Hong Kong
In 1988, my friend Rick Criscione and I went to Hong Kong. Our travels were full of excitement as you will see. We tried to do the trip as cheaply as possible and only paid $400 for our round trip airfares. We stayed at a rundown place called the Chunking Mansions in Kowloon which was a group of five towers and cost us $8 a night to stay there.
Lonely Planet travel books says this about the place:
Say ‘budget accommodation’ and ‘Hong Kong’ in one breath and everyone thinks of Chungking Mansions. Built in 1961, CKM is a labyrinth of homes, guesthouses, Indian restaurants, souvenir stalls and foreign-exchange shops spread over five 17-storey blocks in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui. According to Gordon Mathews, an anthropologist who studies the place, it has a resident population of about 4000 and an estimated 10,000 daily visitors. Over 120 different nationalities – predominantly South Asian and African – pass through its doors in a single year. CKM has a unique TV line-up, consisting of 16 stations, including Nepali, Indian, Pakistani, French (Le Monde, which many West Africans watch) and, interestingly, BBC but no CNN. No surprise CKM was named ‘Best Example of Globalisation’ by Time magazine in 2007. Cultural diversity does not make for cleaner rooms or safer lockers, of course. There’s always a queue for the coffin-sized elevators. Visitors have been harassed, swindled or worse. And only the most naive would think there are no illegal goings-on inside the building. So while some are charmed by CKM’s chaotic ethics (and aesthetics), others avoid it like the plague. But in all fairness, CKM has cleaned up much of its act since it changed management in the late ‘90s, to the extent that travellers who’ve known it since its days as a hippie haven are lamenting the loss of its charisma. Over 200 CCTVs are now installed throughout the building, and there are security guards and cleaners to make sure things are in order. Though standards vary significantly, most of the guesthouses at CKM are clean and quite comfortable. It’s worth bearing in mind, however, that rooms are usually the size of cupboards and you have to shower right next to the toilet. The rooms typically come with air-con and TV and, sometimes, a phone. Many guesthouses can get you a Chinese visa quickly, most have internet access and some have wi-fi and laundry service. Bargaining for a bed or room is always possible, though you won’t get very far in the high season. You can often negotiate a cheaper price if you stay more than, say, a week, but never try that on the first night – stay one night and find out how you like it before handing over more rent. Once you pay, there are usually no refunds.
For your information, the place was not nearly as nice in 1988 as LP describes it now. It was a dump; had rats outside the window and the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in our room. But it was cheap, which is what Rick and I were all about.
On our first day, a small fire broke out in one of the towers. Rick and I happened to be across the street when this occurred. As we stood there, a rope made of sheets came out the window from the 10th floor. A man poked his head out the window and looked down at the “rope” to see how close to the ground it was. Apparently not thinking it was long enough he pulled it back in to the room added some more sheets and threw it out again. A minute later he began to climb down the sheet rope to what he thought was safety. Suddenly, the sheets tore and the man fell about seven stories to the ground and died instantly. We later learned from the TV news that he was a Swedish tourist and had panicked when the fire broke out in the hallway near his room. Ironically, the fire department went into the room and safely removed his wife less than five minutes later. We went back to our room, went to sleep and tried to forget the horrific scene we had just witnessed. The next day we started looking around the city and deciding what we should do for our 11 days we were going to spend there. In Kowloon, I was a curiosity due to my height and girth. In one restaurant, we were seated near the kitchen. I a saw several busboys and dishwashers stick their head out the door to stare at me. I noticed, too, that our table got more attention from the busboys than other tables. They continuously came to take our plates and refill water glasses in order to get a closer look at me. A couple of them asked if they could touch me. I consented and they felt my biceps and my shoulders.At the time, I was 6’2” and a little over 300 lb. I can only imagine how much attention I’d get now as I weigh over 400 lb.
One of the side trips we took was on a jet boat to the island of Macau which is owned by the Portuguese and has a casino. We went to the casino and also walked around the island to enjoy the sights. We saw some fresh fish vendors selling all kinds of seafood in nearby there was a restaurant with a sign that said that they would cook or seafood for us. We picked out some fish and shrimp that looked good, took it to the restaurant and were treated like kings by the owners who prepared our food, surrounded us with electric fans because it was so hot, and made us a delicious meal.
