Public Foot Massage Paths

The stresses of Hong Kong's city streets are many, and nowhere are they toughest than on one's feet. So in the city's public parks, pocketed between the hustle/bustle and the surrounding skyscrapers, you'll often find people massaging their soles on these specially designed cobblestoned footpaths.

Rub a Dub Dub

Bathtime is always a favorite of Ingrid's, but a hometown soak in the backyard of Orangewood from Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Barr and Aunt Katherine is the best. "What's that green stuff on the ground?" she wonders...That's grass Ingrid, don't go falling in love with it, we'll be headed back to Hong Kong in another couple weeks....

Hong Kong Vistas

I never thought I'd say it, but I love high rise living. Having never lived above the second story (20 feet) off ground level, I'm really trying to adjust to being 400+ feet in the air. Coming home from work with takeout Chinese food (or, 'Food" as they call it here in China) really makes me feel like an eagle or something bringing food back to Lizzie and Ingrid in the perch.

I've been monkeying around with a new panorama photostitch software program. These photos are a stitch taken out of our windows during night and day. Click on the photo for a bigger shot. The photos are a bit fisheye-ed, but I was trying to capture 180 degrees on horizon plus 90 degrees on the third dimension. As with rearview mirrors, objects in photo's are closer than they appear.

We're on the 45th floor, but in actuality its the 41st floor because the Chinese are superstitiously terrified of the number 4 because phonetically it sounds like the pronunciation of 'death.' So there is no floor 4, 14, 24 or 34. Floors starting in the 40's are alright because the phonetics are different apparently. Ironic that no one is concerned about death living 40+ stories tall, but the Chinese are not big on irony I'm told. Those of you have visited will agree, our views rock and I hope these pics will lure others to visit.

Fish Magic

You'll need audio for this. I've never gotten to the bottom of whether this is just sadistic animal cruelty done out of boredom of if there is some sort of practical reason the fishmongers in the Gage Street Market do this, but check it out...pretty mild but not for the uber squeemish...

Progress sucks sometimes

For a city that shills for the tourist dollar like none other, Hong Kong really is missing the tourist boat by moving forward on the re-development of the Gage Street Market. The last remaining wet-market on Hong Kong Island, the multi-block area is a photographer's delight and a major draw to visitors of the City. It's one of the rare dark spots in HK where you can't find Jimmy Choo shoes for purchase, or Dolce & Gabbana fashions or the shamefully priced $100K Vertu diamond encrusted mobile phone (If buying one of these phones is not a first class ticket to Hell, I don't know what is). The Gage St Mkt is just raw veggies, fish, and chickens with their necks broken to order.


Like anything culturally charming and not UNESCO protected, its existence is under siege from the evil property crowd who are looking to develop it into high end lofts and high rises, with a promise to preserve the current market with a modernized version. Success in my mind would be something akin to the SF Ferry Building where elements of old and new co-exist, but HK's urban development tends to lend more to the advancement of the HK$ than the preservation of cultural heritage so the benefit of the doubt is not in their corner. The developers and city officials contend that if they don't step in the market will be taken over by the gentrifying effects of high-end restaurants and boutiques. Fair point, and that is something that is already creeping into the area. As in any case where all constituencies have good points, the ones with the most power and HK$$'s will prevail. I know, that attitude is one of a pipin' hot glass of water filled empty, but the hawkers pictured on this posting don't have the means to battle the developers in court and Eminent Domain is quite popular with the Chinese government, so its left to the community activists to step up -- http://www.savethestreetmarket.com/ Its an age old story I suppose.

So why is the market worth saving? Stall after stall of hawkers selling virtually anything that swims in the sea or roots in a pen, and any part of it for that matter. They haggle with their customers, many of which have been shopping the street for seemingly ever. Orders are taken on pad and paper, chalkboard, or on trust-based loans, not on touch screened plasmas. Some of these merchants have been doing business in the same closet-sized space well before big white dudes like me were using them as a nostaligic photo opportunity. The place reeks something unholy, I'm no health inspector but it screams unsanitary, and there is a mysterious H3O fluid (Melted ice? Cat piss? Fish guts? Combination thereof?) that flows counterintuitively from the meat market on higher ground to the veggie market below it....But in a city that strives to be modern in every every ways, it is one of the few time capsules - a place where you can go and feel like people are content to live without the burden of feeling like they must constantly scratch advance their standing. For me, it is one of the places where I feel a sense of 'cultural awe.' A 5-star hotel is mildly impressive, a conference room is just another conference room, a high-rise apartment is just that -- but watching a guy in a blood-stained wife beater swing a rusty cleaver at a flopping fish with laser precision just like he's done for the past 30 years is pretty dang cool....




