Sick as a dog
Date: Friday, August 12th
Location: Hong Kong
Cockroach count: 2
Pervert count: not that many all considered
Endangered fish count: I daren’t let the lesvian tree-hugger in me count them
Well, slept horribly last night as had ague and fever and chills and cold sweats and nightmares and aches and pains (and my tail’s frozen and my nose is frozen and I shant break into any more Disney movie quotes). Ended up staying home for the day and not going to see the big Buddha on Lantau Island. Am sort of disappointed but I’ll survive. Probably best not to see temples and strange idols anyhow.
Went to congee and oily-rice-sticks lunch with wonderful aunt. My fondness for both uncle and aunt grows daily. After lunch, went to honest to goodness “gai tsee” (wet market street) to “mai tsong, mai gai” (get groceries and buy chicken). Joanne would have died of envy.
Fish of every colour, shape, size and position on the CITES and UN/WWF endangered species list were present. Am shocked by number of corral reef fish, cow fish, shrimps, and blue/zebra-striped/pink/yellow lobsters and crabs. Beautiful but unfortunately tasty.
There was a basket of frogs on the ground and they climbed all over each other awaiting their culinary doom. I gaped and pointed at them in dismay. Beside them, there was a basket of turtles which awaited the same fate. They also had cages with brown chickens, silkie chickens and PIGEONS. Is there anything Chinese people won’t eat?!
Then there were giant shrimps the size of my foot and old ladies spitting up phlegm while others sat on boxes, expertly slicing veggies. Old men sat around at the “tai pai dongs” (street vendors) eating oily noodles, while old ladies washed dishes in questionably murky water in buckets on the ground.
My favorite, however, was the way my aunt dealt with street vendors and the way they dealt with here. They were all haggling and bartering intensely, but the way they did it, it sounded like the most polite conversation you’d ever heard in your life.
“how much?”
“20 dollars.”
“Make it 10?”
“No, no, cant make a living like that.”
“15? And hurry, we’re late for something.”
“18 and no cheaper.”
“15 and make it fast.”
“15, thank you.”
“Thank you.”
“Have a great day.”
“Oh you too! Come again!”
It was insane. My aunt is so good at bartering that she’s like Russel Peter’s dad. She almost makes you think you owe her money. ”You owe me, I owe you. It’s all the same. Here, keep the change.”
On our way out of the street market, I noticed one store selling what appeared to be paper dentures and I asked my aunt what it was. As it turns out, it was indeed paper dentures. What the store sold was paper replicas of luxury items that superstitious Chinese people burn to the dead. The idea is that if you make a paper replica of say, a Mercedes benz, and burn it, then your deceased will receive a real Mercedes benz in the afterworld. Basically in Chinese tradition, whatever you want to send to the dead, you burn it.
It was incredible! They sold paper cars, paper Armani suits, paper cell phones, paper laptops, paper bottles of cognac and even paper food! What was most touching to me was that there was an old lady in the store at the time trying to buy stuff but she just seemed so sad and bereft. I assume that her son or husband had recently passed away as she was just in the store and was too sad to even choose anything out. The store owner was trying to be nice and offer suggestion, “How about a suit?” But the old lady just sat there and didn’t say a word and kept looking at the ground and rocking back and forth sadly. I felt so horrible for her.
All over Hong Kong, people are preparing for the “Festival of the Dead” which is coming up next week apparently. All over the street at night, I see people burning incense and paper everything to their dead. My aunt tells me there will be even more people out burning things next week when I am gone. In a way, I am glad as it creeps me out. My mom has told me too many ghost stories that are set in her childhood home of Hong Kong for me to appreciate the festival.
Well, am doped up on meds right now. My aunt took me to the private doctors and am pretty sure that what I have is viral but he gave me antibiotics, Tylenol, stomach antacids, lozenges, cough syrup with codine, and anti-inflammatory pills called “Lysozyme” that neither Karen nor Gabe have heard of. Crazy I tells ya.
My aunt insisted I take it all and I flat out refused but she coerced me into it with her super bartering powers. Ah well, she can be hypochondriacal at times.
There is a typhoon warning level 1 here and I can hear thunder outside. My uncle’s place is right by the sea and is gorgeous cus of the view. There’s a nice dragon-like dock out there where people with funny rice-patty hats fish every morning. The sky is grey due to the smog, but everyone still hangs around outside like normal. In the background, the undeveloped tropical tree-covered islands hang around in the mist and a million songbirds chirp every morning like crazy.
It’s beautiful.
