid the place like the plague because of the sheer number of tourists! I thought it was really fun though. We went to The Peninsula, an old and fancy hotel, to have partake in it's famous afternoon tea. I'd read that dress was casual, and we were walking all day anyway, so we were just in jeans and shirts. After I saw the place; however, I realized that we might be a tad underdressed! This hotel was freaking gorgous. I mean, it had marble pillars and such! It even had designer stores on the first floor! Yikes! They still sat us and everything, but we were placed in a back corner where no one could see us. The tea and scones were to die for, but the service people, with one exception, completely ignored us. A classic example of people judging a book by it's cover. My money is just as good as anyone else's, is it not! I threw down a good chunk of change on that meal! Anyhoo, I left with my belly satisfied but my ego slightly bruised.

Post-tea, we wandered around Kowloon, did some shopping, and slowly meandered over to the relatively new HK Musuem of History. (I promised my mother that I wouldn't just shop the entire time I was in HK!) This was a really awesome museum! The first room was built up to look like HK back in the day before the day. I'm taking pre-dinosaurs here! Really cool. Each room progressed through the history of the little island to the present day. Awesome, awesome museum. I was shocked by one room; however, it was the one dealing with the Japanese occupation and subsequent atrocities committed over the next few years under their rule. It was shocking. What makes it even worse is the fact that this event, and others similar, are completely left out of Japanese history books. They just pretend it didn't happen. Erin said she had some Japanese exchange students in her Japanese history class while she was in school, (she's from Australia, btw) and they knew nothing about this period in their country's history. That's just mind-blowing. ( I could say a lot more about his particular subject, but I'll save that for another blog!) Unfortunately, we had to rush through the last part of the exhibit because we wanted to see the largest, daily light show in the world. Every night, 33 buildings on HK island on Kowloon become a part of what has to be the coolest, most awesome light show I've ever seen. Ever. It's just too great, I have to try to put a pic here to illustrate how marvelous it is!

Of course, this picture doesn't do it justice. I didn't have a tripod so I had to do the best I can! Anyway, it completely blew us away! After it was over, (it ran for about 20 mins) we wondered down along the Avenue of Stars (HK's version of Hollywood's stars) and took pictures with Bruce Lee's, Jet Li's and Jackie Chan's stars. I felt the kung fu force flowing through me! We also made it over to Knutsford Terrace, the haven of hip ,touristy restaurants and bars, and I endulged in my first real pizza in months. It was so tasty and delicious that it almost brought tears to my eyes! AND THERE WAS NO CORN!!! YES! NO CORN!!!! I was happy. :) It was a very pleasant way to end Monday.

Tuesday we left even earlier than usual because we were heading to Lantau island to see the world's largest ourdoor buddha. (Has anyone else noticed how often I've used world's largest!?) We took the subway out to the end of the line and followed the line of people headed to HK's newest attraction, the Ngong Ping cable car! It's really clever and fun. Basically you get on the cable car on the mainland and ride it out over the ocean until in lands you on Lantau! So fun! My pleasure was a bit spoiled; however, by the people who were put in the thing with us. Keep in mind, the cable car is not that big. Four people on either side, eight total, and the only windows that can be opened are tiny, little ones at the top of the car. We had the dismal luck to be placed with four very, very, very, VERY loud Chinese people. I mean LOUD. The other two people in the car, a British girl and a Japanese girl, were almost more annoyed than I was! The Japanese girl kept muttering about how this would never happen in Japan and how Japanese people need quiet. It was so funny! These loud-mouths were quite dense too, or just didn't care, because they didn't respond to any of the dirty looks we threw at them. My head was POUNDING by the time we got off, although I must say, the view from the ride was absolutely beautiful.

The cable car ride ended at the entrance of a fun, little faux-village. It was filled with tourist friendly resaturants and shops, complete with annoying sales people. (A note on sales people in HK. In my experience, he or she will latch onto you the minute you walk into the store and follow you around until you leave, trying to force you to try on or admire anything that you happen to glance at. Half the time I felt like they thought I was a shop-lifter or something. As a former sales associate, let me tell you that that is NOT the way to sell merchandise! All it does is make the customer want to leave asap!) After admiring the cute village and grabbing a quick bite at a coffee shop, we headed towards the buddha. Man, that thing was big! Please observe:

You will also kindly notice the massive amount of steps leading up to the buddha. On a hot, sunny day. With no breeze. Did I mention it was hot AND humid!? Luckily, I had my umbrella with me so I used it as a parasol... once I rememered I had it, that is. Half way up the freaking staircase. Sigh. Better late than never! MOVING ON! The buddha was really impressive. You can also walk under the statue and they have pictures from various stages of it's contruction. It was quite interesting and nice to get out of the sun as well! That long climb really burned off breakfast, so we started off to find lunch.

We'd purchased the optional vegetarian lunch offerend by the monastery on the island, (I'd read on-line that it was de-LISH) so off we went on a search for the restaurant... with stops at a shopping stall and temple along the way. Now, this restaurant has to be the absolute WORST managed place I've ever seen in my life. If I didn't know better, I would've sworn it was the first day the place had ever been open... and the first day the staff had worked at a restaurant... ever. We must've waited for at least an hour to get in and we couldn't go anywhere else because we'd already paid. Very frustrating. What made it even worse was the crowd of other people waiting to get it. They were so rude, it was unbelievable! I was sitting down and there were people almost standing on top of me, they crowded the podium where the host was and would not leave him alone. I could not believe it. (I don't want to sound rude or racist or anything, but the people in Hong Kong seem to be really, really ill-mannered!) When we were finally seated, the food was AMAZING. Definitely THE BEST food I had in HK, hands down. All vegetarian too, which made me quite happy! The huge crowd was still surrounding the door when we left, it was quite the experience! We were feeling quite full and tired after all that, so we headed back to the hotel (via a ferry. So fun!) and had a short rest before heading back out to Kowloon. I'd read about the Temple Street Night Market and we wanted to check it out. Did some shopping, some more shopping, a whole lot of bargaining, and left with many purchases made with purprisingly little pain to my wallet. Bargaining can be fun! However, it was now quite late so we decided to call it a night. There's something about being out in the hot, hot, hot sun all day AND climbing hundreds of stairs, that just tires a girl out, you know!

