Later I head back to TST where I meet W for lunch. W was on my flight over from SF. She had been visiting her aunt and uncle in the SF area. She had thought of working with them at their restaurant, but she found their neighborhood in South San Fran much too boring! She was too accustomed to the fast pace of HK to settle for a quiet suburban lifestyle where all is quiet by 7:00 PM and you have to drive everywhere to do anything.
W suggests we have "yum cha", which is similar to dim sum. We go to the Sheraton Hotel in TST where they have a very nice dining room and serve yum cha every Saturday. Apparently Saturday yum cha is an HK tradition. Many yum cha restaurants are full!
After lunch we head out to do a little shopping. I tell her I need to get a suitcase for my upcoming trip to Tokyo. We walk along the streets looking at the various small shops. On one street we find a walkway into a building with several shops. Looking up I realize that this is the infamous Chungking Mansion, home of numerous small hotels and the topic of many travel stories. The place has a unique atmosphere. There are many people here from other far away places--Africa, the Middle East. There are long lines for the lifts/elevators that go up to the hotel areas. The men in those lines (all men; I don't see any women waiting in the hotel elevator lines) look hard, weathered. Are they merchant sailors off a ship? Or laborers looking for work? Clearly they were not your garden variety tourist.
Wandering thru the shops at Chungking I found a suitcase of the desired size with wheels. Many shops had wanted more than $150HK for a similar bag, but this one was priced at only $80HK, or just over $10 US. I told the clerk that I would be back to get it later. We then went over to Ocean City Mall a couple blocks away (like I said earlier, there are more malls and shops here than I had ever seen before). At the west end of the mall there is a boarding terminal for the gambling boats. There is no gambling in HK. You need to either go to Macau, or get on a boat which goes out beyond the territorial limits. There are also many of these in the Miami area. I did not find any better deal on a suitcase and so we soon headed back to Chungking where the clerk was surprised to see me. He happily sold me the suitcase. W headed off to meet some friends, and I headed back home.
When I arrived at the apartment I was greeted not only by L, but also by her aunt, uncle, cousin, his wife, and their daughter. They live in HK and had come to visit L and welcome her back to HK. L had taken them out for yum cha also, going to a restaurant in the mall downstairs. Her cousin has a travel agency, and so we talked about my travel plans. He gave me his card and I made a note to myself call him when I return from Korea to discuss how I should travel from Shanghai to Beijing. I had been planning on taking the train, but the only trains are overnight trains, which means that there is not much to see out the window. So, depending on the cost perhaps I will fly instead.
That evening I headed out to Wan Kai Fong, a restaurant and night club area near Central MTR. The place is full of soccer fans who are watching some big game on the various TVs at the numerous bars. I walk around WKF taking in all the sighs and sounds. It is quite nice, and there are a variety of people--old, young, western, asian, etc. I exchanged glances with an attractive woman in a black dress, and we were soon sitting at an outdoor table sharing a beer at a German tavern. S was from Shanghai, and was visiting her sister in nearby Shenzhen for the weekend from Shanghai. She is an account manager for a Chinese business magazine published by a German publishing company. We talked of my upcoming trip to Shanghai, and she suggested that I stay at the Jin Jiang Hotel. She then caught a cab, and I started wandering around again.
Soon I went into the Insomnia night club, where I could hear a live band performing. Again the crowd was very diverse, and it was fun to make conversation over the loud music and share a couple dances with two sisters from Indonesia. Finishing my second beer of the night I decided that it was time to head home.
I had called M1 to tell her that I would be happy to see the fireworks, and so I head out to the Causeway Bay MTR. I walk around the area for a short while, again amazed at all of the people and activity, and then walk over to the Yacht Club on the bay front. There is a busy highway that runs along the bay, and so the only way to get to the bayfront is to find either an elevated walkway, or a pedestrian subway. M1 had told me to find the subway, and after asking several people I finally found it and made my way to the other side. Once there I found myself walking along a marina filled with boats of all types--modest to humongous! M1 met me at the entrance gate to the Yacht Club and we walked inside to the upstairs bar area, where I met C, M1's friend. We walk outside to watch the fireworks which start promptly at 8:00 PM. Today we will see the efforts of the teams from xxx and yyy. Each performance is only about 10 minutes, and each is choreographed to music which is broadcast on the radio. We can't hear the the music very well, but the fireworks shows are very intense and creative. I try to take some photos with mixed results.
The three of us then walk back over to the other side of the highway where we have dinner at the Banana Leaf restaurant, a well known Malaysian restaurant. Both M1 and C are originally from Malaysia. This is my first time to enjoy Malaysian food. We order several dishes to share--fish; shrimp; satay; greens; noodles; tea. The meal was very enjoyable. We then each go our separate ways. I need to get home and start packing for my trip the next day to Tokyo.
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