hong kong arrival

By Bernie Baskin, Jan 15, 2012, View comments

It was drizzling and 60 degrees when Kaie and I arrived in Hong Kong on our first scouting trip for the upcoming Hong Kong city guide.  Grey overcast skies followed us into the city from the airport…past hulking steely cranes bent low over tens of thousands of still freight containers, stacked ten…fifteen…twenty deep, poised on the edge of a choppy bay. We laughed and Kaie told me of her ‘transportation dinners’ with friends back in Portland. Funny how traveling brings out the storyteller in us all.

After dropping our bags at our hotel in Kennedy Town we slushed out onto slick soaked sidewalks, dodging umbrellas at every step…black, pink hello kitty, fluorescent red, black, orange polka-dot. After an hour of wandering through the rain, we decided to forgo foraging and instead hop a star ferry across Victoria Harbour.

 

We spent most of the rainy afternoon seeking out interesting shops along Canton Road before wandering into a lovely (and delectable smelling) eatery just off Ashley Road. The aroma and cheer of roasted duck and laughter was too difficult to resist…as was the aroma of a well earned Tsingtao beer alongside beef noodles, braised eggplant and crispy pork.

As night fell across the Hong Kong cityscape, lit red for the upcoming Chinese New Year, we ferried back towards the comfort of our hotel. The gentle wash of sea water against the ferry and the damp chill in the air reminded me somehow of Boston and the many years I spent living there as a student. I smiled at the memory and inhaled the salty night air and remembered my Kipling… “the first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it”.