hong kong & i

i have never visited a country or a foreign place as much as i had for hong kong (i don't consider taipei when counting my trips as i had visited taiwan mostly for military exercises). over the past 2-3 years, i probably had visited hong kong 10 times or so. my colleagues and friends had ask me why and my answers are often one of the following:

• hong kong is messy, yet orderly. sounds very conflicting right? well, it is messy and in its messiness, very full of energy. i enjoy this energy tremendously. and interestingly, it is the very fact that i can get my me-space in the midst of this busy-ness that made the city so attractive to me. and despite it's messiness, one can easily find certain sense of orderliness once you know the place well enough. things here move like clock work and there is a certain sense of predictability and assurance in the things that are happening. this provides visitors like me a certain sense of comfort - an important thing for some one in a foreign land.

• it is very easy to get around in hong kong. its public transport is very integrated, convenient, and reliable. and after the first couple of times, moving around hong kong in its public transport is really  piece of cake. you have trains, buses, trams, etc all at your finger tips. and what more - the octopus card (stored value card) can even be used for ferry rides between the islands. how convenient right? and to add to that, you can even use the octopus card to pay at fast food restaurants and convenience stores.

• hong kong is very easy to navigate and a very walkable city. one can easily walk from point to point in the city without getting lost big time. couple with that, there are vast numbers of walking/ hiking trails across both hong kong island and kowloon and the many off shore islands. it helped tremendously that these trails are well marked and you can even find much information on these trails in the net/ apps. 

• culturally, this is a land that is very different from singapore. it is a homogenous chinese/ cantonese city whereas singapore is multi-racial and multi-religious. but for short getaways, these differences do not matter much to me. and being chinese, it is not difficult for me to fit in into the hong kong culture. my chinese heritage helped.

• language-wise, i do not speak cantonese. ok, at most a splattering of a few words here and there, and maybe a few short sentences at most. but hong kongers are very ok with english and chinese and it is very easy to get by speaking to them in either of these languages. since 1997 hong kongers' attitudes towards chinese-speaking tourists have changed. you see, during the pre-1997 days, they would frown on anyone that spoke mandarin and behaved rather rudely to them, but these days, speaking mandarin is normal. of cos, hong kongers are still very pro-english speakers and thus if i need some good attention/ service, i will converse in english.

• the food. i am no foodie and is really bad when it comes to deciding which food is better that which. but i do enjoy hong kong food lots. some of my friends have mentioned about eating pigeons, blood, etc and all sorts of exotic stuff when in hong kong. to me, as a person who would even visit kfc or macdonalds overseas, i am not particular about food. but what worked for me when in hong kong is are the many food found along the streets such as street side stores, cha chang ting (local cafetaeria), and local restaurants that sell roast meats. i recalled a couple of times where i would just head to the wet market, order half a kg of roast meat, some stewed chicken wings and just head back to my room and enjoy them with a can of beer as i watched tv. some of the simplest stuff in life are the most meaningful and enjoyable.

• weather is a huge factor for me. i love cool weather and hong kong provided me the perfect place to enjoy such weather. the low humidity also helped a great deal as i do not end up feeling sticky and uncomfortable after a while. of cos, this also meant that most of my trips occurred during non-summer periods. i liked it particularly during the winter/ spring periods where there are no typhoons.

• hong kongers are friendly people. well for most, you will probably not agree with me. true that hong kongers come across as loud, rude and do often shout at you (especially at restaurants). but after you get to know them and their culture, you find that that's just how they are. they do not see it as a rude thing to talk a little louder. in my many occasions when i do my hikes, i often get hong kongers greeting me as they walked by me - zhou san (good morning), lei hou (how are you?), etc are all common greetings i get. really nice right? over time, i have also learned to greet people likewise when i walked pass them during my hikes.

• friends. over time, i've had made a couple of good hong konger friends and although i don't usually meet up with them when i'm there, they are always welcoming and would be ready to assist me whenever i needed any assistance/ advice. thus, the sense of security and support is something that i appreciate.

of cos there are some other fleeting factors like gay sauna and stuff, but as i don't usually visit such places, i don't count them as major factors. heh.... so yeah... these are some of the reasons why i go back to hong kong so often. i enjoy the place, the people, the culture and the food. i have not really found a place that provides all these factors altogether. and oh, i think hong kong man are hot! agree? haha... then again, at my age, any men can be considered hot. hmmm, i getting to sound desperate... lol!

:-)