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Published: December 12th 2005
Protest on Hennessey
Hong Kongers protest Japan's new history textbooksWe are seeking a simple piece of foam to lay on top of our rock hard bed so that I can avoid permanent damage to my skeletal structure. The Chinese think sleeping on a slab of stone they call a mattress is good and healthful. I don’t. This task doesn’t sound difficult as you should be able to go to the local fabric store and buy a rectangular piece of upholstery foam. But that’s not where they sell foam. Cheap foam is sold in the variety stores and is covered with colorful fabric designed with a baby’s bed in mind. Another choice, foam mattresses, come in one density - hard. You think I’m exaggerating? You can actually hear a clunk when you tap the top. And the ultimate choice - memory foam is only sold in expensive department stores and costs a whole bunch of HK dollars. Many afternoons are spent, sometimes in conjunction with buying computer speakers (see below), in search of foam. I haunt the web for foam in HK. I read the expat forums about
how everyone hates the mattresses here. I think I’ll find the answer, but no. We ask HK residents - where’s the foam? They help us. We finally find full-sized bed foam in Lok Fu (northern part of Kowloon) in a market outside the MTR. Amber has led us to it. Uh oh, decision time - they have two kinds. They both feel soft - what a concept. We are convinced (by the shop owner) that the more expensive one is a smarter decision and so spend $260 rather than $99 for the cheapie. After all this, how is it possible that this foam mattress, which felt soft in the shop, turns out to be only slightly less hard than the rock we’ve been sleeping on?
Other stuff Stacie the dancer has moved out, and Barry the rock star impersonator has moved in. Barry’s first performance is Rod Stewart - he’s great! Looks and sounds just like the real thing!
We find a new place to eat in our neighborhood - the Easy Kitchen on Bonham Strand street - it specializes in Singapore style cuisine. We are drawn to it because of the great food we had on
Protest on Hennessey
Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the communist party? our honeymoon trip in Singapore and Malaysia. Tony orders Laksa - a bowl of coconut flavored soup which usually contains everything but the kitchen sink (Penang style does, that is), and I, Singaporian Hainan Rice. Again we are looked at askance presumably because not many westerners come here. They have an English menu so ordering is easy. The wait staff hovers over us and “helps” often, especially with the sauces. Three small pots of chili, soy sauce, and ginger are provided which you are supposed to combine to your taste and slather on the food. And it is very tasty! Because it looks like I might not have added enough ginger, the waitress points to the pot & indicates I should put more in. The chicken dish is served cold - not what I expect - and is a bit bland except for the sauce. I had forgotten that in Singapore they chop their chicken up perpendicular to the bone, so you always end up with bone-in chicken, along with crunchy bone fragments - great, built-in toothpicks! The flesh is very tender so it’s not too much of a pain to use chopsticks, however it wouldn’t be my first implement
of choice. Tony’s laksa is shy on the everything and way short of the kitchen sink as far as ingredients, also a bit too coconuty. Moderately priced, clean, great hovering service, but not good enough to go back.
We’ve been frequenting Kam Sing, the previously mentioned favorite local restaurant. Eric always waits on us mainly because he’s the only English speaker, and when he doesn’t the waitresses always giggle and run to him if we have questions. It would be impossible to eat your way through the entire menu of about 10 pages, so when in doubt we ask Eric for his opinion and he usually picks a winner. Tony asks what the posted specials are - they are written only in Chinese. Turns out they have fish specials and we order one fried garupa, and one steamed fish of unknown type. They are cooked whole and the presentation of the steamed fish is just as good as any 4 star place - shaved scallions artfully placed around a red fish (snapper?) laying atop a thin, dark sauce. In fact this steamed fish is better than the Rainbow’s on Lamma, and considerably cheaper at just $38HK. I think the
Idyllic Day
Down by the harbor in Sheung Wan sauce might be soy based, there is a complexity to it but can’t pick out the individual ingredients and it wouldn’t help to ask… Anyway, it is excellent as usual!
Our AC has been out for a week now. We keep calling and complaining but the property manager has been out of town and is slow to respond. Tony brings it to the attention of the club owner. We’ll get our AC. Weather has been OK up till today, but now it’s getting HOT!
Goverment sanctioned protest Whilst roaming about in pursuit of computer speakers, we exit the store on Hennessey and run smack dab into a huge protest march. In the news lately is that the Chinese are incensed over how the Japanese reengineered their history books to whitewash the treatment of them in WWII. We figure the government "allowed" the protests here & in Beijing to keep the fire fueled against the Japanese - cuz you know if Beijing doesn't want a protest it will let you know.
A smiley face day One beautiful day we meander about basking, spacey-like, in the rare sunny day. We casually seek out possible walking routes next
Idyllic Day
Sitting out area near the piers to the harbor. Starting from Des Voeux Street we cross over to Connaught via the elevated walkway next to the Western Market, walk east, then turn down Man Fai Street and stroll along - this is part of our “quiet” route to the IFC mall when we go shopping at City Super. There is a tiny sitting out area completely free of sitters, a few fishermen attempt to pull in some mercury marinated fish as we watch the ferries race while the sampan boats try to avoid being rammed.
