getting my bearings 



Yesterday was fairly uneventful, but at least I did do something. In the morning I walked to the Star Ferry pier to visit the official Hong Kong Tourism Board's visitor information center. I booked an afternoon harbor cruise for Thursday on one of those old-fashioned "bat-wing" style boats. You can't beat the ticket price: free. Then, I walked around Kowloon a bit and relaxed in my hotel for a while. In the afternoon I decided to tackle the MTR subway. It was my first time riding solo, but it proved to be rather simple. HK has done a great job of making its instructional signage easy to decipher. I rode the MTR to Kowloon Tong and the Festival Walk shopping center. A few things I noticed during my little trip: (1) everyone walks to the left here. I mean, that should be obvious, I guess, what with the whole British influence and all. But it took me a few minutes of walking against the flow of pedestrian traffic to figure it out. (2) Although caucasians are fairly numerous here, we're still largely outnumbered, and Hong Kongers will still sometimes stare. But at least they're polite enough to look away when caught in the act. It doesn't bother me, but coming from a society where diversity is utterly commonplace, I find it a little amusing. (3) All those Indian chaps need to calm the f--- down (more an observation from when I was walking around Kowloon). I was personally accosted by no less than a dozen Indian males (well, I suppose they could have been Pakistanis), asking me if I "liked shopping" and would I like a nicely tailored suit. I ignored every single one of them, but it was still annoying. (4) Hong Kongers love them some mobile phones. To be fair, people back home are guilty of their share of ubiquitous and gratuitous cellular phone usage, but I'm not quite used to seeing just about everyone carrying a phone. I predict that in 20 years, brain cancer will be the leading cause of death in Hong Kong. Just kidding.

Anyway, I went to the Festival Walk mall to see Howl's Moving Castle. I love Miyazaki, and I don't think this film is going to get a Stateside release for quite some time--you can't trust those Disney distribution fascists--so I didn't want to wait. Festival Walk has an AMC theater, which was familiar territory. However, there are some subtle differences, like the fact that you can buy little sausages or a roasted chicken leg at the concession stand. That just amazes me. I decided to buy popcorn, and the kid asked me if I wanted the salty kind or the sweet kind. I chose salty because it was a safe choice, but my curiosity has been killing me ever since. If I go back before I leave, I'm getting the sweet kind. By the way, another thing that Hong Kong does better than us (in addition to having a great public transportation system): assigned seating at movie theaters. This is a great idea, and why don't we do it?? I'm stumped. Anyway, I liked Howl's Moving Castle; it's really hard to comment on Miyazaki, so I'll just leave it at that.

Hopefully Yanyang will arrive this evening. She's currently on the train heading for Guangzhou, but she'll be cutting it kind of close. She needs to be to the Shenzhen border by 1:00 PM to meet her tour group, and it'll be a small miracle if she makes it.  

Posted: Sun - April 17, 2005 at 04:58 PM           |

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