After how much fun I had writing that last post, I’ve
actually been inspired to keep writing over the last few days, but haven’t
really had the chance to upload because my new apartment didn’t come with
internet. (Side note: I am no longer living in Causeway Bay, so you’ll be
hearing more about my new neighborhood soon. The Causeway stories will also
continue however, as work is still over there.) As I write, I’m actually typing
in a Word doc that I’ll just upload when I find a Starbucks or something.
Starbucks here only gives you free internet for 20 minutes, by the way. That
seems pretty stingy to me, but on the other hand they are very possibly
justified in their fear that if they have free unlimited wifi, their Hong Kong
customers will never leave. Ever.
After all, Hong Kongers are probably more addicted to their smartphones
than the people anywhere else I’ve visited so far. Japan is a close second, admittedly,
and I’ve never been to South Korea, but Hong Kong is certainly the first place
I’ve been where the subway station loudspeakers continually entreat day in and
day out “Please hold onto the handrail; DON'T keep your eyes only on your mobile phone” as you get out of the
trains and take the escalators up to ground level.
Several coworkers have told me that phones often seem to
play a central role in the dating culture here—and I don’t mean because people
meet on apps like Tindr or anything (though I think Tindr does exist here.)
Rather, I’ve heard several stories about Chinese couples being spotted spending
their time together in restaurants and cafes, with each person glued to their
own mobile phone for the entire meal. Sometimes the date takes place half in
the real world and half in the virtual one, with couples sitting together while
they compete against each other in cell phone games. Meanwhile, on the streets,
people mill around, eyes fixed on their phones, standing and blocking the
walkways.
In fact, phones aside, it feels like the Chinese in the
over-crowded Causeway Bay area have very little sense of when you should walk
faster to keep traffic moving, or at least get out of the way of someone trying
to go faster than a window-shopping pace. It drives the Manhattanite in me
crazy. People are often so slow to move that I’ve started experiencing a form
of pedestrian road rage where I have to actively restrain myself from just
kind of punching people out of the way.
Still, technology here can be awesome too. Like Japan, the
vending machines here are completely beyond those we see in the U.S.
For example, this one sells umbrellas, in case you
amateurishly get caught out during a typhoon rain.
I was also a huge fan of this bathroom in the Hysan Place
mall. The blue and red lights you see at the top of each stall are not just for
classy décor; they also indicate which stalls are vacant or occupied.
When walking the streets of Hong Kong, you also perpetually run the risk of getting dripped on. Water droplets plop down on unsuspecting passerby at any moment,
not because it rains all the time, but because of the condensation continually
leaking down onto the streets from what seems like millions upon millions of
air conditioner units installed in the windows of homes and restaurants
overhead.
A late night view of Causeway Bay offers a quieter perspective on the usually bustling neighborhood.
A few funny moments from a couple of weeks ago:
This photo above shows the time Sara (who is Chinese American),
Stephanie (Caucasian) and I went to dinner together. On the near side of the
photo are the chopsticks the waiters automatically served Sara and I, while on
the far side are the fork and spoon Stephanie received. The waiter also doubled
back later and asked me if it was okay that I’d been given chopsticks, thus
perfecting a symbolic summary of our ethnicities by giving chopsticks to the
Asian, cutlery to the white girl, and an uncertain in-between for the halfie.
Other hilarious moment: Causeway Bay is not the best area
for after-work drinks, so we found ourselves at one point at a very strange bar
called Brecht’s, where the beer was served in little water glasses, the music
alternated between random rock songs and every Eminem song ever recorded, and
the décor featured these lovely caricatures:
Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Mainland China anymore…
Some things just can’t be explained.
Around the end of July, my college friends Lucy and Sophie
were nice enough to go a few days out of their way and visit me on their way out of
China and back to the U.S. My next post will feature the packed couple of
days we had when they were here. For now, I’ll leave you with some pictures of
the first night that the three of us all had together. We set out to get a good
view of Hong Kong at night, so we rode the tram back up to the Peak (you may
remember the daytime photos from the Peak from an earlier post) and got a
glimpse of the Hong Kong city lights.
And a view from the waterfront that I actually took before
Lucy and Sophie visited:
Pretty sure the HK Tourist Board should be paying me advertising
money right now…and there’s a lot more great stuff to come next time!
TBC
