Joyce’s Hong Kong Blog #4 Thursday, August 6 Rita from church called and had me meet her at the bus stop, then we walked to Sham Wan Towers to go swimming. Her complex is less than a 10 min. walk from our place. The facilities are beautiful. My swimsuit is pathetic—I haven’t worn it for several years. She offered to take me swimsuit shopping, which is great since she knows where the best stores are and how to get to them. I’m not ready to venture out on my own yet, except within our small area. In the evening we headed back to our small group. This time Mailing met us and we hailed a taxi together. Once again the dinner was delicious and abundant. The interaction was enthusiastic and inspiring. Rajiv even commented on how easy it is to lead our group since so many participate in the discussion. Friday, August 7 I had notes and postcards to mail, so I got up my nerve and rode the minibus to Aberdeen. I found the post office with no trouble, then noticed a mall by the bus stop. There’s lots of construction going on near the bus stop, so we hadn’t noticed it before. As malls go, it’s quite small, but it has the requisite shoe and handbag stores in it. It amazes me that there can be that many shoe and purse stores around. I guess in a land where people walk a lot, the shoes wear out quickly. And since people carry things with them rather than throwing items into the trunk of the car, big purses are popular. It also had several snack stores. These seem to be quite popular and they have many, many snacks I’ve never seen before. Some I might try some day, and some I’ll never try, like the seaweed strips! After exploring the upper three floors, I went down to the large Wellcome Store (yes, that is how they spell it here) in the basement. We’ve been trying to find Hunts spaghetti sauce, so I thought it might be big enough to carry the Hunts. It wasn’t, but there was a very blond young woman in the store. I asked her if she spoke English, and she did. Come to find out she’s from Moscow and visiting her Australian boyfriend who works in HK. Since he works during the day, she’s been exploring HK by herself. She’s braver than me! I’m still staying close to home. Her British English was almost perfect. That evening Jimmy attended the conversation group again and Edwin returned. I had never met him. He brought Eva, who was new. They bought dinner and I was pleased to see several tossed salads among the dishes. I haven’t seen lettuce in the stores or markets and these were nice dark lettuce leaves, not iceberg lettuce. Bacon pieces and croutons made it more inviting so I dug in. After a few bites I started thinking something was fishy. Real fishy. In fact, the “bacon” was fish! It really looked like bacon. It did not add anything to the salad, but I gallantly consumed every bite anyway. The group broke up at 9 P.M. because DeliFrance closed and we walked to the MTR station. When walking downtown I feel like I’m in one of those corn mazes that are popular in the states in October. Only imagine that the stalks are 30 stories high, that there are narrow paths next to the stalks with so many people you keep bumping into them, and with buses and taxis whizzing by in the middle of each row just inches from you. I finally figured out that one reason the traffic is so intimidating here is because there are no parked cars between the sidewalk and the road, and the sidewalks are narrow. We truly are closer to the traffic than in the states. Since I can’t see the Rocky Mountains to the West, and even during the day the sun can rarely be seen from the sidewalk, I can’t ever seem to figure out which direction I’m headed; which means, I don’t know which side of the road I need to be on in order to get onto a bus heading in the right direction. Ernest is pointing out landmarks to try to help me get oriented, but it’s slow going! Ernest and I jumped onto the MTR (the subway) and headed NE to Kowloon which is on the mainland, but near Hong Kong Island. We rode on two different MTR lines. Fortunately, the lines are color coded and each transfer can be made at two adjacent stations. That way, if you aren’t paying attention and miss the first station, you can still transfer at the next one. Actually, I think they have the two spots so that the crowds aren’t all trying to get on and off at the same place, but it is nice to have a second chance. They have sophisticated maps on the wall that show where you are and which direction you are going. Very helpful!! On the MTR you scan your Octopus card when you get on AND when you get off so that you are charged for the distance you travel. We got off the MTR under a mall and then went to the side of the building where there was access to a housing estate of 11 apartment towers. It was beautiful with columns, arches and greenery. We found the right apartment and looked at another wardrobe. It’s quite tall but fits our décor so we gave the man a down payment and headed home. Saturday, August 8 Erica came over at 10:30 with palmello. It has a green skin and is similar to a large grapefruit. Ours was a bit tart so the part I ate after Erica left, I dipped into sugar. We just chatted. She said that after 2 hours with us she begins to think in English. That’s good! We purchased a new curling iron and decided to try to return the old one. The warranty said we had to