Subtropical Weather Is Not For Sissies

In late August, at the end of our US vacation we stayed in Seattle. The weather was a lovely kind of pre autumnal delight that you get in the Pacific Northwest.  The days were sunny and almost hot, and the nights were cool, verging on chilly.  I enjoyed it, trying to absorb it into into my body and mind, as if I could bring it with me to the hot and humid part of the world where we were about to depart for.

We arrived in Hong Kong on a night that my grandmother, who was from Texas, would have described as "sultray".  We took the bus into town, got off two blocks from our hotel, and arrived in the lobby with sweat dripping from our noses.

We decided to stay two nights and a day in that warren of Asian enterprise before heading to Zhanjiang.  The next day was beautiful to look at, with crystal clear air, billowy clouds, but hellishly hot. We did enjoy exploring the tropical splendor of Kowloon Park, which is a wonderfully shaded place that makes such days somewhat less deadly.

Click image for larger view.

 Steamy yoga.

Our bus trip the next day was very uneventful.  There was the usual slow traffic getting out of the Pearl River Delta megalopolis, but we eventually got to the much more scenic western part of Guangdong province.  This somewhat mountainous and agricultural with countless small farms featuring well tended raised beds, rice paddies, and water buffalo.  Tractors basically don't exist, and everything is done by hand, or by buffalo.  Since it's the rainy season, massive thunder clouds dominate the skyline subjecting various areas to sudden downpours.  I couldn't help but marvel at the fact that three days before, I was in modern, convenient America and now I was going through a place where the work and much of life hasn't changed in a thousand years.

So we have been back almost three weeks and weather has been hot, muggy, wet, windy, and really windy.  Last week we had a "tropical depression" which is basically a wind free typhoon.  If you were looking for excitement, it was kind of depressing, although I heard that a main underpass out of town was under water for a while.

However, a couple of days ago we had a Category 1 typhoon which was much more exciting since it hit us dead on.  The day before it arrived, we did our usual preparations.  We bought lots of groceries, beer and a bottle of vodka.  We ordered extra drinking water and filled some water buckets so we could flush and wash dishes.  Flashlights were made handy and all electronics were charged.

The main part of the storm was forecast to arrive Tuesday.  On Monday, which is always the case before a Typhoon it was hellishly hot.  The sky was bright white due to a thin overcast.  I watched the satellite images as it approached well into the evening. I anxiously waited up until almost 1 am.  I sat out on the balcony, cocktail in hand and in the muggy stillness watched an eerie light show of clouds lighting up as lightning flashed frequently.  A breeze was starting to stir things a bit, but I was getting too sleepy to stay up any longer so I went to bed.

I awoke the next morning to howling wind and pouring rain, which got windier, and wetter as the morning progressed.  Sheet metal tore flew off from one of our overhangs.  We had to stuff towels around a window to soak up the water that was coming through. We lost internet for a couple of hours!  That's it.  We ate and drank and watched pirated TV shows.  I'd look out the window every so often to see a tree down, or some loony out there scrounging the sheet metal that had blown off of somewhere.  We live on the sixth floor of a massive concrete building.  If we lived in a trailer park in Louisiana things might have been a little more eventful.

However, life was more eventful for the folks living in lower areas, like where I do my grocery shopping.  There was a three foot storm surge out of the bay that flooded some homes and shops there.  The next day had everyone out trying to clean up and salvage things.  The general consensus is to avoid buying foodstuffs from anyone whose business got flooded for a while. 

I also heard that some concessionaires by the bay had their little places washed out to sea and that bottles of Coke were being salvaged by enterprising beach combers.  Some underground parking garages also flooded, which should ease traffic conditions until the insurance checks arrive.

Down the street where I go shopping was already getting back in business the next day:

Two days after the storm, I toured a narrow side street that had been flooded from the back of an e-bike.  There was still some debris, but things had gotten pretty much back to normal.

