O hi, Asia!

I’ve wanted to share all these pics, but they’ve never found their way into posts. Until now!

As I depart Hong Kong (for now), I share with you a smorgasbord of random pics.

This sign was on the Big Bus Tour. Hard to believe that so much ink (paint, whatever) goes into “no standing”. How many strokes is this… 24? 25? Lordie. Seems you could just draw a guy standing and put an “x” over him.

My first few days were so frustrating because I didn’t know where anything was. I found myself in a huge mall (IFC) where there was a Starbucks. I despise Starbucks for many reasons, one being the bitter taste of their coffee. (A coffee snob once told me that people equate “bitter” with “strong”; I digress.)

As much as I hate Starbucks, I wanted an iced vanilla latte so badly. But I fought it. I didn’t want to find myself in a Starbucks on my third day in Hong Kong. And lo, around the corner I found this weird tapioca (“boba” / transliterated “bubble”) shake place and went for it. I was not disappointed.

Speaking of Starbucks, one of my coworkers (Elaine) used to work there and she was the only one who could operate the incredibly-noisy, office cappuccino machine. She made me this latte with the company logo on the top. (It’s an old-school hinged compass.) Other 2 pics: just my dress/knees and Rico taunting me with a stupid peace sign.

Here’s where I got my laundry done sometimes. Wash/dry/fold for $29HK ($3.70 US) for up to 6 pounds. As good as any SF or NYC wash/dry/fold place.

I was walking with Wilson, one of my language partners, one Thursday night when we happened upon people burning stuff in trash cans. He said it was the Ghost Festival.

Ian likes to reduce people to their nationalities and would tell you how superstitious the Chinese are. Really, I don’t know that Chinese/HKers are more or less religious/superstitious than any other group. Dan said the most racist people he ever met were Australians (which Ian is). Ian reduced-to-race more often than anyone I’ve known personally (HKers are cheap, French are womanizers, Americans are hypocrites, blah, blah.) so maybe Dan’s onto something.

Anyway, we just had our mid-Autumn festival and I tried my first moon-cake (pictured.) I didn’t care for it; was rather dry and oily.

Here’s an art gallery near my hotel. With studios apartments renting for $2kUS or more a month here, I’m fascinated that the revenue for this place can support the overhead. Here’s an altar like I see all over HK. They burn incense to keep the ancestors happy so the business does well. And finally, a wall I shot when Dan was here.

Subway pics of Converses and the creepiest couple in a billboard anywhere in the world ever.

Here’s Teddy, who runs the small food-place I go to for take-out. I often just order kai-lan with oyster sauce (pictured.) I also like their fish balls, which is basically fish beaten to a pulp, rolled into balls and boiled. I recommend.

I was on my way to Blue Smoke BBQ the other night when I ran into these two sisters visiting HK from Singapore. They clearly do not like HK, saying that it’s dirty and the people are impolite. From what they, Chip and others have said, I detect a HK/Singapore rivalry maybe similar to East Coast / West Coast in the US.

But they were fine company and went with me to eat BBQ. They were surprised I was going by myself. I told them that I just think of all the people I’m glad I’m not out with (like certain chronic stereotypers) and I love going out by myself. We had beef brisket, mac & cheese, potatoes and collards. I’ve had better, but it hit the spot.