Curries, Fried Rice, and Cheeseburgers

After being back in Hong Kong now for 8 months I can say, "I love it!" And if you ask why, I'll probably say, "something to do with Curry, Fried Rice, and Cheeseburgers!"

What I mean by that...simply... is Hong Kong has everything!

Take for example last week. The teachers at our school decided to head out on a Friday night for drinks and dinner. The evening started at Joe's Pool Hall in Knutsford Terrace. The 8th floor establishment complete with billiard tables, dart boards, and cheeseburgers could be found on any given street corner in the U.S. or Britain....not what one normally associates with Hong Kong, and yet part of the fabric here none the less.

After shooting some pool I was starving as I was purposely holding out eating until we made our way to Chung King Mansions. If you are unfamiliar with Chung King Mansion, wikipedia correctly describes it as, " guesthouses, curry restaurants, African bistros, clothing shops, sari stores, and foreign exchange offices. It often acts as a large gathering place for some of the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, particularly South Asians (Indians, Nepalese, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans), Middle Eastern people, Nigerians, Europeans, Americans, and many other peoples of the world."

Whenever I enter Chung King Mansion the line from Star Wars where Ben Kenobi says, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy, we must be cautious" pops in my head.

We settled on the Taj Mahal restaurant and as Indian waiters began unloading platters of samosas and poppadoms (sp?) I was struck by the diversity even at our table; British, Aussies, Kiwis, Hong Kong Chinese, and Americans raising a glass together to toast the new academic year. Pretty soon debates began such as:

* who is the more conditioned athlete, an Aussie Rules footballer or a player from Rugby Union?

* whats going to happen in the South China Sea between the U.S. and China?

* who will win in the upcoming Australian election; Liberal or Labor?

* will David Cameron re-energize the Tories or will his austerity plan cripple Britain?

Discussions like that I could never have with a group of Americans back home hanging out at an Applebees!

Before I left Chung King for the night I stopped by a DVD stall and had the South Asian shopkeeper recommend a couple Bollywood movies for me to take home. Tammy and I have grown to really enjoy Bollywood movies...on occasion :)

Even last year when we were still in Qingdao I was asked why I came back to Asia. I responded, "here we are at the Olympic Sailing Center where my son is learning to sail from a French teacher and a Chinese teacher. I'm sitting here chatting with a Dane on my right and a South African to my left on a dock where an Olympic competition was just held...thats why I'm back."












In Hong Kong, the crazy blend of East and West is always display. Even though it is no longer a British colony, the judges here still where white judicial wigs while in court. Police divisions have ceremonial wings complete with bagpipers. Street stalls with very fresh seafood can be just a few blocks down from some of the most expensive designer boutiques in the world. One evening I may be sitting on a rickety stool outside having a bowl of traditional Cantonese claypot rice and the next evening having humus and spicy lamb at a posh Lebanese restaurant.












And while America frets over the building of a Muslim Cultural center in New York, I see how relaxed people here are in a melting pot of religious freedom. On Nathan Road, one of the main arteries in downtown Kowloon, the Masjid and Islamic Centre sits prominently on one side of the street, and across the way is St. Andrew's Anglican church. No fights, no protests, everyone getting along for the most part. The rest of Hong Kong is full of Christian churches, mosques, Chinese temples, synagogues and every other place of worship you might think of. Given the possibly volitile mix, there is a marvolus lack of protest, violence, or bodycount that the residents here I think tend to appreciate.

So what's the secret to all this social harmony? My two cents...Its probably the Curries, Fried Rice, and Cheeseburgers.

Living on Park Island

When Tammy and I moved back to Hong Kong last Christmas we had a decision to make...Where to live? We had lived for a number of years in different places around the territory from the early days in Fanling near the border with China, to six years living in a mountaintop Shatin village home, to finally ending up down in the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong Island.

During Christmas 2008 we visited Hong Kong from China where we were living and stayed with some friends at their home on Park Island, Ma Wan. Ma Wan for years had been a small Island with a fishing village and not much more. Then the Tsing Ma Bridge was built as part of the new airport project and suddenly this inaccessible section of Hong Kong was connected to the rest of the territory.

It didn't take long before land developers saw the potential and within no time "Park Island" was born. Residential towers, swimming pools, clubhouses, restaurants sprung up from seemingly out of no where and the tiny population of Ma Wan which had previously been a few hundred jumped to over 10,000.



We loved our visit in 2008 so when my new job promotion took us back to Hong Kong, the first place we started house searching was on Park Island. After looking at a number of places, we had our heart set on one flat. 3 bedroom, 21st floor with a seaview and a balcony. 1,075 sq. ft. Understand in Hong Kong, housing sq. footage is like gold and everyone here seems to know at any given time what the market rate is in a particular area.

