are you tired of me saying that hong kong is a fascinating place?

i can't stop, not even for you. HONG KONG IS A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE.

after nine years, you might think that i would have a pretty good idea of the lay of the land, but i don't. there are two reasons for this.

1) although the city has 7million plus people, expats are pretty contained to a few areas. the majority live in central/midlevels, some in sheung wan, many in tai tam/stanley and with a growing number (hoorah!) in pokfulam. and did i mention discovery bay, which is kind of like the truman show? so that is the residential area, with the business districts mainly being central, and oooh, for the dangerous types, the outer edges of wanchai. (located next to central, if you don't count admiralty, which is a district less than 1/4 of a kilometre squared.)

expats congregate in lan kwai fong after working hours, or in soho, noho, boho..you get the picture. there are the long lasting popular bars like big al's diner, home of the vodka jello shots, and the trendy places like dragon-I, where sting hung out when he was last in town. the name brand area to shop is central, the discount area stanley and wanchai, while the best malls, the drs offices, there is a great wet market and the overpriced speciality shops...they're all in central.

although central doesnt' seem too hong kongish, (once you remove the tram running through it), there is something about central that can sum up hong kong...one street away from a 34 floor shiny metallic office tower, is a wet market, where flopping fish, laichees, oranges, cilantro, catties of chinese greens, spices and other fresh produce and meats are sold. some places have automatic scales, others just have the weighing scales. right around the end of lunch hour, about 1.45, you see the mix of armani clad business boys and the bowlegged, toothless stall owners, and you have to smile. central may be the most sophisticated district hong kong has, but it's roots are revealed if you bother to look at the bottom of this financial tree.

2) there is always a new sidestreet, a new area to explore. it can take you hours to explore two blocks if you stumble into a great area. my friend sandi and i found ourselves in an odds and sodds shop the other day, where we managed to pick up a variety of items including velcro holders that keep electrical cords together, cartier ciggies that are no longer being made (much to her dismay), those white with blue streak dishtowels that we both enjoy, fresh curry powder, a stepladder, mascara, and fresh mint leaves. we didn't find what we were looking for, a plain shower curtain, but we were pulling items off the shelves for a good 45 minutes. and then there was a shoe store, which we had to explore, and a noodle shop (we had to figure out what was smelling so good), and a temple....was it a special day, were there flowers for sale right there? a cinema...what was a cinema doing here and why was it playing a foreign film? a japanese clothing shop....a hello kitty! store (okay, we didnt' go in there), a tree with a fence around it....why??? why??? and of course we asked people and they would look at us as if we were insane, which just made us dissolve into laughter... hong kong is full of these divine little areas, that spill off from main routes. the smells range from rancid to tantalising, to the overly familiar to the unknown.

right, and not to mention that because of landlords and lifestyles, some stores don't last long. so you might have to be searching around for a new tailor because your previous place shut down. another great excuse to explore off the main vein.

i explore a lot. i love jumping on a mini bus and seeing...who knows? possibly my desire to get the cheapest price possible fuels me to get out of overpriced central, but who cares about the motivation? the new facets i find aren't shattering, they're nothing that hong kong isn't supposed to have, but it is nice to be on streets that don't have the obligatory starbucks on every corner, and i love getting fresh perspectives on this old city i love.

Comments

[knobody]

you had better stop writing such tantalizing tales of hk or else you may wind up with a plethora of potential house guests knocking at your door!

[Auntie Pammie]

Ok, enough teasing. I will be graduating Dec 2007, the minute i sober up from the graduation, I will be jumping on a plane and coming over, because reading this blog is making me crave to be there and go exploring with you!!

I have enough airmiles squirreled away to make the trip (business class to boot!) so mark your calendar that Dec /07, Jan 08 I will be so excited to be coming over, being able to spoil x4 ,and spend time with all of you.

I can close my eyes still and see Hong Kong, I can smell those scents you speak of,......

I look outside my front window today, it is 11C ,raining and my front lawn is a shade of brown that I cannot dexcribe, and I wish I was there more than you know!!

Love to you all..
Auntie P xoxox
ps) I am off to Vancouver from Apr 23-26th to see Gran :-)

[Karen]

Oh how I love to explore too! Tess I hope that I have the opportunity to explore some of Hong Kong with you someday!!