I'm not an activist, I'm a believer in free markets or I'd not be here, but I'm also a newcomer to HK so its sad to read about how the rising HK property market is chasing out some really charming traditional enterprises. "Silly, innocent gweilo, didn't anyone warn you that money trumps culture in HK?" I guess not well enough. Two weeks ago I read in "The Paper" (South China Morning Post) that a 75-year old third generation paper craftsman in Soho was being chased out of his business by rising rents and it prompted me to go to his small shop and buy a bunch of stuff (Paper goldfish now adorn Ingrid's nursery). And just today in the SCMP there was a story of the Man Wah Hair Dressing Company, run by Lee Kwok-Shun, an 86-year old who'd been cutting hair since the age of 14 who had to fold up shop because of rent increases. Sad to me. I'm going to try and get him hooked up with a gig at Hair Party.

I suppose my point is that its a shame to see the "Out with the old, In with the new" mentality prevail when HK's 'old' is so cool its 'new' is so lame. Alright, enough, I'll get off my soap box without breaking an ankle, being arrested by Chinese Internet thought police, or surrendering my conservative sensibilities.
This store (above) made me laugh because there were all these chickens huddled in their little cages while one of there unfortunate brethren was hanging in the window in the storefront. There is a coffee shop nearby where I sat and gave playful thought to a screenplay for the next animated Pixar film where the chickens plot their escape from the Gage St. Market......So many potential voiceovers -- Gilbert Gottfried, John Ratzenberger, Rosie Perez, and Bruce Willis (of course). I think I've got something here..

Tea, hold the bag please

Is the glass half full or half empty? Well, that is a good question, but not really my point because it doesn't speak to the temperature of the glass. What I have noticed here in Hong Kong is that it's customary to serve a visitor a glass of hot water upon arrival to a business meeting. Picture my big body battling across town in the searing heat and humidity, slicing and dicing the sidewalk foot traffic to make my meeting on time, building a healthy sweat, only to be served a glass of hot water upon arrival. I always grab the glass hoping for cool refreshment, only to feel the thermal heat through the glass. Cruel. Uncool, in every sense.

Hair Party

Now that I am alone I find myself with time on my hands to do life's simple things that can be tough to with a baby in the house. Like get a haircut. I walk by this place every day and giggle to myself about the name, so I finally had to stop in to see whether it lived up to its title. And how.

Arizona Homecoming

Lizzie and Ingrid have left Hong Kong for a homecoming to their native Arizona where they'll be visiting family and friends over the next month. As they are the primary inspirations for this blog, it could slow down the postings a bit, but do bear with us. Ingrid gets acquainted with her little cousin Susanna.

Black Rain

In tandem with Typhoon Neoguri this weekend, Hong Kong experienced a Black Rain warning yesterday. Black Rain falls at a rate of over 70 millimeters per hour (nearly 3 inches). It did come down heavily, when the clouds parted and the rain stopped it offered the clearest view of the city skyline that I've ever seen -- no smog, haze or other pollutants. And it clean at the street level as well. Hong Kong is a very congested city, and with so many people traversing the same public terrain everyday it becomes very necessary for Mother Nature to swab the decks every so often. I'm not saying I'd eat off the sidewalks here in HK, but yesterday would have been the day to do it.

Typhoon Neoguri

In another sign that the world's weather is out of whack,Hong Kong is currently being hit by a Typhoon, the earliest the city has ever been hit by such a storm since records have been kept (and in China, records have been kept for a looong time). The signpost in the lobby of our building claims Typhoon Neoguri to be a No. 3 Signal event which is basically a big rainstorm with accompanying strong winds. Its the Signal 8+ typhoons that close the schools and send everyone screaming home from work to batton down the hatches. We look forward to those come August. But the city is taking Neoguri in stride. I just dropped Lizzie and Ingrid off at the Airport Express for their flight home to the States. The flight is still scheduled to leave on time so I suppose its not a major meteorological event.