Location: Hong Kong
Cockroach count: 2
Pervert count: not that many all considered
Endangered fish count: I daren’t let the lesvian tree-hugger in me count them
Well, slept horribly last night as had ague and fever and chills and cold sweats and nightmares and aches and pains (and my tail’s frozen and my nose is frozen and I shant break into any more Disney movie quotes). Ended up staying home for the day and not going to see the big Buddha on Lantau Island. Am sort of disappointed but I’ll survive. Probably best not to see temples and strange idols anyhow.
Went to congee and oily-rice-sticks lunch with wonderful aunt. My fondness for both uncle and aunt grows daily. After lunch, went to honest to goodness “gai tsee” (wet market street) to “mai tsong, mai gai” (get groceries and buy chicken). Joanne would have died of envy.
Fish of every colour, shape, size and position on the CITES and UN/WWF endangered species list were present. Am shocked by number of corral reef fish, cow fish, shrimps, and blue/zebra-striped/pink/yellow lobsters and crabs. Beautiful but unfortunately tasty.
There was a basket of frogs on the ground and they climbed all over each other awaiting their culinary doom. I gaped and pointed at them in dismay. Beside them, there was a basket of turtles which awaited the same fate. They also had cages with brown chickens, silkie chickens and PIGEONS. Is there anything Chinese people won’t eat?!
Then there were giant shrimps the size of my foot and old ladies spitting up phlegm while others sat on boxes, expertly slicing veggies. Old men sat around at the “tai pai dongs” (street vendors) eating oily noodles, while old ladies washed dishes in questionably murky water in buckets on the ground.
My favorite, however, was the way my aunt dealt with street vendors and the way they dealt with here. They were all haggling and bartering intensely, but the way they did it, it sounded like the most polite conversation you’d ever heard in your life.
“how much?”
“20 dollars.”
“Make it 10?”
“No, no, cant make a living like that.”
“15? And hurry, we’re late for something.”
“18 and no cheaper.”
“15 and make it fast.”
“15, thank you.”
“Thank you.”
“Have a great day.”
“Oh you too! Come again!”
It was insane. My aunt is so good at bartering that she’s like Russel Peter’s dad. She almost makes you think you owe her money. ”You owe me, I owe you. It’s all the same. Here, keep the change.”
On our way out of the street market, I noticed one store selling what appeared to be paper dentures and I asked my aunt what it was. As it turns out, it was indeed paper dentures. What the store sold was paper replicas of luxury items that superstitious Chinese people burn to the dead. The idea is that if you make a paper replica of say, a Mercedes benz, and burn it, then your deceased will receive a real Mercedes benz in the afterworld. Basically in Chinese tradition, whatever you want to send to the dead, you burn it.
It was incredible! They sold paper cars, paper Armani suits, paper cell phones, paper laptops, paper bottles of cognac and even paper food! What was most touching to me was that there was an old lady in the store at the time trying to buy stuff but she just seemed so sad and bereft. I assume that her son or husband had recently passed away as she was just in the store and was too sad to even choose anything out. The store owner was trying to be nice and offer suggestion, “How about a suit?” But the old lady just sat there and didn’t say a word and kept looking at the ground and rocking back and forth sadly. I felt so horrible for her.
All over Hong Kong, people are preparing for the “Festival of the Dead” which is coming up next week apparently. All over the street at night, I see people burning incense and paper everything to their dead. My aunt tells me there will be even more people out burning things next week when I am gone. In a way, I am glad as it creeps me out. My mom has told me too many ghost stories that are set in her childhood home of Hong Kong for me to appreciate the festival.
Well, am doped up on meds right now. My aunt took me to the private doctors and am pretty sure that what I have is viral but he gave me antibiotics, Tylenol, stomach antacids, lozenges, cough syrup with codine, and anti-inflammatory pills called “Lysozyme” that neither Karen nor Gabe have heard of. Crazy I tells ya.
My aunt insisted I take it all and I flat out refused but she coerced me into it with her super bartering powers. Ah well, she can be hypochondriacal at times.
There is a typhoon warning level 1 here and I can hear thunder outside. My uncle’s place is right by the sea and is gorgeous cus of the view. There’s a nice dragon-like dock out there where people with funny rice-patty hats fish every morning. The sky is grey due to the smog, but everyone still hangs around outside like normal. In the background, the undeveloped tropical tree-covered islands hang around in the mist and a million songbirds chirp every morning like crazy.
It’s beautiful.
posted by Viv at 1:52 p.m.
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