Skip to main content

8 hours to kill in Hong Kong

Described as the fragrant harbor meaning Hong Kong this bustling region in south China was our layover as we headed to Japan for spring break.

Having visited at some leisure few years back we were hoping to visit some fondly remembered eateries but this time around we were early.   As in too early.   This is what happens when you connect through another airport and there is no control on the itinerary.

We landed around 5 am.  But by the time we cleared customs and immigration the airport express train service had begun and so we went to check out our options to see if we could visit the gambling destination of Macau.   An island with an economy much like Vegas,  an hour's ferry ride from HK was going to be a tight timetable so we instead chose to loiter on HK island and were able to take in lot of sights and sounds and flavors - some different than the last visit.  A cacophony of people, vehicles and vendors plying everything from baked goods to fancy jewelry it is a city that winds up and down and is a mish mash of crooked and crowded streets that sell street food from all continents but suddenly open into large glitzy shopping neighborhoods at the next bend on an escalator.   Yes, some neighborhoods actually have outdoor escalators to move people up the hill with a roof overhead to shelter them from the frequent rain squalls.
We enjoyed some desi chai equivalent (at Tsui Wah - yes chai bilkul wah wah thee) with toasted bun and condensed milk for breakfast  (which was early dinner time in CA) and later strolled the harbor which was heavily foggy.

Barely could make out Kowloon island a mile across the strait.

Grabbed few noodles and Japanese curried rice before boarding next flight to Nagoya.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language.  Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds.  The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic.  Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'.  This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...

You are important to us

Followed by piano music.   Followed by 'we are experiencing heavier than usual call volume'.  Sounds macabre like bleeding during menstruation or after a ghastly attack with a weapon on a hemophiliac.  Sorry Mrs. Johnson but it appears little Gertrude here has been bleeding heavier than usual what with her night time activities competing with the woodchucks in your neighborhood. Some services even go as far as to pick a random day to say - 'if you were to call us during the Chinese lunar month when the moon is axiomatically hugging the polar star with Jupiter intravenous when call volume is light'.  Well I will be damned.  I thought  I had checked with my astrologer before I placed this well focused call but  I guess this is what you get for listening to a quack. Umph! I am not sure which marketing genius came up with this personal touch concept of informing the caller that you are really a jackass for actually calling the customer serv...

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...