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Published: December 20th 2009
Me and Ndesandjo
He autographed my book and talked with me for several minutes!Yesterday I went to Hong Kong for a day. Again. I think I've gone to Hong Kong more in the past 4 weeks that I did all of last year. This time there were two goals:
1. A book signing
2. Meeting up with a friend who moved to Hong Kong from Shenzhen and getting an insider's peek at things, rather than a tourist's.
okay, 2 and a half: I wanted more Christmas decorations. The ones in Shenzhen just don't do it for me.
Earlier this week, a friend in CTLC emailed the group to tell us about a book signing that was happening, but he couldn't attend due to a surfing competition. He wondered if anyone was going and if they were, could they also get him a copy. When I found out the author was Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo and the signing was for his new book,
Nairobi to Shenzhen (which I had wanted to read since hearing about it), I jumped. I immediately emailed the bookstore to reserve two tickets (one per book).
I set out Saturday morning half an hour later than usual. What a difference half an hour makes. Usually, if I
get to customs around 9 or 9:15 the lines are fairly short and it's not chaotic.
Apparently, 9:30-9:45 is when
everyone decides to cross the border AND the tourist buses arrive. My usual 15 minute wait took over 45 minutes. And that was just on the China side. On the HK side, we're ALL visitors, so I had to wait in line with everyone instead of getting my own "foreigner" line. (The Chinese "foreigner" line which usually has a number of Chinese Nationals in it who just don't care that they're not a foreigner.) Luckily, the HK customs officers moved more quickly, and I got through in 20 minutes. It helped that I ran like hell to get ahead of everyone else... who were walking at their usual, leisurely Chinese pace.
And of course, there was an extra long line to exchange money (and no ATMS in sight). I blame this on the tour buses. By the time I made it to the metro it was after 11. I still hadn't actually gotten any farther than the border and I still had 30-40 minutes on the subway to get to the bookstore to pick up my tickets.
I arrived at the bookstore around noon, picked up my tickets, and then found a cute little place to eat in the same building. I ordered what I read as "linguini with clams" but somehow managed to get "linguini with peeled and butterflied jumbo shrimp" instead. I couldn't have been more thrilled. That and a soda only cost me HKD 50-ish, so about USD 7.
The signing was at 1:30 and I had an hour to kill. I wandered around outside looking around. I never really explored downtown Hong Kong Island before and it was fun to navigate my way around. I took photos of Christmas decorations and some of the buildings. I even managed to stumble upon a Lehman Bros protest--clearly I'm not on the mainland! They had drums, cymbals, and plenty of signs.
I made my way back to browse in the bookstore for a bit (and bought nothing, but added plenty to my list!). Outside the shop, a three piece band played Christmas carols. Between that and all the books in English, I felt like I was in the US again.
Around 1:45 he arrived. Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo. He was smiling
and thanking people at the store for their help. His entourage had preceeded him. There were several photographers, a man who seemed to do a little of everything--including taking photos of the ticketholders with their cameras, and a man who seemed like a reporter. Maybe he was just a very talkative ticketholder.
Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo told us a little about the book, how it was personal for him, how he hoped we would all enjoy it, and he hoped we would post reviews on Amazon to help him. He told us what all four of his names meant. He was so calm and personable; I relaxed a little. I noticed the sign next to him said 15% of sales would be donated to children in need. Wonderful.
One man didn't have a camera and there was a scramble for one to use. Everyone in China and HK has fancy enough cell phones that the cameras are actually nice. Even Ndesandjo offered to let them use his. I think the Do-Everything-Man ended up using his. For this man, and others, Ndesandjo got business cards to make contact (one man was a musician). One woman came with her ten
year old daughter and the photographer posse pounced to take photos of the three of them--you can't ask for better PR than that.
It was finally my turn. I think I lit up like a flashlight when he turned to me and said hello, indicating it was my turn (no lines here--we were all crowded around)! He stood, shook my hand, and I can't recall what all was said, just that it was personable and very pleasant. (And yes, his voice is very similar to President Obama's.) He inscribed my book to me and signed with his name in both English and Chinese. (Somewhere in the daze I had told him I lived in Shenzhen, which is why he signed both.) Clearly, I was calm and giddy at the same time.
I then said I wanted the other book inscribed for my friend. I told him, "hi," from my friend because they had met the week before. He paused, rolling the name over in his mind, and I said my friend was the guy with the big hair he met at Starbucks. Pause. "OH! Yeah!" There was laughter from everyone within earshot. "He seemed like a really genuine
guy," Ndesandjo said.
I told him that my friend couldn't make it because he was at a surfing competition. "Yeah, he seems like a surfer..."
We took the photo and managed to get a good one on the first try. I left the bookstore still beaming.
I called my friend, Becky, and made plans to meet up. Luckily, she lives in Kowloon, so she was pretty close by. We decided to meet at Causway Bay and then find a bar she knew so I could have a proper pint.
We met up and went in search of the bar. And in search. And asked directions, and searched, and asked, and made a phone call or 5, and searched, and got frustrated, and ended up in wan Chai, and searched, and headed back, and asked the same policeman for directions (we had a landmark by now), and finally way into happy hour later, we arrived. I figured out later that if we had gone straight on a street (that's not obvious) we would have gotten there with no trouble. Please understand, Becky has only been going to this bar for a month and she's usually with people...
so she's not leading, just following. I wasn't mad and had enjoyed my "tour" of Causway Bay.
Luckily for us, it was 2-for-1s which means I got two fabulous beers for less than $7 US. Happy hour always makes me happy. We decided to split nachos, too.; it was the first plate of nachos I'd had in 2 years and they were perfect.
I made the final rush over the border and caught the last metro train in Shenzhen. It had been a full and satisfying day.
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Elyse
non-member comment
FUN
Sounds like a great weekend. I wish I could have gone to get the book and to meet him, but I tutored instead.