Hong Kong

March 27th-28th
Hong Kong/Sea Day

So the 27th was another turn around day spent in Hong Kong and another chance for me to get off the ship and see the city. Like last time, I started with a few hours on my computer in a mall picking up wi-fi. It’s really nice being able to get online somewhere and communicate in real time with my friends back at home, not to mention I just enjoy telling people I’m in Hong Kong. After my battery died out, I made my way out of the mall to explore in the opposite direction from my last visit into the city, and yet again, with my main focus being food. I got down to street level from the foot bridges and began my trek.
This other side of town was completely different, filled with shops and different stands selling everything from clothes to cultural items like dried shark fin (I think) and ginseng. These traditional medicine shops were everywhere, each selling the same strange array of dried animal products, exotic nuts, and anything else you might think would seem better suited for a garbage can than in one’s body. I really wish I had a guide to explain some of these products to me as I’m sure they all have fascinating origins and uses, but I guess I’ll just deal with being the ignorant, photo happy American.
I did find a number of restaurants that looked both appetizing and in my price range, though most of which had huge lines that I just didn’t have time to deal with. I ended up at some café place where they had the lunch special listed in English, so I went in there hoping for a comparatively easy ordering procedure, and luckily I was right. After standing at the door for 5 minutes staring at the same two lunch options and watching a few others go straight to the counter to order, I eventually figured out how to go about obtaining food at this place. It probably wouldn’t have taken so long to order if the girl I followed into the store didn’t stop just inside the doorway and do nothing, making me think she was waiting for something that I should be waiting for as well. I still don’t know why she never went up to the counter to order, but and even after I squeezed past her and got my order to go, she still remained there waiting for something that apparently wasn’t coming. Whatever.
So I left to start making my way back to the mall where I would eat my order of chicken in white sauce. I wanted to find the mall before I started eating so that if I was running behind, I’d know exactly where I was and how long it’d take to return. On my way back to the central area, I walked through some more unbelievably busy and amazing streets, not to mention some side roads and alleys that had food stands set up that I was sorry to have not seen before getting food somewhere else. I made it back though with no problem and found a table to eat my lunch which was really great for the $4 US I spent on it.
I still had plenty of time left, so I decided to walk around the mall a bit and see if anything caught my eye. Now there are a lot of really cheap things in this area of the world, but a mall in downtown Hong Kong is certainly not of that category. I went into some well respected clothing retailers only to find certain T-Shirts on sale for over $100 US, and I mean simple graphic T-shirts. Needless to say, I didn’t spend any money on clothes. I did however find a book store in the mall where I spent some money. I’ve had a lot of free time on this ship, but also certain difficulties in practicing due to the ship’s design and room use. So it’s meant tons of time that I need to fill in other ways, so reading is about to become very frequent in my time aboard. I’ve already finished a 400 page book that I started after leaving home and intend to bring up the pace a bit. So, seeing as I didn’t bring a ton of reading material with me, I purchased Andrew Carnegie’s biography at this book shop, over 800 pages of what will soon be well spent time. I’ve set great goals and schedules to keep myself on track during this cruise, things that will get me out of bed in the morning, keep me productive during the day, and discourage wasting my nights with people in the bar, so I’m really excited for that. It’s been funny though, people don’t think I’m a real musician because I wake up every morning for breakfast. But hey, I’m glad to be making progress on my own terms at a rate that I can be proud of.
Anyways, I got back to the ship early to get started on my new book and play the welcome aboard show. That was about it for the day then, and with the next day being a sea day, there’s not much more to add. I’m writing this at 2:00 on the sea day just to get it out of the way, so if anything substantial happens I’ll come back and edit the post, but otherwise it’s safe to assume there’s nothing too exciting other than the two big band sets I play tonight, woohooo…. Anyways, time to get back to Carnegie, thanks!