Hong Kong

Reflection of Hong Kong street in cab rear view mirror

Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42), was occupied by Japan in during WWII and controlled again by the British until 1997. The Programme for International Student Assessment ranked Hong Kong as one of the top education systems in the world.







Traditional Chinese tea house - Lin Heung

At the historical tea house we shared a pot of wonderful Jasmine tea and took in the every day people that surrounded us reading the paper, discussing politics and playing crosswords. I discovered Pu Erh tea on this trip which tasted much like my favorite African Roobios (Red Bush).




Old Street leading to Hollywood Rd, one of the first streets built in the colony, on Hong Kong Island.

You can see that a florist on Hong Kong Island has a store packed with tangerine trees. Tangerines in Chinese tradition are supposed to bring luck into the new year; Oranges are to bring wealth. Both have evolved from a language pun since the Chinese words for luck and wealth are similar to that of tangerine and orange.




I discovered this amazing store in the city called Initial: The Unusual Experience that is armed with super classic cuts with determinedly pimped-out detail. One of my personal favorites was a longer white flowy blouse with a small fur detail just on the collar.
Photo from: http://www.allabouthongkong.com/?p=169

The decore is inviting although a sculpture at the front literally shocked me so into the unusual that I almost walked right back out...thankfully I didn't! The website is fancy, but I can't see anywhere that I can do some real shopping; makes me wish I had done more while there!

We also checked out S.T.P. who became popular with its edgy lines of gift and leather goods, and is now growing an name for its clothing line.


Busy merchant street on Hong Kong Island



After some adventuring through the busy streets, wandering through the occasional sale, we made it to Cafe Landmark for a truly brilliant lunch. My host had the lobster linguine pictured on the website. I enjoyed a small kobe steak thinly sliced served aside wild greens with aged balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It was the most classic, comforting decadence.

For desert we tried a few scoops of ice cream - get this - rose petal and ginger flavors. The were rather different and nice to try, but I'll touche with my Kopps's chocolate custard any day, time or place.

All of these views are in Kowloon near the Harbor City mall

2011: Year of the Rabbit

China has gone through such immense change in the last fifty years - from a solid red country completely sheltered from the West, it is a powerful economy in the modern world, one filled with wonderful tradition, hard-working intelligent people, thriving businesses, monstrous hectic cities, a rising fashion industry and so much more...

I picked up Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China written by Jung Chang to read in the couple weeks prior to the trip, and while I was adventuring there. It’s great for prepping the mind to understand today’s China in real context, learning first hand how history has created the present. The country's prevalent cultural strings have similarities to Berlin with a harsh dichotomy of old and new; yet China still has its own feel of opposites in red and gray, young and old, past and present, closed and open, tradition and trend.



After a skip through Hong Kong airport, I hailed a cab after a customs check and collecting my luggage at the Shanghai Pudong airport. It was already 1:30 in the morning but my dearest friend and colleague Vette was waiting eagerly for me to arrive at her flat a good 45 minutes away. When I arrived to her street in the city center, I admired the adorable, traditional looking strip mall that housed a bar, restaurant, 7-eleven and a Starbucks. Directly across the cobble street is her fifty floor apartment building.





A nice cup of English tea and a quick catch-up led us to sink heavily under the sheets. Waking to the rush of the city made me ready to go. The view from my room screamed for another day’s work to begin. We ran into Starbucks before hailing a cab to drop us at our Shanghai office about 10 minutes ride from the flat. I had a funny feeling, like I was in any other big city – New York, London – doing the same things that any city slicker on this planet does on a weekday morning.



Over lunch we went to a hip hair removal joint called Browhaus. I desperately needed to have my eyebrows threaded! We LOVED this advert outside the building ;-)




Our China office went out for a team dinner at a Rong Ji in Shanghai, which specializes in a spicy crab dish that is out of this world! Xiang La Xie has thin slices of potatoes, lotus flower stem slices, a green veggie something like a celery-cucumber mix, colorful spicy peppers and full crabs.

We also enjoyed some strong duck soup, and a breaded pork that should be wrapped in a dumpling with hoisin sauce and eaten as a ‘sandwich’.








Next we ventured to a karaoke house like I’ve never seen before. It’s like a large hotel with rooms in every direction you look, loaded with round booth seats and high-tech sound equipment. We had a hoot singing Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys and Guns’N’Roses.


The next morning I hopped a flight to Guangzhou where I was going on a plant tour for work, followed by the plant’s New Year party that involved all 300 plus employees. What an event!! Associates practice for weeks to perform as part of the evening’s entertainment. There were so many talented and passionate performers – singing, playing traditional Chinese drums, dancing, a group drag show and of course the Lucky Draw. Yes, even the bunnies at the top are employees dressed for the occasion. How absolutely incredible to see such ownership and pride resonate from the participants.


During Chinese New Year it’s tradition to give children and single people red packets, Lai-See envelopes or Hong-Bao, filled with money as a symbol of a prosperous future. Any sort of random draw is always a very special event as the culture in general is a very superstitious one. Winners of the lucky draw are hoped to be especially prosperous over the next year.



The following day I had some time to wander through this area of Hong Kong near the Harbor City mall in Kowloon near the Langham Hotel that houses all of the most lavish brands: Chanel, Dior, Prada, Valentino, Louis Vuitton, and D&G. It was an absolutely gorgeous day; people were out an about everywhere – tourists, brides galore and graduates.

I found a great spot on the second story of the outdoor Harbor shopping area. There I sat in the sun, working on my articles, listening to my tunes, watching the bustle of a sunny Sunday at one of Hong Kong’s hot spots.


