How can anyone live in Hong Kong?
Trip Start
Jan 30, 2007
1
44
816
Trip End
Dec 31, 2011
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Hong Kong,
China
Friday, January 11, 2008
The second thing is the smell. There is something distinctive about Hong Kong's scent. Maybe if you put putrid food scraps, Chinese medicine, sea spray, cat pee and fried squid in a bottle and mix with the drops of rain from an air-conditioning machine, maybe then you'll come close to the real fragrance of Hong Kong.
Third thing is the pace. I watch people walk along crowded streets. Everyone is on the move. Even the loiterers on Nathan Road, outside Chungking mansions change positions.
Fourth thing - everyone is either looking to make money, or to spend it. Shoppers who have ignored the guidebook warnings venture into Nathan Road electronics shops where there are no price tags, and the vendors are able to pay the high rents, thanks to naive travellers from Germany and Australia.
Fifth thing: there are a high percentage of ugly people, and a high percentage of beautiful people. The ugly pugs tend to be overweight or riding bicycles, on the look out for litter or bottles. The beautiful pretent not to notice the litter, plastic bottles or the lookers-on.
Sixth thing. In McDonalds there are people who amid the chrome and plastic and the musak, go to sleep, or at least try to sleep, because they have no where else to go.
Seventh thing is the noise. Even at night, in the early hours, in a small hotel room, I heard the rumble of traffic below, the drone of the air-conditioner, the clicking of a clock.
It is time to go.
Comments
love hong kong
Hey man
Just saw your HK blog, and even if we could talk in person, i fell like writing.
You and me live in the same town, it is a great time, almost paradise you can say.
Yet as most people travel to Lijiang from the big city to R&R, I am the opposite, I live here all year round, and as good as it is, it can get boring even tiring, so for i think of Hong Kong for R&R.
Its true after coming from our Shangrila, being faced with the sights and sounds of Hong Kong can be a great shock, and also staying in a tiny room, for the same price that it would cost you a months rent in lijiang, is terrible.
But i just need to walk around the golden mile, to feel extremly happy, maybe is because for most people HK is work and for me is vacation.
People often say, 'oh you must be rish if you like HK', or 'Oh you must love shopping', well i am not rich, and i like shopping but it is not my favourite thing, acctually when in Hong Kong i try to live by one rule, shopp as little as i can, and spend most of my money in booze, broads, and food.
And for those tree things Hong Kong is the best place.
What I love about HK,
Well the skyline for one, walking down the avenue of the stars by night, always takes my breath away, is the most beautiful thing.
And the view from the Peak is just amazing, how can you not love it?
The food, Hong Kong has the best food in china and no one can deny it, not only cantonese food is the best chinese food, i mean how can you compare the raquitic Niurhou mien we have here, with a giant bowl of hong kong noodles with the works, fish balls, sausage, meat, just thinking of it makes me hungry, and dim sum, man dim sum rocks the world.
It has the best world food, italian, hindu, pizza, burgers, steaks, hell i can even find great mexican food there, yep in Wan Chai right next to the hookers, i guess they knew the first place a mexican would go.
The city that never sleeps, Hong Kong is always awake, you can get booze, and food and girls 24/7 man, eating fish ball noodles in a hole in the wall at 3 in the morning, next to a loud woman yelling on the cellphone in cantonese is a priceless experience, I just love to walk around the city at night, wander into bars and cafes, and massage parlors, meeting the Hong Kong fauna.
Mong Kok, this street is disneyland to me, the triad capital of the world, a full street, dedicated only to sex and junk food, punctuated by stores that sell japanese anime toys, this is paradise for me.
movies, i am a movie buff, i am a hong kong movie buff, well at least from the golden age of hong kong cinema the 80's and 90's, specially of director Wong Kar Wai, if you have seen his movies, and you love them, then for sure you would love Hong Kong.
And the broadway chinetheque in Yau ma tei, is the greatest film buff paradise, it brings tears to my eyes.
To close up, the smell of the fragrant harbor, i know that smell and love it, just thinking of it gives me a boner, is the scent of adventure and glory , jajajaja.
yes it is expensive compared to china, but is cheap compared to the rest of the world, and yes is chaotic but not compared to china.
compared to china is incredibly clean and ordered, it has the best of east and west, it is a city that works with clockwork precision, the public transport system is probably the best in the world, is safe, and is cool as can be.
for me hong kong is what the whole of china sholud aspire to be one day, but i guess it can be heaven or hell depending on perception.
but one thing is true, everyone i know who lives in shangahi or beijing hates the hell out of them, everyone i know who lives in Hong Kong loves it.
i could live there, and i hope one day i get too.
I have seen many of the great cities of the world, new york, london, paris, barcelona, la habana, mexico city, beijing, and by far my favourite is Hong Kong.
luckly i will go soon, god i love that city.
crowman