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Day Two: Kowloon and My Lucky Month
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January 20, 2007
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« Day One: Arrival | Main | Day 2, concluded »
This is what we saw when we opened the curtains of our hotel room this morning. This view actually has more open space in it than many in Hong Kong.
Our hotel room is situated right over Victoria Park, which isn't a park
as much as it is a vast collection of tennis courts, soccer fields,
basketball courts, and other recreational spaces. It's an odd, flat
anomaly in the middle of towering 30-story buildings.
I love big cities, and Hong Kong is one of the biggest I've been to. Looking at the skyline from the Star Ferry is amazing -- what you can see of it through the fog and the haze. The skyscrapers stretch from the left to the right as far as you can see...and they're behind you, too, in Kowloon, on the mainland. It's a grand crucible of human existence. Great things can't help but come from it. Great misery, too.
But between these two extremes, there's plenty of room for mediocrity. Consider breakfast. We didn't know where to go for it, and our concierge didn't have anything useful to contribute. (I suppose they assume that all Westerners want pancakes for breakfast or something.) I was looking for a tea shop or something that served whatever it is that Hong Kongers eat in the morning. We took to the streets, passing a good many little markets and shops of other kinds setting things up for the day, but not many places with people eating food. Finally we passed a small shop with maybe four or five tables. It looked like they served Western-style food, but we figured it was about time for us to give up our quest for congee or what have you and just eat.
I ordered the mushrooms, bacon, baked beans, egg and tomatoes. Joe ordered the waffle with baked beans and bacon. This is what we got. The mushrooms were obviously from a can, as were the baked beans. The waffle, Joe reported, tasted like an Eggo. The "homemade" garlic toast was just storebought french bread toasted with garlic butter. You know you're in trouble when a place advertises that they make their own toast.
It wasn't expensive, but it certainly wasn't cheap: each plate cost around $6 US. We know we can get better deals in breakfast; the trouble is knowing where. In fact, that's the number one difficulty we've had in Hong Kong as foreigners. We lack the social context to effectively judge what's likely to be good and what isn't.
Next, we took a taxi to the Star Ferry and took that into Kowloon. Immediately upon setting foot on land on the opposite side, we are beset by overly friendly Indian people handing us business cards. "You want a new suit? We will make you a custom suit. You know how much?" They always say this: "You know how much?" We didn't know how much, but we are not foolish enough to ask. One thin young guy in what I assume must be a stylish suit is particularly persistent. He walks alongside us all the way up the street. "Just step into my shop, I will get you my card so you will remember to come back." He sounds particularly desperate, and he calls to us from the shop entrance as we pass it up. When I look back, he's stamping and cursing out of frustration. I think that perhaps they beat him if he doesn't get enough customers.
Truth be told, I am interested in getting some custom clothes. I've heard that it's such a good deal that it's a shame to pass it up, and even though I rarely wear suits and the whole thing sounds like way too much trouble to me, I think I may give it a shot anyway. But we have a personal reference to one particular tailor from Joe's dad, so we'll be heading there rather than to any of the suit-pushers near the pier, beatings be damned.
But first, we wander through the streets of Kowloon near the ferry, which is primarily a shopping district. What we are shopping for primarily is lunch. After a bit of debate, we settle on a small Chinese noodle shop. Now, those of you that know me well know of my allegiance to Japanese noodles to the exclusion of all others. But I figured that if there's anywhere that I could find Chinese noodles worth considering, it'll be here.
I wasn't wrong. After having a very tasty mango iced tea, I was served an absolutely huge bowl of noodles, studded with sausage, smoked pork loin, beef, and (I had this added specially) pig intestines. (They're the brown strips in the lower portion of the bowl.) This was one serious bowl of noodles, and I must say it stands up to some of my favorites. The broth was rich and profound, the noodles were cooked perfectly, and the toppings brilliant. Many of the toppings --in particular, the leeks, the beef, and the pig's intestines -- tasted like they were cooked in entirely different broths or sauces before being added to the soup. The result was a complex and intriguing soup that was very entertaining to eat.
Total cost for this giant bowl of soup? Somewhere around $32 HK, which was (at that day's exchange rates) around $4. Not only was this the best bowl of noodles I've had in awhile, I just can't imagine anything you could buy for $4 that would be as profoundly entertaining, except maybe a third of a pack of condoms.
As we headed back to the Star Ferry, another young man sidled up to me. "You are going to be very lucky this month," he began. "I can see it here," he said, pointing to the middle of my forehead. "You will get a great many things done. This month will be good for you. Where are you from?" It was an interesting way, I thought, of selling suits. "Ah, America," he said, after I'd answered. "I am a fortune teller," he explained. "I can tell you quite a bit about yourself. Would you like me to tell your fortune?"
"Oh, no thank you," I said.
He smiled at me and nodded. "You do need to get out of your head a bit. You are a smart man, but you think too much." I looked back to make sure that I hadn't lost Joe, and when I turned back he was gone.
Maybe I should have asked him about the stock market.
January 20, 2007 in Hong Kong | Permalink
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Comments
Next time, ask him about me too.
Posted by: Luke at Jan 21, 2007 10:49:27 AM
I know it's a work trip, but you could have made the product placement in the soup picture a little less obvious...
Posted by: Reca at Jan 21, 2007 9:16:00 PM
Dang, I thought I was being subtle.
Posted by: Confabulist at Jan 22, 2007 1:55:44 PM
Who needs a fortune teller? You've crossed the international date line, you know. From our perspective, you're living in the Future!
Posted by: Reca at Jan 22, 2007 2:35:44 PM
Go to SAM Tailor for custom made suits. The rumor is the Indian tailors offer the best value, but the chinese tailors offer the best quality.
Posted by: redfoot at Jan 22, 2007 5:34:05 PM