That night we went for drinks at Aqua which serves as a top rated restaurant situated amongst the lights of the Harbor skyline and a swanky night club. No surprise that the view was incredible, even better than I had imagined. Many of the buildings still had extra decorations for the holidays, and a laser show between the ultra tall building on the two sides of the water commence at 8:30.

West Africa: remote, colors & cell phones?

I left for Dakar, Senegal the morning of Halloween, arriving there late the following evening after a day's layover in Madrid. Some lengthy, well-worth-it travel to see my tall, curly haired, white cousin walking towards me once I shuffled my four bags from the belt, through security, to the exit where throngs of Senegalese men shouted for rides, help with luggage and currency exchange. It was hot…even at 11:00PM.

My cuz, David, has been in the Peace Corp - which traces its roots to 1960, JFK and the University of Michigan - in Senegal for a little over a year.

He helped load my/our things into a beat up cab, dents all around like a soda can bomdarded with BBs, and the rear bumper tied on to the small, rusting frame. A dusty road led us by some night clubs, a casino, through a few round-abouts and down an even dustier, dark pot holed street to our Hotel Fana.


We found a cab driver, Dom, for the week, who we considered a new friend by the end of our time together. From where we stayed in Dakar we rode through Mbour just near, somewhat considered, the city, by the football field sponsored by Orange, through large congested round-abouts on highways that had people, mobile storefronts, and possibly their homes just to the side.


Large white vans are used as a bus system; they speckle the scenery like white paint splattered on a colorful African canvas. Local men hang on the back ladder, virtually pouring out of the vehicle as it slowly maneuvers through the chaotic bustling surroundings literally on (not really next to) the main highway to the South.

Through Fatick we continued our way to his village north of Kaolack on a map.

The most eye-catching, breath-taking aspect of the country and its culture are the women dressed in the traditional garb - colorful boubous, headdress, carrying water or fruit, anything, on their head, with a baby strapped to their back, barefoot…often times speaking on a cell phone. Each time I saw it it made me grin; even towards the end of the trip. Africa.


It was wonderful to meet his host family, to see and experience what daily life is like in rural Senegal. In Mbam just near Foundougne and the ferry, the family lives in a compound of about 20 including about five younger children. Before we arrived he had told us about his village, his room, and some of his experience. where he stayed. ‘It has a dirt floor,’ he warned. Ah - nonetheless, we were excited to check it out and became increasingly more intrigued with it all on the trip there.

When we arrived, the mother of the group, who’s children range from ages 47-20, chatted with some of her family in the rather large fenced courtyard that was surrounded by a number of cement sided, thatched huts ranging in size.

It is customary for a man, when he walks into a group, to greet all the other men by hand. Shortly after our arrival the younger boys trickled home from school, stepping confidentially into the group, greeting everyone in this manner. I thought it was a very cool and respectful cultural gesture - although it is not often that a man's hand is extended to the women in a conversing circle.

After a few introductions and plenty of hand gestures, smiles, grunts and cries (by the little girls) we ventured to his hut.

Just days before we arrived he and his friend “Jack” tiled the floor – it looked fantastic. While most of the population in Senegal is Muslim, David’s family is Christian, so he chose a meaningful Bible verse to be mosaic karma for the little home.

His hut is around 12x14 ft with a cement bed - a single- mattress covered by a bug net in the one corner. Adjacent to that is a corner table suitable for a desk, with a bookshelf and the door to the bathroom in the opposite corner, at the end of the bed between the entrance door.



The toilet wasn't too bad really even though the picture looks absolutely horrific!! ;-) There's a nice little plumbing system that flushes well when it little water is poured into the hole. While I had a no problem using it when needed, I certainly kept an eye and ear out for large, speedy lizards and other creepy crawlies...

It was cute really, and enchanting really to the shelf stacked with his books – to feel what a hut in Africa feels like, with my Chicago cuz's flair.

The women in the family appeared to be preparing food nearly all of the day. Millet is a common grain used in the Senegalese diet. The plant is more closely related to corn, but when ground well, gains a sticky consistency to be more like a polenta. Day in and day out, these ladies would grind the millet - 'you gotta grind the millet'.



Later one morning we watched as one of the mothers taught her two young girls how to carry things on their heads. They were practicing carrying tubs of water to their bathroom so they could have their evening wash. The older of the two, no more than six, could barely reach her long slender fingers to the top of the tub to guide her head for balance.

The younger, between three and five, had a shorter bucket that helped launch water over the edge and into the little one’s face, which she did not like. Mom kindly emptied the bucket some, placed it back on the girl’s head and sent along behind her older sister.


One afternoon when the mother’s youngest came home, a girl of twenty, wearing jeans and a city t-shirt - I was a bit surprised. The other girls had wrap around skirts and t-shirts on, flip flops or bare feet.

As she greeted the group she dropped a small, brown plastic bag by the mother’s side. Shortly thereafter she arrived back with a wrap-up skirt and a bowl of water.

The mother proceeded to open and empty the contents of the now fly ridden brown bag. Without having to look down, she grabbed one of the small fish and began scaling and gutting them one by one. One of the other teenage girls was busy starting the fire in the kitchen to begin cooking, yes more millet, for dinner.

Dinner was a rather traditional dish of grilled fish, a tomato and oil sauce and the millet. It was excellent really, rather tasty although I wasn’t a big fan of the millet which tasted a lot like Malt-O-Meal. The millet was served in one extremely large bowl. Each of us dug a small hole where we poured some sauce and fish. The hole was our personal pocket and dedicated trough.






The nights were rather restful even though a tad warm. There is electricity in the hut, albeit somewhat inconsistent, so we had a fan on. As long as the bug net was on me, I slept peacefully, dancing in the vivid dreams that became so colorful with the aid of Malaria meds.