Hong Kong - A Land of Contrasts

There's nothing like getting ready to go on vacation that motivates me to do things I should have done months ago. We leave tomorrow for Hokkaido, so here I am - FINALLY uploading pictures from my Hong Kong weekend back in June.  My fabulous Peace Corps friend, Sandy, was in Hong Kong for work and very graciously suggested that I come for a long weekend and crash in her hotel.  I had to move a few mountains to make it happen - but it was worth it!  

That said, don't get me started about the 10 days of work and the 3 single-spaced pages of details that had to happen in preparation for me being gone for 5 days.  And how much fun did I have watching the jaws drop of my Japanese mom friends when I told them I was going away for the weekend without the kids?  They seemed to find the whole idea an utter impossibility.  Of course, that only encouraged me to stir the pot a little more by suggesting that we all go on a girls' weekend.  The sideways eye glances of "is she for real?" was a thing to behold.  We'll see if we can make it happen... I only have a few years to prime the cultural pump, so I better get to work.

Anywaaaay.... yes, Hong Kong was a ton of fun.  It felt like we did a lot in a short amount of time. I got in late Thursday evening and left on Monday morning... so our days were filled with:

• Tram to the top of Victoria Peak, gorgeous views, especially as the city began to light up for the night
• Cold beer
• Ferry to Macau - didn't require a visa, but did require us to go through customs to get Chinese passport stamps
• Cold beer
• Snacking our way through Macau street food stalls
• Exploring the Sao Paulo ruins replica
• Ferry back to Hong Kong and the Kowloon market / Temple Street
• Cold beer (do you see a theme here?  And yes, it was HOT)
• Cable car to Tian Tian Buddha (Big Buddha) and then 300 steps up to it
• Dim sum and random snacks (coconut lotus sago cake, sago pudding, shiu mai)
• Tai O Fishing Village - boat ride, more snacks (who knew you could get a husband for the low, low price of 18 HKD?), more beer
• Light show at the Wan Chai Pier

It's hard to sum up, but Hong Kong does seem to be a country of contrasts.  Beautiful and old and modern and austere.  The water views are phenomenal.  My favorite part was our day spent at an old fishing village.  Of course, part of that joy was the "riverside bar" we thought we were going to, which we think might have actually been a family gathering that we crashed by walking in and asking for a beer.  They happily obliged, along with a bowl of random, chewy, fish parts, and the insistent "no pay, no pay."  It was a crack-up.  We're still not sure if it was a restaurant / bar or just somebody's back porch, but I'm leaning toward the latter...

My other favorite part was all the street food we ate.  Pear in sangria and "make your own" curry soup were favorites - this was in Macau... we had fish balls, urchin and crab balls, and something we thought was tofu but I'm pretty sure it wasn't.  Oh yeah, and the famous portugese egg tarts - yummmm - and the multiple flavors of meat jerky!  We had dinner one night at a VERY local market eatery (it's the restaurant with only plastic sheets for walls in the slideshow), where we had a PILE of PORK, some delicious Chinese cabbage, and some mighty tasty cold beers.  Also, I quite enjoyed watching Sandy have her fortune told, all the while the fortune teller was using a palm pilot to check her birthdate, etc.  Cracked me up!  Just another contrast...

Another "highlight" was exploring one of the many dried goods shops - sort of natural foods shop meets homeopathic medicine.  Here, we were offered a taste of dried scallops but were, thankfully, NOT offered the dried deer penis.  Seriously?  I couldn't stop laughing.  You should be able to identify this fairly easily in the slideshow....

Good times!  Sandy thinks we should try out for the Amazing Race ...

A New Kind of Top Ten List: The Similarities Between My Life in Tokyo and My Life in Malawi

Who woulda thunk it? Japan and Africa? The big city of Tokyo is like my little village of Kazuni in Malawi? Yes, indeed, there are some striking similarities...

