20 Men to Dig a Hole

Hong Kong often surprises me that in many ways it is a modern, forward-looking city, but perhaps in even more ways it is crippled by bureaucracy and inefficiencies. There is a process for everything, a long elaborate process in many cases that involves filling in duplicate paperwork and stamps.  Take for example buying some cosmetics. Because I wanted the 'foreigners' discount (normal discount, not claiming tax back) I had to appear at three different desks to pay, sign four pieces of paper and finally go back to collect the goods.  No guessing this causes frustration for this just-get-it-done kinda person.

Although I have to say at times it does remind me of South Africa. For example today while heading  to the office in Kowloon I came across a group of 20 men digging in the same street with supervisors watching.  Though unlike South Africa, they all appeared to all be doing something, except the supervisors of course.

Harbour City and Food Nationalities

Harbour City is a mall on the harbour's edge Kowloon side where many tourists can be found arriving/departing, and as such there are many high end luxury shops catering for their shopping needs hoping to glean the last of their money.  Although I'm told that some Chinese mainland tourists go there directly just to shop,  even staying at the hotel in the mall, and indeed they seem to be the most frequent visitors. 

Today's window display winner goes to Louis Vuitton with the plastic polka dot look.

Today's strange sight was seeing a bride and groom waiting in line for the elevator in another mall. Many couples have their photos taken before the wedding in remote or unusual locations, so perhaps they were heading to the top of the building for a backdrop of Hong Kong island.

And finally, today's yummy food choice is our shopping bag! 

We visited four different grocery stores today (Great, City Super, Market Place, Welcome) and found we had a variety of nationalities represented looking at the imported foods we had bought.  For fun we decided to count and totalled 26 countries and 6 continents in one go! Wahoo! [ Perhaps less of a wahoo when global warming is considered but for today we will say wahoo. ]

The photo below shows a selection:

1. British - soup, cereal, peanut butter
2. Scotland - Highland Game soup
3. Koren - Cabbage Kimchi
4. New Zealand - Boysenberrry jam, Soups
5. USA - chocolate chip cookies
6. French - St Marcellin cheese, Goats Cheese
7. Taiwan - Beef Jerky
8. Italy - Ameretto biscuits, Lady Finger biscuits, Pasta, Mascopone
9. Japan - Soba noodles
10. Hong Kong - Humus, Do Fu Fa (made by Nestle - Swiss brand)
11. Thailand - 5 type rice, Okra
12. Mexico - tomatoes
13. Australia - Water Thin Crackers
14. Singapore - Plain yoghurt
15. Turkey - figs

Not shown in the picture since they were packed away already:

16. Dutch - Cucumber and Chicken

17. Philippines - bananas

18. China - Tropicana Orange Juice (USA brand), yams, 

19. Greece - Olives

20. Belgium - Leffe Beer

21. Kenya - coffee beans

22. Ceylon - tea

23. German - honey

24. Vietnam - cashew nuts

25. South Africa - couscous

26. Peru - avocado

Repeat countries:

USA - Salad mid, Carrots

French - Norwegian Salmon

Korea - Hot Jam Tea

Australia- Spice Sauce

New Zealand - Sea Salt

Mexico - Corona beer

Unknown - nectarines, kiwi, apples, blueberries

WHAT IS MISSING? Canada! We have bought fruits and other products from CA before but just not today.

Getting back into the swing of things

After any holiday getting back to routine of work is tough, like now, even with the intrigue of a relatively new city to explore.  The past two days have been focused on reducing my pile of email and trying to get to gym, do some shopping and practice healthy cooking. The last three items seem non noteworthy except when I'm in Hong Kong they are tougher than reducing my inbox:
Shopping = some ingredients are really tough to find in HK, this week after 1hour of searching between multiple shops I gave up on the key ingredient;
Cooking = smaller kitchen than I'm used to means a real juggle so that it takes twice as long to prepare something with more than three ingredients;
Gym = the gym near the office that I planned to 'pop in during lunch time' proved to be such a hike and bustle that by the time I got there it was time to head back.

OK OK, I'll stop with the Princess Syndrome, of course I do realise that if this is all I have to mention the past two days then life is pretty good  :-) The key take away is that I have started to get under the hood of the practicalities and adjustments of life in HK.

The positive spin to my gripes above - putting together meals becomes a creative experience, I'm learning to use minimal number of ingredients in a meal, and gym becomes an outdoor rather than indoor experience.

South Korea has not left my memory just yet, and coming back I can't help but compare it to HK. I'm afraid to say Hong Kong doesn't shape up well.  In my humble opinion Hong Kong is dirtier, noisier, more air polluted, smellier, WAY more crowded and unpleasant to walk around, grubbier, less fresh and crisp, dustier, and did I mention crowded?  Apparently I still need to visit China, after which I'm told Hong Kong will feel like South Korea in comparison. I guess everything is relative.

In case you are wondering what I'm going on about, the below photo is a snap I took yesterday during NON rush hour, I left the apartment 11am, and my journey time was 1hour 15mins of this.

This is my new 'comfort food' -  Mango Papaya Milk - first thing I bought when I arrived back in HK - very yum.

PS Photos uploaded in previous entry on South Korea