Nelly lives just ten minutes walk from HKU and her father works there as a lecturer in Law, like a sister in law but different. Since they do not have the Internet in their apartment Nelly goes to HKU library to use the Internet and borrow DVDs – which they incidentally have a big collection of, including Danger 50,000 volts with Nick Frost.
Nelly has a library card because of her dad, but it took some effort to get me inside too. I presented the people at the front desk with my International Youth Travel Card, which implies, without specifying anything, that I am a student. Nelly introduced me as her friend who is living in Japan. The woman at the desk eyed the card suspiciously and my face even more suspiciously. “Are you studying in Japan?” she asked. “Yes,” I replied, which was sort of true as I was on a Japanese course. “Where?” she asked, “Tokyo University” I replied lying through my teeth. “Ok,” she said, “just for today you can use the library but you cannot borrow anything or use the Internet.” In other words, “Ok you can get in without being arrested but while inside you can’t do anything that you came here to do.”
To get my way I abused HKU library by sneaking up to the second floor with Nelly’s account details and logging in as her, their system let two different computers log in using the same account so I could use the Internet after all. Ha.
Nelly was looking for jobs that day; I messed around sending emails and then decided to do something on my own. So, I left Nelly with Dave and got on a bus to go to a big famous market for souvenirs – Stanley Market.
The bus ride there was simply beautiful; it took me along the coast so I got my first proper glimpse of all the small green islands rising up out of the blue sea around Hong Kong. There are some amazing beaches there and interesting hotels standing at the foot of the green hills that follow the coast. One that everybody seems to know is very wide and tall but with a huge rectangular hole in the middle that seems like it can only exist because the architect’s mischievous son rubbed out part of the original sketch. However, it is apparently to let dragons fly through, and is a feng shui thing.
So Stanley Market, it was hot, large and full of tourists so I explored around it for a time instead. The market is right next to the sea and you can walk along the promenade quite far, passing shops and restaurants and then a big Victorian house. I didn’t have my camera with me but I got this picture from Google.
So this is Murray House, a beautiful old building that used to be in central HK but was taken apart and reconstructed in Stanley. It is one of those designs that might only really work in hot countries because it is so open. Where there would normally be external walls there are open corridors with pillars and the whole building feels very airy and special.
Just beyond it was a path leading into the trees which I followed. It was really hot and I didn’t know where I was going but I suspected that if this were Enid Blyton the path would lead me to a secret cave, a tunnel, treasure and a sense of Christian morality. But instead, it led me to a small water temple that I was too scared to go into. On the way back I found another path which led steeply up the hillside, I climbed its many steps and the sounds of the undergrowth got louder as I got higher. A few times I heard a noise so unusual I stopped and looked up into the trees for its source, and then saw the giant ants running around below me or felt a mosquito land on my arm so kept moving. That interesting path led to an uninteresting road, so I walked back the now less interesting path and bought some water.
In Hong Kong markets you should banter, bargain, haggle – everybody knows that, but I am awful at this. The last time I tried was when I bought a Mr Homepride flour dredger for my mum for Christmas, it was from a big antiques shop/warehouse back in Stroud. Once I found it among the old chairs and broken cupids I asked the shop person how much it was, she told me the price and I made a “that’s expensive” face and pointed out that the dredger was old and a bit grubby. I mentioned the adjective old first and she replied with “everything here is old,” which was such an astute a thing to say when somebody complains about the age of an item whilst standing in an antiques shop that it stopped me in my tracks. Anyway, afterwards we talked numbers and I got it down to a good price that I shall not name in case my mum is reading this having just taken it down to the Oxfam shop.
Anyway, there was one thing, and one thing only that I wanted from Stanley Market. This:
It's a wooden Chinese children’s toy that is like a ping-pong bat with chickens on the top that are connected by string to a ball hanging beneath the bat. When you hold the bat and make the ball swing in a circle the chickens peck the bat because the ball pulls their strings as it swings. As the chickens all peck together there is a nice clicking noise, perfect for annoying any parent or stressed person.
I first saw these toys in Malaysia when I went to stay with my friend Hannah and her family (hello, sorry if it takes away the pleasure of blog stalking when I mention you directly). We both bought one when we went to the historic town of Malacca but I gave mine away to a close friend, whose cat then destroyed it so now I wanted one for myself.
I found slightly ugly versions of them in one shop in Stanley Market for 25 dollars each, I tried to haggle with the shop people there but they wouldn’t have any of it. So I said I would look around. I did, I looked everywhere, I asked lots of people but nobody knew what I was talking about. Most of the toy shops were selling the big ugly plastic kinds of toys you find everywhere in the world, but only this one shop was selling anything wooden and chicken related. When I returned and again tried to bring the price down, they said no and seemed almost offended, I don’t know whether at Stanley Market you are not supposed to haggle or whether it was just their tactic – because it worked. However, I got what I wanted so walked away happy if slightly confused.
That's it for Hong Kong Part 2. Next time on Nick's Blog, learn how I survived social awkwardness in the lift at a nudist convention plus the truth about flying moles - can they really play Scrabble?
1 comment:
increases the pleasure of blog stalking actually :P
Post a Comment