return it to the authorized importer who is located in an industrial area. We hopped on the bus and headed toward Kowloon again. From the S side of Hong Kong Island where we live, you can either take a bus NW along the bay that stops often to pick up more passengers, or you can take the short cut through the mountain. We took the shortcut. Alas and alack, it was Sat. afternoon and the traffic was horrific. We got stuck in the tunnel for a half an hour. The man in the car in front of us must have dozed off a few times because he didn’t always creep forward when the bus in front of him moved. After arriving in Kowloon, we walked awhile but got turned around. By time we found the place, it was 4 P.M and they had closed. Then we walked to a large mall, the Mega Box. All in all we think we walked about 5 miles! My feet were complaining and it was hot and humid! A “do it yourself” store inside the mall, B & Q (like Home Depot) was going out of business and everything was 40% off. We walked around both floors but didn’t find anything we needed or wanted. Unlike the states, people in Hong Kong don’t tend to “do it themselves,” which is why the store is going out of business! The mall had some cute, life size cartoon figures and displays in the center. Parents were taking pictures of their kids and many teens were taking pictures of each other. Upstairs they had a safari theme area with an elephant, a zebra and other animals that moved, and again, many picture takers. We went outside the mall and I was hurrying to catch the shuttle to the MTR. Ernest grabbed my arm and showed me the line, which was on the other side of the mall doors from where the bus was parked. We got into line which disappeared and wove its way down a hall and back and forth. I felt like I was in a Disneyland ride line! Finally we got to the front of the line and hopped on the shuttle which took us to another big mall which had an MTR (subway) station. We rode it under the bay then caught a bus to head home. Sunday, August 9 Today was Ernest’s day to teach Sunday School, which runs after the singing, during the sermon. He rotates with some other teachers about 1x per month. The kids range in age from 7 to 12. There were four girls who are regulars and there were two new boys. One had just recently moved here from Seattle, an ABC we think, (American Born Chinese) and the other one had just moved from England. (Usually there are more kids, but it is August in Hong Kong.) The lesson went well and I enjoyed participating. Afterwards we chatted for quite awhile; the people are friendly and I’m beginning to remember a few names. When we got back to Aberdeen, we rode the ferry to Ap Lei Chau and decided to walk through the open market. It’s only one side of one row since on the other side is the municipal building which houses the fish market, a restaurant, a sports center, and a library. A voice said, “Hi, Joyce.” I looked around and (fortunately) recognized Wendy, a young lady I had met on the elevator in our building. Her English is halting, but she is very friendly and I can understand her. She was heading to the library. One of the vegetable booths has a cat and a kitten tied with short ropes to a pole. I always feel sorry for them. We bought some mushrooms and tomatoes so we could have egg omelets. I have discovered that the red tomatoes are usually green inside, but if you leave them out for 3 or 4 days, the insides turn red. After coming home and changing, we walked up to South Horizons to buy the bookcase from the Australian couple. It was 3 P.M. and hot. Tony had taken it apart, but it took Ernest about ½ an hour to wrap it up and tie it to the hand truck. We were in the hall because their flat was full of boxes in preparation for their move. The hall was hot and by time Ernest had it ready, his clothes were almost completely wet. I spent the time wiping my face and neck with a tissue. We headed home the long way, following the road, to avoid the stairs. This time Ernest padded his shoulder a bit with our cloth shopping bags, which we always take with us, so his shoulder wasn’t as sore as last time. When were back in Ap Lei Chau, almost to the bottom of the hill, we saw a group of about 8 people coming toward us. We moved over toward the stairs to let them by and to give Ernest a break. After they passed us, they sent their 11 or 12 yr. old girl back to tell us, “There is a slope.” I’m sure they thought we were trying to figure out how to get the bookcase and cart down the stairs and we didn’t realize the sidewalk continued to slope down around the corner. What a kind gesture. I’m pretty sure they live in our building, but there are so many new faces… In general the people in Hong Kong are reserved. They don’t tend to say “hi” to strangers. Even though many of them speak English, they aren’t generally confident enough to try to speak it. So we were touched that this family/group took the time to help us out. After Ernest got the bookcase set up and it had cooled down a little bit, we decided to walk back up to South Horizons to see if we could find some of the illusive spaghetti sauce. There’s a large Park ‘n Shop there. In the mall there is a chain store, Ecosway. It’s a bit like Sam’s or Costco where you get a discount if you join, however it’s quite small. We found a sauce packet for fish that doesn’t have