More tea vicar?
Well, well, well....It's been a few weeks since I last updated so here goes.....
OK, one of my best mates from back home, one Richard Craig, who I went to school with and Newcastle University arrived the Friday before last, and I cannot tell you enough how good it was to see a friendly face over here! I met him at the ferry terminal at about 4pm after I had been for a beasting session at the gym and naturally I was waiting around for some time before he came through the somewhat lax security. We headed off to my 'apartment' err I mean room to show Rik around, which took all of about 1 second. We then decided to head off and get some food. So we headed off to an excellent sushi place in Soho (Rik also shares an unhealthy obsession with sushi just like me). There we stuffed our faces and headed off to Lan Kwai Fong where I took Rik to The Whiskey Priest, perhaps the most pleasant and friendly of LKF's bars where he met Jon the manager and Tracey and Ralph his understudies. From there we headed to Stormies before taking the huge step of staggering into Insomnia to listen to the live band. After much ear bleeding and having to restrain Richard from causing a riot we left and made the short stumble home.
Saturday was time to take my first proper sampling of Dim Sum, so Rik and I headed to a very good place near the Western Markets in Sheung Wan. In we cantered and plonked ourselves amongst the hundreds and hundreds of locals. This really was an amazing meal, we ate ourselves stupid for about 3 pounds each and we drank unlimited and excessive amounts of chinese tea (ch'a)... Needless to say we've been back there a number of times and every time seems to be accompanied by lots of in-jokes and endless exclamations of 'more tea vicar?', I guess you need to be there.
Now that weekend did take a sudden and rather dramatic turn for the worse. Judging by my experiences here so far I should have really expected this but oh well. Both Rik and I spend some of Sunday and most of Monday and Tuesday totally layed out by the flu, hopefully not the avian strain that's sweeping its way across Asia but a more common and still very unpleasant 'standard' version.
Sunday morning I did however have the extreme honour to be invited by my Sifu (teacher) to accompany him, Master Ip Chun, and family to the grave of Grandmaster Ip Man. Grandmaster Ip Man is quite simply the most famous and most respected Kung Fu Grandmaster ever to set foot on this earth, perhaps more famous to westerners for his teaching of Bruce Lee. So took the train journey out to Fanling and then made the trek up to Ip Man's grave. There were many family members, members of the public and kung fu artists from the world over randomly gathered to pay their respects. Food was laid out in front of the grave along with beer and soft drinks for everyone to share as a form of respect and celebration. This was both a surreal, humbling and calming experience that I am eternally grateful for. Yes, Ok I could have quite easily have made the trip up there on my own like Joe Bloggs, but I doubt that I would ever in my life have had the chance to take the trip there with the 2 sons of Ip Man, and their families. Thank you Sifu Patrick.
So yeah, after that unpleasant event number 104 so far in Hong Kong reared it's ugly head... we surfaced properly on Weds but I headed off to kung Fu on Tuesday as a) I'd have to be hospitalised to miss it and b) I had a demonstration in Kowloon Park coming up that I had to speak to my Sifu (teacher) about.....
The rest of the week really flew by dominated by still feeling slightly under the weather and my preparations for the previously mentioned kung Fu demo in Kowloon Park. Friday however Rik and I decided to head over to Macau.
Macau lies 65km west of Hong Kong but actually predates that territory's colonisation by almost 300 years, Macau was the first European enclave in Asia. It's an awesome mix of cultures - Mediterranean and Asian architecture, food etc. Getting there is a piece of p***, I mean cake, as there are ferries running every 15 mins and the journey itself takes only 55 mins.
That said, once you get there there are of course many of the similar problems that you experience in Hong Kong. For example we were told that there was a shuttle bus to our hotel at the marina. We get off the ferry go through passport control and right there is a desk with the name of our hotel branded across it... Up we go and enquire about said shuttle bus to get looks along the lines of: "What in the name of God are you talking about you strange english bastard." A few more insanely odd looks and someone gives in at the sight of my blood reaching boiling point and decides to volunteer some information by pointing in the direction of a bridge and phelgming up....
