Rainy Days

Hi everyone, Lizzie here. Yesterday was a rainy day here in Hong Kong so Ingrid and I decided there is no better day than a rainy one to take in the Museum of Art which has been running an exhibition on the influence of Chinese art/antiquity in Paris over the past 200 years. Right up our alley! Rainy and windy days here are incredible because it remains warm despite the sky turning dark and deeply overcast, dramatically framing the already impressive skyline. Fortunately I have appreciation for this weather because we are in for a lot of it as we enter the rainy season which puts the city in a daily state of showers over the next three months culminating with August’s typhoon season. Wow! ….we only had monsoons back in the deserts of Arizona.




To reach Kowloon Ingrid and I take the Star Ferry which has been running for over 100 years. It is an actual piece of history here in Hong Kong, the type of history that one can be a part of. And for a city that bulldozes historical charm in favor of its version of modern, the Star Ferry remains by far the greatest treasure on the city’s proverbial charm bracelet. The price of a ferry ride across Victoria Harbour will run you a mere 25 cents, even less if you sit by the engines on the boat’s bottom deck! A Star Ferry journey makes you feel like you’re in a 1970’s James Bond film, and with the greying sky Ing and I felt like secret agents on a mission to see Chinese antiquity. Oh how the imagination wanders when you spend most of your waking hours with an 8 month old!

The ferry docks in Tsim Tsa Tsui on the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbour, a short walk to the museum. The boardwalk along the waterfront is known as the “Walk of Stars” where Hong Kong’s movie stars are honored with their own engraved star in the pavement, a la Hollywood. There was a temporary exhibit ongoing showcasing animation characters. Asia is crazy about its animation. One statue after another of fictitious characters adorned the promenade and the nearby mall where 10 ft. high drawings of more cartoons lined the walls. It was weirdly cool and my favorite statue was Tiger Wong of "Oriental Heroes" 1970. The caption read, "Righteous and kind in nature, Tiger Wong is a master in Kung Fu. He is tough and has a mission of confronting evil forces in Hong Kong. He is a great hero of all Hong Kong people."

I knew that we had reached the pinnacle of all action heroes when we got to Mr. Bruce Lee. A crowd had formed around Bruce and pictures were being snapped of people hilariously mimicking his kung fu stance. I took my eyes off Ingrid for just a moment to inspect the statue's likeness and when I turned back to her she had been surrounded by a pack of Mainland Chinese tourists eager to make her acquaintance. I even think that the stroller had been rolled a few feet further away from me so that more people could encircle her. It was marvelous. I am getting more used to people enjoying her look as I do. But this struck me funny since we were in the presence of greatness. Suddenly, it was ‘Bruce Who?’

HK Beer Fest

Lizzie, Ingrid and I made our way through the Hong Kong Beer Festival today held in Lan Kwai Fong, the 'entertainment district' of the city. It's basically a 2 block area of wall to wall bars, restaurants and foolishness. The festival had all the trimmings of a typical beer fest -- beer, music, pretzels, meat products galore, and beer sponsorship girls from all the regional brands handing out tchotchke's. Good times.

Big Hair Day

Ingrid is still follicly challenged, but she does have enough hair in the front to wear a small hair clip. It is yet to be determined what color her hair will be. It's largely dependent upon the lighting but it seems to be trending toward a strawberry blondish color.

Dried Sea Life

This store only sold dehydrated shark fins, though I couldn't figure out the quality difference between those in the glass case and those piled high on the floor. And this girl's t-shirt made me laugh because her job was to sell dried sea horses for use in soup.

Tailor Made

We were exploring HK's Wan Chai district over the weekend when I noticed a closet-sized tailoring stall with an old man inside hand-cutting collars for his client's custom made shirts. Most of the city's tailors are located in larger nicer stores and typically outsource the fabrication process beyond city limits to cheaper labor, often to Mainland factories, so I couldn't pass up the chance to have some shirts made by a guy who would seem to be a living legend. And with the heat and humidity bearing down on Hong Kong the timing was perfect as I was already in the market for a couple of short sleeve linen shirts. He spoke no English but took my measurements and scribbled them down on a small note pad and pointed to a date on the calendar when I could pick them up. I asked no questions because he had the look like he'd been in this business for a very long time, and the price was right.

Notice the size difference between me and this man. This is not trick photography. I am huge, made larger by HK standards, but this guy was my equivalent on the flip side. LIzzie giggled as she photographed me getting sized up. Also, he had an awesome bulldog that just sat in front of his shop panting into of a large rotating fan. We'll see how the shirts turn out, but it was worth the price just for the experience.