MSG in it. Hooray. Almost everything here has MSG and Ernest is very allergic to it. We did find the Hunt’s spaghetti sauce in the Park ‘n Shop, and headed home. I’m sure the walking is good for me, but it gets old quickly! Monday, August 10 It was rainy today, but the typhoon that devastated Taiwan bypassed us, for which we are grateful. That got me wondering about the hill behind us. What if there’s a mud slide and the hill behind us washes us into the bay? (There are lots of new things to worry about here!) Anyway, I investigated and the sides of the hill that are sloped are covered with cement with openings for some trees. As we walk up the hill, some of the areas are flatter, like where the bamboo grove is, so there isn’t cement there. There seem to be extensive drain systems throughout HK, because after rains we can see waterfalls in different places on the hills across the bay, but they come down controlled areas, usually with cement “pathways” and canals for them to empty into. Some of the runoff must also empty into our bay because after a rain, our blue-green bay turns brown in places. When it’s pouring, we can barely see our side of the bay. I stayed home all day and did 3 loads of laundry, cleaned, chatted on the phone, returned e-mail, and organized our new bookcase and cabinet. Laundry Day is quite interesting. First, we have a front loader that fits under the kitchen counter. That, of course, means that there is no cabinet space under that counter. The washing machine is small so it holds about half a load of what our top loader did at home. Each load takes about 2 hours. THEN comes the exciting part. The Chinese like to hang their clothes outside so that the sun can touch them and sterilize them. Now remember, we are on the 18th floor. Guess what’s outside my living room window? A horizontal clothesline pole!! I’m supposed to LEAN OUT THE WINDOW and reach out with my laundry in my hand and pin it to the pole. My neighbors don’t seem to have a problem with the concept. They put their laundry on hangers and clip the hangers to the poles with very large, round clothespins. I have actually reached out and touched the pole just to see how far out I have to lean. TOO FAR. So, now to find an alternate way to dry clothes without a dryer. If I put the small items on our drying clothes rack and put it in the shower, hang the larger items over the shower sides, turn on the dehumidifier to the “hot” setting and close the bathroom door, the clothes will dry in about 4 hours. It does cause one to get in and out of the bathroom for its intended use much more quickly! We also have a long pole that stretches from the top of our shelf unit (a detachable part of our smaller wardrobe) across the room to the top shelf of our large wardrobe. However, we have bumped it off many times and been whacked by the pole, so we have to be careful. Ernest is going to devise a bracket system to keep it in place. When Ernest got home we went to Aberdeen, which means “Little Hong Kong” in Cantonese. I showed him where the post office is and the mall, then we walked the two short blocks to the plaza. On the way over I looked in a pastry shop window. They had the cutest round, individual cakes: the pink one looked like a pig head, the brown one like a bear, and the black one might have been a hedge hog. Ernest thought they were cartoon characters, and sure enough, the following day we saw the bear on a t.v. ad on the bus t.v. The double decker buses have t.v. screens which run ads in Cantonese. The plaza is called Aberdeen Town Square. It’s has huge, fancy gateways at either end, a large pool with a fountain in the center with wide sides surrounding the pool for people to sit on, tiled sidewalks and benches. Many people sit and talk in the plaza or play games. It’s quite pretty and, of course, it’s surrounded by stores and restaurants. It has a McDonalds and a KFC; shoe stores; a Mannings which is a personal care store; a sports store; a snack store; and a Japan Home which has dishes, towels, fans, pans, and a myriad of other household items. We bought a Korean snack called “Pocky.” They are about 6” long, thin, round cookies that taste a little bit like vanilla wafers, and are dipped in dark chocolate. They are quite tasty. Tuesday, August 11 Today was our day to pick-up the wardrobe in Kowloon. Thankfully Kowloon is way too far away for us to cart the wardrobe home with a hand truck. No entertainment for the locals today! I hopped a bus and Ernest jumped on two stops later. We transferred to the MTR and got back up to Kowloon. Coming up out of the MTR station we saw a Pie and Tart shop. The pies are smaller than Chicken Pot Pies, but larger than tarts. The variety was amazing. I passed on the ostrich meat pie and purchased a beef curry pie and a mushroom pie that actually had cheese on the top. They don’t eat much cheese here. Both were quite tasty and the mushroom pie was quite sweet. They also had a large variety of tarts. This time when we arrived at the entrance to the housing complex, the security guard followed the guidelines and Ernest had to sign a form, she filled out a form for us to carry with us stating where we were going, and then she alerted the security guard for the apartment we were going to. Those who lived there scanned their Octopus cards in order to gain entry. But, the