Books and Breakdancing.

I rolled out of bed early this morning, around 6:30, due to the oppressive heat in our rooms. The AC had been cut out the night before, either on accident when someone cut out the lights (Hong Kong window units are wired into the wall, and controlled by a switch, generally next to the light switch). and so it was boiling hot by dawn. Since I was new and didn't know how to turn it back on at the time, I left it be, went out to the common room (which was hotter, if that was possible) and booted up baby-internet. I checked on a few things, did some research, updated Ever-on with the travel from the previous day, and before I knew it, 10AM had rolled around. Cataloguing the previous days grueling travel had taken longer than I expected. That is the view out the window of our tiny hostel room. Not the best view in Hong Kong, but pretty indicative of downtown Kowloon's grungy skyscrapers.

I met my other roommates, an Irishman named Howard and a fellow from Leeds on his way to Taiwan to teach English. We chatted a bit and Howard encouraged me to meet him up to watch the Laser show that night in Victoria harbour.

They headed off to start their days, and I headed off to change some cash and buy an Octopus Card. If you're going to be in Hong Kong for more than a couple of days, they really are the only way to get around. A cross between a railpass, a simple debit card, and a top-up smart card, they allow you to pay for bus, light rail and MTR (Hong Kong/Kowloon Subway with one convenient card. I changed a little cash, confirmed that pin based transactions were blocked by my bank (due to fraud risk) at a local Citibank, and bought my Octopus card at the local MTR station, just a block from Sincere house.

I picked out a restaurant at random on the criteria that

1) locals were eating there.
and
2) it wasn't very pretentious.

I've been advised by friends to just outright ignore any restaurant with an English menu, but that advice is almost impossible to follow here. Hong Kong is such a melting pot that everyone uses English as a sort of linguistic skeleton key. It gives all of the different cultures that roil through the streets every day a method to communicate effectively. So I picked out a place based on the photographs and the view of the kitchen from outside (Hong Kong restaurants use tiny, 1000 degree kitchens by the entryway so you can confirm that the food is prepared properly, and you walk past them to get inside the restaurant. It's kindof like an American restaurant turned inside out, or viewed through one of those 'cutaway' books we'd use as kids to study the space shuttle, or an ocean liner. When I reached my table a menu in both cantonese and english waiting for me.

I chose some chicken friend rice, as I was starving, and it sounded great, along with a 'Lemon Coke'.

The Chicken Fried Rice was excellent, and the extra fried egg I ordered (a habit I picked up from my coworker, Quang) really made it perfect. The lemon coke turned out to be a glass of ice with a whole sliced lemon in it and a can of Pepsi, which turned out to be delicious.

The whole meal cost me HK$65--approximately $9. Not bad, but I knew I could do better.

After my errands and lunch were completed, I decided to familiarize myself with the train system. MTR stations are huge, sprawling affairs. Where the New York or Paris subways might have two access points on either side of a street, a typical MTR station might have five or six, spread over two or three city blocks. Just getting your bearings within the station can be a challenge, and the maps are printed with 'up' in the direction you're facing, so two maps of the same station, just around the corner from each other, will have different orientations. It's disconcerting at first, but I think I could get used to it. I experimentally rode a couple of trains and wound up across the water in Causeway Bay. There I discovered that I am apparently drawn to Libraries when I wander at liberty in a major city.

A few of you might recall me telling you about an epic trek through London during my visit there, which resulted in a 7 mile unintentional foot tour of the city and my arrival at the British Library and King's Cross Station. I remember the British library as dark, and quiet, and remarkably somber. On this trip, I wandered a few blocks away from Causeway Bay station and vaguely towards Victoria park. I wound up seeing and following signs for the Kong Kong Central Library, which turns out to be a beautiful piece of architecture and a remarkably functional library. The inside is full of light, and an eclectic mixture of young people (most in the secondary school teen years) and older people (into their fifties or sixties) studying or reading newspapers and periodicals, respectively. I've always loved libraries, so I wandered the stacks for a while, trailing my fingers down lines of English texts and cantonese novels, enjoying the feel and flavour of a library both distinctly British in inspiration, and distinctly Chinese in execution.

When I'd explored all the floors I could, I meandered back to the station and took the train back to Mong Kok, my home base, and headed for the hostel. My day had started early and I was pretty worn out by the time I arrived. I set an alarm, and took a nap, which wound up running right through my alarm and until just after 7PM, when roommate number three (Mike from Vancouver) arrived, enthusiastically. Everything Mike did was enthusiastic, he spoke with volume and excitement, and he told me his plans for tomorrow are to experience the Macau tower Bungee Jump, $180 US for $233 meters of sheer, stomach churning terror. It's half an hour from here. I'm tempted, but I think I'll save it for a later trip.

I tried to contact Howard, which is how I found out that my phone doesn't actually make calls in Hong Kong, it just connects to the local network, updates the time, and then does nothing, so I couldn't contact him (damn!) so instead I did a little research and afterward Mike and I went out at grabbed dinner (Shrimp Wonton Soup and Black Tea with Milk--total tab? $32 Hk, or about $4.25 US). Afterward, we wandered Argyle st. and the local shopping district for a time, and then he headed back to crash and I took the MTR down to Tsim Sha Tsui.

Tsim Sha Tsui is the area at the tip of Kownloon, and forms the waterfront that faces Hong Kong Island. There I watched a couple of local music groups perform--competing for the attention a scattered crowd, and wandered the avenue of the stars for a while, taking a few pictures of the brilliantly illuminated neon city across the water. When I cut back towards the MTR station, I ran across a few kids, breakdancing on a platform overlooking the bay. It seemed a good summary of my day's experience with Hong Kong--the flickering reflection of the neon in the water behind a handful of promising Asian youngsters doing a hyper-advanced version of the robot. I tried to catch a little video there too, and I figured out how to upload it this morning. It's ugly, but it gives you the idea.

Last night I didn't sleep well, and I work up this morning with a heavy sinus infection, courtesy of the pollution outside and the dry air from the AC in our tiny room. So I loaded up on Vitamin C (and a couple Ibuprofen) this morning. Now, I'm going to grab some lunch, head across the bay to the island, catch the MTR out into the country as far as possible, and see about getting some fresh air.