Weekend in Hong KongThe Asian city that never sleeps still doesn't need any sleep. Causeway Bay was bustling, the tramcars (now partly French owned) were teeming with people, and the salespeople in stores are incredibly helpful and friendly. Even my mother was so impressed she wanted to write a letter to the Straits Times - and 20 years ago she'd be saying that this is the city with the crankiest service.
Went to Hong Kong with the parents for my friend Hedy's baptism. Great running! Ran in Victoria Park on Friday - watched the little old ladies do their tai chi, the kids playing basketball, saw a couple of other runners, "do not litter" signs in English, Chinese, Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesian (anyone guess why?)
Visited a relative I had last seen when I was in college and she was still in San Francisco and driving me around to see Coit Tower and finding me great dimsum. She's in a wheelchair now and at a Home. Her other rellies came to visit that day as well and we went for lunch. I'll never take pork chop rice or mobility for granted again.
Went to Stanley, where the shopkeepers were saying there are fewer visitors while I'm squeezing my way around supersized Midwesterners and still chic-in-the-crowd French ones. Drove around Repulse Bay and had serious real estate envy. Hedy brought my parents and I to Times Square then we had Szechuan food at a private dining place and numbed my tongue and stomach for hours.
Ran 5k along the Harbour, listening to an NPR story on the Guys and Dolls revival, went to Tea House in Hedy's neighborhood for a "pineapple bun" and found out there's really no pineapple in them. Hedy's Baptism Mass at St Margaret's was great, although the air-con was extra hardworking and freezing. Her priest was from Brooklyn. Of course.
Everyone's "been" to Hongkong if they're from around here. Kinda like everyone's been to NY and London. But Hong Kong's like Madonna, the great re-inventor. Always the costume change, never dull.
