i was lucky to be able to arrange a five day stop in hong kong on the way from the philippines back to israel! it was superb. i hung out a few times during the week with my sister’s friend janae and a bunch of her friends, who were all very welcoming – thanks janae! on sunday we attended her church, which was so nice. there is much more religious freedom in hong kong than in mainland china, where attending a church of one’s own choosing is essentially not allowed. also went karaoking for janae’s birthday, and swing dancing, a sport in which janae is revered as a local celebrity! the food in hong kong was excellent, especially after exclusively rice and pork for two months in the philippines. i stayed in the cheapest option in the city, a tiny room (just about three square feet that wasn’t bed) in one of the two dozen or so hotels that exist in the bowels of a large apartment tenement in kowloon called “chungking mansions.” it is definitely hong kong’s gritty underbelly and the destination of choice for the procurement of illicit drugs and prostitutes, but i found the place actually rather endearing as it is profoundly multicultural (lots of south asians); indeed it has been described by people in the know as “the best example of globalization in asia.” good pakistani food for sure. assaults in the elevators have significantly decreased since they installed security cameras; you can watch the screens as you wait for 10 minutes with dozens of others for the single elevator that serves each “block” in the sprawling complex.
kowloon is a peninsula just north of hong kong island, the latter of which is the epicenter of hong kong. a pleasant old-school ferry boat ride or the subway connect the two. then there are the more expansive new territories further north, areas of which remain forested, and a smattering of outlying islands. hong kong used to be a british colony, and was ceded to china in 1997. it is now termed a “special administrative region” (s.a.r.) of china, retaining its own laws, immigration and customs policies, currency and democratic process under the so called “one country, two systems” policy. in recent months there were major ongoing demonstrations by university students, as the chinese government wanted to select the candidate options for elections. the protests have since been quelled.
one day i went out into hong kong’s new territories to visit the off-key “temple of 10 000 buddhas.” it is at the crest of a large hill, and despite the name, actually contains over 12 000 unique buddha statues. many of them flank the one kilometer path that ascends to the temple complex. as each are unique, naturally some of them have some very strange facial impressions and are doing some strange things – which is what makes it interesting! i also went to another elaborate taoist temple, wong tai sin.
one day i took the metro out to hong kong’s largest outer island called lantau and took a new cable car up a mountain. at the top was a giant buddha statue called ngong ping; which was beautifully cloaked in fog. the cable car ride was also quite impressive in itself as among other things it provided amazing views of aircraft movement action from high above hong kong international airport, which is on a reclaimed island.
mostly i just wandered around hong kong which was brilliant. there are countless amazing malls. in central hong kong there exists the longest series of escalators in the world, used by many thousands to commute to work each day. under one overpass, there is a spectacle where dozens of self-proclaimed sorceresses will beat a voodoo doll representing someone you hate for $5. they’ll provide the shoe, or they can use your stilettos if you prefer. i passed. there are entire streets devoted to selling fish in plastic bags and streets just selling pets, with cat-themed cafes. there are night markets in which to wander forever. best city ever!
also while in hong kong i pretended i was american hero edward snowden. i watched the excellent documentary “citizenfour” while there to discover that his first week in hong kong after leaving the united states and before being identified by the media was spent at the mira hotel, just blocks from where i was staying. then, i happened to take the same flight as snowden did to leave hong kong – aeroflot’s flight to moscow’s sheremetyevo airport! during my four hours at the airport in moscow i entered every airside restroom facility just so can now definitively say that i used a restroom that edward snowden used (he lived in the airside terminal for over a month). everyone watch citizenfour if you haven’t.
