It is humid. Even in winter. Even in an air-conditioned airport. Even with a merino long-sleeve and a woollen cape on whilst carrying a toddler through an airport...
My bio-cuz, Jane*, told me to rug up, and I did; so I was sweating like a Mother, and starting to strip off on our way to Immigration. It didn't help that we were randomly thermometer-tested as we were heading along the travelators either. (There's a mean flu going around that's killing peeps)
It took almost two hours to clear out to the Arrival area - After taking some photos and lending my pen to a bunch of other travellers so they could fill out their immigration forms (come on Hong Kong Airport, you could at least supply one pen!) then dealing with Baggage Reclaim to ask if they found our lost portacot... (cue crying) I was so wound up about almost missing the flight, then the actual flight and arriving in Hong Kong, then Ever's missing bed... which I now realise was just a prelude to my next item of business:
The Hubband ran ahead of us to start filming before we walked through those last Arrival doors. (Unfortunately the 'Director' in me was too preoccupied about him getting the right angle to film the 'First Meet') Surrounded by a sea of Asian faces, I felt like I should be right at home and yet I couldn't make out a familiar face... until Jane started yelling my name while jumping up and down to get my attention. I looked around wildly for the now FB-familiar face of my Birth Mother. I knew she was tiny like me, but in a land where stature is limited I presumed it would be fairly easy... Jane ran over to us, but all I could see was the tiny Asian woman with short dyed-ginger hair a few steps behind her... This was it.
After my epic First Meeting with my Birth Mother (read more here) we headed to her 'Hood. The MTR is amazing. It is as silent as a soothing swoosh of an automatic door, if that; and travels so fast and effortlessly that it seems like we hadn't even left Hong Kong International Airport. The scenery looks like it's stuck in the 80's/early 90's, set to a Hong Kong soundtrack. I tried to take it all in but my mind was elsewhere.
All eyes were on us in the train. A little Asian girl with her parents couldn't help but stare at us. Holding hands. My white-skinned half-Asian toddler sitting on my lap. My NZ mama and Hubband behind us. Our little mismatched version of whanau. It was a rare sight to behold, I suppose.
We arrived around 5:30pm in Kwai Chung which is in the New Territories; and made our way to her apartment which is in one of many tall buildings (I was apprehensive to say the least, to be staying in my Birth Mother's apartment... unfortunately we had no other choice. Accommodation is super expensive around Chinese New Year and we were living on prayers and two weeks grocery/gas money) The buildings literally tower over you in such closed quarters. They seem to be like concrete puzzles or mazes with bridges joining them together. Each has it's own "House" name and communal courtyard. There are no carparks, as most people don't drive, only taxi areas. The sea of grey is only broken up by subtle splashes of colour. From the colour coded design of each building to the smatters of sculptured green garden areas. Every building has an outdoor playground surrounded by colourful plastic and framed by concrete. There is also a designated 'Smoking Area' right next to the outdoor 'gym equipment' - for the adults to keep fit - I took a (blurry) photo of The Hubband trying his hand at one... Haha!
Up we went in the elevator to the 16th floor. (Yes, 16 out of 24) It boggled my mind, and it boggled my body to go up so high and so fast. Vertigo became my almost constant companion in the first few days in Hong Kong.
The inside of my B-Ma's building is cold. Concrete covers the wall and large beige tiles on the floor. It is sparse. Nothing like the hotels or motels we have become accustomed to in New Zealand. My B-Ma unlocked the large metal railed sliding door, then the thick door behind it. She insisted we take off our shoes outside then carry them in, only to place them on a tall shoe rack behind the door.
My B-Ma's place is tiny.
Yes, I mean smaller than my tiny whare. The first thing I noticed was the smell... A mixture of plastic and those mothy dehydrator balls you put in your cupboard. The smell is intoxicatingly overwhelming (and I say this as someone who barely has a sense of smell) The walls are a shade of yellow concrete. The floors a blue-grey tile. Carpet doesn't seem to exist in Hong Kong. I guess the humidity would render it a waste of money. There are walls of compact Ikea-like shelving, and 'Hello Kitty' and 'Winnie The Pooh' is the staple theme of her decor. Posters, duvets, towels, and A 'Hello Kitty' lamp. She told me later on that childhood is celebrated in the Hong Kong culture.
The other thing I noticed is that she is extremely minimal and clean. Extremely clean. Everything has a place and an order. (Now I know where I must get it from...) We felt like invaders with all our baggage strewn everywhere.
