Here in Hong Kong we of course get almost all of our food from the mainland. One day a friend of mine told me that she had met a guy who works for one of the biggest local supermarkets. He told her that all of the whole chickens that they bring in from China get passed through a metal detector before being put on the shelves. Apparently a customer one day took a whole chicken home, cooked it, and during the process of eating it, found a broken needle. We all know that chickens get injected with growth hormones, but that is enough to put you off of China chicken forever.

So what’s a consumer to do? Spend thousands buying organic free range no-steroid chicken imported from New Zealand? Or just suck it up and eat local?

Here’s the difference between foreign and local chicken –

100% hormone free — $120

Good old local who-knows-what’s-been-injected-into-it chicken — $29

Massive difference, right? If you really have to watch your spending, which one would YOU buy?

And, maybe it makes sense to buy imported stuff to eat at home, but what about eating out? There’s no way that the vegetables and meat that gets served in restaurants have been imported from abroad, from the clean pollution-free magical mountains of a faraway land. So should you not eat out? What is one to do when you live in China? Not eat anything Chinese? And how to do such a thing when almost everything is imported from the mainland?

Something I will have to seriously think about, now that I have a small mouth to feed at home!

First it was a huge inflatable poo at the Kowloon waterfront:

Picture courtesy of Diana, another Travelling Trini who spotted this big turd from her apartment!

Then it was a giant rubber ducky:

Poo and ducks are both things that float in a tub… I wonder what’s next?

Both were part of some arty farty thing; the big poo was part of a museum’s inflatable exhibition, while the ducky was designed by a Dutch conceptual artist and called “Spreading Joy Around The World”.  I think the duck certainly would spread more joy than the big poo, but then again apparently you could go jump  around on all those inflatable works of art, which could be joy inducing for some.

I don’t know much about art, but I do know that the Victoria Harbour is not a place I’d want to float around in, even if I were encased in rubber. Though scenic and iconic, it is also incredibly polluted. They recently re-started the annual cross-harbour race which had taken a 33-year hiatus because of pollution. This baffles my mind considering the fact that a few years ago, while filming The Dark Night in Hong Kong, the producers were forced to cancel an epic action scene in which the stunt man would jump out of a plane and into the harbour waters, after the water tests found salmonella and TUBERCULOSIS! Holy dirty water, Batman. I guess they weren’t paying the stunt man enough to risk his health to do that one scene!

Husband ready with cow-whacking bamboo pole in case one of them comes too close to Tiny Winy

The wild herd of cows that inhabit Mui Wo village, or at least the herb that I see regulatory, seem to number about 20, with two large bulls, a harem of females, and a number of little ones. No one seems to take them on — the sign by the ferry simply says  ’Enjoy the presence of Lantau’s feral cattle! Do not touch them, and do not try to feed them. Stay calm and quiet.’  That’s what people seem to do around here. The cows just go up and down through the town, people ride past on their bikes, and apparently it is fine.

Perhaps they are escapees from the Trappist Dairy, a small dairy farm run by monks in the early 60s but now defunct. My theory is that these feral cows are the descendants of the trappist cows since the dairy farm has long been moved over to the mainland. The farm is gone, but a handful of cows remain.

On other areas of Lantau, there are wild water buffalo. Scary beasts, if you ask me. Humungaloid horns that I would not want to get too close to. Roaming around in the other nearby towns, thankfully the buffalo don’t come to Mui Wo. Apparently not too long ago one of them gored someone to death. You can read more about it by clicking on the picture below from the wonderful blog Mui Wo and Me, if you are really determined.

Me, I won’t be messing with the cows. Or the buffaloes, for that matter. I’ll just leave well enough alone, and walk with my bamboo pole.

Me, I have a hard on for history. I like wandering the streets in ancient towns, or standing in something that has been around for thousands of years. It always makes me realise how small our own existence is, how we are just a blip on the radar of the planet, and that we should not take life too seriously.

