A Trip To The Fragrant Harbour

6th August 2012, landed at Hong Kong Airport at 9.40 am. The ground staff knew exactly 5 English words, absolutely necessary to manage the crowds. The immigration officials were eager to let us in, guess to avoid a sudden possible demand of a sixth word.

The innumerable signs thereafter were my constant guide. There is a sign to help you at every point. I wonder what's the pay scale of the signage designer!!

And then, if you are rarely stuck amidst some empty walls space, you have the equally silent people. They smile and point at things - at maps, at landmarks, or at other people who might be able to help better. They pick one word and manage the rest by pointing. 

Basically, it took me exactly 1 hour to figure out that a Hong Kong trip is absolutely doable alone. 

It is a port more than a city. The entire train journey from the Airport to the Hotel area (Causeway Bay) was along the sea. With hills beyond. And ships, cars, trains all thrown amidst. It really is a good mix of nature and machines, of signs and smiles, of tunnels and horizon.

 

I am sitting amidst 5 Chinese people hogging on pork rolled in sticky rice and talking incessantly in Cantonese. I have never listened to anybody so well ever before. I am watching their expressing, focusing to spot some English words there in and trying to retain the poker face. I did not get what they said but I think I understood each one of them better than the other Four!

The food is either sticky or slurpy. Why can't they have some food that will stay in the fork or stick out of the fork easily?!  And then the sticks. Its amazing how they use the chop sticks. And what an elite accomplishment that is for us. They put the rice in the soup spoon and then struggle to pick the watery sauce with the stick; the art is to be quick as a bee or...just use a spoon!!

There is hot water to wash all your b(a)owls and sticks before you eat. But there was no water in the loo. Just when I was admiring that they don't have tissues or napkin on the table and instead had just hot water; they started spitting out bones and wiping on the table cloth!!

Nobody speaks English. Maybe not literally, but by the standard of cities in India - "NObody". They don't even say "hello" into the phone. They say "hooaaii!!". Even the girls in short corporate black skirts and the guys in leather shoes don't speak English!!. Even the construction labours wear low waist denim and say "hooaaii" into their own cellular phones. Kids who speak English with an american accent and teenagers glued to the ipads say "huaaii". Basically you don't have to be speaking English to have a YO wardrobe and vice versa!!

And why not? Almost every MTR station is reachable through a mall, and not reachable otherwise!! The raid of the brands are visible everywhere - in the neon lit streets, the huge screens and the malls at every turn of the road. 

 

Transportation is really simple. One word that they all understand and happy to direct - MTR station.It is amazing to see that not a soul crosses the road until the pedestrian signal goes green!! I wonder what would be the fine like. The trains carry the same mix of people. Students, the frustrated, the happy go lucky, the nervous, the forever annoyed, the techy who cannot do without the ipad, the teenagers who can't get rid of the lip gloss, the oldies with drooping heads, the book worms or simply pretentious, the flock of girls and the herd of boys. Only difference. They are all dressed well. And then you have uniforms - for the bus drivers, the ticket counters, the sales girls, the cabbies, everyone. And, unlike in India, the uniforms are starched clean ironed!!

When ur travelling alone, two spots get tricky. The beer stool - unless you are young wild west enuf to play the "pick a guy for the night trick". And the other, the beach - unless you have the whole day to take yourself to a "get drunk and get tanned" trip!! Me, the old fart with no time, missed my friends in both these places. Next trip, I either get me company, or stick to temples, parks, shopping and sight seeing.

Did I meet anyone interesting?? I met a young man of 60 at Mui Wo Beach on my way to the Taiantan Buddha. He had been to India in 1971 and had seen quite a bit. He had been a Govt Lawyer in New Zealand all his life, so had no time to relax. So he is staying in Poi Wa village now and finally living his life. He walks to the gym in the morning - works out - goes to the library - lunch - reads and writes - sleeps. He travels every two months. In short, he is living for sure.

And then I met a phillipino in Lang Kwai Phong (a street with french cafe look-alikes that serve alcohol and you see more white skin than narrow eyes!). He has a chain of  fitness dance studio in Hong Kong - Jonathan. Calls himself nathan, couldn't manage any move from the Indian classical dances (god knows which dance and which move) and some day wants to see the rat temple in Rajasthan ( I didn't know about it till he showed me a video from Nat Geo).

I admire the way they have made life simpler and convenient. Just like the clothes they wear. The commutation, the navigation everything. Just compare our local train pass and their octopass. it can be issued without any identification, no photo required, no waiting in a queue, can be used in several departmental stores and outlets. Like the 711 - that is open from 7am to 11pm. All this is deceptively offered to enable people work harder and for longer hours. But we are doing that in India anyways. At least here they have tried to reduce it from struggle to tough. And then they have these sudden spurts of entertainment everywhere. There are fountains and talent spots, interesting structures around every turn; so that even if you are walking out of a bad meeting with your boss, you can still feel " life aint so bad" on ur way home!!

 And then, I love the way they express love..the teenagers out on the streets and the grown ups at the Peak and no heads would turn.I am no one to decide it is right or wrong..but it is freedom of expression for sure. They talk loud. They laugh loud. You have signage saying "be considerate. Keep your tone down" almost everywhere.