Contrasts

We made another trip to Hong Kong in early December.  I managed to score cheap airfare again, which is always a plus.  The weather in Zhanjiang had been sunny and balmy but we weren't quite so fortunate in Hong Kong.  Although it was warm, it was also overcast.  And really smoggy.  Unfortunately, the wind was blowing from the north bringing all the flatulence from the economic miracles in the Pearl River Delta.  It wasn't exactly the eye burning, cough producing, semi solid smog that has been making international news lately, but it kind of put a dent in our plans to enjoy the scenic wonders of the outer islands.
We are fortunate to live in a city that has decent air quality, and more specifically in a part of town that is cleaner.  There isn't an overabundance of heavy manufacturing, and the maritime winds tend to dissipate the worst stuff.  Hong Kong can have lovely, clear days, but only when there is a good wind from the seaward side, otherwise it suffers from the same rancid air as Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

We did make a day trip to Lamma Island, which is about a 30 minute boat ride from Hong Kong island.  In spite of the smog, it was a wonderful break from city life.  For one thing, there are a lot of birds.  We saw herons, sea eagles, swallows and many others.
We don't have a lot of birds where we live in China.  They have been eaten.  Really.  Life under Mao was a hungry time, and people ate whatever they could get their hands on.  There is also this compulsion among certain people here to anything living.  I have a friend who saw an owl being displayed as the catch of the day by a restaurant.  There are establishments that specialize in cooking anything anyone brings in. Even though we live on the sea I have never seen a seagull.  Really.  They ate them all. Older folks still try to catch and eat song birds, although I have noticed in the last five years, birds are making a bit of a comeback.  The old folks are dying off or getting too slow to catch them.

Anyway, we saw a lot of birds, enjoyed a good seafood lunch, strolled through the village and had a nice hike to a decent beach.  It was a Tuesday, so it was not crowded.  Lamma Island does not have cars, just paved walkways.  There are some small vehicles for deliveries, and bicycles.  It really is a separate world from the rest of Hong Kong, and very laid back.  The trail system goes all over the island. You can climb to a temple and get a good view on a clear day, but since we wouldn't be able to see much, we opted for lounging on the beach.  I think I'd like to go back on a nicer day and go for a vigorous cruise on the trails.
We had a good evening the night before in the Soho district.  It was Brian's birthday, so we decided to have some proper pints at a decent bar.  There is a civilized place in Soho we like a lot.  They have an excellent selection of European beer on tap as well as decent liquor.

Zhanjiang does not have a decent bar.  The only places people drink there are Karaoke bars and they are nasty places.  I've been taken by Chinese friends to high end clubs.  You get a private room, well appointed with comfy sofas, chairs and a private bathroom.  You get iced beer, yummy snacks and any other drinks you might want.  They even have hostesses to join you if you wish.  It all seems pretty nice until the Karaoke machine is turned on.  With Chinese there is only one volume setting for a Karaoke machine, and that is "11", so conversation out.  Nearly all the music selections are Chinese, except for "Hotel California", which everyone wants the foreigners to sing.  The Chinese music is either some kind of pop stuff, or something that sounds like patriotic anthems.  There is no break in the music.  Someone always wants to sing.  If you are lucky, the guy can carry a tune, but even then it's painful.  The men all start smoking a lot.  Chinese cigarettes tend to smell a lot like someone set a cat on fire, so the air gets pretty harsh.
They play dice games in which the loser has to take a shot of whatever is being drunk.  I've played it with both watery Chinese beer and another favorite beverage of theirs, red wine and 7Up.  That is how your evening is spent.  No conversation or interaction. The best our city has to offer in the way of a good watering hole is a well appointed room with bad drinks, toxic air and sonic overload. It's OK for a savage swill fest, but an assault on my Occidental sensitivities.   Our social drinking is done in restaurants or in private homes.  
Hong Kong is also a great melting pot of people.  Virtually everyone in Zhanjiang is Chinese.  The biggest difference in people here are locals and non locals.  The non locals can't speak Cantonese.
Hong Kong, on the other hand is like a good people zoo.  You have an excellent variety of humans and people watching is a fine pastime.  You hear lots of languages, Cantonese being the prominent tongue you hear from the Chinese.  You can hear Urdu from the Pakistanis, Hindi from the Indians, Tagalog from the Filipinos, and of course, English.  There are lots of Africans and housekeepers from Indonesia.  In the rich business areas you find Europeans with big foreheads and tight sweaters speaking European.  
A big difference for a foreigner in Hong Kong is that people don't generally gawp at you like they do in China.  You get to be anonymous.  That's kind of nice sometimes.

Another Hong Kong Trip

We took a three day holiday to Hong Kong this week.  With the help of a student, I used a Chinese website to book a very discounted, under booked flight from Zhanjiang for just a few dollars more than the cost of the bus.  So instead of a 9 hour bus ride we had a one hour flight that landed us there in time for lunch.
We headed to a favorite Indian restaurant and had a yummy beef dish plus some vegetable curry, rice and naan.  We requested spicy, and it was rather nuclear.  I forget the name of it, but it comes in a color similar to molten lava that is just beginning to cool.  We liked it!  It made our noses pink and our eyes moist.  We ordered extra beer, not because we needed it, but because we wanted some.
One of the things we like about Hong Kong is the chance to eat stuff we can't get in Zhanjiang.  We had Whoppers at Burger King, Subway sandwiches, a Starbucks breakfast, and Sausage McMuffins with egg.  If you think that going to the Asian food capital and eating American crap is gauche, too bad!  We get plenty of great Asian food where we live.  We did have one good Hong Kong seafood dinner, though.
The second day, after making sure that our spicy lunch from the previous day was thoroughly driven from our systems we headed to Lantau Island.  There are some cool things to do and see there, and we opted for the cable car ride up to the Po Lin monastery and giant bronze Tian Tan Buddha.
We took the subway and train to the cable car base and queued up for about 45 minutes to get on.  I can't imagine what it must be like on weekends.  The ride is a lot of fun, 5.7 km of breathtaking views. Or at least they are breathtaking if the day is crystal clear.  It was partly cloudy and a bit hazy, so we managed to hang on to our breath, but it was still cool.

Seeing a big line of people behind me always gives me great satisfaction.

High priced souvenirs.

We got off at the top where there is a "village" which is really a bunch of restaurants and souvenir shops.  This is where we had our Subway sandwiches.  Very Zen.  Souvenir shops at religious site are nothing new in the world.  Most of the items they were hawking were either tasteful religious items at a premium price or lower end religious items at a price that was more than one should pay for such geegaws.  There were also t-shirts and Bubba hats with images of the cable car and the "village" on them.  I didn't look too closely, but I did not see any I ♥ Buddha shirts.
We saw the Buddha.  At one time it was the largest bronze sitting Buddha in the world, but the Chinese decided to build a bigger one, in fact they are a Buddha building binge.
For an extra 30 Hong Kong dollars we were able to go into the base of the statue where there is a lovely gallery of calligraphy and paintings.  This fee is an "offering", but in return you get an ice cream bar and a bottle of water.
We left before the crowd did, and rode the cable car back down. We headed into town to do some shopping.  We usually stay in Mongkok, which is the electronics selling center of town.  It's always busy at night with people crowding the streets and shops shopping for all things electronic from cameras to smart phones. The new iPhone is out, and there were some enterprising folks on the sidewalks hawking what appeared to be the new thing.  Maybe. I don't know and really don't care.  I have no desire to part with that much money for one of those toys, but I can tell you that dangerous number of the citizens here walk around plugged into some device, eyes glued to the screen while walking into each other.

Hawking iPhones.

I did have a woman pulling a small suitcase on wheels cut in front of me while yakking on her phone.  She ran over my foot, and even though it caused the case to bounce and lurch, she was blissfully unaware that she had even done anything.  It didn't hurt.  Since she was headed for a bus stop, one can assume that she doesn't drive, which is probably for the best.
One task that is always on our list of things to do in Hong Kong is to buy baby formula.  Our friends back in China with babies insist on it.  Chinese people do not trust baby formula that they purchase on the mainland, including western name brands.  This is due to the fact that in 2008 rat bastards adulterated milk by adding melamine to it in order to give false protein readings and make a few extra bucks.  Hundreds of thousands of children were sickened and several died.  There are still instances of this happening.
Purchasing milk powder and formula in Hong Kong by mainland folks was becoming an epidemic of sorts.  Hong Kong residents were finding that milk prices were skyrocketing and formula was often unavailable.  The Chinese government placed serious restrictions on how much milk can be brought in, with 2 big cans being the limit.  Penalties are severe, and all luggage is electronically screened.  We each bring back 2 cans every time we go there, although we could bring back a dozen each and still would have people wanting.
We took the bus back to Zhanjiang since cheap flights were unavailable, and on our way out I saw this sign outside a police station warning nice old ladies about underhanded sharky women who try to sell you get rich schemes.  In Hong Kong milk is safe and the police are here to keep nice old ladies protected from land sharks.