We had set ourselves a budget of not paying more than "X" for a place and preferring to keep it at "X" - HK$ 2000 (US$ 260). Because of the recent spike in prices due to investment money coming in from the mainland, the landlord of our proposed flat would only agree to "X" + $HK 2000. We hemmed and hawed and Tammy and I pored over our budget plan on Excel to see how we could tweak things to get it.



Of course...we made it happen and for the last 6 months we've been enjoying our "Island" life. The commute is a little long as I have to catch a shuttle bus off the Island to the MTR (subway) and then the train right to Kowloon Tong. Door to door is 50 minutes.

Another plus is the fast ferry that takes us to Central (downtown) in just 22 minutes. I like to be able to live in a quiet peaceful place where cars are not allowed and then in a few minutes be right down "where the action is".



And having a 12 year old, the fact that Park Island has its own beach, 4 swimming pools, 3 clubhouses, tennis courts and bowling ally means there is often plenty to do. There is even a built to scale "Noah's Ark" attraction here.

Food wise in addition to the Chinese restaurants, there are Italian, Indian, German, and Thai and those are all right on the beach. There are few things more relaxing than sitting outside over a fine meal with the sea and the Tsing Ma bridge in the background. True, the Park and Shop supermarket here is not as diverse as Discovery Bay or Central, but having just moved from Qingdao China, its a culinary gold mine :)



Anyhow, we thank God for bringing us back to Hong Kong...and to Park Island!

My "Public" Health Care Experience

(I am reposting this from my personal blog. This event occured in June)
So much has been debated recently on the health care issue in America especially when it involves the public option. Because of this I want to share with you my recent encounter with "the public option" as it exists in Hong Kong.

Last Wednesday I developed a pain in my side that kept getting worse and wouldn't go away. Finally I realized I needed to get to an Emergency Room. I hopped on a speed ferry (I live on an Island)and zoomed downtown where I took a taxi ten minutes to Queen Mary Hospital. The ER receptionist asked for my Hong Kong Identity Card. As a resident of HK my trip to the ER would cost me HK$100 (US$ 13).

They then sent me to the Triage station and when I told them that I had a heart stent placed last year they immediately performed and EKG to determine if the pain I had was possibly heart related. It wasn't. I was then given a slip of paper categorizing my priority as semi-urgent. No doubt because of the obvious pain I was in.

My semi-urgent status got me in to see a doctor in about 45 minutes and after a consultation had an x-ray and urinalysis done. I was also given an injection & a pill for the pain. There is nothing like the sweet relief of pain killing drugs when you are in agony .

I had to wait a fair bit as I jumped through various hoops at the different stations. After about 4 hours the doctor suspected a kidney stone but was unsure, so I was admitted into the general ward. I was put in a wheel chair and brought to a hospital room with six beds, 4 of which had other patients. A single flat screen TV was on the wall for everyone to use and as I was the lone Englishman, the default channel was Cantonese. Fortunately I had my iPod Nano with me loaded with music, podcasts, and episodes of 30 Rock!

I was eventually taken for a CT scan which immediately identified the painful culprit; a small 2mm kidney stone making its way from the kidney to the bladder. Think of a small BB traveling through a hair follicle. Ouch!

I was immediately transferred to the ward that deals with this area. Of course it was 11:00 PM by this time and as the nurses wheeled me into my new overnight digs they gave no noise consideration to the 3 sleeping patients in my new room...causing me no little embarrassment.

I was monitored the next day and then finally discharged about 6:00 PM. Now in Hong Kong you have a private option as well as a public. Although I have insurance and could have gone private with much nicer personal care and accommodation, in my pain, I simply went to the closest hospital I could get too...which was a public one. Granted I saw multiple different doctors (whichever one happened to be on duty) and my bed sheets, while clean, had a couple small holes and a faded stain or two. I shared a room with multiple other patients and we shared a single, albeit clean, bathroom. The meals were hardly appealing but my nurse allowed me a quick run to the Starbucks in the hospital lobby where a nice sandwich wrap was available.

But the reality was I had:

* an emergency room visit
* an x-ray
* an EKG
* a urinalysis
* bloodwork
* a CT scan
* a night in the hospital
* a weeks worth of medication at discharge

and the grand total I paid: HK$ 200 (about US$ 26).

Now keep in mind...this is Hong Kong. A territory that is so capitalist it makes the United States look like a socialist Eastern bloc country. This is a city where the national past time is to stand around TV's tuned to the business channel to watch the stock price crawls on the bottom of the screen. Arguments about it being "socialist" don't work here.

So it is a relief to know that in this "capitalist mecca" there is a safety net available to me and my family in the event of an insurance problem...or lack thereof. I think many Americans would welcome that relief as well.