Rediscovering Hong Kong (re: this blog and our city)

This entry is for August 14 and posted belatedly.

It's interesting that HK receives the most visitors during July and August when it's the worst time to be here really. It's our hottest months of the year, and combined with the high humidity levels, result in That Muggy Feeling.

[Aside: This reminds me of the dehumidifier we need for the flat which we probably won't purchase, the recurring reasoning of which would be "it's an expensive purchase that will be used for 2 months of the year and will be another dust collector in the flat. But that's being tangential so moving on....]

July/August is also typhoon season, and although we don't mind typhoons when they hit us, it's when typhoons skirt us that prevent our air from clearing. I shall leave it at that as I am unsuitable to elucidate further the meteorologic basis for this. Consequently our air pollution levels skyrocket, for instance our air pollution index 2 weeks ago was up at 212.

Luckily the past 2 weekends we've had good climes and good times going out. Last weekend we were in the Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) district to visit the Science Museum and then Granville Road. And then yesterday we headed to far away Museum of Coastal Defense and then Causeway Bay (CWB).

Now TST and CWB (and thirdly, Mongkok) are the prime shopping areas in HK, but Causeway Bay probably provides the most intense shopping experience of the three. I mean, if one wishes to literally shop til they drop, it's probably easiest done in Causeway Bay. The crowds, the bustle and the neon are just tremendous there and seems to go on til midnight (this I can only presume, we usually make our way back home by 11pm).

This doesn't make Mongkok and TST lesser districts of course, just different. For us, Mongkok has always been the pulse of Hong Kong; forget about the expats and the bankers and the tai tai's. Mongkok is a nice blend of crazy and chaotic which can be shocking, fascinating and disturbing, and yet equally familiar and comforting. Like the world is right where it should be. Plus the specialty street markets here (which we've dubbed The Fab Five) provide a nice visitation.

Now TST -- well that's a really a touristy area but still a great place to visit. Granville Road being one of the last strongholds possessing a local HK vibe, and even the recent mall addition The One isn't about high end brand name stores. It's refreshing to not recognize labels, unless we're just clueless about brand names?

Of course, we don't normally shop and just enjoy exploring these districts as traveler's curiosities. Inevitably we cant help but think how "there's so much crap out there in the world, so much junk for sale."

But oooh, the lights, the neon ....

Click, click, click... might as well keep taking photographs... commercialism is equally fascinating ;-)

- Jill