kowloon Archives - As Suanie Sees It

HKG day 3.3 – this girl needs a beer

December 13, 2004 By Suanie 1 Comment

1930 – Again without a map (actually I had one, just didn’t feel like taking it out) I found myself facing a Clock Tower. The Clock Tower actually, it was just beside the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. I spotted a Watsons nearby and decided to buy something, anything to freshen my mouth as it felt moldy; most likely due to the weather. The Listerine film pack cost HKG$13 – how much is it here?

I had no idea where I was going and very wisely decided to go towards the sign that said ‘To Nathan Road’. It was ok, there were many people walking also (duh). Here there here there and I passed by the YMCA Salisbury. Walked a bit more and I saw a mall with shops selling international branded stuff. Only it wasn’t a real mall, but The Peninsula Hong Kong. As I walked past the hotel I was totally blown away by its grandness, fountain, marble and all its poshness. One day, just one day!!

Made a turn at the Peninsula and hey! I was at Nathan Road again! Basically just a heck lot of shops, shops and more shops on both sides of the roads but one thing was for sure – everywhere you go there is bound to be a 7-11, Watsons, Sasa and Mannings (our Guardian). Well for more scenes of Nathan Road, feel free to rent or buy Wong Kar Wai’s 1994 cult classic, Chungking Express.

Something big and red caught my eye and I had to check it out. Half an hour later I emerged with HKG$217 worth of Esprit goods. Heh.

I turned into Peking Road, though I did not know it was Peking Road at that time. Went past a few shops then turned into Lock Road, just walking aimlessly looking at people and shops. I walked past a shop with the sign ‘Internet Cafe’, did a double-take and went inside. The small shop was really a cafe with tables and it was quite full with people having their dinner. The Internet part was around 4 or 5 flat screen iMacs. The Indian shopkeeper was friendly. Of course, charging your customers HKG$15 for 15 mins of Internet usage; there is no room to be unfriendly. I decided to write an e-mail to Ronny telling him the exorbitant charges for the Internet. Come to think of it, using their Internet service to complain about their Internet service – I must have been really bored.

Ten minutes later I paid and left the Internet cafe and walked around some more. I’d read about a couple of Irish pubs along Peking Road but I passed by only one. There was a pub along Lock Road called Red Lion or something, but there were two women standing outside the pub and their clothes decidedly needed more material, so I decided to head back to Peking Road.

Tired, alone, aimless, lonely, I walked into Delaney’s.

I sat at the bar and ordered a pint of Kilkenny for HKG$42. My bartender was a tall Caucasian with a ponytail. I asked him, “Are you a real Irishman working in an Irish pub?”

He grinned, “No, I’m Scottish.”

Minutes later I asked for the menu and proceeded to order something to eat. Fifteen minutes later a HKG$90 lamb’s shanks with mashed potato and vege arrived; I ate all the vege, some of the mashed potato and two bites of the lamb. As the Scot took my plate away I had a sudden yearning for Jaime’s mom’s BBQ lamb.

A Caucasian male had taken his seat at the bar beside me. From his conversations with the bartender I gathered that he had been in Hong Kong many times before. So I asked him if he had been to the Temple Street Night Market and if it was worth a visit. He said he had not been there but he had been to a few street markets in Mongkok, and that was all the street markets he needed to see.

His name was Alan and we began to talk for a bit. He was from Seattle, married with two kids and he works for Microsoft. Apparently Microsoft has factories in China making keyboards and such and Alan is the QC for the designs that material into real stuff. It was really interesting because he had seen and met many people; we talked about the weather, Seattle, Malaysia’s cultures, races, politics and food, America’s recent elections and ‘conspiracies’, the Middle East war and Iran. Really mind-opening because he had friends from Iran and he related to me the status of females in Iran; still really Stone age.

Four Guinness (him) and two whisky coke (me) later, he insisted on paying for my later drinks and then we said goodbye.

I left Delaney’s around 2330 and decided to walk back to my hotel. So I went to the Tsim Tsa Tsui MTR station to return my Octopus card to get back my deposit and any remaining value. At the customer service area there was a man in a suit, from his accent he was obviously from China and boy, he was having a rough time communicating with the younger fella behind the counter.

The whole thing was about the man in the suit asking if one Octopus card could be used for 3 people. The young customer service guy was a bit impatient and after some miscommunication he angered the man. It was interesting to see; the man suddenly stood up very straight and in sing-song Mandarin told the guy, “I want you to explain to me how to get 3 people on the MTR.” The young fella wrote down the price on a piece of paper and the man said stiffly, “I can’t read.”

