Trip to Hong Kong... Trip one - 2006, Oct 7-8
Saturday October 7, 2006
Our project today is tailors! Despite the ongoing discussion via e-mail with Christie (which I thought I had won, turns out she had simply stopped engaging), regarding seeking a tailor and dress maker in Hong Kong, we are going to Shenzhen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhen
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g297415-s405/Shenzhen:China:Shopping.html
I have no visa. From here I was told I would need 6 months clear to expiry on my passport – I have 5 and a bit, and that a multi-entry visa – seems prudent for tailoring would cost about Cdn$250; really didn’t seem worth it. Christie has assured me that ‘in the real world’ if I show up at the border with a valid passport, and wish to enter China to spend money, they’ll give me the visa (as it turns out – HKD160, so about Cdn$25). As usual, she’s right! Getting there is a snap (well, sort of – mostly I am just blindly following along behind Christie as we enter the train, go a few stops, cross a platform, get on another line, go a few stops… Finally we end up at the KCR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KCR and go one stop http://urbanrail.net/as/shen/shenzhen.htm to Luohu –our destination is .
We’ve made pretty good time, the tailors are not ready to deal with us yet. So, off to the King Elephant restaurant for a chinese/thai inspired meal – pretty good, and very cheap! As it turns out, it’s a good thing we ate! We were subsequently with the tailors (who Christie had used before, and whose names keep getting passed on – they specialize in western style clothing and have two staff members who speak english) from noon until 930pm! Christie gets kudos for not abandoning me in China – I hit the wall around 815 (jetlag – only been ‘on the ground’ two days; hot; sore feet), and we didn’t hit home until almost 11pm.
But, we accomplished A LOT; 16 things are now being altered, we’ve gone through the fabric I dragged along (cleared out the stuff which I’ve been meaning to make into things for the last fifteen or so years – along with the appropriate patterNs), and we’ve bought or ordered (to be delivered to the tailors tomorrow) probably a 150m of fabric (maybe more). I manage to follow (some) instructions, so I have also hauled along a few things to be copied – top, skirt, long coat, dress which has been several sizes to small for years (and has actually been living with Christie for some of those years - in anticipation of this trip, apparently). At the end of the day, I’ve been measured every which way, and tons of notes have been made for the order. We’ve got 2 strapless ballgowns coming (one I had fabric for, the other is an embroidered thai silk which ends up needing straps to keep it up); 2 coats; 2 chinese silk brocade cocktail dresses – even the token black one has other colours on it; 4 linen shirts (the shirt which Ian has kindly allowed me to expropriate for the duration of my trip – right, warm climate, and airconditioning, need something to coverup that isn’t too hot! – as inspiration – adding a second pocket & darts to make it a ladies shirt) w/ matching skirts; and assorted other pants, skirts, dresses, tops, wraps! Only a handful of things are black – there’s a lot of red, and green, and khaki, with a smattering of fuschia, and purple. All of this – including some 25m of silk, is going to set me back a whopping Cdn$1000.00-$1100.00 (seriously, the decimal is not in the wrong place – Christie was right! Mais oui, bien sur…)
Out of the (closing) mall, back through the border – depart China, through no-mans’ land, hit the duty free for some wine (although, decision making is not a prime hobby at this time), back into Hong Kong, onto the train, one stop – we’re taking the bus home (about the same amount of time, but no transfers – and this is the critical concern at this point).
Bed!
Sunday October 8, 2006
Today we had a pretty lax morning - up, hang out, check e-mail, breakfast, bath, get dressed. We are going up the airtram at Ngong Ping to visit the giant Buddha on Lantau Island. Christie figured out, while looking up the times, that you could buy reserved space at specific times. Boy is it nice to have an organized tour guide! (and to walk past the 2.5hr line up…). The airtram is new, and has only been operating a couple weeks (September 18, 2006) – apparently it was plagued by mechanical problems which delayed the opening. However, it is very interesting to read about – they used mules imported from Canada to help mediate the environmental impact of the construction (go figure!). Lots of interesting tidbits and photos here (part of why I don’t own a camera, this way, it’s all interactive!). http://www.np360.com.hk/html/eng/front/index.html
http://www.np360.com.hk/html/eng/about/np360_overview.html?play=on1&continue1=yes&soundpos=129567
We are heading up to poke around – when we arrive, I’m told that the ‘village’ http://www.np360.com.hk/html/eng/np360_exp/village_index.html?play=on1&continue1=yes&soundpos=41796 we arrive into is pretty much new. Look around a bit – given the dragonfly & butterfly motifs in the silk brocade my dresses are being made out of I am delighted to see multicoloured versions of both around in great profusion! We don’t see these colours here - http://www.pbase.com/andrew57/hk_natural_history&page=all
Grab a bite to eat, watch some dancers in the square – Noah participates at one point, and traipse off to our real destination – Tian Tan Buddha.
Photo from a subsequent trip
http://www.np360.com.hk/html/eng/visitor/buddha.html?play=off&continue1=yes&soundpos=0
http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/touring/hkiidistricts/ta_dist_isla1.jhtml
After the trip up and around Buddha, we proceed on to the monastery (Google ‘images’ Po Lin Monastery for some fabulous photos of the flowers, and incense and gold!).
Here are a few from a later visit (once I owned a camera)
On our attempt to come back down the mountain, we developed a better appreciation of the aforementioned mechanical problems – after about 15 minutes in line, everything stopped (we were about 50 people from the front of the line by this point)… A series of ‘5 more minutes’, and we decided that it might be prudent to be the first people to the buses rather than the last. The guys with tool boxes who were scratching their heads were not engendering any warm fuzzies for us… So, Ian, Noah, and I stayed in line while Christie scooted over to the bus loop. As hoped, no traffic there, so she called us and off we hustled (oh my, the line outside the building is now about 2 blocks long – timing is everything!). Got on a bus just as they were starting to set up stanchions to keep everyone in an orderly line… The road down has some great views – but boy is it windy (and in several spots – single lane with signals indicating who can go up and who can go down – good thing, there were buses flying up the mountain to deal with the crowds!). When we got back down the mountain 30 or so minutes later, it looked as though the tram which was running (the lower part) was empty – we were never able to figure out how long it didn’t run for!
Anyway, back on the MTR, home, dinner, bed (see a common theme here??)….
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment