Local markets and expat Passover

I had forgotten how much I love traveling. And I had forgotten why. But the truth is, while seeing beautiful sights and doing fun things and exploring new cities is amazing, the best part of traveling is meeting the people around the world.

My second day in Hong Kong reminded me of this.

Emiko is serving on a jury that has to judge the documentary films in the documentary contest section of the festival so she has to see a lot of films. I have been accompanying her to many of them, though there is no way I can sit through that many movies. I ended up getting along really well with Ming Yee, the film festival staffer who is in charge of making sure the jurors get to their films. She is another young filmmaker who is from Hong Kong but has spent time in the United States as well as Taiwan and a few other countries. We bonded over our mutual experiences of being young filmmakers who just want to travel the world and explore.

I was getting sick of shopping malls, Western stores, and tourists so Ming Yee took me to Sham Shui Po, a local market. And let me tell you this market is not for the faint of heart. We stepped off the MTR (Hong Kong's rapid transit line) and I immediately felt the contrast between this area and the streets surrounding the hotel. Shim Shui Po is in an older part of Hong Kong where the colorful apartment buildings are peeling and spotted with the clothing people hang out the window to dry. The market stalls are crowded with people; it's impossible to walk down the streets without bumping into them. And you can buy anything here: clothes, electronics, watches, handbags, lightbulbs... You can even get a haircut right on the street!

There is also a pretty amazing juxtaposition between the old rundown buildings near the markets and the shiny new skyscrapers that you can see behind them. Hong Kong is a fairly small city; everything is quite close together. So the disparities between those who spend their time in the the brand new shopping malls, hotels, and office buildings and the market are brought into very close contact in this view of the city.

We went into a building to explore the wet market and here's where things really got interesting. There are buckets full of live frogs, tanks of fish, cages of chickens. And then you can see the already dead things with their guts protruding - it's raw and bloody. But the most shocking part for a Westerner like myself is that they slaughter the animals right there in front of you. You can choose your live chicken and they will kill it for you right there in the market. In addition there is an endless array of fruits, vegetables, and herbs. It's pretty amazing.

After wandering the disorienting streets for a while, I headed home to get ready for a Passover Friday night dinner at the home of someone who knows someone who knows my family somehow. Don't ask me to be more specific; I have not a clue. I successfully navigated MTR and a taxi on my own to find the apartment and made my way into the building to find an intimidatingly long table. Around 7:15 people started streaming in from Friday night services. In addition to the hosts and their young children there were around 12 other people from around the world joining us for dinner. Everyone was very nice and friendly and it really felt like a community. Of course, the prayers and songs are the same no matter where you go, and matzah tastes like cardboard no matter where you buy it. All in all it was a very comfortable environment and a delicious meal. I exchanged numbers with some other Hong Kong residents, planning to meet up later in the week.

There's something amazing about traveling to a new place and connecting with people there. People can be so open and friendly and it can really bring out the best in you. You can find similarities and connections with anyone anywhere and it is an incredible thing to experience.

The danger is that once I am reminded of all of this, I never want to stop traveling.

One of the most exciting places on the departures board

When I go to the airport I love to look at the departures board. I look at the list of places all over the world and marvel at the number of amazing places I could go. And then I end up flying somewhere I've been a hundred times.

But not this time. This time I looked at the departures board and found my flight: Cathay Pacific CX873, destination: Hong Kong!

I left San Francisco at 12:05 am on March 27th (local time) and arrived in Hong Kong at 5:50 am on March 28th (local time) which basically means that Wednesday March 27th disappeared from my life. Mind blown. I'm here for the Hong Kong International Film Festival - my filmmaker friend/mentor Emiko Omori has an excellent film called To Chris Marker, An Unsent Letter screening here so I asked to tag along. Now I'm her official entourage. I'll take it!

I got travel nerves a few days before I left. Apparently that's a thing that happens to me, despite my love for adventure. I started worrying about everything. And I do mean everything. But as soon as I got to the airport it all disappeared and the excitement took over. I am ready for anything! I can only wait and see what happens.

As we began our descent over the city I pressed my face against the window of the plane, searching for a glimpse of the well-known skyline; the lights, the buildings. But all I saw was a large ship; bright lights in the middle of a black sea. And then we landed on the dark cloudy runway.

We made it to our hotel in Kowloon (guided by the lovely festival workers) and then set out on our first adventure: coffee and breakfast. It was harder than we expected- most things were still closed at 8:00 in the morning and we had no idea where to look. In a city known for its excellent cuisine I have to admit that we failed pretty miserably. We ended up at a hole in the wall noodle joint where nobody spoke English. Our coffees were loaded with condensed milk and the only thing we managed to successfully order to eat was some exceedingly oily fried bread. We didn't really know what to do with it so we tried dunking it in our coffee. It was weird. Later we saw a guy put it in his soup. Still weird.

This city is crazy. The number of stores and shopping malls is unbelievable. Western stores like Gucci, Coach, H&M, The Body Shop, hundreds of shoe stores, and everything else you can imagine are joined by crowded malls of nameless stalls selling knock-off purses, discount cell phones, and watches- thousands of watches. The streets are crazy, cabs drive fast, and places are really hard to find. I haven't quite figured out the numbering system for stores. I'm sure I'm gonna have to learn how to barter in half-English-half-gestures if I want to buy anything around here. It all has a very exciting feeling to it.

We showered and got settled in our hotel room. We're kinda being pampered here. The next objective was lunch. After searching for a while for a restaurant that no longer exists, we wandered into the "Temporary Market" which apparently has been "temporary" for over 30 years. We ended up in a bustling enclave of small stands and plastic tables and stools where we were shuffled to a small table and had a menu shoved in our face. We were very clearly the only non-locals in the place which we thought was a good sign. The food was quite good, although quite greasy. We were thrilled to experience a part of the city away from the bright signs that line the streets. It felt like a more genuine part of Hong Kong.

Anyway, time is very confusing right now and all I know is I haven't slept in a long, long time. We have lots of things we want to see and do as well as festival events to attend. It's only 4:07 pm but I'm about to crash. So I will leave you with a panorama of the view from our hotel room.

Victoria Harbor from our hotel