They stared at each other for a while and then the man asked his questions again. The customer service fella answered and then finally the China man said, “Na bu jiu shing le ma, wei shen me gan chai bu neng jiang qing chu” (isn’t that all it takes? Why couldn’t you explain it clearly earlier?)

The man left and the young fella grumbled unhappily under his breath, when it was my turn another guy took over his place.

After returning the Octopus card, I walked along Nathan Road back to Yau Ma Tei. It was around ]0000 and most of the shops were closing but there were a lot of people walking around. I passed by Park Lane Shoppers’ Boulevard, it was a really pretty sight with little lights all around.

Park Lane Shoppers’ Boulevard along Tsim Sha Tsui

I was at Jordan waiting to cross a street when I decided to take a photo of buildings with neon signboards. Quite a common scene everywhere, actually.

Random photo of random street

It was a nice walk actually. I didn’t feel unsafe because there were people around me everywhere. A little bit before reaching the Tin Hau Temple I turned off into one of the little streets behind Nathan Road. I wanted to see if the Temple Street Night Market was still operating; it wasn’t. There were a lot of eateries still open for business and there were tables and chairs in the open air; apparently the mamak culture in Malaysia takes on a yellow form in Hong Kong.

I wandered into a VCD/DVD shop and just perused the many many many titles in front of me. Hong Kong movies, Hollywood movies, France, Italy, Paris – you get it all in this little shop, some legal and most not-so-legal, especially the whole rack dedicated to x-rated movies. I was looking and looking and suddenly realised that they might want to close for the day, seeing that they were the only shop around the area still open and not selling food. So I asked the shop owner what time he would close the shop. He replied in Cantonese, “Oh 3 a.m., man man tai lah” (feel free to browse). I bought ‘The Truth About Cats and Dogs’ and ‘Love Actually’ then walked back to my hotel.

The walk from Tsim Tsa Tsui to my hotel in Yau Ma Tei took less than half an hour, not including the detour to the VCD/DVD shop.

Back in my hotel room I took a shower and packed my stuff since I had a 0615 coach to the airport. Fell asleep around 0330 and had two hours of sleep on my last night in Hong Kong.

Day 1 : To Hong Kong
Day 2.1 : In Search of Tin Hau
Day 2.2 : The Octopus Strikes Back
Day 2.3 : Flower Crazy
Day 2.4 : Central; A Different World
Day 2.5 : Night Time, Light Time
Day 3.1 : The Buddha Beckons
Day 3.2 : To The Peak and Back
Day 3.3 : This Girl Needs a Beer
Day 4 : Leaving Hong Kong
Some thoughts on Hong Kong

1 Comment Filed Under: Travel + Trips Tagged With: beer, beer in hong kong, delaney's, hong kong, kowloon, pub in hong kong, solo traveller, travelling alone, tsim tsa tsui

HKG day 2.5 – night time light time

December 12, 2004 By Suanie 4 Comments

Said goodbye to G at the Central station and took a train to Tsim Tsa Tsui. I saw a really hot chick and instantly thought of the friends back home. So I asked her and her friend if I could take a photo of them. I told them the reason too; my male-hormone driven friends back in Malaysia would appreciate some cun chicks’ photos. They laughingly agreed. I don’t think the photo captures what I felt was beautiful about her though. Her almond-shaped eyes really sparkled (natural sparkle, not the contact lenses crap you get these days) and just a general feeling of cheerfulness and innocence.

We chatted for a while and I found out that the other girl was her sister. Same eyes definitely. They were both Hongkies studying in Perth and were on their way to Mongkok for some shopping. We talked about her Malaysian housemates and how they would occasionally do a pot luck and she would get to taste some Malaysian food. And how she loved roti telur which she would buy frozen from the supermarket to be pan-fried. I was like, adoi… but never mind, she would definitely go to Malaysia one day. She also told me that a can of Coca-Cola in Hong Kong costs HKG$6. That, my friends is roughly RM3. Malaysian Coke lovers, be glad.

We said goodbye at the Tsim Tsa Tsui station. I wanted to go to Mody Road at Tsim Tsa Tsui East and ended up getting lost for 30 minutes. There were quite a few construction works being carried out from Tsim Tsa Tsui to Tsim Tsa Tsui East, road signs telling you to follow this path and ended up leading to another path, stuff like that.