guards were friendly, just formal. While Ernest broke down the wardrobe, I ate my pies and observed the apartment. The living room was slightly larger than ours. In the master bedroom you walked in the door and to the right the bed took up the entire space, wall to wall. There was room to the left for a wardrobe, but very little walking space. Their other two bedrooms were about 9x9 feet each. Two of the bedrooms had bay windows with large sills, maybe 2 feet across, that you could sit on. They also had a large tiled balcony on two sides of the house with great views. The balcony was almost as large as the house. Only the apartments on that floor, the fourth I think, had these extra large, tiled balconies. The other apartments had smaller, sliding glass door size balconies that extended out about 3 feet. Many of them had laundry drying on them. There was a view of the bay between two of the other high rises. From the balcony you could see a beautiful community pool and there were lots of trees and plants around the complex. The renter told us that the landlord was planning to sell it for cheap, only 4 million Hong Kong—about half a million U.S. dollars. Wow! We had hired “two men and a truck” again. The man in the apartment laughed and said he had used them for his move. They had quoted him a price, he himself had broken down most of the furniture and moved it out into the hall, and when the movers arrived, they still acted surprised at “all the work” and raised the price! ANYWAY, only one of them came, the man from India, and he got off the MTR at the wrong station, so he was quite late. Since the truck was busy, he called a van to take the wardrobe, which meant another wait. The wardrobe was very long and went over the back seat. Ernest got to ride the 30 minutes slumped down so it wouldn’t hit his head. But, we got it to our apartment with no trouble, so the locals missed out on a spectacle. Wednesday, August 12 Today I headed out on an adventure to Cheung Chau Island. Ernest had taken Amelia and me there in March, then later he went back and became acquainted with some missionaries who run a retreat center for missionaries up in the hills. About 30,000 people live on the island and motorized vehicles are not allowed. Ernest rode the bus to Central with me, about a 45 min. ride, to make sure I got on the right ferry. There is the slow ferry, 1 hour, and the fast ferry, ½ hr. Sally met me at the ferry and we began the walk to the center. As we walked up the narrow paths in the village with our umbrellas up, they kept bumping the people’s umbrellas who were going down the paths. I was wondering about mud, but the paths were cement the entire 20 min. walk up the hill. We had a nice chat over tea with cream. As I headed back down the path, I heard drums and cymbals clanging and could see a procession coming. I moved to the side where I could get my umbrella out of the way and watched as they went by. I had just passed a temple that is either Taoist or Buddhist, so I’m sure they were headed there. Six men were balancing a large decorative box on a cart. It had incense burning in front of it and about 100 people were following it up the hill. After the procession passed, a man passed me going down the hill, so I quickly moved in behind him as he made a path through the rest of the followers. I grabbed some McDonalds chicken McNuggets just before boarding the ferry since the clock said I had 10 min. before it left and the Mickey Ds was right in front of the ferry. Back on HK Island I wandered around the IFC building, International Finance Center. There were many ritzy stores and they even had a trio playing in the mall center, a pianist, a bass fiddle, and a violinist. I purchased an Anzac Biscuit “I Scream” gelato, which is just an ice cream cone. It was a very sweet vanilla ice cream with tiny nuts in it with a touch of coconut flavor. I found my way to the MTR, but ended up in the orange line. I knew I didn’t want to go to Disneyland, so I rode the escalator back up the stairs and found a customer service person who pointed me in the right direction. There were little shops all along the way into the MTR and also after the Octopus scanner. Then I walked a very long way and also rode several moving conveyors. It was very much like being in an airport only there were no windows to look out since it was underground. I found the purple line and got on and off without any other trouble. I had planned to visit the XanGo office anyway, but while I was riding the ferry Sunita had called and asked me to pick up 3 cases of juice for her. I hadn't taken my credit card with me since I haven’t needed it since I arrived and I wasn’t planning to buy anything when I left home. Ernest had to fax over his # and signature before I could buy anything which took quite awhile. In the mean time, Sunita’s driver was waiting for me in a hotel parking lot a city block away, but he had to keep leaving and driving around the block so the security guard wouldn’t kick him out. Amy, the lady helping me, offered to walk with me to the hotel since I had never been there and because I couldn’t carry 3 boxes by myself. We found the car without much trouble and were relieved to finally connect with the driver. Amy showed me where to line up for the bus home, and I made it back home without any trouble.