Wednesday dawned and we had big plans for our last day. Plans doomed to fail, alas, as the ferry ride to Macau was a bit pricier then we'd expected. We conferenced over sandwiches and decided to spend our last day wondering around the city and shopping til we dropped. Man, we walked our booties off that day! My feet, already sore and abused from the previous few days, were definitnely NOT happy with me after that! It was still a great day, though, we poked into small side streets, found and explored small antique shops, and tried to visit places we'd bypassed previously. It was a long, tiring day, so we chose to visit Victoria's Park, which was convienently close to our hotel, before heading out to dinner. We just wondered around the park, watched some guys playing with there remote control boats, found "laughing corner," (no laughter in any other area of the park, if you please!) and just relaxed. It was quite nice, definitely a needed break from the craziness that is the city! After we'd gotten our fill of pretty greenery and ornery cats, (I swear, this animal would NOT let me take his picture! He had some major 'tude!) we headed back to the hotel to get pretty. We'd already decided to get dressed up, head to a fun restaurant, and out to the many Lady's Nights that fell on Wednesday. It was such a fun night! We couldn't find any of the bars I'd written down, (I guess these places close pretty quickly.) so we headed back to Agave for some free margaritas!!! YUMMMMMYYY! I talked Erin into getting quesadillas as well, (side note: they apparently do not have quesadillas in Australia. I almost fell off my chair when Erin told me this. Can you imagine life without quesadillas!? Is that even living!?) We decided to stay there for a good long time, the music was good, the margaritas were free, there were funny people to watch, (e.g. accross the street from Agave was a strip club. A lot of the girls were standing outside looking bored because no one was inside. Any time a man walked by the lady who guarded the door literally jumped him, pulling on his arm and gesturing at the girls, it was hilarious! Inside the restaurant, I was also amused to see an older, maybe late 50's, gentleman meet up with a much, much younger woman who was almost wearing a shirt and really, really low cut jeans. I wonder what they have in common! AHEM!) and did I mention the free margaritas?! It was a wonderful way to end our time in Hong Kong!

Our last morning in Hong Kong, we'd promised ourselves that we'd go an eat Subway. (Never take Subway for granted! NEVER!!!) We checked out and headed back to the world's long elevator only to find... it was GOING THE WRONG WAY!!! It was still early enough for it to bring people down to work, not back up, so we were in a bit of a bind. Our desire for Subway was strong, stronger than our dislike of climbing stairs while lugging heavy suitcases, so we set off. That really sucked. There's no other way to say it. Sucked sucked sucked. Stupid humidity and stairs, grrr, I curse at you! However, we persevered and made it all the way to Subway! GO US! Poor Erin had a really big suitcase too, it was not the most fun we had on our trip but it was so worth it. Those Subway sandwiches were GOOOOOOOOD! After eating and feeling a bit rested, (our arms hurt. A lot. A lot a lot.) we bid adieu to Hong Kong and set off the airport and back to reality (if you can call my life in Japan "real") and the quiet beauty of Amakusa. Hong Kong was wonderful but I wasn't sad to leave. I think anything over 5 days might be a bit much, the city is just too overwhelming. Maybe that's why everyone who lives there seemed to be so rude, it was their reaction to the craziness that surrounds them. Who knows! All I know is, this in one city everyone should visit!

Here's a better view of the main tower. I wish that you could get a feel for the size of this place! The picture just doesn't do it justice!

<~Cherry trees lining the road to Jusanbutsu (13 Buddha) Park. Aren't they oh so lovely!

The cherry blossoms helped make Kumamoto Castle even more awe-inspiring! ~>

<~ The main tower of Kumamoto Castle. That place is HUGE and so, so very cool!! It's so different from anything I've seen in England or in the movies!

My long absence explained... sorta.

Well, my goodness! I just realized that I haven't written a thing since March 16th and that blows my mind. In my defense, for a long time there was absolutely, positively nothing going on. I went to work, I went home, I exercised, I ate dinner, and then it was bedtime. WOO-HOO!!! My exciting life in Japan! Then, after a long period of stagnation and mind-numbing routine, things got so busy that I didn't have time to write. My 3rd year students all graduated at the end of March, (I still miss them! Sniff!!) Joe came to visit the first week in April, school started again the following week, (meaning there were various enkais to attend, new teachers to meet, new students to freak out with my non-Japaneseness, (yes, I did make up the word, but it works so well!) a dance festival to get my groove on in, (hmmm, my English is getting worse and worse over here!) AND a trip to Hong Kong to plan. All in all, I was one busy little gaijin!
I do promise to write about my various adventures as soon as possible. My Hong Kong trip will be quite a long entry, but I'll get it up as soon as possible. Until that time, I shall make amends by posting pretty pictures of cherry blossoms (sakura) and Kumamoto castle. Dozo! :)