Sounds like KL eh? Only on a smaller scale.

Also when I changed my clothes earlier I forgot to take out my map. But it was not that bad; the redeeming part was when I accidentally located Tsim Tsa Tsui promenade, something like Singapore’s Esplanade but bigger (duh). It was late afternoon, around 1700 and there were joggers, families and such taking an evening stroll.

Then lo and behold, I found Mody Road! I also found John! Actually he found me. Was very surprised but in a good way. So we went to his hotel; Grand Stanford Intercontinental which was just beside Mody Road on Salisbury Road and had coffee at the lounge.

John, wahey!

We talked a lot, then met up with two Filipino friends working in Hong Kong. We had dinner at the hotel, thanks to John who decided to belanja. We took some photos but I realised that no one really knows how to operate my Sony digital cam, except for a selected few. The waitress who took a group photo certainly didn’t even after 3 tries. So most of the photos came out blurry. Sien x100.

We chatted some more then the girls had to leave. John and I decided to take a walk at the Tsim Tsa Tsui promenade. At the hotel entrance we saw this baby…

Would you like a Lamborghini with that?

Apparently it costs a cool US$5 million. I can’t help but wonder, how could they bear to spend so much money on a car and where can I meet these people?!?

John and I walked across an overhead bridge to get to the promenade – there were lights all around us! It seemed that every building was partaking in the Christmas spirit. A light feast and a most beautiful one at that.

The Tsim Tsa Tsui Promenade

It was around 2220 and a bit windy. The view of Hong Kong Island just right across was so grand and glorious and entrancing. So to our left was the sea view and to our right was again the gigantic displays of Santa and his reindeer.

We walked a bit more then decided to sit down on the pavement and just chill. Of course there were quite a few looks our way but my philosophy has always been: I am a tourist, I don’ fuck care. We talked quite a bit there, then walked back to his hotel and had coffee at the lounge again, chatted some more again. He gave me some chocolates… hehe I am a very happy camper.

View from the Tsim Tsa Tsui Promenade

Left at around 0115, decided to take a taxi since the MTR was closed and I didn’t feel like walking back. My young taxi driver could hardly speak English and I could hardly speak Cantonese, so it was quite fun (and funny) telling him that I wanted to go to 7-11 before returning to my hotel. Finally he understood, ‘chat sap yat‘. He was quite surprised that I was traveling alone. I told him that my friends said Hong Kong is pretty much a safe place, and like everywhere you just have to be careful. He agreed and said that it was pretty daring of me to go to a foreign place all by myself.

Stopped at a 7-11 in Yau Ma Tei – by the way the entire Hong Kong is littered with 7-11 – and bought two 1.5 litres of mineral water for HKG$23.20. Definitely much cheaper than the HKG$35 for 500ml I saw at the Flower Market. A couple of turns later we reached the Yau Ma Tei public park where I had to cross the road to get to the hotel. Would be pretty silly if he made another huge round to end up at the hotel door, seeing that there were still quite a few people walking around, mostly tourists I would guess. My taxi fare came up to HKG$30 (it was after midnight). The taxi driver told me to take care of myself and be careful since I was alone. He refused to accept a tip.

Where are all the rude taxi drivers I have heard and read so much about?

Not really complaining, but it is a well-known fact that Hong Kong people are not the friendliest lot around. But according to Jaime much later, SARS (the disease not the return to China) hit them quite bad and everyone’s income was so affected, they decided to be nicer to other people.

The hotel locks its main glass doors after 12 midnight as a safety measure, which I was quite happy about. I had to produce my key to show them that I was staying there. Showered then tidied up my stuff a bit, wrote my entry for the day and now watching the Oprah Winfrey show with the cast of Bridget Jones 2.

It is now 0315. Time to sleep.

4 Comments Filed Under: Travel + Trips Tagged With: hong kong, kowloon, night time in hong kong, solo traveller, travelling alone, tsim tsa tsui

HKG day 2.3 – flower crazy

December 12, 2004 By Suanie Leave a Comment

I alighted at the Prince Edward station and began a half-hearted search for the Flower Market. Walked to where the map said the market was located and 15 mins later the map laughed at my face, ‘HAHA GOTCHA!’

