Kung Fu

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Yes, as the title suggests, last night Jackie Chan came around, I played pool with him, and we hung out. Well. Not really. I did place my hands in his handprints on the "avenue of the stars" along the waterfront. And I thought I saw him in the market (it wasn't just me, him or his lookalive created quite a stir). But apart from that, the first sentence of this entry is a complete fabrication.

In other news, Hong Kong has been fabulous. Very random, and very frantic, but in a good way. The weather has been a bit oppressive - it has been in the mid thirties most days, and the humidity hovers around 85% - but it hasn't bothered us too much. We managed to get lost while completing the "circuit track" around the Peak which overlooks Hong Kong Island (and is now adorned with an architectural monstrocity to rival the Skytower), which saw us walking an hour down the peak before hitting a dead end and having to retrace our steps.

All of our Hong Kong related goals have been met. I am the proud owner of a new suit and a new tuxedo, and Bec has plenty of new work clothes. The suits happened more by accident than by design, as in our first two days in the city we didn't run into a single tailor. Just after we had given up we were hawked into a store where the owner insisted she was the most honest tailor in Hong Kong ("not like the others who use cheap cloth"). As everyone who completed "self-assessment tests" knows, you are your own worst critic, so we felt in safe hands.

Bec promised many people that we would dutifully report on the "food tourism" situation throughout our trip, so I guess I'd best start it off. After a bumpy (read: chain store food) start, the summer of food got underway in earnest today. We found a very nice Cantonese restaurant just down the road from our Hostel.* Very similar to what one would find at a good cheap and cheerful pan-Asian takeaway in Wellington (KC's on Courtenay Place springs to mind), except the vegetables were fresher (go figure). We can also report that the Indian quarter boasts at least one extremely delicious vegetarian Indian restaurant (Planet India, upstairs by the Star Ferry - difficult to find, but worth it). I had an old favourite (Paneer Tikka Masala) which was pleasing, but no better than you'd get in Wellington; whereas Bec had an eggplant curry which was quite amazing. We spoke to the chef about it, and apparently the only ingredients were eggplant and spices, which was very difficult to believe. It was creamy and full of flavour. Highly reccommended.

Anyway, enough from me!

M.

* Hovel. No, really. Lonely Planet estimates that travellers should budget on spending HK$700/person/day minimum on a rathole hostel. The accommodation for both of us for the three nights we have been here has been HK$750 total. The Lonely Planet also has the following to say about our district: "While there is no really appreciable increase in violent crime in Mong Kok after dark, it is best avoided". I have now come to the conclusion, for about the tenth time in as many years, that the Lonely Planet is no longer a backpacker publication but rather a holiday guide for ageing hippies who desperately want to go on a package holiday but can't bring themselves to do so. I have found Mong Kok to be lovely and our accommodation to be basic but entirely comfortable (and better than most of the places we stayed in Vietnam). Plus there is free broadband internet! That said, there is free broadband internet everywhere. And by broadband, I mean broadband. Not to be confused with the turboloaded dialup you can get in NZ. The only downside is that there is someone dossing in the bed by where the communal computer is.

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Photos

At the Peak
At the peak overlooking HK

Comments

[Louise]

Awesome way to keep in touch, maybe we should do it too.