Hong Kong with Mum
Trip Start
Oct 19, 2007
1
14
70
Trip End
Ongoing
Hong Kong,
China
Monday, June 30, 2008
My flight was delayed due to scungy weather. I even got a free lunch box from the airline because the delay was so long. Unfortunately I got hungry an hour earlier and had paid for some pricey ramen noodles. Not that stopped me from picking at the freebies, which I instantly regretted, as the food was icky. We also got food on the plane, which meant I had about 3 lunches on the way to Hong Kong. Whoops!
During a hellish bus trip (post typhoon floods don't seem to inspire fear in Chinese bus drivers, just their passengers) from the airport to the border, I berated myself for forgetting to bring my umbrella. Not that it would have kept me dry in the wild rainstorm that was whipping about outside (think of the inside of a washing machine), but it is better to be slightly soggy than drenched and then have to spend the next hour on the airconditioned Hong Kong metro. Amazingly the driver parked under an elevated road right next to a newspaper stall that also sold brollies which made me sag with relief. I'm a sissy. I don't like to get wet unless it is on purpose.
I made it to the hotel, collapsed into a hot bath and then crawled into bed, waking late at night when Mum arrived. She was quite surprised to see me climbing out of hed, as I had threatened beforehand that if I were left alone in Hong Kong for a few hours before her arrival, it would be more than enough time for me to make use of Hong Kong's extremely civilised 2-for-1 (ecstatically) happy hours on wine by the glass and thus be thoroughly sloshed by the time she got to the hotel. Seeing as both of us were short on sleep, slightly peckish and decidedly sober, we went in search of food and wine which we found in abundance with the bonus of live music and superb views of HK Island.
I woke up the next morning feeling like somebody had whacked me on the back of the head with a wok, which generally happens when one has overindulged in everything other than water. We went to an Irish pub for a hangover cure. Unfortunately the smell of stale smoke almost rendered the goodness of bangers and mash obsolete. That's saying a lot because a breakfast of bangers and mash, like gelato, is one of the very good things about this world.
We escaped for coffee and a wee bit of shopping then went for dinner at a Chinese fusion restaurant where our sinuses were blown to pieces by spicy food. That night taught me to respect Cantonese people. They may generally eat whoosy sweet stuff, but there are some out there who like it hot. Didn't really go with white wine, should have had beer instead, but never mind. Then we developed an excellent plan of drinking champagne in our hotel room while watching the European Cup final and had just purchased a bottle of bubbly on the way back only to be bitterly disappointed when we found out that the fridge was broken and 7-11 didn't sell ice. A Taiwanese 7-11 could kick the butt of a Hong Kong 7-11 any day of the week. No ice!?! But then again, a Taiwanese 7-11 wouldn't have had the champagne and cheezels we'd purchased that night. Not while I was living there it wouldn't have anyway. Of one thing I am certain. If Perth ever had 7-11s and if, just if, they were able to sell booze 24 hours, then they would not only have champagne, but also have the decency to keep it in the fridge!!! A repair guy came to our hotel room and fixed the fridge at about midnight. I woke up for the football while Mum snoozed but I figured Germany was about to lose and thus was not really in the mood for bubbly. Mum stared in disbelief when she woke up the next morning and found the bottle of champagne untouched in the fridge. She must have thought I was sick or something.
Mum and I went to Wanchai the next day, late after a wee shopping expedition in Kowloon. We drank a bottle of Mudhouse (fabulous Kiwi wine from the fabulous Marlborough region) at Mes Amis and had the Ploughman's lunch (Chris are you jealous?). Then we headed for some other building (near the Chinese Resource building, hideous home of the China Visa Office, boo hiss... anybody who has waited for hours in the bowels of this building will sympathise with my intense dislike for this vile place) where we tried some more wine. Yum.
Sadly I was hungover yet again the next morning as we had finished off the champagne with strawberries while reading a crap mag and watching CNN in the hotel room the night before. Well actually I am pretty sure it was just me who was reading a crap mag. Mum has far too much taste to read girlie mags... or watch CNN for that matter! We headed for Wanchai again to go to Dymocks and buy some more books. Then Mum hit Shanghai Tang and I went in search of CDs. Finally we stood around and watched the SAR anniversary protest march and probably had our photo taken there by at least 20 marchers. I realised afterwards that we were standing right next to a big banner demanding that Jiang Zemin be charged with crimes against humanity. Thus the photos. Oops. Then we took the Star Ferry back to Kowloon and sat at a bar with a fantastic view of Hong Kong Island and partook of much wine and tapas. Afterwards we found out the bar was part of Shangri La Kowloon, which explains why it was so damn pricy and why they were able to afford to have a menu with so many wines available by the glass (seriously, I think there were at least 60). But for some deluxe cheese and wine, you have to cough up some money. We spent our last morning in Soho before Mum went on the airport express and I headed to Sticky Fingers for a last glass of wine before heading for the border to the Shenzhen train station with a seriously heavy backpack (books!).
A few observations... It wasn't a usual trip for either of us. We usually do stuff. But this time we just wined, dined, and relaxed. Probably necessary since we were both of us stressed about our respective problems at the time.
I bought way too many books in Hong Kong. I was worried I would get busted for them on the way back into the PRC. Why? For both value and content. One of the books was The Tiananmen Papers which I am pretty certain is banned in China, although I wasn't about to go and ask one of the border guards. It's dodgy enough of a book that the computer freezes every time I search for it on Books iRead. I also had a text book that I bought for Dong Yang. Given that he is my trainer, it kind of figures that his book would be the heaviest. It was about 2 flipping kilos on its own, which would have been fine if I wasn't already carrying another ten or so books on top of it. My backpack was crucifyingly heavy on the way back to Wuhan. It took every ounce of my strength to carry it and then heft it onto the overhead luggage racks on the train. However, the hardest moment was in the train station when I realised I needed to go to the toilet. I couldn't leave it outside the toilets. It would have been gone by the time I got back, if not because of thieves, then definitely because of pre-Olympic security. And considering the nature of some of the books, I did not want security guards anywhere near my backpack. Nor could I put the pack down anywhere in the toilet cubicle. There was nothing for it, I had to use the squatty with at least 20 kilos in my pack. Squatting was alright, but I almost didn't make it back up again. If it weren't for all the nasty leg exercises Dong Yang used to make me do, I might well have perished in that squatty. Despite all the hauling of books and sleeping on the train bunk (think ironing board), I was still OK when I got to Wuhan the next morning, but then when I unpacked my bag I pulled something in my back. Rats.
Finally, the march... there weren't any anti-China sentiments. Well not what I would call anti-China anyway, just some stuff about the CCP. Hong Kong residents want to be able to vote and they want their voices to be heard. Why should they have to wait ten years? Not fair. My opinion, based on my time (albeit not long) in China thus far, is this: people in power (in any kind of institution, government or otherwise) will tell you what you want to hear and then just go about their business doing the opposite anyway. If they even bother to tell you anything in the first place. Information goes up the power structure, it does not go down. Ten years? We'll see...
I don't think I take my right to vote for granted. I've flown to Taipei and taken a night train to Beijing in order to vote. But I guess there are probably lots of people who can't be stuffed. Well, in countries where they don't fine you for not voting anyway (for those of you who aren't Australian, it is compulsory for us citizens of the land of Oz to vote and we get fined if we don't, unless, like me you have a good excuse, such as living eons away from a polling station). It is pure luck that I was born in a place where I have this right. Others are not so lucky. Think about the people in Hong Kong who march every year in the hopes of getting to vote if you are ever tempted to take this right for granted.