Off we wander and there we are, there's a fleet of different shuttle buses for every bastard hotel under the sun, other than our rather grandly named 'Hotel Ritz'. There are of course several people manning the shuttle bus rank willing to direct us to the correct bus. We exchange information with them... being the hotel name and we get another look that can only be described as: "Stop wasting my time arsehole!"... So we sit there to calm down for a few seconds and I order Rik to call the hotel on our great 'roaming mobile phones' that we have been promised.. will work in Macau... errr, work my arse! So another Hong Kong surprise as the phones are packed in. We then consider a taxi for a few minutes and then someone starts ranting like a maniac and pointing at one of the buses.... Hotel Ritz bus has arrived, thank you Lord!!! As always you kinda get there in the end but it's always far from straightforward..... So on the bus we get and the driver puts his feet up and takes a nap, at which stage Rik and I decide that we'll make as much noise as possible to prevent the bloke from nodding off. It works and off we go. As we get to the city centre he gets a call on his mobile and diverts the shuttle and picks up a handful of shady looking characters (obviously his mates) and gives them a lift somewhere, then we finally make it to the hotel.
Hotel thumbs up, for 20 quid a night it was a bloody steal to be honest. Anyway, we get to the room and rest our legs for a few seconds and the phone rings to tell us that some champers is on it's way!!! Yee haa... Now this has to be the most thoughtful gesture ever but the lovely Janet had called the hotel and got them to bring it to my room in the hope that I have a better time in Macau than Hong Kong.. what an amazingly beautiful gesture..
So we settled into the room, had baths (not together, that's wrong) and believe me that's my first bath in 9 months so it was amazing, especially with a couple of glasses of champagne! And then we headed out to the more portuguese part of town for some nosh. We found a lovely portuguese style place and demolished loads of seafood and fresh fish before heading to the mighty Sands Casino.. a 200,000 sq ft casino in the heart of Macau, not just that but also the newest.
So we arrive and after some pretty thorough security we get in and head upstairs for a beer before mustering the balls to hit the roulette tables. Now at this time I will just let you know that gambling is illegal in Hong Kong and China... so have your wildest guess as to where they come to get that huge Chinese gambling fix.... errr yeah you've got it... here. That night there must have been about 10,000 people there, literally throwing money away, people gambling on roulette and throwing down the equivalent of 500 pounds a number!! mental..
Anyway, my night on the tables started off very well, went horribly wrong in the middle and I pulled off a miracle at the end to win it all back and some. my last $50 chip went on 1 and it came in at 35-1.. so won back the 100 quid I'd lost and 20 quid extra to pay for my room for the night...rock and roll. A couple more beers to drown Rik's sorrows and then back to the hotel for some kip. Saturday we made it to the city centre nice and early and had a good stroll around central Macau and I have to say that I really was very impressed. OK, it's definitely not somewhere that you can spend more then a few days but it's beautiful, friendly and the food is very high quality.
So back to the madness of Hong Kong.... Where we went for some Dim Sum again before heading out to lan Kwai fong for a few ales before settling down to prepare for my big day in Kowloon Park. The day of the DEMO!! Got to Kowloon Park for about 1ish and met with a bloke from my class who I would be demonstrating on. Things starting kicking off around 2.15 when hordes of people starting showing, some setting things up, some getting a good seat etc. By 2.45 things were ready to roll. The programme was being distributed and myself and Don would be number 10 on the agenda of 34 demonstrations. Firtly though as a point of unification all the participants (my good self included) had to perform the first open hand form of Wing Chun, Siu Nim Tao (the little idea).. That done.. to perfection I had to wait a nerve wrecking 30 mins or so before taking to the arena with Don to bust some moves. I did 4 pretty effective applications of Wing Chun that one might use 'on the street' so to speak. The crowd loved it and after much applause and cheering my work was done. The nice touch was that afterwards the other participants that had up until then ignored me or given me looks of "what are you doing here?" (well I was the only westerner there), they came to me and bowed and gave me a big smile and a thumbs up... So my demo in Kowloon went well and home I went with a huge smile and two tired legs after 3 hours of standing in 90% humidity!
This week has been pretty quiet to be honest. Headed over to Causeway Bay on Monday for a great meal at a Vietnamese meal in Times' Square. Now we were seated at our table, studied the menu, made our selections and over came the waiter, we ordered and when I announced that I would have the barbequed Mandarin Fish there was a strange commotion followed by some in depth deliberation between the waiting staff, then the waiter returned with another waiter to announce that it would take 25mins and was I sure that's what I wanted. Well, I had no idea what a Mandarin Fish was but I loved any baked/barbequed fish... so thats what it had to be.... Anyway it arrived, it was amazing but little did I know it looks like THIS! So, I will think twice about the next Mandarin Fish that I demolish!
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