June 26: Hong Kong Day 2
We woke up to the sound of pouring rain. The balcony had a layer of water on it maybe two inches thick. The weather report on TV said Hong Kong was at “amber alert”. We wondered whether the conference would be delayed; classes had been cancelled the day before because of strong winds from the typhoon. Gen called her uncle to ask but he didn’t answer his phone. In the meantime, we got ready and went to our free breakfast. We had a choice of 4 menu items. Gen had the rice porridge. Kathy and I had the egg and fruit plate. The egg turned out to be hardboiled, and the assorted fruit were watermelon and a banana. Anyway, it was free and good and there was coffee.
We walked down the hill to hear the plenary session (main talk) by Barbara Seidelhofer from the University of Vienna; she does a lot of work on English as a Lingua Franca so it was important to hear her work. Afterwards, we walked to the Bonham gate to catch a cab down the hill. Our plan was to take the MTR (subway) to Kowloon to do some shopping at the “Ladies’ Market” (an open-air market of clothes). Gen chatted with the cab driver in Cantonese, and he told her that it would be cheaper and more interesting to take the ferry across. He was right—it was a mere 1.70 HKD to take the ferry one way, compared to 5-10.50 for the MTR. We also had a great view of the Hong Kong downtown and Kowloon skylines with its extremely modern buildings.
When we got off in Kowloon, it was still raining lightly. So instead of the Ladies Market we walked around the Harbour City mall, a high end indoor shopping center. We walked through the nearby and slightly less expensive Citysuper. We headed to the MTR and took it to Causeway Bay for more indoor shopping. We walked through Sogo, a Japanese department store/supermarket, and the shops at Island Beverley. Unfortunately, most of the stores weren’t open yet even though it was nearly 1:00. We walked around one more shopping center, but again most of the stores weren’t open. Gen said it’s because they stay open later in the evening. We saw one store that had some cute shirts and dresses, but the owner said she couldn’t let me try them on because they stretch easily. I felt I couldn’t take a risk buying something that wouldn’t fit or look right, so we walked away.
We started getting hungry, and popped into a restaurant for their lunch special. For 36 HKD ($5) we got a pot of noodles with mushrooms and cabbage, and a milk tea (boba). We walked through an open-air market that had enough awning to keep us dry. A woman was selling shirts for a mere 79 HKD. As I stood pondering whether to buy it, she started ranting to Gen in Cantonese about what a good price it was, and there was no reason to hesitate at such a good price. She also made hand motions over my upper body indicating how the blouse would be a good fit. She was such a character, I went ahead and bought it even though I couldn’t try it on.
We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. We went to popular clothing stores Giordano’s, G2000 (where I made some pricey but pleasing summer clothing purchases), Esprit, and the Japanese store Miju–a mixture of clothing, crackers, and Ikea-like housewares. We also walked briefly through Times Square—a shopping mall, not a replica of the New York district. For something resembling Times Square, however, we got on the MTR one more time to the Mong Kok exit, where crowds walk without cars among electronic stores, restaurants, neon signs, and hourly hotels.
Gen led us to her favorite Hong Kong fast food restaurant, Café de Corel, for dinner. You look at the menu options on a board (like the canteen), order, pay, then go to another table with trays where your food is assembled. I got Shanghai ribs with tofu, and lemon tea (very sweet). Gen got chicken and rice. Kathy got ramen soup and a dragonfruit drink, an order which caused some hassle. Apparently each part of the order should have a receipt that you give to someone who puts it on a tray and then takes the receipt off when the food is ready. They never got the receipt for Kathy’s dragonfruit drink because it was handed to her without ever going near the tray. Very weird.
Tired and on sensory overload from the people, lights, activity, and hassle, we ate quickly and took the subway to Central and a cab to our room. We bought some beer from the vending machines downstairs, and spent the evening watching cable TV. We became fixated on the Panda Channel, recorded video of the pandas at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park. They were just too cute.
Tags: 1, Asia, Hong Kong
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