Fountain near the Prince Edward MTR station in Kowloon

At this point I was a bit tired from the earlier walking and trying to figure out where everything was. So I bought the most expensive ionised water I would ever buy in my life (HKG$10 for 500ml) and sat down at a fountain to catch my breath, basically just people-watching. There were a lot of tourists from mainland China, you could tell from their accents. I saw a man holding a bird cage with a pretty little singing thing inside; not surprising since the Bird Market was (supposedly) just around the corner. Hotel Concourse was around the fountain area, one of the hotels I had thought of staying when my chosen hotels were all fully booked.

I called G, poor thing was slaving away in his office on Hong Kong Island on a Sunday. So we made plans to meet for lunch. I told him I’d meet him at a certain exit from the Prince Edward station. While waiting for G, I walked around a bit more, saw more shops with more winter clothing and encountered some Chinese nationals who had hoped that I could guide them to certain places. No such luck, “Ngo mm hai Hong Kong yan” was what I told them, but would you like to look at my huge map instead? No it’s ok, said s/he, I’ll ask some more people.

Half an hour later I saw G, was so excited that I ran-jumped towards him, did a little skip to give him a massive hug. Bet he was momentarily stunned. I related to him the cruel trick my map played on me. He told me that just minutes ago he saw this obviously tourist lady asking a local guy for directions to the Flower Market and the guy did not know what she was on about. So G approached the lady and gave her proper directions. Based on any Mongkok/ Kowloon map the Flower Market was located on the right side of Nathan Road. But once you exit the Prince Edward station you would have to turn left instead of crossing the road to go to the right side. I mean it is all very odd; Hong Kong people drive on the left side of the road, the map says the market is on the right side, but it turned out to be the left. Some sort of unimportant mystery that needs enlightening? Fuck me if I know but good luck to you.

Flower Market, Kowloon

We reached the Flower Market. I had initially thought that it would be something like Malaysia’s night markets, where everything is sprawled on the streets. Instead they were tiny little shops, though some of them had buckets of flowers on the road outside their premises. Basically you get all sorts of flowers imaginable and some rather odd specimens. Definitely very lovely, to say the least.

I have no idea what these flowers are

Picturesque

The red ones are huge in Hong Kong, apparently

Leave a Comment Filed Under: Travel + Trips Tagged With: flower market, hong kong, kowloon, solo traveller, travelling alone

HKG day 2.1 – in search of Tin Hau

December 12, 2004 By Suanie Leave a Comment

I set the alarm at 9 a.m. but woke up around 10+, was rather tired as I didn’t get much sleep the past couple days. The view from my window overlooking King’s Park was rather nice, sort of green on one side and high rise buildings on the other. Didn’t bother to take a photo though, since the window was a bit dusty and it was locked, so I couldn’t open it. Pity.

Got ready and walked out around 11 a.m. in search of food and Tin Hau temple, which was supposed to be nearby my hotel, approx 340m. I read about it on Discover Hong Kong, it was a temple dedicated to the deity Tin Hau who overlooks the well-being of seafarers, fishermen etc. It was originally right beside the sea but since land was reclaimed it now sits in the middle of today’s Yau Ma Tei. Good that they kept it though.

So I walked along Nathan Road, saw lots of shops selling winter clothing with discounts everywhere, definitely lots of tourists especially from China but I suppose Tsim Tsa Tsui would be even busier. And naturally I could not locate the Tin Hau temple, rather frustrating because it was supposed to be so near! Not that the walk was not nice, I passed by a ‘public square’ on the way in search of the temple but I do want to get on with my day. Didn’t really feel like taking out my huge map and look the perplexed tourist so I walked on for what was definitely more than 340m.

I did ask a couple of people for directions but to no avail. Fine, maybe they are Christians. I reached maybe 750m when I decided to turn into one of the streets behind Nathan Road. You see, Nathan Road is one long straight road that begins from Mongkok and ends in Tsim Tsa Tsui. On both sides of the road there would be even smaller roads and everything is in nice squares, very orderly and good town planning. This part of town at least. The first street behind Nathan Road was much quieter and a lot of shops were closed because it was a Sunday. I asked a parking place attendant for directions and he gave me some really good pointing, literally. So, walked a bit more and turned into the third street where Hongkies lead their everyday lives.

