Brenda!!!!!

Brenda came to visit!!! Here we are at the peak of Ko Phi Phi - one of Thailand's islands in the Andaman Sea.
Too many pics to put in the blog, so here's a little sample from our trip to Thailand. More at http://www.flickr.com/photos/25667228@N05/

Pineapple fields outside of Phuket, Thailand. They grow underground like potatoes, in the shade of rubber trees once these little saplings shoot up.

Beautiful sculptures of giants in the Bangkok airport

A cat in the Tsunami remembrance park on the island of Ko Phi Phi. (Jen, doesn't this look like Becky?)

A lot more pics at.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/25667228@N05/

Meat

For a vegetarian, it can be pretty hard to socialize in Hong Kong. Most activity focuses on food, from grey pork-filled meat balls to brilliant red spicy squid. My body hates that I'm skimping on the tofu and veggies, but I have to say... I love the group cooking excursions. This includes the Easter barbeque.

In the neighborhood of Shek O on the south side of the island, there are backyard-style all-you-can-cook BBQ venues. Complete with coal grills, raw squid, karaoke, and Japanese marshmallows that can't catch fire. These marshmallows just melt as they cook. Quite a change from the Jet-Puffed ones in the U.S. that flame up like medieval weapons!

Former coworker Ben's "early retirement"-barbeque.Around the metal mesh grills are our coworkers, ex-coworkers, and their partners/friends. I'm in the middle in white.

Fun fact: If you zoom in on Winnie's hand (she's the second from right), you can see her brilliant 3-D glittery nail art.

Lovin' Lamma

Hong Kong is arguably the commercial center of Asia, with Prada stores, glass skyscrapers, and 6-lane highways to match. Yet for US$3, you can hop on a ferry and leave all that behind. Which is exactly what I did this weekend. Here is a sampling of life on Lamma Island.

The main "road" between villages...

View from the ferry terminal, which doubles as a bike parking lot. At the top of the hill is a windmill. You can almost see one white blade against the sky.

Raw meat delivery to the butcher. She gets fresh chicken, pork and beef delivered daily by ferry. The delivery woman wheels cargo from the dock up the hill several times a day.

Vegetable vendor selling leeks, spinach, and turnips (I think)

Vegetable garden with streamers to scare off the birds. It works! The birds sing happily from the perimeter of the little plot.

Finally, I saw an out lesbian couple. This is rare in Asia - of the 30 or so lesbians I've met here, all are straight-acting in public. This beautiful couple turned a few heads, but mostly folks ignored them. The lovebirds wandered around in their dreamy-eyed state of bliss. Perhaps this really is paradise. I can't wait to bring Brenda.

suits in the sand

The businessmen are everywhere in Hong Kong.
It's impossible to truly escape the corporate atmosphere of this city.
Here they are sporting the latest beachwear fashions.


For women, boots and a lot of pink are in order, no matter the occassion.

Green Power

It all started with Laura innocently asking "Wanna join my friends on a fundraising walk?" and ended up with a 10k trek over the Hong Kong mountains through the jungle.

To combat the unhealthy pollution and battle climate change, the good people of HK host fundraising hikes and adventure races (scaling rock walls, running across hot sands, you name it) to gather donations for Green Power, which educates kids about environmentally-friendly practices. I knew Brenda would be proud.

Below is Team Walkie-Talkie! We had the UK, South Africa, New York, Canada (I think), and even New Jersey on the trails. Laura's the 4th from the left and I'm the 3rd from the right in the blk/white stripe pants...

The starting line. All those tiny black dots in the distant horizon are the backs of people's heads. There were 3,000 of us. At times the trail was only 12" wide.
View from the hiking trail over the south side of Hong Kong Island. See? It's not all skyscrapers after all. Through the haze are some mountains rising up out of the sea.

Pop Star

Two notes about tones:

1. I am tone-deaf. Guitar, keyboard and voice lessons have all proven fruitless.

2. Chinese languages are tonal. (I think this is how I accidentally called my friend Ben "chicken" when I tried to pronounce his Cantonese name, much to his buddies' delight.)

Yet magically, on leap-year-night, I was on stage, microphone in hand, singing Cantonese songs. The setting was a hotel banquet hall for our company's annual Lunar New Year event. Now a banquet may sound formal to a Westerner, but out here the dinners are more like a gameshow/variety show with massive amounts of food and wine for the audience. In between What the Funky Taste and Bingo, I was a contestant on the east-meets-west singing competition.

The Westerners took turns wearing oversized DJ headphones and trying to replicate the songs we heard, while the Cantonese-speakers guessed what we were trying to sing. It was hilarious, as the senior executives did improv Elvis tunes when no one could guess theirs, I pantomimed violin and keyboard lovesongs, and my mentor hopped off the stage to serenade the ladies in the front row, Backstreet Boys style.

