Thursday, March 19, 2009


Arrived in Hong Kong. Places are hard to find here - there are very few street signs, had to ask locals to find the hotel. To encourage me, there is a sign in the elevator saying that the hotel is illegal becaus the building is residential only. But who would want to live in such a tiny apartment?

Hong Kong looks like someone wanted to build Los Angeles but only had Kaliningrad to work with. There are the shiny skyscrapers, but most of the buildings and towers are slightly dilapidated chicken coops with fading paint and, judging by the floor space and symmetry, tiny apartments. Little air conditioning units grow on the sides like fungus. Hong Kong is large but not as large as you'd think with its population of 6.9 million.

There are 7-Eleven convenience stores everywhere. They don't have very much that one would want to buy. They do have Minute Maid orange juice whole list of ingredients includes "fish products". Yuck. Had good Dim Sum today in Sheung Wan, which is supposed to be something like a traditional downtown and actually has a few pleasant temples and gardens tucked away between those residential towers that make the skyline look a little like tooth decay. Wasn't as good as Cafe Aroma in Berlin though.