Hong Kong Chronicles

Yesterday, which was Tuesday, I slept in and then got up and was on the Internet in Alice’s room when she came home for lunch.

While I don’t remember when I met Alice, I have known her for over ten years. It may be around 12. We actually met through the port. She was working in Hong Kong at the time, which is where she is from, and she had been trying to get some information from one of my coworkers who was not responding, and she ended up being told to contact me.

When she received the information she requested, she sent me a thank you email and mentioned she was raised in Vancouver BC. It just so happened that I was going to Vancouver for the first time in the near future, which was my first international trip. I asked her for suggestions on things I should do. When I returned from Vancouver, I reported back and we just corresponded back and forth.

Somewhere along the way, Alice moved back to Vancouver, and we decided to go to vacation together in Jamaica. People on my end were sketchy and people on her end were sketchy too because we had not officially met each other in person. Pre-trip Jamaica she came down to the U.S., and we met on the waterfront. She had sent me a picture of her so I know whom to look for. Long story short, we’ve been friends every since. She moved from Vancouver to Victoria for a while, and then she moved back to Hong Kong to work for this hotel.

Alice lives in the Kowloon side of Hong Kong in the Tsim Sha Tsui area, so it’s pretty crazy down here with the tourist stuff. She lives on Canton Road, and her hotel is connected to these shopping malls, which are called Harbor City.

So, back to yesterday’s events. I went to check out the Hong Kong Tourist Board, which is located near Star Ferry to ask about one of the Duk Ling Rides. They are every Thursday, so I may do one tomorrow or the day before I leave.

I ended up just walking along the promenade and kept going and going until I came to the end, which was a building called Fishermen’s Wharf. I was thinking San Fran Fishermen’s Wharf, but this was not it. Then I walked back.

Along the way, I saw this really pretty Clocktower. The Kowloon-Canton Railway and the Orient Express used to end here. I passed through their Avenue of the Stars. I took pictures of the two names I recognized, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Jackie Chan’s star was busy with people having their pictures taken with their hands in his imprints. There was also a Bruce Lee statue that was pretty busy with people taking pictures struck in the pose of the statue.

There were a lot of fishermen also. As far as I know, the seaway is pretty polluted so not sure what is done with the fish. I saw one man catch a fish that was pretty tiny, but he kept it.

Speaking of pollution, the smog. My goodness. Alice says it blows over from the factories from China’s Guandong Province. It looks like there is a fire burning somewhere and there is constant haze. The air quality is Seattle is perfect, trust. I have to say the red sunset was pretty amazing, which is what smog does.

I also sat and wrote and thought.

I met Alice for dinner. We ate at a Vietnamese restaurant, which was really good.

Today, I plan on going to their art museum. I wasn’t planning on going but some of the banners displaying the art caught my eye. The museum also had some outside sculptures, which I thought were nice. It is also free today. I will also try to get to Kowloon Park, which I didn’t get to yesterday. I must have walked for five to six hours yesterday, which felt good. I am meeting Alice at six and we are taking the ferry to Hong Kong Island to meet her mom for dinner. We are also getting the keys to her parent’s home in Macau. We will go their Friday and come back Saturday. We are going to Shenzhen on Sunday, so it will be a pretty busy weekend.

As I was watching people yesterday, I was thinking about how life isn’t always black or white or good or bad. Things get complicated and our choices aren’t made in those terms. There are things that are morally wrong that seem like the right thing to do at the time, which brings me back to love. “Love and Happiness. Something that will make you do right. Make you do wrong.” But wouldn’t love for the person…well never mind. Another conversation all together. What exactly is doing the “right thing?” I could ask who decides but I know the answer. As a society, we have decided that certain things are wrong. While it is morally wrong for me to go to Safeway and steal bread, this statement could be tested if I had mouths to feed and no money. Yes, there are other ways to get the bread. For example, I could get the money by selling myself, but isn’t that just as wrong? Again, I digress.

I was thinking about success and happiness. Who defines these things? Through my lenses I could look at people and see a “hard life” written in the lines of their faces and their weary gazes. What I realize is that I only notice these things when I am on vacation. At home, I am so busy getting from point A to point B that I don’t really see people and that made me sad. I realize I am part of the problem, not part of the solution.

And, life is so random. We don’t pick our families, color, country of birth, family class or any of those things that could give us an edge up or edge down. I say this knowing that every family rich, poor or whatever has problems, but at the same time, having food on the table is one less hardship. Having clothes on one's back and heat and shelter. Again, I digress. I am supposed to on vacation, sigh.

I was reading about the fact that there are a lot people here from Indonesia and the Philippines working as domestic help. They send money home. Alice saw a documentary about the children of mothers who move to other countries to work because they can’t find work at home. So, the children grow up without mothers – or with mothers who raise someone else’s child. As adults, their mothers are strangers to them. This hit home to me because my mother didn’t raise me. So, in my head I ask what is better. Better to stay at home and live in poverty or better to leave home and see your kid maybe once a year but be able to send money home for your child’s education and nutrition. It’s actually a question I can’t answer. I can’t decide what is best for anyone else. I can barely decide what is best for me. And what about these kids whose parents are there but leaving their care in the hands of someone else. Life is like web.

Anyway, I must be off. Excuse any typos. I will edit when I get back.