Hong Neon Kong
// February 8th, 2008 // China
Greetings from shiny happy Hong Kong. We finally made it out of frozen China, securing a flight from amongst the hundreds of thousands of people trying to get somewhere for the Chinese New Year. We passed Guangzhou train station one day after the riots that saw a crowd of 100,000 people storm the police barriers and run for the trains. We saw a few near riots when we were in Xi’an station (one fucker swiping my wallet, which had only 50eur or so and no cards in it though), luckily those amazing scenes are now a fading memory and we’re heading onwards and upwards (well if you cheat and turn around and face south).
Hong Kongs really interesting, like a sort of Diet China….
….all the bad stuffs been taken out (the spitting, primal toilets, food, non English speaking) its so developed they even have Ribena and that other bastion of developed cultures the humble Irish bar!
This place is like looking into China’s crystal ball and seeing what it will become in 5 years. Its also a mecca of technology, and a bewildering and exciting place to just walk around amongst the waves of people getting in your way under all the lights. You can get a tan just walking the streets at night, your skin glowing from the omnipresent neon lights of every street, the city is literally bathed in electricity which suits me just fine. Should we have a power shortage issue in future, I recommend they turn off a block of Hong Kong, that should free up enough electricity to power Norfolk, even if 14 mobile phone shops are forced into a blackout.
As we explore the city, I can’t shake the feeling that we’re being followed, I keep seeing this face, catching a glimpse of it in reflections, turning and seeing it behind me, in shop windows beaming its smile at me – yes I’m talking about Jackie Chan. Hong Kong is Jackie Chan mad, he’s everywhere here, his picture and card board cutout is the wallpaper of Hong Kongs living room. Yesterday after we passed the official Jackie Chan souvenir shop, we crossed islands to ride the scenic tram up to the top of the mountain to look out at the city at night. While we were queuing I was minding my own business, turning to my right and guess who’s there smack bang in my face Jackie freaking Chan my kung fu stalker. He’s playing on loop in a video where he is also riding the tram, only Mr Chan is sitting not inside, oh no that would be too easy. He’s on top of the train, doing martial arts as he goes, the big show off. Yesterday I walked past an office furniture shop, Jackie Chan free territory you would think but oh no, even there was a picture of the owner with Jackie Chan sitting on an office chair. Hasn’t Jackie Chan got better things to do than buy Office Chairs? Is that why people get famous these days to negotiate the purchase of cheaper office equipment in-exchange for signed pictures? No wonder he forced to keep making those terrible Rush Hour movies, he’s paid only in Mahogany Desks.
Hong Kong does sting the wallet though. In China it was as cheap as 20p for a 600ml beer, here its London prices. They’ve sussed that the English will spend more on beer than rent in a cold country, never mind one blessed with the climate of Hong Kong. But China blew the budget as well, so the budget is little more than a mythical comedy thing we wheel out to ridicule each day anyway
“how did we do with the budget today?”
“smashed it. taught it a good lesson today.”
“oh well i’m sure we’ll catch up with each ourselves at some point, I hear x (insert place that when we get there wont actually be very cheap) is cheap”.
Its also very entertaining to watch Annett navigating such a small, congested place. In a spread out city, with distinguishable landmarks, many taxi trips and more time she can just about get by even with her “fish in the desert” sense of direction, a terrible affliction she’s forced to live with making it impossible for her to direct herself out of a paper bag. In Hong Kong you have to look up as much as you have to look forward and back, they ran out of space a long time ago and that place you’re looking for could be on the 7th floor with only a 80ft flashing neon sign to help you find it. Imagine your arrive in a new city by night, your show laces are tied together, your blindfolded, spun in a circle for 5 minutes, handed a map of Moscow and asked to locate the nearest Internet Cafe, thats a pretty good description of what its like to be Annett outside of Leipzig. Its brave that she’s ever left the house, let alone travelled thousands of miles to provide free entertainment for me.
Next is Thailand, the cost reduction, and temperature increase will be very welcome. We’ll only be there 3 or 4 days though as we need to get out to Laos quickly so we make it through Vietnam while our visas are valid, so we’ll sweep back round to the south of Thailand and down to Malaysia in April time. Hope you’re all well!
Possibly related, hopefully entertaining other posts:
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Matthäus
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mum
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mone
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Vilja
