My flight back to Saigon was uneventful. A sleeping pill knocked me out for long enough on the long haul to make the flight bearable. But it is difficult for me to sit still for too long. I figured I’d go back to Vietnam about a week early to get accustomed to the time difference. There is nothing worse than flying in the night before and starting work the next morning. However, sitting in my apartment for a week wouldn’t be something of interest to me. Instead, I flew to Hong Kong.
This has to be one of the most interestingly historic times to visit Hong Kong. Just seven weeks ago, the people of Hong Kong held a rally of nearly two million people to protest against the extradition bill that would make it legal for anybody arrested in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China. Since then, the protests have been going strong every weekend. I picked quite the weekend to come to Hong Kong. Last Sunday, about one hundred men in white shirts stormed Yuen Long train station and beat men, women, and children wearing black. Black is the color that represents the protestors, but many of the people beaten were not part of the protests that day. It is thought by the protestors that a senator arranged this beating. He was photographed shaking hands with the mafia and meeting with the assailants just days after. When the police were called, they hung up on the people and refused to help. It took 45 minutes for the police to respond. Actually, the police came in to “help” just as the thugs had left. It sounds like poor writing in a T.V. drama, seemingly putting little effort in to cover up their collusion.
The protests this weekend had grown to their largest since the first two weekends with about 400,000-500,000 people taking part on both Saturday and Sunday. As I entered the airport on Friday, I was met with signs and a few thousand protestors saying Hong Kong was no longer safe. They were alluding to the fact that the police are no longer protecting the people, along with the extradition bill. I’ve never seen so much chaos in an airport.
After getting out of the airport and making it to the hotel, I explored Kowloon City, the section of Hong Kong directly north of Hong Kong Island. At 8:00pm each night, a light show illuminates the buildings on the Hong Kong side. The amount of coordination was quite remarkable.
The next day, I went on a walking tour of the Central part of Hong Kong Island and along the way tried some local tea and pastries. That same day, I went on a food tour around Kowloon City. Our guide brought us to various little restaurants and street food stalls all in Cantonese. Some of the notable food I had that I’ve never had before were stinky tofu and fish balls. The stinky tofu you could smell from a block away. It was my second least favorite thing I’ve ever tried. Number one still goes to the chicken feet in South Africa. If anything ever beats that, I will be shocked.
The next morning, I went on a political tour around Hong Kong. Instead of just touring the sites, we learned about the history of the city and our tour guide’s take on the future of Hong Kong. Of course, there was quite a bit of chat about the most recent protests. However, I learned about the parallels of the current protests to the ones in 2014 during the Umbrella Revolution. The Hong Kong people were promised that they would have democratic elections eventually during the 1997 agreement between China and Britain. However, only 1,200 people in the country had the ability to vote. In 2014, the government proposed that the 1,200 delegates would first vote on the nominees to determine who the general population could vote for. This angered the population and protests broke out in the city. Around a similar time, high school students began protesting a curriculum change that would teach nationalistic values in schools. Students setup study corners near government offices and teachers would come after school to run lessons with the protesting students. What an amazing story of civic engagement.
Once the tour had finished, I went to a Dim Sum food hall where older women pushed carts around with different types of traditional food. There was no information in English and the women did not speak a word of English. Trying to figure out each type of food was incredibly difficult, but thankfully a nice gentleman stepped in and helped translate for me. My favorite was the Dim Sum with sticky rice and the seeds of a lotus flower inside.
Hong Kong has some very unique difficulties. Other than their troubles with China, the land is 70% mountainous. This makes for a very limited amount of land that can be used for infrastructure. There are many “coffin homes” where people will pay a few hundred dollars for an area that amounts to a single bed. It is said to be the most expensive place in the world for both renting and buying property. This leads me to my next activity. The Peak Tram ascends a steep slope from Central Hong Kong Island to the top of Victoria Peak. Yes, that is named after the Queen of England. As I arrived at the top, a storm hit Kowloon City. In the distance, I could see rain engulf the city with streaks of lightening touching down in the mountains afar.
The morning of my flight, I wanted to check out more of the area outside the central part of the city. I took the trains an hour away to Lantau Island. This island is most famous for a gondola that brings passengers to the mountain village of Ngong Ping. Here is the location of the world’s largest sitting Buddha. I’ve now seen the largest sitting Buddha and the largest Buddha lying down. I wonder where the largest standing Buddha is located.
I start school on Wednesday, July 31st. It is difficult getting used to beginning school so early. Usually, I would have a summer at least four weeks longer than the one I just had. However, my new school has many more school days than Kuwait did. That’s hard to complain about because the amount of school days in Kuwait was quite laughable. We also get a few more breaks throughout the school year, so I will look forward to those moving forward.
Time to start Year 5.