If time, money and safety were not an issue, these are the Top 10 places I’d go to if I could (in no particular order). To read more about them please click on the link to the original writer/photographer.

1. Yemen

Despite nowadays being the alleged hideout of the Taleban, one of the most unsafe places on the planet (many tourists have been kidnapped and killed), and probably a terrible place for a female traveller, Yemen is one of those ancient cities in the Middle East that looks amazing and remains largely untouched by tourism. Must be a very interesting place to visit. Too bad it has so many problems.

… and if I ever made it to Yemen, I’d also go to Socotra — the weidest island on earth, just off of Yemen mainland, just to see these Dragon’s Blood trees.

darkroastedblend.com

2.  Mt. Nemrut, Turkey

Should have gone while I was in Turkey but ran out of time — these giant stone heads sit on top of Nemrut Mountain and remain somewhat of a mystery. How cool is this?  If I ever make it back to Turkey, I’ll do the hike for sure.

3. The Hanging Monastery of Shanxi

Having made five trips to China I probably won’t be going back any time soon. It’s a tough place to travel and often quite stressful, and though the sites are incredible it is not in ANY way, shape or form a relaxing holiday. But this place has been on my list for years, the Hanging Monastery in Shanxi province. Don’t look down!

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4. Petra, Jordan

We all saw the Indiana Jones movie where he rides horseback through a beautiful pink gorge and emerges on the other side outside a huge stone temple. That’s Petra and no it is not just a movie set!

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5. Yonaguni Island

This tiny island forms part of the Okinawa chain of islands in southern Japan, and not too long ago divers found a strange area of what appears to be an underwater temple or some kind of man-made structure. Can these 90 degree right angles be formed in nature, or is there a deeper story? Advanced diving certification is required — I guess my open water license is not going to suffice.

6. Bhutan

The tiny kingdom of Bhutan wedged between India and China has extremely strict limits on how many tourists it allows in and a spending requirement per head, which makes it one of the lesser explored countries in Asia. It has fantastic looking temples and architecture set amidst stunning mountains. One day, one day…

7. Tibet

But I doubt I’ll make it there before it becomes too ‘mainland-ized’ by China. There is a high speed train there now from Beijing and apparently Tibet is being flooded with Han Chinese. Only a matter of time before it loses some of its charm as it becomes over run.

8. Hot Spring Monkeys in Japan

How cool is this? These monkeys only started going into the hot springs about 50 years ago. Guess they figured out the hot water was a great way to beat the winter. Up in the mountains in Honshu the monkeys spend the winter close to the springs. There are one or two where the monkeys get into the water with you.

9. Hakka Walled Village – Fujian, China

Again, very cool architecture, found in this specific region of China, all made out of mud and wood!

10. Riomaggiore, Italy

(or anywhere in Italy, but Riomaggiore is on the list) Look at these colours! Look how cute! Oh would someone please take me to Italy? I don’t only want to see things in Asia — Europe is also on the list. Italy, Spain, Croatia… one day!

In retrospect it seems most of the places I’d like to see are in the East. But trust me, Europe is definitely a place I want to go too. Maybe there are just too many places to put on one Bucket List. I could go on forever!

It’s that the manufacturers do this —

Which makes me try to do this –

Which then forces me to do this –

Which makes me feel like this –

Don’t put stickers on the damn glasses, dammit!

Also found this quite amusing…

Heh, heh. Beware of the shaft. Funny — that’s what the nuns used to tell us at the all girls Catholic secondary school I went to! Guess they were right…

But what she may not know or fully understand is that I’ve just done the equivalent of moving from Woodbrook to Cariapichaima (and if you don’t know where Cariapachaima is, well, then I’ve made my point) and have taken up residence in de bush.

One week ago these city slickers packed up our home on Queen’s Road West and moved to a sleepy village on another island where bicycles and cows rule the road. Gone is the city view of millions of highrises, concrete, and roof top laundry. Gone are the plethora of 7-11s and ATMs and supermarkets on every corner, the city conveniences now replaced with small wet markets and local stores. I’ve traded the street car for a shiny new bicycle with a basket. We walk 15 minutes to the grocery store. We dodge cow poop on the path. We swat mosquitoes. We have become… village people.

