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Published: December 12th 2005
Upper Lascar Row
Cat street antiques & junk Just hanging out & wandering the streets. Very hot today and when we stop at Tony’s favorite “morning” place - that designation just means generally early in the day, not really morning - there is no AC. On this very hot day, the Bagel Factory in Soho on Elgin Street is undergoing aircon repairs. Guess there will be no bagels, decide to go to Deli France again.
Today is a holiday, but since it’s Sunday, the day off will be Monday. Hong Kong has tons of holidays, seems like there is one every other week. The official 2005 list:
The first day of January, 1 Jan, Lunar New Year's Day, 9 Feb, The second day of the Lunar New Year, 10 Feb, The third day of the Lunar New Year, 11 Feb, Good Friday, 25 Mar, The day following Good Friday, 26 Mar, Easter Monday, 28 Mar, Ching Ming Festival, 5 Apr, Additional general holiday for Labour Day, 2 May, Additional general holiday for the Buddha's Birthday,16 May, Tuen Ng Festival, 11 June, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day, 1 July, The day following Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, 19 Sept,
National Day, 1 Oct, Chung Yeung Festival, 11 Oct, The first weekday after Christmas Day, 26 Dec, Additional general holiday for Christmas Day, 27 Dec. A total of 17.
What does the USA have? 10 maybe? And some of those your employer asks you to alternate, like MLK and Pres days.
This one is civilly called Labour Day in Hong Kong, probably a legacy from the British, but this day also signifies something more for the rest of the world. I look it up later and find out that it is actually
International Workers Day - and more of a socialist / communist celebration of workers, and various other left wing, or radical causes, than what it has become in the US in September - just a day for BBQs in the park with your powerless local labor union. There is also Youth Day in China (officially May 4th). Today we see a truckload of young people, red flags and scarves flying, driving around Sheung Wan banging drums and chanting. Not sure which day they are celebrating.
On Hollywood Rd, just down the street from us is
Man Mo Temple and we have passed by it a dozen times, but decide
Man Mo Temple, Hollywood Rd
Caught this just before a busload of tourists converged on the temple today is the day to stop in. It’s a major tourist attraction in Sheung Wan, and there is always a tour bus or two parked nearby - three attractions within a couple of blocks: just north of Hollywood Rd and down a few steps is the antique / tchotchke street, Upper Lascar Row, and just south of it and up some steps is the
Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences.
Upper Lascar Row is nicknamed Cat street, although we never see stray cats here (which silly me thought was the origin of the nickname), the
real story behind the name is much more interesting. The stray cats of Sheung Wan prefer to live in quieter quarters on Shing Wong Street, or in the alley behind our building. On our way to the temple, we first sniff around the junk store on Lok Ku Road, the official beginning, (or end?) of Cat Street. Floor to ceiling, layer upon layer, jam packed, A to Z and every other hackneyed phrase describes this place. Previously I had been quoted an unheard of price for a cheap plastic globe that Tony wants - $150HK. He’s going to offer $30HK - he gets it! Stop by the guy who sells
Mao merchandise and buy a Mao watch for $30HK down from $50HK, (there is rumor that enterprising capitalists are selling these watches for $50US on eBay - let me know if you need some) and also a paper decorative fan for $20HK. Total spent = $80HK or ten bucks US.
At the end of the street, turn right, up the stairs to Hollywood Road and just across we reach Man Mo Temple. It is a prized place in HK having avoided the wrecking ball since the Age Of The High-rises began in the 60’s. Its exterior, dark from pollution and city grime, doesn’t in the least detract from the peace and serenity within.
Cough, cough! Enough incense already, choking we head up Ladder Street, (aptly named street that is singled out from all other staircase streets in HK only because it’s near a bunch of tourists spots - they should go hike up the other 5 million stairs and be less astounded), to the
History of Medical Sciences, but it’s too late to go in. Will postpone a visit to another day when we can devote more than 30 minutes to it.
May 2nd Tony’s day off and it’s
maids day off too! (
read this counter-point article by a nitwit rich bitch) The maids of HK, upwards of 240,000 in numbers, flock to Central, meet up with their friends, lay a blanket down just about anywhere and call it a picnic or party. Their groups line the overhead & underground walkways, atriums, Star Ferry Terminal, and sitting out areas. Chater Rd is blocked off for them where they stage various events - some silly,
some serious. Today we see all fun and games, a race where one girl has to feed a banana to another. I guess you have to be a participant to feel the joy in that.
If you have read the articles from the above links you may see the irony in it all - that this country should suppress the wages of domestic help so that the rich can better afford to keep one.
More ambling around HK, again to Tsim Sha Tsui to Tom Lee Music for guitar strings. We walk aimlessly around the area, Nathan road, and Signal Hill.
We dine at the Macau restaurant in the Shun Tak Center again. Think it officially has another name, but that’s how we identify it. Mmmmm, egg tarts!