Turning back, walking west from here it’s very peaceful, no people at all, we follow the reclaimed harbor frontage to a parking lot - great use for a lovely stretch - then to a fenced off area with signage that indicates it is a sitting out spot. A very un-place, its parking lot days still showing. We figure this was the location of the Sheung Wan night market mentioned in Lonely Planet. Ah, another great deed of the city scrubbers to sanitize every bit of local culture. Continuing, the walkway ends at a sewage treatment center - go figure that the sewage plant remains, but the night market is removed.
Idyllic Day
At Sun Yat-Sen Park looking at the Peak We try following a path behind it, but it just leads to a fence, besides it’s very smelly here so we turn back.
Up to Connaught, westward we head for
Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Park and Western Park Sports Center as shown on our map. Across a no man’s land for a few hundred yards we reach the quaint little well manicured park. It's strangely configured with fenced off areas reachable only though gates with many signs forbidding many activities. There is a basketball court, soccer field and a large paved area strictly forbidding just about everything. There is a nice plaque depicting
Sun Yat-Sen's trail through Hong Kong. But it is nice enough and would be a place to sit, read or meditate with relatively fresh air, vistas, and few people. The sports center appears to host large events - Tony wants to go in, I don’t. No more sidewalks further west, so we cross over Connaught via the overhead walkway to get to Des Voeux St West.
This end of Des Voeux is still very much like old Hong Kong, so they say - to date no urban redevelopment has reached this area. Like everywhere else in HK, this neighborhood has a specialty
Idyllic Day
Sun Yat-Sen Park - dried fish. Dozens of dried fish shops line the street on both sides, and just like the other specialty shops we see very few customers buying the goods. We want to know about the fish, why so many, how are they used, etc., but can’t communicate. Make one attempt and about all that can be determined is that we speak English and the shop owner speaks Cantonese.
Where to for lunch? Ah, we recall the Honalulu (sic), a cute place on Morrison off of Queens Road West. Very weird menu mix not in keeping with its namesake - pork chop sandwich, fried fish sandwich, waffles, cheesecake, other oddities, and a nice list of coffees. We order fried fish sandwich - do not have. We order some chicken thingy - do not have. No wonder she keeps pointing to the pork chop sandwich. We order the suggested pork chop sandwich and some other kind of fishwhich. Ordering coffee is about the same, they really only have two out of the ten or so listed. Oh well. Out of the corner of my eye I see she is hovering. She wants to talk to us, so we introduce ourselves to
Des Voeux St West
Endless dried fish shops Irene, the proprietress, a very nice lady. We exchange a few pleasantries, as far as her English will go. The coffee and sandwiches are served. The coffee is most excellent! The sandwiches are a bust. Mine, stringy breaded fried pork on a bun with ketchup, and Tony's, mashed salty sardines floating in mayo on a bun. Crappy food but super coffee - will return here just for that! And because Irene is so nice.
How to buy computer speakers in the world’s electronics mecca *3/27 Elbow through hoards at a three story computer center in Mong Kok (on Nelson St., just east of Nathan), only to escape without listening to any.
*3/30 Visit nice, expensive Apple Store on Stanley in Central and become amazed by the space age looks of JBL Encounter speakers. Don’t listen to them, but decide that we must possess them. HK is a city of bargains and we are determined to find one.
*4/14 Visit nice, expensive Apple Store again. Listen to JBL’s. They are wonderful. We can’t afford them - $1499HK. No demo model of the affordable JBL Creature speakers. Ask sales girl set up
Des Voeux St West
A whole lotta dried fish. What's it all for??? new pair out of the box. Too bad, our ears have been spoiled. Sales girl doesn’t look happy. Bargain? At Apple?
*4/15 Breeze through expensive speaker store in Wan Chai (Harbor Dr, near China visa office) while waiting for visa appointment - a 200 square foot sleek shop with only JBL’s for sale.
*4/17 Go back to sleek expensive JBL store in Wan Chai. Go thru the paces with all 4 models. Can you really make a profit selling one brand in a comparatively large store with nothing in it? I guess you can since they don’t bargain. Walk to three story computer center on Hennessey - elbow through hoards. Listen to many speakers. Ho hum. Ah, JBLs! $1380HK! Still can’t afford. Also can’t comparison shop as the small shops don’t have demo spares. Give up and go have a glass of wine at a western tourist bar on Luard & Lockhart.
*4/18 Spend hours on Internet researching computer speakers. A contender surfaces - Altec Lansing.
*4/20 Back to Mong Kok to find JBL’s and Altec Lansing together in one store so we can compare - no Altecs.
*4/21 Back to a different computer center in Wan Chai on Hennessey
Des Voeux St West
Side street off of Des Voeux - here they have both but on different floors and no display models of JBLs. We go to expensive JBL store to listen and remember - or did we? We go back to the computer center and listen to Altec Lansings. They sound great and they match the Mac - silver and sleek. We go down to the 2nd floor to look at the JBLs, talk about them, try to bargain - rock bottom is $1380HK. We go up to the 3rd floor and listen to the ALs, talk about them, try to bargain - rock bottom is $1250HK. Somewhere along the line we forget we can’t afford these speakers. We go down to the 2nd floor to look at the JBLs and talk about them. We go up to the 3rd floor and listen to the ALs and talk about them. Down. Up. Down. Up. I no longer care. Tony no longer cares. We list the pros and cons. It’s come down to which pair sounds better - who knows? We’ve long forgotten what the JBL’s sound like… After an hour we’re considering double suicide or murder, but before a melt down we finally hand over the cash for
Des Voeux St West
More unknown foodstuff the Altec Lansings and go home.
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