We went to Central HK Immigration Tower to drop off my visa application - 15 floors of red tape, and I will apparently be visiting queues in each of these to get the actual visa stamped, when/ if it arrives, oh joy! Then we got the MTR (underground) to the non-central-non touristy bit. The trains/ stations are lovely, beautifully clean, probably as there is an instant fine for littering, taking heavy baggage on the escalators, taking up a spare seat with luggage, etc..and a 6 month jail stay for smoking, eating or drinking there! Very hi-tec though, they have a sort of interactive tube map along the inside of the train walls. It lights up the route you are on, with an arrow flashing where you are next stopping at, and even tells you which side to get off on.
Can't pronounce the name of where we were (Sham Shui Po), but it was the sort of wholesale retail import/export ghetto where everything that says 'Made In chine' appears to come from. I never looked up, really (just dingy skyscraper flats), as both sides of every street were lined with stalls, with more shops behind them. First we got lost in the belt buckle/clasp/chain/ bag handle zone, never knew there were so many types. Then the kids clothing zone, from kilts & mini Chinese suits, to rompers & ball dresses. Then the haberdashery streets - barrels of ribbons, lace, cord, buttons and beads of every description, string and amazing applique/embroidered bits (anything you can ever dream of for decorating clothes etc, from sequinned flowers to shell dragons to tartan teddy patches). I was getting a bit dribbly - all the colours & sparkles - but luckily Pete was on a mission & I don't have all my jewellery making kit with me - yet!
So we wandered around the leather & fur blocks; funky belts, pelts - why would anyone WANT dayglo metallic leather, please???? until we found the materials section. About 12 huge streets, just with millions of swatches of everything from printed silks to pastel fake fur and REALLY cool sparkly tartans. All day we were getting funny looks/ stares as there were NO gweilos (whites) about at all, and Pete was looking especially scruffy in his stained wife-beater sleeveless Tshirt.....not really fitting in with all the fashion/factory fabric buyers with their armloads of swatches who were ordering rolls of fabric! We eventually got several metres each of some daft printed cottons (in keeping with the 70's student tiles in our flat) which I have now ripped into size to clip up as curtains, better than nothing & was cheap! Typically the ONE fabric Pete really liked we spotted decorating a closed hairdressers, and was actually an original 70's design, I think - fairly sure I have seen a pic of mum in a dress she made of similar stuff!
For lunch we tried walking into a smoky cafe thing, to have several hundred men turn & stare (no females). We nodded at the waiter, he stared, we smiled at the cashier who also stared. We stared back, then 4 old men pushed 2 chairs from their table at us. Slight hitch when we realised all the food was written on the walls, no pics - no clue! I started coughing (very smokey) at which point the entire PLACE glared. Noticing they all seemed to be sharing bowls of intestines and what I THINK is stomach lining (looks sort of whiteish with a criss-cross raised netting pattern? not villi but definitely internal!) we backed out. Ended up an hour later in a huge shopping mall's eating court, which was just as scary but at least we had photos of food to point at, had rice & pork (?) in a big steamer thing with nice unidentified veg. (Not Chinese morning glory but similar). Passed on the gloopy brown 1000 year old eggs - I did read about them, will try when I am braver. Had an audience watching us eat. As we were in a 'civilized' mall, we looked for beds....... not good, would classify as kids beds in the uk! Way too short/ skinny.
I got all excited as back in the street markets we found clothes we liked - I bought 2 pairs of really funky beach shorts, in XL (how fat did I feel!), £1 each from 2 different very noisy ladies who spun me around to poke & measure but thankfullydidn'tt make me try them on in the rain & mud. Pete got several new Tshirts, under 50p each. But he decided that seeing as he get some ridiculously high uniform allowance to buy 3 pairs of shorts he's going to SPEND in a proper hard-wearing shop. (Surf shack, I bet). Then he got totally blissed out as we found the streets where all the old machinery goes to die -i.e.e the HK version of our UK garage/ house. Just stacks of dead TV's, stereos, mobile phones, electric drills, defunct computers, wires, fans, ........I know he thinks having no money/ bank account is good to stop ME spending but I am SO GLAD the trek home via MTR, bus, ferry & all those steps stopped him buying any of that junk! I did get tempted by the stalls that let you make your own neon signs though - you pick the shapes, colours & flash pattern & they stick it all together, how cool?
And we found an english speaking stationers stall who sold usChinesee ink, brushes, and the squared paper exercise books they learn to write in - we both want a go at their art, and I want to try to learn some of the character language symbols.
We stopped in Central for tea in a posh AC'd Thai cafe - nice but relatively pricey; still, as lunch stuffed us for 50p each we thought we could swing it! Felt awful as the busboy cleared away our salted squid before we were quite finished, and when she noticed the waitress went mad and bought an entire new meal out just as we were ready to go! (I blame that Peter stayed to eat it for us missing the ferry, not my search for chocolate in a 7-11 store.) We got a sampan back and it was far scarier than last time - lightning storm over our island & VERY busy shipping! Sampans look sort of like wedge sandals, high & vertical at the back, with a curved roof of any old thing stretched over bamboo, and wallow along really slowly. But this time there were LOADS of massive container ships cruisingacrosss our path. One we waited for, and nipped behind, but following it was another that was not about to deviate for us - I know I'm a nervoustravelerr but even Pete kept saying, 'oh, he'll stop here & wait for that one too', then went a bit white and said he wouldn't get that close to it in his boats.
Yup the tankers come this close to our ferry - thats the stair section on a SMALL one
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.
It was so close we couldn't see the top of it looking up as it shot past behind us. I kept thinking there would be a James-Bond-in-Venice-style accident with us sucked back under its propellers and diced.
Got home to a lovely handwritten note from the Harbour Police wanting Pete to contact them about his dead boat in the beach!
No comments:
Post a Comment