Day Trip: Kowloon

Kowloon is a specific part of Hong Kong. I don't quite understand all the politics and history yet, but I've kindly linked you to Wikipedia for an explanation. I do know this: people who live in Kowloon don't really refer to themselves as living in Hong Kong. Sort of like the separatism that you see with people from the different NYC boroughs.

Let me just say this: Kowloon is fantastic. It feels like NYC mixed with London mixed with New Orleans mixed with, well, China. It's worlds away from our little cow-town.

U.S. citizens do not need a visa to visit Hong Kong/Kowloon. Even though it's part of China, it is designated as a Special Administrative Region, which means that the city has some autonomy over its own governance (it means a whole lot else, too, but I don't want to go into too many details). Of course, you do have to have a visa to get back into China (if you are a U.S. citizen). Otherwise, you are screwed. FYI: Mainlanders (Chinese people from the mainland) do need a visa to visit Hong Kong.

To get to Kowloon, we took a ferry. We bought economy class tickets (160 RMB one way), but the person selling the tickets didn't seat us together. While I was in the middle of moping about this, a nice English woman came up to me and asked me if I wanted to swap my second-class ticket for her first-class ticket. I, of course, was suspicious. Was she seated next to someone smelly? Was her seat all rickety and broken? But no, she didn't want to lug her bag up the flight of stairs that takes passengers to first class, so she wanted to swap with someone in economy.

I'm no dummy; I took the deal. D remained with the other proles in steerage.

First class was cool. Not crowded. Spiffy red seats. Free bottled water, danish butter cookies, and peanuts (odd combo, but hey, it was free). Plus, there were great views from first class because it was on the upper deck of the ferry.


Photo taken from my seat in on the ferry. See
how sunny and cheerful? The fake daisies add
a nice ambiance -- tasteful.

During the 70 minute ride, hostesses circulated, offering motion sickness bags to anyone looking green. I only saw one person tear off to the bathroom -- a kid of about 9. The motion sickness bags had this instruction on them: Please make donation here. Ha!

When we arrived in Kowloon, we headed off for our main task: shop, shop, shop. While there is plenty of shopping to be done in Zhuhai, it's all crap. Crap shoes. Crap clothes. Crap food. We were craving indulgence.

We managed to find our primary target, a GIANT shopping center stuffed to the gills with hundreds of high end stores (filled with legitimate merchandise). Anna Sui, Yves Saint Laurent, Brooks Brothers, Kate Spade, Lush, Paul Smith, etc. But also more pedestrian brands like Levis (which are viewed as a luxury item over here), Michael Kors, Aveda, Starbucks, and so on.

After our lack of consumption opportunities in Zhuhai, I was a bit overwhelmed.

D came away with shampoo (Aveda and Lush), chinos and belt (Ralph Lauren) and music. I came away with this:


Perhaps I have described before the utter (and by 'utter,' I
mean 'utter') lack of Mexican food over here? Well, I found
these "import" items at an upscale grocery store in this shopping center.
Of all the fabulous items for sale (food from all over the globe), I came
away with beans and hot sauce (and books [from a bookstore that had tons of
titles in English!!!!-- that slim volume is The Great Gatsby; the dictionary
is for the classroom; the Atwood is my incentive to finish Chapter 5 of the diss).
Sometimes the runningburro just needs a bit of comfort food and easy reading.

And of course, now that there is Heinz Ketchup in the house, it's safe for my dad to visit :-)

Just remember folks, those 98 cent can of refried beans you take for granted at the grocery store are a fancy-schmancy import item over here. I paid 3.00 USD for each can. I paid 6.00 USD for corn tortillas (not pictured). The real luxury was the Benefit 'Honey Snap Out of It' scub. For fear of having my working class street cred ruined, I will not tell you how much the scrub cost.

Anyway.

The opportunities for conspicuous consumption were shocking. But so were other smaller things. Like the fact that people speak English in Kowloon (we've gotten used to miming our way through any encounter with locals). And the fact that the bathrooms had Western toilets, were clean, had toilet paper, and soap and paper towels. These things are absolutely absent from daily life in Zhuhai (I don't mind the squatters any more, but I do find the lack of soap in public restrooms to be a bit troubling. Especially at restaurants.).

On the way home, we both enjoyed first class seats as we decided to cough up the dough for the upgrade. Totally worth it. Here is a photo of D holding some of our first-class loot (cookies and water):



Now we're home, happy as clams, and planning our next trip to Kowloon. There's so much more to see and do there!