December 2005 - Christmas Hong Kong Style

Here are some Christmas scenes from HK. My favorite is the sleigh pulled by golden dolphins.

November 2005 - What does this mean?


This sign was in the stall in a ladies room at Shooters Restaurant.

November 2005 - Aberdeen harbor

This is a large floating restaurant that you can only get to via Junk (larger boat) or sampan (smaller boat).

November 2005 - Aberdeen Tour

Aberdeen is a small coastal community I hadn't been to yet so I went on an AWA tour. We visited a temple with a burnt offering chamber (my name for the fireplace). When a chinese person dies, relatives buy paper replicas of items the person owned in life. These paper items are taken to temple fireplaces like this one and burned so they will go to the other side with the person. These ladies were burning paper suits.

Then we went to the wet market. This is the "fresh" food market where the floor is always wet from flopping fish, dripping carcasses and squashed fruit.

November 2005 - Thai-a-rama

One of our favorite local places for dinner is a thai restaurant down the road. There is a group of 3 or 4 restaurants along the road that are lit with a gazillion christmas lights and at the road an employee beckons you in with flourescent light like kids get at the circus. The restaurant we like best has a Chinese-style maharachi band that sings favorites from Eric Clapton, Elvis, Sinatra, etc.

Elwin loves to be seranaded.

November 2005 - Foon Ying at Lamma

I was the expert about Lamma Island for the Foon Ying group since I was the only one who had already been there just two weeks prior. What a novel feeling to actually be experienced in Hong Kong.

We found an organic herb garden where you could buy either dried herbs or plants. Being as this is the hippie island we kept looking for the marijuana patch, but it must have been hidden.

The recycled plant markers were cool and the chicken coop was close at hand for fresh manure.

The HK harbor view is from the ferry to Lamma.

November 2005 - Foon Ying visit to lucky temple

My next foon ying group outing was to a temple. The interesting thing about this temple was the magic sticks and fortune tellers. You could go to a window and for a donation you were given a container of sticks, like pick-up sticks. You hold the container diagonally and shake it allowing the sticks to slightly come out and magically one stick will come out of the container farther than the rest. You pull out this stick and the number on the stick is your lucky number. The container of sticks is returned to the window and you take your lucky number to one of several fortune teller booths lined up next to the temple. The fortune teller looks at your number and hands you a pre-printed fortune in chinese characters. This you have to find someone to translate.

This temple had some of the most interesting offerings I've seen. The usual is fruits, but one lady must have had a very unique need as she offered a whole roasted duck that she used to hold her insense.

November 2005 - American Women's Association

The AWA is a charitable and social organization for women from all countries, it just happened to be started by Americans. I joined shortly after arriving and it has been my lifeline to western conversation. Most of the members are "Tai tai's" (wives in Mandarin) that don't work outside the home and thanks to helpers don't work much in the home either. There are a few professional women who can only make the evening activities.

Tai Tai's are an interesting lot. Even though I enjoy western conversation with them, the conversation topics are still pretty foreign to me. They talk about things like training their helpers (usually Philipinos) to cook, maintaining separation from their drivers, having custom shoes and clothes made and vacationing in tropical locales. I'm a fast learner though, I'm catching up.

The AWA raises over a million dollars a year for the charities it supports like orphanages, SPCA, homeless shelters, etc. They even have a program to meet US navy ships comming to port and hosting sailors for home cooked meals. Well I thought this would provide me with great company when Denis works his long hours or is traveling until I found out you can not host them alone. Damn!

In the social scene AWA provides classes on such worthwhile things as pearl stringing and Mah Jong. New members become part of a Foon Ying ("welcome" in Cantonese) group to meet other new members and bond in new HK experiences. Our first group outing was to a Buddhist nunnery. Very zen place.

