Sent: Sunday, May 09, 2010 5:27 PM
Subject: China - Day 2
I was awoken at 5:30 AM by my ringing cell phone, although in my drowsy condition I did not realize where the noise was coming from. The second time it began ringing, I had a clearer head – it was my daughter. I had only four hours of sleep, but I was glad to be up so early to help me adjust to the time change of 13 hours.
I am on my own today. After breakfast (hotel buffet – nothing special), I really felt the need to walk so I grabbed my backpack, put in a couple of bottles of water (hot and humid here) and headed out. Kowloon, where I am staying, is a peninsula on the south end of mainland China, but still part of Hong Kong. The buildings are tall, most over 10 stories, some much taller, the sidewalks are busy, taxis and busses outnumber cars by 5 to 1 and they drive fast. They also drive on the left here and I have to be careful crossing streets as I keep looking the wrong way for oncoming cars. I have described Kowloon in detail during previous trips so I won’t spend too much time talking about the hundreds of massage ladies, predatory tailors (I hope that gives you a good visual), and unusual odors, but I still enjoy just walking around here.
I also like the subway system. I wanted to go to Hong Kong Island today to find a neighborhood called Wan Chai (an American expat I sat next to on the flight from Tokyo mentioned he lives there and that it is his favorite part of Hong Kong) and a quick look at the subway map showed me the way. Despite being the primary mode of transport for most HK residents, the trains are very clean, efficient and surprisingly quiet. The trains arrive every 3 minutes, are around 2-300 feet long, and are completely open on the inside from one end to the other. They also get very crowded – no personal space allowed here which I find a bit uncomfortable – I mean if you are going to press your butt up against me I think you should at least introduce yourself! Fortunately I am 6-12 inches taller than most of the riders so it never feels claustrophobic – I just look out over the bobbing sea of black hair. Wan Chai was interesting and worth the trip. Is appears to be a big night life area. Maybe I will stay here on a future trip.
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| Cool pub in Wan Chai |
It was starting to get late and I was feeling a bit tired, but I was also getting hungry. Then I remembered the fish lips. On my last trip I saw on a menu in Wuxi “Cantonese Style Deep-Fried Fish Lips”, and to be honest, I was kind of intrigued. I mean here I am in the Cantonese area of China, and seriously, how can you read something like that on a menu and not be curious. Are they complete sets of lips from smaller fish, perhaps looking like calamari rings, or are they chunks of lip from a larger fish? I don’t know, but I must find out. I returned to Kowloon on the subway and started looking for lips. The local restaurants all have their menus on a small stand outside the front door and a person, usually a girl standing there presumably to answer questions. I checked 3 or four menus from different restaurants with no luck – no lips of any kind. At one place, the girl asked me in very broken English as I was studying the menu what it was I was looking for. I told her I wanted to try fish lips. She gave me a puzzled look and cocked her head slightly, trying to repeat what I had said but obviously not understanding. Since language was not working, we soon resorted to a game of charades. At one point I make a “fish swimming” motion with one hand and pointed to my lips – she got a triumphant look on her face and said “ Oh – you want eat fish!” Darn – I thought we were going to have a breakthrough there for a moment. I tried again but she just kept repeating “Eat fish!”. Oh well, perhaps when I meet my Chinese friend Larry he can hook me up. I wound up eating dinner in the hotel and by 9:00 I could barely keep my eyes open. I was out by 10:00
Day 3 preview – If this is Sea World, where is Shamu?
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