Maybe it was just leap-year luck, but the audience voted me for second place - better than my mentor but no match for the South African woman whose song was guessed in 5 seconds flat. She won a trophy, and I won a new nickname... Pop star.

Remembrance

Cousin Carol was my mentor on all career and travel matters. She enthusiasticly supported my artistic, academic, financial, and adventurous pursuits. In December, Carol was in the hospital when I told her about my opportunity to live in Hong Kong. She was elated at the possibility, kissed me through her oxygen mask, and patted my hand as she told me how proud I've made her. Three days later, she was dead.

It was nearly impossible to leave my family in the wake of such a horrible loss. I wanted to help, to reminisce, to feel their support, and to collapse in my partner's Brenda's embrace every day. Instead I renewed my passport and packed my bags, knowing I would need to postpone the grieving until I arrived in Hong Kong.

In Chinese tradition, smoke from fires and incense carry good wishes and earthly posessions up to the deceased. When my Chinese-American friend's stepfather passed away, I had been deeply move by the gentle medative practice of folding paper offerings to place in the fire at the wake.

At A-Ma Temple on a rainy day, I purchased gold-leafed paper and folded it into the shape of ingots (bars of gold) to the best of my ability, and placed the oragami into a brick fireplace. Watching it burn, the smoke made my eyes tear for the first time since Carol's funeral.

The first part of my ritual complete, I climbed perhaps 200 stone steps to a summit and placed bright red candles and yellow incense in an alter overlooking the sea and distant hills. Carol had always loved the mountains, and I felt a renewed sense of peace as I decended the stairs back to the land of the living.

View from A-Ma Temple out to the sea and distant hills.

Birthday parties

The doctor was right. My voice was back 47 hours and 45 minutes after I took my first dose of antibiotics. So I had 2 celebrations...

First, a funny-scratchy-voice sober celebration with coworkers on Wednesday. We went out for a "hot pot" dinner, which is a cross between fondu and shabu shabu. 8 of us sat around tossing all sorts of raw meat and veggies into a big steaming caldron of soup. Then we fished them out with chopsticks and slotted ladels. Absolutely delicious! And no one got food poisoning, which made us quite proud. My new friend Ben was the star chef of the night.

Then on Friday, I went for drinks at my favorite Irish pub on earth... PJ Murphy's, in Kowloon (the Hong Kong equilivant of Brooklyn). Since the pubs close early here, we had to move on just as the Investment Banker friends were getting out of work around midnight. One of them shares a birthday with me, so we certainly couldn't go home! There was more celebrating to be done in the quaint frat-party areas nearby. Went home late and happy.

Good medicine

Wednesday, Feb. 13th, I woke up with a sore throat, a cough, and a headache. My first thought was, "Damn, Chinese restaurant chopsticks really aren't hygenic!" My second thought... "I think I need to see a doctor."

I'm in a foreign country with no knowledge of the medical system. Yikes!

It got worse. When I tried to say good morning to the doorman, an achy bellowy sound came out. I had officially lost my voice. The day before my birthday.

Well, the kind folks at my company recommended a doctor on the opposite side of the island, in Repulse Bay. The receptionist directed me brightly, "You can't miss it. We're in the big blue building with the hole in it." What?

Despite its horrible name, Repulse Bay is absolutely beautiful. And so is the building. But more importantly, the doctor experience was efficient!

3:05 Arrive at doctor office, 10 minutes early for my appointment

3:15 Doctor sees me, asks questions, consults books and websites to understand my unique medical history, and tells me to "say 'aaahhh'." No paper gown required.

3:22 I officially have tonsolitis (and I thought that was just for kids!).

3:23 Doctor predicts I will have my voice back in 48 hours from the start of my medication. I've never heard a projection like that. Isn't she worried about lawsuits if it takes 50 hours instead? Not in China.

3:25 I have antibiotics, instructions for at-home steam therapy, and an English-language receipt for the $1,000 I just paid. Thankfully, that's in Hong Kong dollars, not American.

This is one efficient system. Even if my American insurance company refuses to reimburse the claim, I don't mind the price. As they say, "Doctor: HK$800. Medicine: HK$200. Voice back to normal in time for weekend birthday celebrations: Priceless."

new year symbolism

"Kung Hey Fat Choy!" That's one of the many ways to say & spell the Chinese New Year greeting. It translates roughly to "wishing you much prosperity." 2008 marks the Year of the Rat, and Mickey Mouse is featured prominately in stores' holiday tchotchke aisles.












More traditional (and adorable) mice images with good luck blossoms can be seen, 10 feet tall, adorning the sides of buildings across the city. The style is similar to wood block prints, which were invented in China over 1,000 years ago.






The word for mandarin oranges in Cantonese also means gold, so the mandarin orange tree, decorated with red packets containing coins, is essentially a money tree.