Just another day in the Wo!

Bikes at the local kindy

Silvermine Beach

The one traffic light in ‘town’!

Cow poop. Fragrant.

The lucky tree

Living in the village is a special way of life in Hong Kong. It’s not convenient or easy, but what you get in return is a bigger apartment, a quiet environment, and a lovely view of nature. What I like a lot is the greenery. I almost feel like I’m back in Trinidad, where I grew up in a valley, surrounded by high mountains and lush forests everywhere you look. There are banana and pawpaw trees everywhere, butterflies and birds fly by, and in the evenings you hear the ‘bao, bao, bao‘ chorus of frogs. And yes, there are even cows — the feral cattle of Lantau!

Dodging cows in the afternoon

I admit, this city-loving girl does in a way miss the buzz and ease of life downtown. For example, the other day it was pissing with rain and we had to wait a good 30 minutes or more before it let up in order to be able to walk home. And, it’s quite a pain in the arms to carry big bags of groceries home, though it is good exercise and I have no doubt I’ll lose some chub living in the village. So, you gotta take the good with the not-quite-so-good, I suppose. Because living downtown, though convenient, meant listening to the endless pounding of endless construction, the roar of buses, people ramming into you on the sidewalk, and a whole lot of crowding.

But hey, having a kid certainly changes your priorities a bit, and for now I’m just happy to have some space to push a stroller (impossible to do when living downtown; too many people on the goddam sidewalk), and also for the little one to have some space indoors to crawl around (again, impossible when you live in a 400 square foot apartment in the city).

This was the view from my living room, before and after. What do you think? Which would you prefer?

As I went to wash the blood off my hands, a very scary thought crossed my newly maternal mind — what if my poor little child gets dengue? After all, here we are in Thailand, she’s barely over two months old, and she’s just had her first mosquito bite, and not even from a local Hongkie mosquito but a Thai mosqiuto. What if her tiny developing immune system can’t handle it? All kinds of guilty thoughts went through my head in the blink of an eye. Am I a bad mother to take a baby that is barely two months old to a foreign land? Should I have done like the Chinese mothers and confine their babies to the home for the first few months of their lives to keep them safe and sound and far away from the nasty germs and parasites out there in the real world? Was I crazy to take her to Koh Samui before she can even lift up her own head? What was I thinking? What kind of a mother was I?

These thoughts of doubt and guilty plagued me off and on for the whole 10 days that I was visiting my father in Koh Samui, a beautiful tropical island in southern Thailand. But you know what? In the end, this kind of experience as a new mother was exactly what I needed. I think new moms, especially first time moms, tend to be paranoid, and rightfully so, because statistically speaking babies are most likely to die, for whatever reasons, within the first three months of life. Thus the confinement period here in Hong Kong and China. This kind of paranoia can really make you go insane, and I can say for a fact that the first month of her life I was a total basket case, trying to do everything right, trying to not make any mistakes, trying to do all the good things good mothers are supposed to do.

But there I was, in Thailand, doing all the wrong things, on a daily basis. I think some of the things I did would cause any local Hong Kong mother to blanche. I took her on a plane full of foreigners and foreign germs at 8 weeks of age. We went to the Koh Samui Hash and walked around the bush in the afternoon sun. She got bitten by a few mosquitoes. She was exposed to loads and loads of friendly Thai women (many of whom were ex-prostitutes) who were begging to hold her and squeeze her and hug her up. She was often out of sight as people showed her around. She was taken out to bars at 6 pm, when most rational mothers and taking their babies home to put them to bed.  She was bathed at all the wrong times. She was hot like hell in 35′C. She had little to no routine, and every day brought something new.

I worried. I won’t lie — I worried every step of the way whether doing any of these were a bad idea.

