Walkie talkie

It's always fun to walk around at night. Hong Kong lights up, and suddenly receives a second boost of traffic, noise and life. I don't think it happens in every single corner of the city, but at least in the areas I regularly walk it's more or less that way (Wan Chai and Causeway Bay). 

The place is full of street food posts. Live fishes cooked in the minute, salads, dehidrated meat, duck, chicken, pork and several others find their way into people's stomachs. As soon as I'm more capable of communicating in Cantonese I'll dive into this whole new culinary world. (Today I learned how to ask for chopsticks, and in the restaurant the lady actually brought them! I felt victorious.)

Trolleys are a nice and cheap way to move around. Whilst they may be slow, the flat rate is around 25 US cents. 

Urban art. I wonder if graffitists get hired or asked by the town hall in these cases. 

I give up; I couldn't manage to find the name of this particular flower. I even googled "red flower" for pages and pages of images, but I still failed. Oh well, the name should come back to me eventually.  

I shall conquer you some day, gotham-ish building. The International Finance Centre building is 415 metres tall; 28 less than the Empire State and 115 more than the Costanera Center, the soon-to-be tallest building in Chile. 

Item n.27: Beef brisket and tendon curry rice

Another masterpiece. The curry sauce itself was quite standard (if I'm allowed the term), but the capsicums, petite tomatoes, potatoes and onions made it all mushy, munchy and fun. The high note was the beef brisket. I have no idea what in the world they did to that meat: not only the grease and nerves were unbelievably tender, but they also tasted like premium quality butter (what's up with that!). I almost cried. I guess the fact that I ordered something relatively edible for second day in a row also helped . 

The only thing that upset a bit my stomach was the hot milk with egg I ordered for drinking. And yup, that is a raw egg inside the glass. But as an egg fan I couldn't let this opportunity pass. Let's say the opportunity came, stayed and already passed as liquidly as it came. =P 

Trees and their problems

"Confusa" translates as "confused" in Spanish. Poor acacia. 

Item n.71: Fukienese fried rice

One of the best meals I've had so far. The dish consisted in fried rice with shrimps, pork bits, kanikama, chicken, eggs, mushrooms and veggies (corn, peas and carrots). It was condimented with oyster sauce and other ingredients I ignore and therefore will call 'exotic'.

A blast of flavours. First came the curious sweetness of the steamed pork, then shrimps joined in and partied in the palate. Next came the particularly tender kanikama, which had absorbed most of the sauce and tasted like scallops, partnering brilliantly with the softness of the chicken. The rice, besides having its always fun texture, was soaked in awesome tasting broth. The scrambled egg enrichened the general eating experience by adding even more flavour. The dish was very nice: whereas it was intense and even a bit heavy on the stomach, it didn't go as far as to be saturating. I think it was thanks to the rice...

...and the mushrooms. Quite a delicate and soft consistence, their flavour brought back to balance the strongness of the other meats. The cool thing about these little fellas was that they had some sort of hood or cocoon. Quite exotic.  

Anyway, this dish gets a 10 out of 10 on my brunistic scale. 

Note: According to my sources, the term 'Fukienese' comes from the province of Fujian, in China, and for some reason refers also to Taiwan.

The little things

Thanks to Angel's mom's wise advice, I learned how to use the water heating system in the bathroom. After two days of cold showers, I was finally able to enjoy one of the pleasures of modern civilisation. I almost cried when the first warm droplets touched my scalp, specially because it was a cold, rainy Monday morning. 

And I got new shampoo. If Jackie Chan recommends it, it has to be good. My hair will be stronger and darker than ever. 

No comments. 

Yesterday I started my Cantonese course. The lessons had been going for four days already, but I joined in a bit late (it's almost becoming a habit; something similar had happened in Japan with I3 :P). When I came into the room, my six classmates stared at me with almost scientific curiosity. Which turned almost into horror when I explained I was their new classmate and was joining a bit late and that I could barely speak the language ("my name is Bruno" and "could you please give me a beer"). Even the teacher gave me a "oh, hello there young man, are you lost? Do you want me to help you find your class?" kind of look. She was reliefed to find out I was taking recovery lessons that afternoon. 

The course is tons of fun. Tones are quite a bitch, but I guess practice will take me eventually to the wonderful land of being able to talk to people in Cantonese. Today I was even able to go to a restaurant and order "this, please" instead of silently pointing stuff and trying sign language (which was doubly lame since the waiters did speak a bit of English). And this time it even turned out to be a relatively normal dish! Not pig intestines or cow stomach as randomness had given me the last two meals. I feel victorious. 

Sunset in Tsim Sha Tsui

Hoping to be able to test the new camera, I took the MTR and went to Tsim Sha Tsui, Kownloon's harbour,  for a stroll. The sights of the opposing shore -Victoria Harbour- are just gorgeous.

An important part of the Kowloon bay is a walkway -a small oasis in a city where heavy traffic seems to go on forever. Seriously, Hong Kong strikes me like some sort of driver purgatory; a place with more traffic than Napster at its prime; a city with more jam than Austria.

Ferries work from five or six am till midnight, and take around ten minutes to cross the channel that separates the island from the continent. The boat ride is said to be picturesque -and cheap- so most surely I'll hop inside a ferry as soon as I have the chance.

Once the sun set, pollution wasn't as evident. I'm not sure if Hong Kong has more smog than Santiago (my home town); the indicators used are different and, frankly, I haven't felt any difference since I arrived here. Maybe I'll become asthmatic in a few weeks' time, or I'll start to lose hair (perhaps it'll even start to turn white), but for now I'd say I'm safe. 

As night grew darker, lights started to appear....

...becoming a colored spectacle. New year's fireworks are launched from most of the tall buildings, and from Tsim Sha Tsui the spectators add up to the thousands. 

While I was taking pictures, a random local guy in his mid fourties approached me. He was holding a tripod and his English was... very Chinese. The conversation went more or less like this:

Local guy: Hi, excuse me, what exposure are you using?

B: Uhm... lemme see. It's X (Don't remember the number right now)

Lg: Ah, I see. And what aperture are you using?

B: 1.8

Lg: Ah, and what ISO?

B: 1250

Ch: Ah, I understand. Could you take a photo with a 1/200 exposure, 5.6 aperture and ISO 1000?

B: What?

Lg: Could you? Do it for me, please?

B: Uhm... suuuuurrre.  *Click*. Here. What do you think.

Lg: Ah, I see. That is nice. Bye!

I'm shuffling several hypothesis about the guy's intentions, but still the conversation didn't make much sense. 

I'll see if I can take photos in a clearer evening. Though low clouds (or dissipating smog) provided the scene with an almost batmanesque touch.

Once I was done, I put my stuff away and took the MTR back home. Haven't been mugged yet, but according to some people it's only a matter of time. 

Dedicated to Angel's brother. Beware of the food, dude. :P

Whereabouts?

My street. Traffic 24/7. 

Times Square. Not as crowded as Shibuya's pedestrian crossing, but full of people nontheless. 

Random people in the street. :P

Diamond ornament in one of the stores next to home. Half of them are fashion oriented, the other half are bars (luckily, they're quite silent). 

The entrance to The Bunker (my place). 

Seen from inside out.

The building is quite old; it's only matter of taking a look at the stairs.  

Back to the appartment, no more wandering around today.