rainy HK near temple street

I'm writing this half-awake in a tiny room managed by one of the many hostels in Mirador Mansion, just a few steps away from the N5 subway exit for the Tsim Sha Tsui station.

A quick and messy dump of impressions and thoughts of HK today, a lot of it is about the subway, cause we used it a lot to get around today.

• maybe because it's a Saturday, the subways were chaotic and packed, it reminded me of 4th of July in SF when all the BART stations were flooded.
• it was confusing to navigate around the subway, I had to remember the station names and lines which were in romanized cantonese.
• it feels familiar and almost comforting to be surrounded by Chinese people everywhere, it made me forget about other races at times which is not a good thing, diversity is important
  • on that note, I saw a lot of attractive chinese people of both genders and couples (its weekends), I felt a lot of mimetic desire to both be more like them.
• the electronics flea market at Apliu street wasn't that worth it, we had good beef tendon noodles but I sadly couldn't find the camera shop that sells and displays y2k digi cams like street food.
• things are expensive. our beef tendon meal costed us ~ RM 150 for 4 plates. Also our tiny hotel room with an even tinier bathroom is 472 per night. I'm not sure if it's HK that's expensive (inflation) or the MYR is weak, maybe it's both.
• the buildings are old and have striking colors which make good photography shots, I noticed
• it's really tiring to travel by train because of all the going up and down the stairs and escalators required, and finding the right exits.
  • sidenote: I like that there can be a dozen exits for a station, this makes it possible to travel underground when it's raining, and makes the station very accessibly in and out.
• ladies market and sneaker street wasn't that exciting too, I can get shoes cheaper at StockX I think.
• I found a bookstore but it was all chinese books, I have yet to find an English bookstore
• Shanghai street is pretty interesting, I went in this building with a lot of cool shops and restaurants. I liked Bunkaya Zakkaten in particular. They had cute and fun items.
• I think my view of HK was romanticized by Cherrien, as of now I don't really find it nice, maybe I need to get to Central HK and that's where it's more entertaining.
• I also like the fast pace of HK more, but I have to remember to slow down for my parents who are in their 60s.
• the rain here gets pretty heavy, I cannot trust weather forecasts anymore I was promised no rain, I didn't get to visit the temple street night market :(

notes from family:

• my sister: she noticed a lot of girls have branded bags like Chanel (more than KL) and that you can tell HK people from the people from China.
• my dad: people are rude (pushing others around in subway) whereas in Japan, everyone was courteous
• my mom: the buildings are old, like a third world country (we were in Apliu street)