Hongkong on my mind
I found this while rummaging through old photos. It's a view from the roof top of the seven story building called Happy Garden in Hongkong. A panoramic view that had become a sanctuary for me whenever things gets bad.It had been a great transition for me moving to another country. But that was just the first move, little did I know that I will even move farther away from home and got stranded on the other side of the globe. It has been such an adventure for me. From the hustle and bustle of daily life in Hongkong, time seems to fly twenty times per second. It's too fast paced, one has to literally keep running. Things that I love about Hongkong; the method of transportation comes with buses. Yes doubled decked buses for longer trips and small buses for short trips. I love the underground train (MTR). It's is quickest way to get to a destination. Just don't fall asleep and miss your stop.One time, me and a friend were chatting inside the train. We were so into our discussion that we missed our stop, we had to go back and wasted time going back and forth. Even when using the buses, people actually fall asleep and miss their stop. Had to get to another bus and spend more HKdollars just to get back to the original destination. Shopping malls are also abundant there. And I mean everything! You could find a lot of brand names in the latest fashions and the latest gadgets that come from Japan. HK has a lot of British influences. It has an overflowing melting pot of culture.Americans, Brittish, Aussies, Africans. Among the Asians - Indians, Pakistans seems to be almost everywhere with their sales businesses.They would even go around with their products especially when Central Square is crowded with Filipinas off from work.There are Indonesians, Thai, Sri Lankans,Malaysians some Arabs.Others like Japanese, Koreans too and many other heritage. Of course Chinese people are evrywhere, but they come from different places, Singapore,Macau,Taiwan. Most people cross the border from mainland China and take a job in Hongkong and go home for the weekend via the train. That's right, you can go from Hongkong to parts of China by an hour ride in the train. We have been to some places like Shenzhen, Guangdong, and Guangzhou. Except on our trip back from Guangzhou we used a speed boat which took about 90 minutes.The places we passed by was like small villages and some of the areas were used for factory buildings. I even saw a very huge building for Mc Donalds there. It's not a surprise because a lot of the products they bring here in the states are made in China because labor is cheaper in other countries. The finnished products they bring them back to the states. When I compare the transition I had to hurdle moving to Hongkong was a lot easier than what I had been through here in the states. First of, Hongkong is just an hour and forty five minutes by plane to home. The second reason is that there are Filipinas everywhere and so is Filipino food. You could actually walk down the street and it won't take that long before you see other Filipinas. Then there's a lot of Filipino stores where one could actually buy things that you could buy in a sari-sari store in the Philippines. You could find almost anything, if not you could special order it. When it comes to food, I love the fresh seafood and a lot of varieties of vegetables. You could get them real fresh and still alive. They could also make dishes with a lot of varieties of noodles.From flat,to thin,egg noodles, rice noodles,dry, wet in broth, crunchy even different colors and texture. With my experience with real chinese dishes, I'm not at all impressed with the chinese food that are served in Chinese restaurants here in the states. They are not authentic. Either they had to Americanize it, or they don't have the ingredients,most restaurants tend to follow what the locals dig. And some might have to resort to what is available in a certain place. Some dishes are not really American friendly especially when they use fish sauce, but I still long for the real Cantonese dishes. I think it's fun to live in Hongkong especially if one knows how to speak Cantonese. Some speaks brocken english, but you could go to a place where they don't speak any english at all. I have learned some basic Cantonese, some I understand but I can't really speak it. My Cantonese have already been rusty since I haven't used it in more than three years. I still speak (siu siu) a little bit. I have to relearn some other words I guess.
It has been a great experience for me. And I wonder when will I visit the place again. maybe one day. Who knows?
posted by Unknown @ 8:27 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home