The train ride was made in an old one pulled by a coal-fed stream engine which I figured was built in the 1950’s, maybe even before that. It was very nice and each seat had a clean white linen cloth on the back of the seat which I presume was changed often. The package we purchased included a walking tour through the streets of the city. One of the things that struck Rick and me was the scads of bicycles. There must have been hundreds of them is the few blocks we walked. It like everyone was riding them and one bike rack we saw must have a 200 bikes in it. I don’t know how the riders were even able to locate their own bicycle in it. We toured a jade factory and saw people using tools to carve the jade into small figures which were then sold by street vendors. Back on the street, we passed vendors selling food and other delicacies which included cat meat. We knew it was cat because we saw a skinned cat’s head hanging from a hook, displayed for sale. Another interesting booth had snakes confined in wire baskets. As we watched, a customer went to this vendor who reached into basked that held a cobra, He grabbed the snakes middle, used a knife to open it up and squeezed something out of the cobra into a cup. He then mixed in some other liquids with it and gave it to the customer who quickly drank it.
As I stated earlier, in Kowloon I got a lot of attention due to my size, in Guangzhou, I “enjoyed” celebrity status thanks to an old women who spotted me on the street as we were led on our tour. She was about 4’2” tall. She pointed at me and started yelling in Chinese to other folks on the street as she ran up to me, gesturing for everyone to gather around. Within a minute I was surrounded my approximately 30 people who poked and prodded me all over. They squeezed my biceps and forearms and ran their hands along my back. At first I was amused because I realized that they had probably never seen such a large man, let alone been allowed to touch one. The game got old quickly so I stopped smiling; they got the idea that touchy/feely time was over and slowly peeled off from me. I was grateful to get on the train to go back to Kowloon. I realized that I was probably THE largest person in the entire country of more than a billion people. I do enjoy being the center of attention, but that was a bit much.
I think my favorite part of the trip was the businessmen’s relaxation and meeting club which we stumbled across right next to our hotel. One day, as we walked back to our hotel, we saw a handsome, imposing Indian man wearing a turban standing in front of an unmarked door. He had a dazzling smile as he stood there with his arms crossed in front of him, his long sleeved, white shirt rolled up to his elbows. I asked if I could take his photo and he consented. We chatted and found that, beyond the door was a meeting place for businessmen which included massage rooms. We learned it was open to anyone and so we went in to check it out. It was so cool. We walked down some stairs to a counter where a receptionist waited. There was a list of services available and so we decided to try out the place. Payment was to be made after services were rendered.
We were then led into a plush locker room that had mahogany cabinets with double locks on them. There was thick, lush carpeting on the floor and padded benches. A personal male attendant gestured for us to undress and helped us to disrobe; we were given fluffy robes to wear. (Yes, they had one that fit me.) The attendant neatly folded our clothes and placed our belongings into the locker. He locked both locks and gave us the key to one which insured our stuff would remain secure. The attendant led us into a large bath room that had showers and sinks set in granite countertops. The the faucets of the sinks were gold in color and I guessed they were gold-plated. Each sink had soap, shaving cream and new razors next to them. After showering we were led to a stainless steel table where an attendant poured a bucket of warm water on on it to heat it up. He directed us to lie on the table and he dipped a loofa brush into a bucket off warm suds, scrubbed us down, front and back and rinsed us off. We then went over to a nearby pool of water which was about 30 X 30 feet and 2-1/2 feet deep. After we sat there awhile, we got out, were dried off and our robes were put back on us.
Next, we walked into a room that held rows of reclining chairs in rows of eight by four. We sat down and were offered fruit juice, water or soda (no alcohol). In front of us were two large screen TV’s, one of which had a stock market report and the other, a news channel. We were offered pedicures and manicures which we declined. There were several Chinese men in the room conversing with one another. After a while, when we were ready, it was time to have our massages. They took us each into a room. All the rooms had glass walls so we could see everything that went on in the rooms around us. Some of the rooms had several massage tables and telephones which we presumed that one could talk on during the massage session. Off came the robes and we were covered with white linen sheets. Then a woman came in to perform the massage. None I saw seemed to weigh more than 80 lb. They were barefoot and wore modest sun dresses. Each one had a name tag with a number on it. The girls were strong and very adept at massage therapy. At one point, they hopped up onto the table and held onto bars attached to the ceiling and walked on our backs. The only evidence of any “hanky-panky” came later when were advised that our masseuses (identified by the number on their name tags) were available for further services off-site if we were interested. After the massage, we were led back into the recliner room, offered more refreshments and allowed to relax there for as long as we wished. After a short time, we went back to take another shower and then redressed. On our way out we paid the receptionist for our two hour treatment. I recollect that it cost Rick and $30 each. It was the best thirty bucks I’ve ever spent. I sometimes wonder if the place is still there.
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