The two Hong Kongs

So on my 12 hour jaunt yesterday, I noticed a couple of things there are definitely two Hong Kongs. There is A LOT of money in this city and there is a lot of poverty here as well. In rich HK, Louis Vuitton stores are in every street corner and there are a lot of mercedes, maybachs and I've never seen so many rolls Royce in my life in one place. These people have real money and wear their designer duds with real class and boy the bling - Mags, when I hit the big time you me are sooooo coming here because you would LOVE this side of Hong Kong. All of the money people live in the hills where they've built these sprawling mansions which are all gated with armed guards nonetheless.

Then there's the other Hong Kong which live 6 people in a 600sq foot living area. They are largest producers and consumers of the dollar store shit that makes it's way overseas. They are made up of people from all parts of Asia and are the working staff of rich and privileged upper classes. They live in what we would call tenement dwellings, hanging the clean clothes out to dry in the polluted, smog filled air and living one on top of each other. These are the people who have mainly come in from the rural areas trying to make it in the big city, I think they are really trying to live the Hong Kong big city dream. I wonder how many of them make it.

My calluses have calluses

So today I had a good old fashinoned meltdown in the middle of Kowloon. I had been walking for 12 straight hours non-stop, literally. I just wanted to go back to the hotel and lay down in my chinese single bed and let my poor tootsies hang off the edge of my 5'6 bed, when our intrepid tour guide said "Let's go the night market on Temple street". I just lost it.

Now I'm flexible and adaptable as the next person but... after 2 ferry rides, 12 hours of hard walking, up hills (HK is surprisingly very hilly with incredibly steep hills) through steamy back allys, a fly by of the landmark shopping centre - very civilized place where one could have at least had a cool and refreshing beverage - a quick tour of HK's financial district, a trip to stanley market, two city bus rides, 2 tram car rides, getting drenched (all the way down to my skivvies) in a pre-monsoon rainstorm, getting stared at some more and oh yeah, being soaked by gutter rainwater while waiting for one city bus, I had enough. I was looking forward to just putting my feet up and perhaps letting one of the street massage vendors, massage my well worn feet and all I could think was not another god-dammed street market.

This is not how I vacation. I was looking forward to taking lazy afternoon strolls on the promenade (not sure which promenade), stopping in at exclusive yet affordable boutiques to look for gifts for family and friends and lazily taking in the sights and sounds of the city. Tomorrow I don't care what's on the agenda, that's the trip I'm going out to find and hell yeah, I'm gonna let some strange lady touch my feet but it'll probably be the strange lady at the Yankee spa cause mamma can't come back home with calluses.

Please don't poke me with your stick

So it's been a while since I've been somewhere where I'm in the minority. Let me tell ya here I am THE mother fucking minority which doesn't really bother me but please don't poke me with your stick cause I will poke back.

So we are staying in Kowloon which used to a cargo centre back in the day, so I would think that they would have seen some people of colour at some point in time buuuuttt maybe not so much. Everwhere we go Mr. C and I are pointed and stared at which is really quite amusing until yesterday.

Most people here seem to be at least 5'4 or 5'5 so people like my friend Scribe, here she would not have freakishly short arms and legs, she'd fit right in. But I digress. So yesterday we were taking a casual stroll on the boardwalk at noon in the 45 degree heat, 50+ with the humidity, when I was beset upon by a large group who had clearly never seen a Nubian beauty in all her rubinesque beauty, so after much gesturing i agreed to take a picture with them, probably to be taken back to their village to be used in some bizarre version of guess what I saw on my summer vacation.

It was all in good natured fun until the grandmother in the group pulled out a stick from her bag and decided to poke me and then seeing that I didn't react, she decided to pull at one of my braids. Well, it's all fun and game until some touches mamma's hair. Not wanting to be the cause of the breakdown in Chinese Canadian relations, I calmly reached into my handbag pulled out a pen, poked her with it and yanked on her hair.

See it's not so nice is it!


T

I'll have the Chinese choice please...

Well we finally made it here to the big C, or rather the big HK. Fianlly after months of planning and painful shots we are here. We left our home at 7:30am and 24 hours and two planes later we landed in Hong Kong at exactly 7:30pm at night.

The flight from Toronto to Detroit was largely uneventful. Small plane, smaller seats, piss poor peanuts and not much else. After a painful 3.5 hour wait - painful cause Mr. C couldn't find a wifi hot spot and him without wifi is not a good thing- we boarded the plane for Hong Kong.

We settled into our seats, which were not much bigger than the ones from Toronto just a bigger plane with waaaaay more people, and were handed a meal card which outlined the meal selections western choice and a chinese choice. As the plane took off down the runway, I was finally excited cause I was about to embark on a journey the likes of which I might never experience again. Whooooo Hooooooooo! Oh Yes, I'll have the Chinese meal please!

Wordless Wednesday: A new day dawns

Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.

It's time to change directions. It's taken me a couple of months to get to this point but I think that I finally get it - no more swimming upstream. I am exhausted. You sent someone to see me a couple of months ago and they told me what you needed me to do and I've been resisting because I felt that my way was better than the path that you laid out for me. I don't know why I doubted or why I thought that I could do a much better job that you. Today I finally got it and truth be told I'm exhausted cause it's tiring swimming upstream.

I'm putting it all your hands, I'm giving it all to you. I can't do this my way anymore cause my way ain't working, you're going to have to carry me for a while.


*******************************************************************************
Last night I had a dream. I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonged to me, the other to the Lord.  



After the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that at many times along the path of my life, especially at the very lowest and saddest times, there was only one set of footprints.



This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.  “Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, You’d walk with me all the way. But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.” 



The Lord replied, “My son, my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of suffering, when you could see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”