They've Returned!

Ingrid and Lizzie have returned from their visit home to the States and I'm so happy as I've missed them terribly. Poor Ingrid, breezy backyard baths at Orangewood are behind her and now its back to urban living and sink bathing. She looks happy though. Great to have the gals back in Hong Kong.

Fashion Crazy HK

On my lunch hour today I discovered this "living advertisement" in one of Hong Kong's posh shopping malls. It was promoted by a world famous jewelry retailer and featured a large stage filled with impossibly thin and elegant European supermodels in ballroom gowns, all dripping in diamonds. The scene was right up the alley of HK's luxury goods/lifestyle obsessed population. The place was very crowded and people were furiously jostling for position to click photos of the models who were all doing their best not to laugh and to stay still as statues. I'm a foot taller than everyone here so it was easy for me to tower above the crowd and take a couple shots with my mobile phone.

Moment of Silence

Photo: Reuters.
Not since Mao’s death has Hong Kong fallen completely silent and motionless in observance of grief. Then it was grief of the State-sponsored variety, but today it was grief from the heart as the City paused for three quiet minutes beginning at 2:28pm, exactly one week from the moment of the Sichuan earthquake that has taken such a devastating toll on the country. Flags flew at half mast as traffic stood still, the stock exchanges stopped trading, office workers paused and, most surprisingly people actually stopped shopping. At the conclusion of the three minutes there was a huge ruckus of car horns, air raid sirens, and ship horns intended to symbolize the country’s grief. It was very moving to see a City that is typically so caught up in its own goings on to focus on a humanitarian crisis outside its borders. The paper's speak of HK feeling closer than ever to its mother country.

And the moment of silence was observed throughout China. It's wild to consider world demographics and to realize that China's entire population of 1.4 billion people stood silent for three minutes. 1 in every 5 people on Earth in silence and North and South America were likely sleeping in the middle of their night, so roughly half the World was in silence! I can't imagine that happens often/ever.

It's Durian Season

Summer brings into ripeness the Durian fruit, and along with it comes its terrible stench. The fruit's smell has been described by one travel writer as "pig excrement, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock." Bingo. Go near any public market in Hong Kong and the smell of the durian rises above the normal market stench which is already a test of the ol' gag reflex. Its so powerful that its banned in most hotels in Asia and on an public transportation. But nature has given it this awful smell and sharp spiky exterior to protect the interior fruit that is a much sought after delicacy in Southeast Asia. I'm not a fan, but they are cool looking, and you can get one for under $1USD.

HK Art Scene

Checked out an 'art' showing this weekend by Banksy, the mysterious British graffiti artist whose whimsical yet politically charged, anti-establishment murals grace public spaces in London and other world cities, even the concrete barrier separating Palestine and Israel. His identity is supposedly unknown but the fact he's got his prints and paintings on a world tour leads one to believe he's creeping from the underground to the mainstream. I couldn't help but think he was somewhere in the gallery observing the crowd. Perhaps like Spiderman he'll use his time in HK to leave the city a parting gift.

Fun House Mirror

Lizzie and Ingrid are still in the States so I'm pulling from the photo archives now...This mirror at the Western Market in Hong Kong had Ingrid riveted, if not a bit confused.

Disasters

Mother Nature has really taken her fury out on this corner of the world in the past month with the Myanmar cyclone and the Sichuan earthquake. Let's hope She is not triangulating...The images in the local press of China’s earthquake and Myanmar’s cyclone are heart-wrenching beyond imagination. I can’t and wouldn’t attempt to describe to the cover photo of quake recovery efforts on today’s South China Morning Post. Sad beyond words and the news gets worse by the hour. It’s wild for me to consider how close in proximity the city of Hong Kong is to both of these disaster zones where the loss of life has been so massive. The distance between HK and either/both of these cataclysms is just a 90-minute shuttle ride away. No longer is this the type of thing I read about occurring half a world away.

Happy Mother's Day

Congratulations Mr. Graduate!!

Congratulations Barr on earning your MBA, the culmination of extreme hard work and commitment over the past couple years. Looks like the Asia-themed afterparty was not to be missed!

Back To The Bay!

We had a successful homecoming to the Bay Area where Ingrid got a chance to catch up with Grandma, Grandpa, aunties and uncles, all her cousins and even a couple of friends. Being far away in Hong Kong makes it difficult to share her development with the family. A blog is a far cry from actually being at home in person and this past weekend reminded me of that fact. Here is a collection of random photo's from the weekend.