Gluttony and reuniting with family were the main themes during my 8 day stint in Hong Kong, my birthplace and supposed homeland. Originally, I was a bit nervous before meeting extended family on both parents' sides, not only because I hadn't seen them for 20 odd years, but also I wasn't sure how we'd get along, belonging to different cultures and all. But apparently blood is stronger than cultural differences!
Mom's side was extremely incredibly involved, starting with Aunty Sandy and Uncle meeting me at the airport and taking me to their extra apartment, where I collapsed out of exhaustion and a sore throat. Fueled by some very intense familial duty, they herded me around the city for the next few days. We hit up some tasty Chinese food staples like xiu long bao dumplings, dim sum and congee, they helped me apply for my HK ID card, we took a stroll down the HK version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame and also visited Tai Koo Sing, the apartment complex where we lived before moving to Canada.
Uncle was more spry than aunty, so with energetic determination he took me up the peak tram for a totally foggy and obscured view of Hong Kong's city skyline (oops), and another day we did a daytrip to an island called Cheung Chau. It's where quite a few ex-pats live and I can see why, as it's equipped with a beach, pedestrian only streets and a laid-back vibe. No rat race mentality allowed! The island also has a mini 'Great Wall' walk that follows its coastline with huge rock formations along the way (funnily named after shapes and animals they didn't resemble). After Cheung Chau, Uncle suggested going to another island, or a movie and dinner, but I flatly refused. Nice intentions, but the days had already been too jam-packed according to the Joey pace of lifestyle.
Wednesday I finally had some glorious downtime. It ended up becoming a food day, as I went out for lunch with a guy from the hostel I stayed at for a couple days. We had xiu long bao and dam dam noodles, and then red bean floats for dessert. Probably should've paced myself, seeing as that night was dinner with dad's side of the family: my cousin Duncan, Aunty Winnie, and Grandma!!
Duncan drove me over to Winnie's apartment and Grandma came out, very smiley yet slightly bewildered as I tried to bear hug her. Turns out she thought I was Duncan's girlfriend, and it wasn't until the car that she realized who I was! The last time I'd seen her was when she took care of us in Canada maybe 16-18 years ago, and she had definitely changed from my earlier childhood memories. She's quite functional for 93 years old despite the foggy memory, still able to walk slowly and play mahjong. We went out for a tasty vegetarian meal and throughout she got cheeky and made some funny comments, at some point recalling that me and sister talked like white girls when we were kids!
That was a really nice reunion, but the day after I was ecstatic to have a me-date for the whole day. I went to the Picasso exhibit at the Heritage Museum, had ramen and some red bean soup for dessert. The solitude was fleeting though, as Friday consisted of dim sum with Aunty Sandy and my granny's younger brother (there are about 10 siblings, most of which are still alive!). My stomach was operating mucho sluggish at this point, with definite rumblings of discontent. Later the afternoon was spent reading in a park and enjoying the first sunny skies since my arrival, before meeting Duncan for some chow.
This was the first super casual meal someone had taken me to, because surprisingly HK doesn't have much street food anymore. At least this place had local food, in particular the finger-licking pigeons. Duncan told me to try the pigeon brain (they give you the heads along with the rest) and so I had a nibble in the spirit of my trip's adventures. Actually not terrible, very... brainy. Not sure I got any smarter from it, though.
After some post-dinner stinky tofu in Mongkok, we drove up the peak so I could try for the view again. This time the night skies were clear and we could see all of HK illuminated with lights upon lights while we had good cousin catch up times.
The next morning I woke up feeling pretty rough, but dragged myself out of bed to take advantage of the last weekend in town and awesome weather. I took the 360 gondola to Ngong Ping village to gaze at the 34 meter high Buddha statue and eat a vegetarian lunch at the monastery. Reminded me of going to temple with grandma when she lived with us (good nostalgic association to incense, mm).
Later I wanted to either take the bus to the fishing village of Tai O that mom recommended or hike back down towards the city, but my health reserves and time were slipping away, so it was onwards to another family dinner instead.
This was the big family dinner on my mom's side, with granny and 2 of her siblings, Aunty Sandy's family, and Uncle Alan's family. Then there was me. And last but not least... a birthday cake dedicated to me in the shape of a 3-D bear! That and the singing got the attention of the restaurant, and lots of camera flashes went off immediately. A tad embarrassing but very sweet of my aunty! The bear's head was very sweet too, that went into my belly.
Sunday was mostly a sick day in bed with a short excursion to a nearby mall for internets, where I ran into Lee who I had wwoofed with in New Zealand (featured on my last post about farming) heading up a floor on the opposite escalator! We caught up for awhile and mostly raised our eyebrows at what a small world we live in.
Egads, last family dinner to mention. This one had just about every kind of animal presented on that lazy susan, with relatives trying to force more food down your throat while exclaiming over how 'little' you eat. There was delicious peking duck but that wasn't helping to curb my fatigued brain and oversaturated stomach.
So many meals later, I reached my departure date on Monday and spent the afternoon at beachy Stanley Bay to peruse the local market and take in my last breath of travel freedom. A well of bittersweet feelings brewed up inside me, and I had the feeling of a door closing behind me.
Then I had just enough time back at the apartment to throw my stuff together and race out the door to meet aunty and uncle for the metro ride to the airport and exchange gifts and bid farewell for now. 14 hours later it was back to cold and grey Vancouver!!
This post is titled Beauty and the Beast because that's what Hong Kong felt like for me, having reached the conclusion that it's a place I'd visit again (preferably with my parents next time), but a place I'm eternally grateful I didn't grow up in.
The Beast part of it was the beehive system people seemed to move in. You could probably spend your life flitting in and out of endless corridors, metro stations and shopping complexes; always in transit, how much of it really living? It's also extremely commercial, there's poor air quality, and the city people are a bit too sheltered for my taste. HK society overemphasizes comfort and safety at the cost of risk and adventure, which went against everything I'd built up for 7 months!
On the Beauty side, there was way more nature than I had expected, and out of my personal experience I had awesome family reunions and made good practice of my Cantonese. As for the food, I've decided that it belongs to both categories. I had gained some weight in NZ and lost most of it while in Asia, but just over one week in HK had me tipping to the other way again! I don't even want to imagine how fatty I would've become in a month. And actually, Richmond where I'm from has comparable if not better Chinese food what with all our immigrants, so take that, HK!
Seven months, five countries. An eye opening experience that flew by in the blink of an eye. Where did all the time go?
I mentioned sometime back in New Zealand that I've never felt more myself or full of life until this trip. I was pretty sad to think of the door to this adventure closing, but as one door closes, another opens, right? Now that I'm back home, it'll be up to me to carve out adventures in 'reality.'
Starting with this summer! It's shaping up to be awesome, I've finally moved out of Richmond to Vancouver with my sister, her fiance and my bf, and there are lots of weekend roadtrips around BC slated for the horizon. Nothing like being a tourist in your own country.
I think I will keep this blog functional, just to emphasize the continuation of adventures.
Adventure #1: Find an effective sun dance that will keep Vancouver clouds away for the summer!
