Hong Kong Xmas Eve

Inexplicable.

Came upon these giant coils of burning incense

while walking down an alley in Hong Kong tonight.

They were hung in a open air alter. No one was in attendance.

This is what I love about the world.

Outtakes

Three dragons

 

Doggie business box

Lama Island

Jackhammer morning

It's not as bad as it sounds. The jackhammers are not in my head. They are part of Hong Kong's eternal ambiance along with bamboo scaffolding and the sharp echos bouncing between the virus like residential spires rising up from the island rock of the South China Sea.

As usual, M. Lee has us on the run like rats so gotta go but here are a few photos for now. Have a great day.

View from the "courtyard"

Saddest street sign I ever saw

Hong Kong, day two

Sunny the dog

Hong Kong. We're here for 11 days, renting an AirBnB apartment located in the mid-levels which we're sharing with Sunny the dog and Yu Lee the maid. She lives and works here and takes care of Sunny when the owners are gone. All that's fine except that when we're around she stays in her windowless, closet-size room off the kitchen. This morning I mentioned that she doesn't have to do that. I don't know if that will make a difference. Maybe she's just shy.

Morning from the mid-levels

Some 100 years ago, when the British gained control of this island, they considered it a useless, hilly desert but, as is their style, they got busy conquering it and somewhere along the line, someone or other built the world's longest system of consecutive escalators. Good thing. Our apartment is located at the mid-levels but, even with the escalators, it's quite a trek down and back so crafting plans for the full day is all the more important. Yesterday's main event was visiting the Hong Kong History Museum. I give it a C+. It was nicely curated but there were no outstanding works and a lot of replicas. However, the various groups of school kids visiting definitely get an A+. They were quiet, attentive and well dressed , diametric opposites of the screaming, out of control, iPhone waving hoards of American school kids unleashed upon the Smithsonian.

Morning descent

As for the flight over, it was...doable. I want to say dreadful but I reserve that category for United's so-called "food". That was dreadful. Bring.Your.Own. Other than that, I just pretended I was a larva for 14 hours. Once we landed I focused on being calm as a lizard until we got to the apartment and I could finally sleep. Lucky for us, we got there about 7 pm so it was easy to pretend that it was night instead of 7 am. All in all, travel time was about 28 hours.

Hong Kong waterfront from the ferry.

I feel surprisingly normal abut I know I'm not entirely over jet lag yet. I popped up this morning at 5:30 so we shall see how the day goes. We're headed out pretty soon and down the escalator. The day's big adventure will be to check out a couple of markets and then lunch at a convent. Also, today is Yu Lee's day off, so we get to walk Sunny. There are bottles of water in the dogie bag to wash the pee off the street and newspaper to catch the poo. Apparently people can sue dog owners if they don't wash up after their dog.

Street scene from the tram