After roughly 2 hours of sleep we were up and getting ready. The bathroom is tiny. A lot like the ones we encountered in the cheap "hotels" in Europe. The door opens right in front of the toilet so you have to sidestep in order to close it, before you can get to the shower. 'Bathroom jandals' are a must and always remember to turn the gas hot water cylinder on and off when we have a shower. The towels were a major shock. Thin as a sheet and not much bigger than a tea towel. I guess with the lack of drying facilities and the humidity it makes sense to not make life harder than you have to. One of the biggest shocks to me was seeing the washing hanging out of every window haphazardly. On plastic coat-hangers dangling on rods no bigger than a safety window rail. There are literally no yards or balconies (well, what we call balconies) in my B-Ma's suburb so everyone dries their undies on lines inside or hanging out their windows. Crazy! I even saw blankets and sheets draped on railings on the side of the street! The paranoia in me was too worried about someone stealing their stuff! Newb...
After our heart-wrenching trip to the Orphanage on Monday (read here) we headed to the insane Chinese New Years Markets in Victoria Park. It was nothing we had experienced before. Crowds and crowds of people jostling each other in an orderly direction. The stalls were filled with mostly students selling their wares. There were even a couple of stalls where they sung a capella to get your attention! My bio-sis had informed me that students get together each holiday with their friends and design, and get manufactured, products especially to sell at the markets to make money for the next study year. Everyone is yelling and brandishing cutesy stuffed or plastic toys in the air; showing what their wares do. We ended up getting some crazy bubble guns that make laser noises amongst a catchy (soon to be annoying) song while it spews out hundreds of bubbles. Hopefully it actually works when we take it home - not that it cost much of course! These markets aren't super expensive compared to the shopping malls but still overpriced for what they were.
After sampling some street food, frozen strawberries doused in sugary syrup on a kebab skewer (too sweet!) and some weird gooey gingery balls that tasted like snot (I have no idea what it was!?) we managed to find the exit. Poor Ever had had no sleep but was managing pretty amazingly! (I guess it also helped that the bio-whanau kept buying her balloons... FYI, She L.O.V.E.S balloons!)
That night we left Mama and the B-Ma behind and taxi'd to Sham Shui Po to meet my dad and his business associate for dinner. It cost roughly $90-120HKD for a 30 minute drive (about $16-22NZD) which highlights the excellent lengths the government goes to make getting a car (or licence) ridiculous. (Come on New Zealand! Haha!)
My dad was outside waiting with his business associate when we pulled up outside his fancy hotel. (Oh, to charge it to a business...sigh.) Since I have been in Hong Kong I have been uber thirsty. Whether it's the smoggy air or the subtle humidity I constantly needed to use the loo, and since all the public toilets are disgusting, I asked if I could use his before we left for dinz... Okay I was also curious to see what the inside looked like (I haven't been in many hotels unfortunately... [sniff, sniff] Haha!) The decor was opulent. As soon as you walk through those huge double sliding doors you are confronted with a giant New Years 'Money Tree' in the centre of the foyer. It is a beautiful array of red and gold. Hundreds of 'Red Pockets' decorate the tree like leaves.
The hotel has a distinct 60's influence. The bathroom in his room had a wall of glass between the room and the bathroom. My dad couldn't figure out how to put the blind down. All good. I found it in less than 30 seconds... No public peeing for me! Haha!
We then taxi'd again to the restaurant 3 mins drive down the road and went upstairs through a small shopping centre to the restaurant, which was just as opulent as the previous restaurant. I honestly don't know how people find these places. Everything is always inside a door of a building, then down the hall, up or down some stairs, through a different room, or hallway... In the end, I was glad that we were almost never alone as we wouldn't be able to find anything by ourselves...
The food came out fast and smelt intoxicatingly delicious. Large platters of lobster and noodles, giant prawns, tofu and broccoli, Asian greens, fish, seafood galore! To be honest, it was the best meal I have had so far! - and that says a lot, as everything has been amazing so far!
My dad's work associate brought his lovely Korean wife and their beautiful one-year old daughter. Even with the language difficulties we found them to be extremely warm, humble and generous.
We are so in awe of everyone's generosity. It is unreal. Nothing like New Zealand. We may have our green pastures, and politeness, our deep affection for whanau and friends, but the generosity they show strangers is unparalleled.
After stuffing our faces to capacity and with an overtired 1 & a half year old playing up, we taxi'd back to dad's hotel with him and then attempted, in vain, to hail another taxi late on a Sunday night (as we stupidly had let the other go) It took about an hour of walking up and down the street, with Ever asleep in The Hubbands arms, until we finally gave up and headed for dad's hotel. We were at the point of asking my dad to let us sleep on his couch when... (After a wee prayer) we saw a taxi with its occupants exiting toward the hotel. We made a dash for it! Thank God we got there just in time. Unfortunately the taxi driver was unfamiliar with my B-Ma's location, as everyone usually stays in the tourist areas not out in the 'Burbs.
After some hair-raising driving we made it to Kwai Chung, but I think that because he knew we were tourists he was charging us a "special" rate. It had cost us HKD$88 going in and we were now at $120 and still hadn't made it there! We decided to just get out instead of risking further expenditure, but we were lost...
