Hong Kong 香港 2016

2-Sep:
As my last-minute preparation before travel has been well entrenched into my psyche and I underestimated how distant (700m) the Narita’s budget airline terminal is located from the main one, I was almost rejected from getting onboard as a penalty for being 2 minutes late after the designated time (50 mins before the departure). Thanks to the overboard of my sweat after the running of that 700m (outside: non-aircon), I was permitted with a slight reprimand from the staff, who would have rejected me had I gracefully walked in without helluva sweat.
Taking a budget airline after some space (3-4 years) has made me realize that the maximum bearable flight time with an cramped seat would be somewhere around 6 hours (which approximates to Tokyo – Spore). Beyond that would be torturous for me (or pretty much anybody else, considering my cheap-ness inclination at the expense of comfort), but the 4.5 hour confinement in a upright seat was reasonably tolerable this time.
Mainly because of my accelerating forgetfulness, it was refreshingly exciting to see piles of containers, ginormous loading arms, high-rise buildings with tiny compartments (windows), bamboo scaffolds, signboards sticking out from buildings etc, as I approached to the city center.

After figuring out the 3 dimensional maze of “Chungking Mansion” where a bunch of non-HK folks hang around, to reach the guesthouse, I was stunned to step into a literally 4 sqm (1m*4m, inclusive of a tiny bed and unit bath) room with a bare minimum living space for 1 person. Having actually slept 2 nights in such a confined space under the pitch-black darkness (sunlight doesn’t come in even in the morning) has re-defined how I see how difficult for HK residents to afford a place to live, especially for the young. I had some idea, but it surpassed my prior expectation by a large margin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyhow, the first night was marked with a small pre-reunion with NUS folks and it was kind of them to introduce me to the local delicacies (congee with pidan, Chinese doughnut with pork liver, black sesame soup, glass jelly soup with sago etc). Despite the space of approx. 5 years and changing circumstances, it was good to see how we haven’t changed.

3-Sep:
Waking up without any trait of arrival of the morning was a strangely interesting experience. There was no natural clue to grasp the sense of time. After a short brisk walk to see the Victoria Harbor, I suited up and went to HKU (香港大學) as a gathering point. Even after taking a glimpse of the outlook of hill-rich HKU campus we arrived 1 hour early, and the church wasn’t yet open, so we climbed up to the adjoining residential area to have a short tea break at a cafe. The church was crowded by the time we returned 30 mins later and the decorations and giveaways (brochures & photogenic cards etc.) had been set up, waiting for the appearance of bride and groom. As I had little idea of how the Christian ceremony would proceed, I noticed that with the exception of relatives and groomsmen, I was probably the only person suited up. it is always better to overdress than underdress, nonetheless.
After a notice of the bride & groom’s late arrival due to traffic congestion (everyone laughed), The groom came in first to have some final checks, followed by appearance of the heroine with that recognizable fanfare.
As much as I would like to tell how fabulous the ceremony was, I was somewhat oblivious to what was happening amid the mix of Cantonese & Mandarin (and occasional English) procession, which reignited my passion for studying Mandarin (probably this motivation won’t last long). The ceremony ended with group photo sessions with smiley faces.

As we had a few hours to kill, we headed to Central to have a noodle lunch, then have a nap at the lobby of another friend’s hotel. Though some others were dozing off, it was a somewhat daring attempt to take a siesta as a non-guest, so I bought a snack to compensate the sense of guilt.
With a refreshed mind, we headed to Times Square where we were supposed to meet with other NUS folks. After a brief moment of reunion and photo shoot, we went up to the dinner’s venue: Heichinro (which is also famous in Japan). As we gathered much earlier than we were invited to, we had a plenty time to celebrate and chat with the couple, which wouldn’t have been possible had we arrived at the designated time.
With over approx. 200 guests, the celebration commenced with a cake cut (we could barely see from our seats though), and we enjoyed a lavish dinner course (including abalone, which happened to be the first time for me to eat in 10-15years).

With the help of partial English translation and visually changing cloths, I wasn’t as oblivious as I was in the church. The ceremony was not much different from Japanese ones, and we also enjoyed a videoclip of their life footage and re-union conversation.
As somewhat anticipated from a bunch of Asians’ get-together, a lot of picture were taken before extending wishes to the couple at the end of ceremony. On our way home, we took a group photo for the last time, in front of Times Square, wishing the future reunion again.

4-Sep
We are supposed to go up to the Peak, but the slight rain and a thick layer of clouds forced us to reconsider and we ended up going to the Big Budda in Lantau Island, instead. The ropeway to the Budda from the nearest station was under repair, so we took a 30 mins bus ride to reach the bottom of Budda.

After a comfortable 100+ steps, the hilltop Budda was not as far as it appears from distance. After climbing down, we ate Doufuhua (豆腐花) at a stall and that summed up my short, yet memorable trip to Hong Kong. As I had a budget air (Vanilla Air) flight in a few hours, we headed right back to MTR station, where we ate a brief lunch and I hopped on to the bus to the airport.

Expense Memorandum:
1 HKD = 13.4 JPY
Vanilla Air Flights (Narita – Hong Kong): 28,630 JPY
Hotel * 2days (Room of 4 sqms): 7,674 JPY (3,837 JPY/night)
Bus (Airport – Tsim Sha Tsui): 33 HKD (442 JPY)
high-end Mooncake (Aroma)*6: 175 HKD