Tuesday 2/25/03       HK Night Markets:  Feels Like We’re Back in Taiwan

 

            At breakfast I met Chinesers Kevin (tall lanky hoppa I think) and David (tall lanky white dude) who’s from southern CA and we found out we knew someone in common from his hometown.  Breakfast bad.  Coffee strong. 

           

Sat through a panel of speakers as my body tried to decide if it was tired from lack of sleep or wired from nuclear-powered coffee (Niclas fidgeting next to me: “That was strong coffee.”)  Then split into our theme groups. 

 

            In mine was an acupuncturist, oops sorry a Chinese medicine practitioner, a guy doing rural health, a just-graduated from Midwest college girl doing patient choice who I liked best by the end, and a Stanford grad Asian girl in public policy.  Haskell, and me.  We weren’t getting much done on our “presentation.”  Had a break for a blah buffet lunch in a room off the NTT cafeteria.  I asked Sophia what year she graduated from Stanford and excited she said, “Last year!  Why, do you know someone?”  I said, “Well, from ‘98” and the let-down in her voice:  “Oh.”  No attempt at playing the Name Game there.

           

             After, we filmed the intro of our presentation using Aaron’s digital camcorder, since Haskell wouldn’t be here for the actual presentation.  That was pretty fun.  We panned the camera on only his head and had him say, “Prepare for an exploration on the integration of Eastern and Western medicine in Chinese society”; when he said “Eastern” Sonya held up her acupuncture’d hand to his left cheek, when he said “Western” I held up a bottle of pills to his right.  His bald head glowed and he looked very Star Trekky.

 

            Our group then took a visit to the Chinese Medicine College building where we sat down with two researchers there to discuss their school and our projects.  I was sooo zoned and still somewhat jetlagged from my trip to the U.S., had under 5 hours of sleep, and was struggling right in front of them, downing the tea they gave us, which didn’t help.  It ran half hour overtime, THEN they offered us a brief tour, but worried about Gin waiting for me I said I had to go, so I left first.

 

            Back in the room, every day when back in the room after Fbt stuff is over, I plop on the bed in relief.  Don’t know what it is—just relief to be away from the scholarliness or something.  We two were on our own tonight so we decided to check out Temple Street Night Market and Ladies Market.  We ran into Shawna and asked her to come with.  The biggest pain is the long walk each time from NTT to the MTR station, and coming back too.  Got two mosquito bites on my leg so far. 

 

            The night markets felt the same as Taiwan except no scooters and almost no food carts.  Not so impressed.  The wares were probably better though.  We looked forever for food, I was longing for JuaBing and NaiYoBing, but none here.  Decided on a seafood restaurant with lots of live seafood outside it.  Couldn’t read the menu (words looked different, names unrecognizable) or communicate well with them and got a raw-ish meat dish, “fried” tofu that was mushy, and the only good thing, a noodle prawn dish.  Each paid 70HK.  Quite disappointed.  On the way we’d been harrassed by an Indian guy holding a big “Curry House” sign and I now said, “Maybe we shoulda followed him.”

 

            Tried to inspect the fake bags to see if they’re really better than Taiwan’s, but realize I’ve never inspected Taiwan’s closely so I can’t compare.  Looked at Chinese dresses, Qipaos, one looked pretty nice but lady insisted I was a 36 when she measured my hips (OVER my jeans).  I was indignant and said I was a 34, I own a Qipao and it’s a 34, I’ve never worn anything 36 in my life, the tag is supposed to be bust not hip size, and how can she measure me over my jeans?  She said Fine, then try it on and you’ll see.  I looked around, people passing left and right.  Here?  She said just come aside and try it on over your shirt and jeans.  Was she some kind of incompetent?  Qipaos are supposed to be form-fitting, that’s why people get them tailor-fitted.  Gin and Shawna offered to hold up their jackets to cover me but disgusted I just said Forget it and moved on.

 

            At a cart we saw electric converters, the same one Gin bought yesterday—but for 6HKD!  She was quite PO’ed about that.  I said “Maybe these don’t work.”  But she wasn’t convinced.

 

            We stopped for a long time to check out shades and Gin and I each got a pair, bargained him down from 69 to 40 each.  I couldn’t decide for the longest time between two pairs so Gin took a digital pic of me wearing each one; then the choice was easy.  Photos are a lot more honest than mirrors.