May 5th Need to go
to a UPS office to send a most important package to the USA! Find the nearest, or rather, only UPS retail office in HK in Lai Chi Kok, in Northwest Kowloon. It’s easy to find off the MTR station exit, at 828 Cheung Sha Wan Road. Only about $25US to send the letter (find out later that it went very efficiently to the US, then got lost in Oak Creek WI) (further find out that we needn’t have gone to Lai Chi Kok at all - there is a DHL service center right in Sheung Wan. I keep forgetting rule number one: you only have to go 1/2 mile in any direction to get what you want).
Do our usual district exploration, and come up with not much. Tony sees mountains in the distance and he wants to climb them so he seeks a way to get there. Map we have is annoying for that sort of thing as it is meant for public transportation routes. All we see is a lot of car repair places, desolation, construction of a major artery of the freeway system, and a Catholic cemetery.
May 6th First big storm of the season
last night but beautiful and clear today. Just thought I’d mention that.
May 7th Late start. Maybe that should be an assumption from this point on. You may wonder why we always get a late start - it’s because we are up till 3am every nearly every night, making a burrito snack, watching DVDs, playing on the computer, or on the rooftop having a gabfest with the gang.
Wander around accomplishing the routine errands that are always a part of our days now. Walk through a different area north of Hollywood Road - it calls itself Noho. Interesting restaurants in a quiet area on Gough Street, not yet pretentious, will come back here some day.
A group of girls, about 10 of them, stop us. One has a bridal veil on, and she approaches us, giggling, and hands us a condom telling us to please practice safe sex. Oh, we sure will. Obviously, it’s a prankish bachelorette party being held on the streets of Noho. They want their picture taken with us. We are now memorialized in some couple’s wedding album.
May 9th Day off. Pick up Tony’s work visa in Wan Chai, but what to
Man Mo Temple, Hollywood Rd
Tony donates some money, then bangs the gong! do on a rainy day in Hong Kong?? We haven’t been museum hopping yet, so it’s to the MTR and off to the
HK Museum of History, 100 Chatham Road South, Tsim Sha Tsui. What a fantastic place! Admission tickets are only $10HK ea - can’t beat that. So much to see, so much to learn about this great city. We spend about 3 hours here yet feel we are rushing through. Definitely worth a second viewing. Outside, it continues to rain and we are stuck with only one umbrella, puddle jumping back to the MTR after an aborted attempt to find a restaurant to wait it out. Back to Sheung Wan and out of the station it’s a heavy downpour! The streets are flooded. Nothing to do but to slosh back to the apt, my pants are a wick and I end up getting wet up to my undies.
How to stave off the drenching doom of a typhoon? Clean up, take taxi to Wildfire in Soho, and have pizza & wine for dinner.
May 10th Errands again. After a stop at the Creative Store we head down Queens Road to an herbal tea shop. Tony is not feeling well,
Ladder Street
A long way up and he’s going to experiment with Chinese medicine to alleviate his cold symptoms. We pass this shop on Queens Road somewhere around Mercer Street several times a week and will stop for the first time today. Of course there are hundreds of shops like this, but this is the only one we’ve seen with an English menu.
Absolutely no English is spoken by the helpful and smiling proprietor, but by pointing to the menu of symptoms, Tony selects his potion. A viscous, dark mixture arrives in a pint sized bowl. He tastes it, then makes me taste it -
mud with hints of licorice. He’s sipping & making it take longer - you’re supposed to chug it down like medicine. About seven people have come and gone since he started the drink. Finally done, he says it’s already helping his throat and general malaise.
May 11th Another dose of herbal tea. Out and about again with errands & walking.
Recall wanting to go to the Dumpling House on Bonham Strand East , just off of Queens Rd at the Cosco Tower. They have an English menu, lots of soups and variations on Beijing style dumplings, from pumpkin to pork, beef, and
chicken. We order two different soups - Tony a chicken hot & sour w/pumpkin dumplings, and me a beef hot & sour, plus a side of dumplings.
This is the absolute best freakin’ soup I’ve ever had in my life!!! Filled with exotic mushrooms, beef dumplings, other vegetable material stewed in a most delicious, rich beefy broth, I slurped up every drop in this enormous bowl. It is soup nirvana and perfect for a dreary rainy day.
May 12th Same old thing today. Various errands, then to the library to renew the ever-renewed Mandarin language book. Deli France lunch yet again.
Linden and I go to the club tonight, then afterwards to a jazz club off Hollywood Rd on Old Bailey Street to watch her hubby, John, jam with guys there. We race out of the Cavern, Tony & me, John & Linden and Andrew to the Bohemian Jazz Club right after they are done playing. It’s nice to get out at night somewhere else other than the Cavern. We don’t do evenings, well, because Tony is working six nights a week. Of course HK’s nightlife is wild and never ending, so I hear, with a club
Caine Lane
Caine Lane behind the grounds of the HK Museum of Medical Sciences scene in every major district, Lan Kwai Fong & Wan Chai being the biggest. Note, elitists here will tell you there is NO club scene, but how would I know the diff?? This night it’s cool jazz. We meet a scary guy who’s the regular drummer, an American who seems to hate HK but lives here, and goes to NY to get away from hectic HK. Go figure.
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