Hong Kong

So, I went to Hong Kong to sort out my visa trouble. Judy drove me to the airport for the short flight (only 45 minutes from Kaohsiung). On the way there, we stopped by her grandmother's house to say hello. When we met her grandma, Judy introduced me as her boyfriend and her grandma said the equivalent of "Oh, that's nice." We sat and talked for a while, maybe 20 minutes. Then, Judy's mom mentioned that I was going to Hong Kong to get my foreign worker visa to which Judy's grandma replied, "Oh, I didn't know he was a foreigner." She doesn't see too well.


Anyway, arrived in Hong Kong without any trouble and caught a double-decker bus (how British) into the Mongkok area. It was crowded and bustling with people around 8pm. I searched for my hostel and finally found it in a rather old building. When I went in, the hostel operator was conversing with a Dutch tourist about his lack of a room. Apparently they were all booked up. She was about 65 or 70 and her English was really broken. She seemed really surly and impatient with the Dutch guy. The Dutch guy couldn't understand her at all. I came in and said to her in Mandarin that I had a reservation. She immediately smiled and told me to wait a moment. While she was looking up my reservation, she began comiserating with me about the demanding Dutchman. At one point, the guy said, "Why is she helping you? Can you ask her when I can get my room? What's the problem?" I translated and she basically ignored him until she was finished with my room. At the end, she looked up at him and said, "You ... Chinese no good ... he ... Chinese good." I couldn't help laughing.
There wasn't much else interesting about Hong Kong. I went into the Taipei Economic Office the next morning and submitted by app without incident. I paid extra to rush it, so they told me to pick it up at 4pm that day. For the rest of the day, I mostly sat around in coffee shops reading or aimlessly watching passersby. I did go and get a haircut and it was the first time I'd had a haircut in English in more than two years. I thought about going around the city, but it was much too hot to go sight-seeing and what I'd seen of Hong Kong thus far wasn't that impressive. It was mostly just a big city.


Got my visa at 4 and then had dinner. By nightfall, the area across the street from my hostel became the "Ladies Market" so called because the sell things that only women would be interested in, such as belts, shoes, dresses, etc. I walked through slowly and nearly every shop owner shouted out to me, "Hello, sir ... coffee, watch, purse?" I thought, coffee? Why would they sell coffee at the same place as watches and purses? It took me ten or so stalls to realize they were saying "copy" as in knock-off name-brands made in mainland China.



The next day, I cruised back to the airport. Hong Kong airport is actually really cool. One of my favorites. It has tons of food and shops and it's laid out pretty well.
Anyway, that was my trip to Hong Kong. I don't think I'll go back - nothing special there that I can't find in Taiwan, and though almost everyone spoke decent English, they didn't seem as friendly as the Taiwanese. However, I'll definitely try to stop over on a transfer to another place so I can check out the airport again.