Hong Kong Journal Day 1

Saturday June 30
First full day in HK. Had breakfast buffet at Hotel included in room rate) - so much food! Fruit, coffee/espresso, congee w/pork, Han-bo, lotus bun, spring roll, bacon - so many choices! Little waffles made on the spot - so cute! Ate big breakfast.

We took a taxi to Lingnan University where the conference will be. Quiet. No classes today. We find the conference site and notice the large banners announcing the conference. This is a big deal in this tiny university.

Got direction for 10-minute walk to nearest train (light-rail) line - how we actually found it is anybody's guess.

Tiny station with no kiosk to buy "Octopus" pass (good for 3 days of unlimited travel. We could not figure out the machine and had only HK$10 on us. The machine didn't take a credit card either. It looked like a single one-zone ticket was $5.80 and we didn't think we had enough money so we both could travel. Luckily there was another couple there who helped us buy a single zone ticket (only $4) which would take us to the next station where we could buy an Octopus pass. We also were standing on the wrong side of the tracks - who knows where we might have ended up?

The next station was very clean, large and modern. We got our Octopus passes and got some more HK$ at an ATM. We took a series of trains to the Kowloon station, thinking we would be in the heart of the market area. Not so - the Kowloon stop is at a brand new, totally Westernized, huge mall called "Elements" - each wing of the mall represented one of the 5 Elements - Wind, Earth, Fire, Wood, Metal - and the stores were all high-end as well - Gucci, etc. We didn't really even go into the stores, as this wasn't really what I'd expected to see in Hong Kong, as we have all of these stores back home.

Chris was looking for an espresso and unfortunately the only place we could find where we could guarantee getting an espresso was Starbucks. Oh. Well. Chris got an espresso and I had Earl Grey tea. He also picked up a sausage roll for a little snack (see if you can find anything quite as delicious in a US Starbucks!) I enjoy watching people - adjacent to the Starbucks was a photographer - there were families taking photos of babies/toddlers - so cute a scene you can find anywhere all over the world...

There was a sign pointing towards a skating rink and so of course I had to go check it out. We were able to stand on a catwalk above the rink (much like at the LC rink) - it looked like an NHL-size rink with hockey lines. It was a public session - mostly people wearing rentals - a few coaching private lessons - it was actually kind of sad - the coaches had skates that looked ill-fitting (too big) with very long-tailed blades and I noticed a lot of toe-picking straight-stroking - I kind of felt bad for them - maybe they have reached some level of achievement but it sure didn't look like it. My basic feeling was that if I had skated there I would blow them away (which is hard to believe) - BUT everyone looked like they were having fun, which is great.

So this mall was very nice but not really what we wanted to do. Chris wanted to find a restaurant in Kowloon (off Nathan Rd. - one of the main thoroughfares) that was recommended by his boss. He had told his graduate student, Karin, that we would meet her there for dinner and he wanted to make a reservation.

So we took another train to the Nathan Rd. area - NOW we were finally in a more "real"area - where every 5 ft. someone was trying to sell us Rolex watches or to get us fitted for custom-made suits. It got kind of annoying because as one of few caucasians on the street (and obvious tourists) we were total targets. I learned very quickly not to say "not today" (which just illicited more haranging) and to just say "No" or maybe "No, thanks!"

So we got to the location of the restaurant and it was closed for renovations. Crap. how do we contact Karin? Our cell phones don't work here and we don't have the telephone number at her hotel and don't see any phone books in the phone booths on the street.

For some reason Chris wanted to go to the art museum and cultural center so we walked there. We ended up going to a big Luis Vuitton exhibit - but it was kind of confusing because the way the exhihibit was set up there were several rooms with works by (mostly) modern artists who were influenced by Luis Vuitton. It seemed kind of haphazard and I had one of those freaky cultural experiences where I was kind of freaked out because I didn't know what was going on. It was very crowded with tour groups/young hip artist-types and students.

Eventually things started to fall into place when I saw works from an artists I was familiar with Jean-Michel Basquate (sp?). I wanted to look at the art but Chris was anxious just to tour the museum.

We did stop at an exhibit by a Chinese artist - a series of black and white 8mm films - I was reminded of French artists of the 50's and 60's (Un Chien Angelou?) etc. so that was interesting from an art historical perspective.

Eventually there were actual Luis Vuitton creations and also a film about a current Vuitton designer.

We visited the main part of the museum which was very quiet - exhibitions of Chinese antiquities started from the earliest Dynastys through modern times. It was nice and calm. Beautiful.

After leaving the museum we decided to go back to the hotel to freshen up and try to contact Karin to firm up dinner plans at another restaurant.

It took a lot longer to get back to the hotel than we thought it would - it wasn't exactly easy to find a cab to take us from the train station to our hotel - it was suggested by the people at the train to take a bus which would take us by the hotel.

It took a long time and we didn't get "home" until 7:10 and we were supposed to meet Karin at 7:30! We tried calling her at her hotel and left a message but of course it was too late. We weren't sure what to do. Not having cell phones definitely put us at a disadvantage!

We ended up having a nice and expensive dinner at the hotel dining room.

So far I feel very good in Hong Kong - despite the heat, very much walking and a few anxious moments, my back doesn't hurt! I feel happy - everyone is friendly - people are very smiley, very gracious and seem genuinely interested in helping us have a nice visit while in HK.

No real plans for tomorrow but maybe some sight-seeing.