After a quick call to the B-Ma to tell her which street we were on, we started walking. She said she would come find us - Booyah! All of a sudden we knew where we were!!! Hallelujah praise the Lord!
12:30am, time to put Ever to bed...
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This Morning (Tuesday, Feb 17th) we woke at 9:30am - Ever only woke once in the night! Woohoo! We got to chill out by ourselves and dawdle round the 'Hood. I have learnt that time-keeping seems to be genetic. I am often late (but have gotten way better!) but my B-Ma is always super late... At least we got to take in everything at our own pace, after two full-on days! The van arrived around 1pm to take us to, wait for it,
DISNEYLAND!!!
My bio-cuz, Jane* had a friend who could get us free passes. (Seriously, we have been so blessed on this trip. Everywhere we turn we have had miraculous provision. God you are amazing!) The van was trippy with it's padded black vinyl walls. The driver was a chatty-cathy with Jane, which gave us time to scenery-watch and talk excitedly amongst ourselves.
When you drive out of the city toward Disneyland you get to see GREEN! There are still buildings lining the hills but the captivating natural surroundings outweigh the concrete and steel. The bridge over the water was so architecturally beautiful I had to take photos, much to The Hubbands bemusement (Hey, I have a thing for clean lines...) Even though I had known Hong Kong was surrounded by ocean, I forgot until we drove alongside it. The sky even opened up as the clouds parted for most of the day, just for us... It was a pretty choice as day!
Disneyland was what I expected. (Me and The Hubband had been to Euro Disneyland in Paris a few years back) It's a lot of walking, tons of people, cartoon themed EVERYTHING everywhere, and of course, long-ass waits for rides that last about 2 minutes... Yes, we literally spent about 45 minutes in line for a 2 minute Dumbo ride - but Ever loved it! - Okay, she had a blank look on her face the entire time. But hey, she didn't cry! WIN!
Our first stop was a restaurant. When you think of Disneyland you don't immediately think of eating... but my Bio-sis was hungry (and so were the kiddie winkles) I think the entire time we have been here we haven't perused a single menu. Like seriously, I have no idea what the name of any dishes are, let alone how much they cost! This lunch was no exception. She ordered us these giant beef and noodle broths, which is her favourite dish at this restaurant (I am learning she has a lot of favourites... hehe!) They were so good. I started eating the whole thing until... I saw the table filling up with more and more food. Oh man, I thought this bowl was it!?! Hong Kong dumplings are pretty amazing - well everything was as I was beginning to realise. The cutest edible thing I had seen was the marshmallow bunnies!
Finally we headed to the rides, after my Bio-Sis' kids kept running off in the restaurant. Luckily my Bio-Sis has a lovely Indonesian worker who helps look after her kids (and clean her apartment! Lucky lady!) She told me it is pretty common in Hong Kong. I couldn't believe it!? My Bio-sis doesn't work as her husband earns enough for them to live off, and yet she has a nanny/cleaner almost 24/7! (They do get Sunday's off. If you're ever in Hong Kong you can see them all congregating around town - as they sleep at their employers house, who would want to hang out at "work" on their day off!)
After our Dumbo ride we took Ever to a 3D viewing. She was captivated by the singing and dancing cartoons until something freaked her out and she threw the 3D glasses on the floor! Oh my poor bebe... By the time we finished those two rides, and watched one of the scheduled parades, it was getting late. My bio-sis had taken off home earlier with her tribe, as it was her husbands birthday; and Ever had finally crashed at around 7:30pm so it was the perfect time to sneak off to a more grown-up ride... Space Mountain! Haha!
Even though Jane is a native Hong Konger who worked at Disneyland back in the day, she had only been on Space Mountain once! Scared of heights and roller coasters, you say? Well, somehow we managed to convince her to come with us. [winky wink] and left a sleeping Ever with Nanabear. After the awesome 4 minute ride with a screaming Jane (She literally clawed The Hubband - He has scratch marks on his neck to prove it!) We tried our best to head to The Exit. Pity the last parade had just finished so now the streets were chockablock filled with people! We thought we were clever following a few people squeezing past a small building only to get stuck at the end with no way out. Crudapples!
After impatiently waiting for about 5 minutes we ended up reversing the heck out of there. "Mm goi"-ing as we backed up. Another attempt at exiting through a tourist-trap of a shop proved fallible. Jane stopping to check out the merch... which of course led to me checking out the over-priced crap too! Haha! We saw a group of American ladies literally sweep the shelves into their baskets. I wonder who they were buying for, as you can probably get all this junk in the US or even online for cheaper. but who am I to judge eh!?
We finally made it out at 9pm and headed for our temporary home. What an awesome day, but I am so very ready for bed. Early night anyone? Not when you're still writing a blog post... Haha!
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