And after all that, what did the baby do?

She just looked at me and smiled, a big goofy smile.

Perfectly fine, mom. I’m happy like pappy. Nothing to worry about.

She didn’t get sick, she didn’t die, she didn’t perish.

I wasn’t a bad, crazy, neglectful mother after all!

Now that I’m back in Hong Kong, I feel a lot more relaxed about motherhood. Even my husband noticed it — that I came back with almost a sort of new found confidence about this whole parenting thing. That you of course have to do what’s best for the baby, but you CAN actually travel, and do things, and go out, and not just stay home with a baby all the time. We humans have survived much worse conditions for millions and millions of years. Going out is not going to kill your child. And maybe once in a while, you can even get a pedicure and a massage, and maintain your sanity.

Moral of the story? Travel with the baby — don’t stay home!

Cool babies hang out at the Outback Bar in Lamai Beach

So who cares about sharks? Why should we worry about their population decline? People are for the most part afraid of sharks — just think of the movie Jaws. But statistically dogs kill more people every year than sharks. Our fear is mostly irrational, and tied in with our very rational fear of the power and darkness of the sea.

But because of this apathy, hatred or fear of sharks, very few are coming out in defense of sharks, and trying to save them. The question remains though, where have all the sharks gone? I can answer that question because I see them every day, or at least certain parts of them. Hong Kong happens to be the hub of the global shark fin trade, though fins are sold all over the world in any Chinatown. Every day I go past the Dried Seafood District, about ten minutes from my apartment, and see fins for sale. The fins are used in shark fin soup, a delicacy in China once reserved for the emperors, and today a status symbol of the nouveau riche. From your daily dim sum restaurant to weddings and state events, shark fin soup, despite its high price, has become a staple on the table.

And a lucrative trade it is — so lucrative that the shark meat itself now has no value, because the fins fetch such a high price. For those of you unfamiliar with the finning industry, the sharks are caught, finned alive, and dumped back into the sea to sink to the bottom, drowning. It is the equivalent of killing an elephant for its tusks, a rhino for its horn, a tiger for its skin. The fins are hung to dry and cure, and shipped to Hong Kong and many other parts of Asia to be sold to restaurants and made into soup. Imagine that — one of the oldest animals on earth is being decimated, all for a bowl of soup.

The NGO Papa Bois Conservation asked me to get some pictures of shark fins being sold and traded here in Hong Kong, and I was more than happy to hit the road with camera in hand. But taking pictures is not so easy. The shop owners stand vigil at the entrance, shooing away tourists and people who try to take pictures. The shops have extensive security, with many cameras watching you. And a few have signs that say they have the right to take your camera away if they catch you taking pictures. The shop owners know the fin trade is a controversial and increasingly unpopular one, and are taking measures to make sure people don’t come and interfere.

Nonetheless, you can’t stop people from snapping a few shots, so snap away I did, and here are just a few samples, made into a slideshow for Papa Bois Conservation. There are so many shops in the Dried Seafood District selling shark fins that I only ended up taking pictures on one side of the street because trying to take shots of all the stores would have taken too long. The trucks arrive non-stop to deliver new shipments of fins, all legally brought into Hong Kong. And people are still willing to pay high prices for this product.

Papa Bois Conservation is an activist group, and they are working hard to get the Fisheries division in T&T to wake up to the fact that sharks are heading towards extinction and that we cannot allow foreign fishing vessels to rape the Caribbean seas. T&T is on the list of top exporters of shark fins, and PBC is working with the local media to raise awareness of this problem.

Please watch the video, feel free to share, and do what you can to be part of the solution. Of course, if offered, don’t ever eat shark fin soup or shark fin dumplings, though this is not much of a problem in Trinidad where the dish is not popular. Also, don’t buy tiny steaks of shark meat sourced from juvenile sharks, because sharks take many years to reach maturity and reproduce and they need a chance to keep their numbers up. And check out Papa Bois Conservation on Facebook, and learn more about the issue.