Scribbles

The trip was the perfect imbalance of visiting friends, partying, sightseeing, and eating eating eating. After all, what better way to honor the holiday than excess eating, to the point of recovering half the weight I lost the week before. Compared to my last trip, this longer one allowed me to soak up more of the good things in HK and checklist the remaining tourist attractions – venturing out to Lantau Island to see the giant buddha and gambling in Macau. Obviously we managed our jetlag by partying the nights in Lan Kwai Fong.

Stoopid drunk on food

Blessed with brilliant weather, the Lantau day trip thoroughly impressed me. The long cable car ride up to the buddha provided generous views of the scenery and surrounding water. And our reward for the brief trek up the stairs were delicious desserts at the monastery. They made a killer smooth version of my favorite hot tofu dessert that dissolved in my mouth, just heavenly. Who knew monks ate so well?

Calm before the food storm

While Macau’s claim to fame may be gambling – I even played craps in Cantonese at the Wynn, albeit to a losing cause – what stood out was the eating, again. After the hour-long ferry ride to Asia’s gaming capital, we took a cab to the town square and promptly began our eating ordeal in a crowded milkery (I struggle with the translation) that served milk-pudding (more like jello’d) and piping hot pork sandwiches. Our party of 7 was split up and 3 of us shared a table with two other people, who decided to gain back some of their casino losses by sneaking off without paying. The restaurant tried to stick us with the bill and in typical Cantonese style we politely declined in yelling fashion. And that was just the start. We left the joint and hiked up the street for the main tourist attraction, some unremarkable landmark consisting of the front wall of a church after the rest of it was bombed. In the short length of this half-mile walk, we ate pork jerky, cookies, peppery pork buns from Taiwan, Portuguese style egg custard pastry, and countless other samples heaped upon us by the locals. The pork jerky woman literally dragged my arm into the store and forced me to try more flavors.

Macau, where you’re always full

Season pork strips freshly roasted and served

The one sobering aspect of the trip was the economy and its affect on our friends in the financial industry. Like NYC, HK’s large financial industry makes it a hub for many of our MBA classmates from INSEAD and Haas. We partook in a few bankers’ luncheons in the famous IFC (also the Asian locale for Dark Knight) and listened to the worries of our friends. The level of uncertainty and lack of daily work shocked me. Some people literally go into the office for 8 hours to browse the web and wait for management to announce layoffs. As bad as things were, all of them have kept their chins up. I suppose they’ve all gotten pass the shellshock stage. I was relieved to see them not in panic or depression. I can only hope that the global economy recovers quickly, for all of us, and also to restore the city’s vibrancy.

View from Victoria Peak

The other similarity HK shares with NYC is its metropolitan nature – big city, big crowds – which I really love about cities. Hong Kong’s unique aspects are numerous: a modern, model transit system, the geography of islands, a much appreciated cleanliness especially compared to NYC and most Chinese cities, and a true nightlife culture. Despite my personal biases for big cities, I can’t help but rank HK highly on the list of desirable places to reside in.

(Photo credits to Dave and Euge)