This may not make sense, much less be even the slightest bit humorous unless you happen to be a Malawi RPCV, but I find it ever so chuckle-inducing, and since I just might be the only one reading this, I'm gonna make myself laugh...


1. In both Malawi and Tokyo, my main form of transport is my bike.  In Malawi, I always wore long skirts while biking, because culturally, that's what women wore in the villages.  In Tokyo, I often wear skirts as well, because my time in Malawi actually taught me that it is waaaaay more comfortable in hot weather to wear skirts rather than pants or shorts.  You get a good breeze when you pedal, I'm just sayin'...

2. I don't have a car.  Therefore, much of my life these days is figuring out how to get from one place to another.  In Malawi, I never knew if there would be any transport at all - I literally didn't know how and if and when I could get out of the bush.  In Tokyo, that is not a problem at all - buses and trains are quite reliable.  But I'm still dependent on someone else for getting me where I need to go.

3.  And though my life in Tokyo has yet to include being crammed into the back of a pick-up truck with assorted livestock as well as 57 Malawians, all hanging on for dear life, I am routinely crammed into a train car, in which I only hope there is enough air to sustain my dear life.  In both Tokyo and Malawi, they have people whose actual job it is, to push people farther into what appears to be a completely full train car or pick-up truck or mini-bus, so that the impossible can occur - even more people can fit in a space which appears to have absolutely no more room.  Defies all scientific principles... but it happens in both Tokyo and Malawi.

4.  I used to be ever so amused by the daily chore at every well-kept Malawian hut of "sweeping the dirt."  Literally sweeping the dirt outside one's hut with a broom made of twigs and branches, leaving it neat and tidy and decorated with the imprint of the twig broom.  Two things are the same in Tokyo: 1) You can actually buy the twig/branches brooms everywhere around here and people use them to sweep the sidewalks.  2) You know those Japanese Zen sand gardens - they rake the sand everyday, which is, in essence, "sweeping the dirt."  Who woulda thunk it?

5.  A smile can get you a very long way.  Now that I am experiencing life as an illiterate immigrant, I am constantly reminded of my first few months in the village when my main form of communication was lots of smiles, some crazy miming, and a precious few words.  I got by.... In Tokyo, I have added the iPhone to my repertoire of communication tools when I don't know the language.  This means that I am constantly using my phone to take pictures of things that I need to buy and then showing a store clerk and asking where it is in the store.  Just the other day, I took pictures of several children's books in English, went to the library, showed the librarian, and then asked her if they had those books in Japanese (when we have the English version, it makes reading the Japanese one approximately 79 times faster and more fun).  Worked like a charm...

6.  Remember in Malawi when every restaurant and every home you entered offered you a warm bowl of water in which to wash your hands?  In Tokyo, virtually every restaurant offers you a piping hot warm cloth to wipe your hands.  But, I haven't been in enough Japanese homes to say if the tradition holds true in homes.

Japanese style toilet

7. The infamous hole in the ground.  In Malawi, it's dirt.  In Japan, it's porcelain.  But, you still have to pop a squat and build your quadricep muscles.  So, in essence, it's the same.

8.  The "r" and the "l."  This cracks me up every time.  In Malawi, I was oh-so-ever-amused whenever I heard, "Feer flee" (that's feel free, for anyone trying to find the humor).   In Tokyo, I can eat runch or lunch and the name of my poor child "Ryan" is pronounced just like "lion."  Ryan and lion are even written the exact same way in katakana, because there is literally no difference in the pronunciation (ライアン.  Fortunately for him, he really likes lions.

9.  MOSQUITOES!!!!! I had no idea that I would have to buy mosquito coils in Tokyo, that I would actually stay inside at times because of the blood-sucking monsters, and that I would seriously consider buying a mosquito net for our bed?  Seriously?  Can you tell how much I hate mosquitoes?  In fact, the boys are allowed to use the word "hate" for exactly 2 things.  Mosquitoes is one of them (the other is throwing up, if you're dying to know).

10.  I love where I am, but I miss my friends and family!