November 2005 - Best yarn store in Hong Kong

One of the best things about knitting is going into a yarn store alive with colors and textures and samples of possible creations. In HK you better have your plan and know exactly what you want before you go in the store as everything is either wrapped in plastic or behind glass counters. The stores do not look inviting inside or out. I haven't gotten any inside pictures yet, but here is the entrance to the best yarn shop I've found so far.

English is limited in these stores so imagine me trying to explain what "felting" is. "Make yarn smaller in hot water" is what I told the lady who translated to the other lady which lead to them chattering in Cantonese and shaking their heads. I've bought a couple of different yarns that were marked 100% wool but neither has felted successfully. Everything here seems to be made to be washable. They have some nice cashmere and mohair, but way too pricey for felting.

November 2005 - The hippie island

Hong Kong has many islands and each has it's own niche in life. Lamma Island is a hippie haven where long haired freaky people and old Chinese fisherman co-mingle. It is a 30 minute ferry ride from the hustle & bustle of the 15 million or so in Hong Kong proper. There are no cars on the island only a walking path that goes from town to town. We went here for a Sunday outting with Elwin and Jenny then had a seafood dinner. Some of the entrees were trying to escape from the tanks before their number came up.

For those of you who don't know Elwin worked with Denis at Target and Denis hired Elwin and his computer expertise at SML. Jenny had her own graphic design company and is now working for SML also.

October 2005 - Back in the USA

One of the reasons I signed up for this stint was the promise of foreign travel. So my first destination? Back to the US. Shouldn't complain though as we were able to visit both kids and go to SF. Denis finally got to live in the dog house for a few days and see Laine's new digs at the UNR dorms. Laine graciously hosted us for dinner at the dorms to experience "what she has to go through." It was a great buffet in our opinion and probably the first time she "paid" for dinner for us.

Back in SF I was able to visit my favorite spots again while Denis was in meetings. It was a beautiful day so I hung out in Golden Gate park.

October 2005 - Ma On Shan Park

This park is right next to our building connected by a great walking path. In the morning hunreds of people are in the park exercising and partaking in exercise classes lead by people with boom boxes playing chinese music. Way cool. They have a jungle gym for old people too. On nice days I will go and knit on a park bench. Many people also do tai chi. I don't care to be a spectacle so I do mine in the privacy of the apartment.

October 2005 - Ladies Market

Here's another one of the markets. Here they sell mostly clothes and undergarments, but not much that would fit me, occasionally there are things in western sizes. Here you don't say "super-size it" you say "western-size it."

October 2005 - Goldfish Market

A few times we've had fish tanks and we were always told that you could only leave the fish for so long in the plastic bags when you purchased them as they would run out of oxygen. Well, the funny thing at the goldfish market is the vendors put the fish in the plastic baggies for display for God knows how long until someone buys them.

The cool thing is the extent to wish people landscape their tanks. Tons of aquatic plants are for sale. In many tanks the fish are secondary to the design. Once we are in a permanent place, I'll get one of these tanks.

September 2005 - Flower Market

It's very interesting the way Hong Kong is organized. Actually "organized" is too strong a word it's more the way it's layed out. Like things are pretty much sold in the same district. Like the bird market is where you go for birds. There is also the flower market (another one of my favorite places), goldfish market, sportshoe market, kitchen market, fabric market, etc.

The flower market is a bustle of activity early in the morning for florists, hoteliers, etc. Then us normal folk can go and get great deals on flowers and plants. Things are more than 50% less than they would be in the US.

September 2005 - Bird Market

Sshhh! Don't tell anyone, but I went to the bird market. Not a politically correct place to go these days, but boy is it interesting. One of the best places I've been in Hong Kong yet. Pet birds seem to be of particularly interest to elderly Chinese men. They bring their birds in their travel cages to the park next to the market and hang them up where they can socialize with the other birds visiting the park. When they need a mate (the bird, not the old man) they stroll the street market holding up their bird so they can check out prospective mates through the bars. A few twists of the words and it wouldn't be too much different than humans finding mates.