Oranges and other foods showing "the color of gold" are popular this time of year. My personal favorite, even before I learned its name, is the Nipple Fruit, a fabulous pear-shaped yellow fruit with five stubby legs near its base. The legs represent members of 5 generations under one roof, and since Chinese New Year is a family holiday, it represents longevity and peace among the relatives. The fact that nipple fruit is poisonous doesn't taint the message - people display the fruit just to keep up appearances!

flower market

Sunday was downright sunny. My new friend Jamie tore me away from the british tele programs and we explored the Lunar New Year flower markets. This cultural celebration is part botany display and part street fair. And of course, since it's Hong Kong, the true goal of the vendors is to sell sell sell.

In Victoria Park, the city was bustling with models waving plush golden bricks, hawkers pushing silk boxers with golden hand prints, Japanese orchid vendors, and cute dykey girls who just wanted to share some hugs. I celebrated with the locals, and gave out a few free hugs myself.

outside

So the weater outside is a bit frightful (cold and rainy, which looks like snow in this photo). But that doesn't stop my coworker Charles and his delightful wife Carmen (in red) from throwing a fabulous bbq! Folks from China, Malaysia, the US, Australia, Germany, and Britain all attended the Hong Kong festival, and we all brought our own version of bbq food. I discovered bbq pumpkin (yum!!!), and us Americans introduced our new friends to smores.

Going around the table from the far left are... my boss Murray, coworker & host Charles, ?, coworker Robert, me in brown making smores, ?, New Yorker and coworker Jamie, some guy from Colorado, coworker Ben, coworker Leo, coworker Winnie, ?, hostess Carmen in red, and Murray's wife Kate.
As you probably gathered from earlier pictures in the blog, I live in a sea of buildings. To break things up a bit, there are a lot of tiny little parks, like this one a few blocks from Wing Lok Street... the "Cleverly Street Sitting-Out Area." Complete with chess-like table tops to play with.

This is another view from my balcony. It's amazing just how packed all these streets truly are with buildings! And I'm a New Yorker, so you know it's intense if I'm impressed.

The dreary grey atmosphere lasted over 15 days. Today, it finally broke and we had some sunlight. The weather in Hong Kong isn't usually this cold or gloomy - the climate is typically subtropical! See the weather reports on China's snowstorms for a sense of what this country is going through. Worst weather in 50 years. Thankfully, I'm not up north in Shanghai!

So there you have it - a taste of the great outdoors. Hopefully I'll get to go outside during the sunshine and share some more flattering images of the city. Good thing I found such a fun, energetic group of people to spend time with!

Signs of the times

Here is the view from the ferry as we're departing Hong Kong Island. Destination: Macao, a quasi-country known as the "Las Vegas of the East." Sadly, I don't like to gamble against strangers, so this trip was strictly business. I crossed the small sea to get my visa validated and returned back to the quasi-country of Hong Kong the same afternoon.
While in Macao, I skipped most of the casinos and went off in search of unique signs. Here's a little collection of friendly advice from Hong Kong's neighbor across the bay...


1. If you can't read Portuguese (either because you're near-sighted or Chinese), then don't assume that you can read the Mandarin words instead. For example, "Pousada de Sao Tiago" describes a Portuguese historic hotel, while "kung fei fei choi" (read vertically, not horizontally) is a Lunar New Year greeting.


2. If you're thirsty and tired, just look for the international sign for a beverage store.


3. Avoid buying fake goods! Go to "the only department store" to do your shopping. This is an ad about 20 feet long on the way from the ferry to the immigration window.

4. Very important! "Don't let your dog poop on the lovely green lawn!" This is a larger-than-life mural on the side of a building. To get a sense of the scale, those are cobblestone bricks that make up the road in the foreground.

5. Sadly, I found the true doggie bathroom signs to be significantly more bland than the mural...

And that's it from Macou. Remember, as you hop in a taxi back on the island of Hong Kong,

"Beware of the traffic conditions" while you're inside the taxi...

And if you happen to be crazy enough to drive on these streets, help preserve the bi-wheeled species!

My new home

Charming Wing Lok Street in Sheung Wan. Bustling with meat sales and jackhammers most hours, I've learned to love it. Yes, they sell birds' nests. It's for soup. Not quite sure how that works.

This is the exterior to my new home. You'd never even believe that this is also on Wing Lok Street. It's a little oasis. Note the florist next door - I bought a plant to improve the feng shui inside.


Modern, clean interior at Treasure View. Note the mini washing machine and mini-fridge. (Hint: the fridge is the only other appliance. Still can't find it? It's the hip-high cube in front of the sink.)

View from the 13th floor balcony. 13 isn't unlucky here. 4 is . So there's no 4th floor, no 14th, and definitely no 44th floors to be found in the city. The more western ones also skip 13. This picture looks west down Wing Lok Street, towards the financial center (just past those modern-looking skyscrapers in the middle).