There was a small restaurant on the opposite side of the road and they had plastic tables and stools outside their shop, not unlike our mamak stalls. One of the two tables outside was occupied by two men. As I walked on I heard a commotion behind me, so I turned around and looked. A third man had approached one of the two men, I had no idea what it was about but the man sitting down was yelling at him, “zhao la, zhao la” meaning “go away”. The third man backed a little but kept looking at the man who kept yelling at him. Suddenly the man stood up and grabbed his stool to threaten the third man, then gave him a loud and painful hit at his head with his stool. A couple other people pulled the third guy aside and he eventually went away. The first man then went back to his table, mumbling to his friend. Now, this is not something you would read on Discover Hong Kong.

Anyway I walked a bit more and found the temple. Guess what? It was actually just behind the ‘public square’ I had passed by earlier, which was just a 200m walk from my hotel! But it was ok, I wouldn’t miss the squabble for anything.

I had thought that the temple would be gigantic in size, seeing the prominence given by a few tourist books and maps. The Tin Hau temple turned out to be quite a normal temple but I suppose it would interest people who do not grow up in Chinese communities. My grandmother and my mom used to take me to temples after temples after temples as they offer fruits and flowers to appease the gods and pray for good fortune, I guess I have grown rather accustomed to seeing big bright red temples with assorted deities’ figurines.

Tin Hau temple faces the Yau Ma Tei community park where there were a lot of old people just sitting down or playing Chinese chess. It was rather smoky though there weren’t a lot of people – after all I was there around 11+. A Caucasian was video taping the temple while his female partner looked on in fascination at a couple of devotees kneeling down praying rather ferociously. A mother and his early teen daughter were seated at the fortune telling table, where a really old Chinese man was preparing to ply his trade and reveal heaven’s secrets. I did not take any photographs; I thought it would be disrespectful in my own made-up self-superstition thingy. Not that those who took photographs would die an early death, no I am not saying that. But that is how I feel and to each his/her own, so back to the original point; I did not snap a single photograph.

I didn’t take any of the Yau Ma Tei community park either, though I would have loved to take one of an old lady sitting on a bench talking to herself. But nah, I don’t really fancy being cursed or beaten.

And you can really get your fortune told anywhere. Just beside the temple and the park was a makeshift roadside altar with a table and a woman ready to tell your fortune for a price. How exorbitant, I didn’t ask. I walked on.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: Travel + Trips Tagged With: hong kong, kowloon, solo traveller, tin hau, travelling alone, yau ma tei

From Malaysia to Hong Kong

December 11, 2004 By Suanie 2 Comments

My first solo trip overseas!

1830 – Jaime drove me to KLIA. It was raining heavily, quite a number of cars on the Sungai Besi highway exiting Kuala Lumpur. I worried that I might miss the flight, but Jaime got us to the airport on time. After checking in, I had some time to chat with Jaime. She gave me some advice, after all it was my first time flying solo! Jaime was so lovely, she waited with me until the very last minute. How I wished I could bring her with me!

1910 – 5272 miles above ground, temperature outside was -4 degree Celsius, flying at 702 kph.

2120 – 1 hour and 40 mins to destination. Ate on-board; fish and some measly looking noodles, had a glass of red. Just went past Ho Chi Minh. Am going to take a nap.

2230– Arrived at Hong Kong International Airport on Lantau Island. At the immigration lane, there was a guy who looked like David Schwimmer! He flashed a smile, it was David Schwimmer’s smile! Then his mother called him by name, ‘David’.

Nah it was not the real David Schwimmer. But it was fun pretending that he was.

Grabbed some brochures at the arrival hall then decided to forgo the Airport Express in favour of the airbus (read about it from the Lonely Planet). HKG$33 onboard the double-decker A21 from the airport to Hung Hom, passing through Mongkok, Yau Ma Tei and Tsim Tsa Tsui. Saw lots of high rise apartments and flats on the way. The airbus brochure was most informative, they have a list of hotels and which bus you could take to reach the hotel and even where to stop. I alighted at stop number 9 along Nathan Road, walked a very short distance to my hotel Caritas Bianchi Lodge which I had booked earlier from Asia Hotels.

Checked in and paid HKG$1800 for 3 nights inclusive of some refundable deposit upon check-out. A nice guy by the name of Chuen took my bag and showed me to my room on the highest level; 17th floor. Supposed to have a lovely nice view of King’s Park which I couldn’t see because it was after all, at night and rather dark. Tipped him HKG$20 because he was so nice and chatty, a mix of his broken English and my broken Cantonese.

The room had 2 single beds, clean but rather dark. Showered, watched Star World on telly then planned my excursions for the next day.