Hong Kong, Pt. 3

A slow news day
It was raining this morning, so I went to the Art Museum. Not a bad deal for $1.50, but I could honestly count the number of other people on one hand. I'm not really a big fan of Oriental Art, and after today, I'm still not. But there were a few nice things, and I did learn how to say "I love you" in Cantonese" O oi lay. Just like it sounds. Still on a souvenir hunt, I went to The South China Athletic Association, which is a huge health facility (with bowling!) unfortunately stuck in a very drab 1950s building. I though maybe I'd pick up some swank SCAA wear, maybe a warmup jacket or something, but they apparently don't have a marketing budget. 
Speaking of shopping, it is what they love best. There is a mall--a Water Tower Place type mall--in just about every downtown building. I went to a new one, Langham Place, that is connected to the hotel I was originally going to stay at. Imagine the coolest store you've ever been in. Then imagine 11 floors worth of it. . . I could drop someone off and then pick them up on the way back to the airport and they wouldn't even have missed me. Floor after floor of top level independent stores that have everything you could think of.  
Very few pictures today. I really couldn't in the museum, didn't see anything noteworthy, and one chaotic street scene looks pretty much like the other. The ones I did take were for specific purposes and need an explanation. I had a real Guinness for dinner at a real Irish bar; Hong Kong's version of the Hereford Arms. Not an Asian customer in the place. Oddly enough, it's exactly 4 doors away from "one of the most wretched hives of scum and villainy" in HK, the Chungking Mansions. That should just about do it. 

Hong Kong Pt. 2, or I Went to See the Tian Tan Giant Buddha and All I got Was This Lousy Sense of Enlightenment

Another cloudy day, but no rain. So it's off to see the giant Buddha, on Lantau Island near the airport. It's not the largest Buddha, or the largest seated Buddha, or the largest outdoor Buddha, but it is the Largest Outdoor Seated Buddha. So there. A 30 minute train ride takes you to Tong Chung, where this time it's a REAL cable car, the Ngong Ping 360 Skyrail. Not the only way to get there, but definitely the most popular. After about an hour wait in a Disney maze, you're in, and then you're off. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I think you can tell when I stopped taking them, and I think you can tell why. . . 

The Buddha is part of the Po Lin Monastery (yes, they have their own site), very deep and symbolic and spiritual. A marked contrast to the village between the cable car and the monastery, which seems to have been ordered from www.genuinechinesevillages.com. and put there to make the walk more interesting. And to sell Buddha souvenirs, which shows Buddha is all for a little capitalism. Or is he? Perhaps the answer lies elsewhere. I did have pizza, though it was representational of the species at best. I don't know why vegetarian always includes corn, nor why pineapple is seemingly not thought of as fruit. Any way, there are 260 steps up to the Buddha who was, unfortunately lost in the clouds, as was everything else. But it was still an impressive experience. And the ride back down? Like being in a perfectly white box. . . But I do think that tips the Scale of Universal Balance slightly in my favor, and I'd say Buddha owes me one. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening on the Harbor, and watched a Battle of the Bands. One 80's cover band was so tragically cliched it was painful. But I taped it anyway.

 

I Got Nothin

Libya. The budget crisis. Opening Day. Chicago's new mayor. Mad Men season 5.
There should be a boatload of things to write about but, truth be told, I just can't get into it now. Who knows why. It's been too long since I posted something, though, so in the finest spirit of summer re-runs, I'm going to repost some short travel writings from my trips to Hong Kong and Shanghai.


Hope you enjoy them.

From The Peak

Hong Kong Pt. 1


Well, it didn't rain. It was, however, cloudy, 85, and about 99% humidity. Which brings me to an interesting point. Hong Kong is also the Universe of Various Odors. I'm not sure where to start, or which one to describe, and doubt that I will do them justice. There is one Odor which is almost everywhere, almost the Scent of Hong Kong. Floral, but too sweet. At first I thought the women were all wearing the same perfume, but later I saw incense pots outside some stores, so I figured that must be it. That one is not too bad. There are some, though, that evoke some type of seafood on it's way to a slow, putrefying death, a death which will eventually occur inside of an old sweatsock. It's companion Odor, a combination of sweet cinnamon glazed nuts and wafflecone, is always close by. They hang together in the breathless air, deadly Odor Zones choking any breathable (my gin and tonic just came. with a bendy straw. excuse me a moment) air that happens to squeeze through their damp cubic feet. Some blocks require concentrated mouth-breathing. . .
I went to the top of the Peak on a cable car--like San Francisco--which overlooks the whole city. I'm sure it would look better with sun in a blue sky, but it doesn't look as if that will happen soon. My big score of the day was at an art exhibit in which local artists designed t-shirts to benefit a notably artistic neighborhood. I found it, sat through the Mandarin (or more probably Cantonese) speeches, and then found they were selling them. These are never-see-them-anywhere-else-in-the-world shirts, and I got one. It just has a little graffitti drawing on it but it should be good.


A bendy straw. Too much tonic, not enough gin.