MEDIUM RARE
Is it possible, said my fellow traveler, to walk through Hong Kong without bumping into another Filipino?
Neither of us has the statistics for a yes or no, but experience would say, “Not very likely.” More likely, they’d be standing with you in your elevator in the hotel, or walking along a street nearby, as you’re almost sure to see them or hear them, in pairs or small groups at the mall, shopping, browsing, enjoying the sight of luxuries and other delights encased in their show windows.
Where you likely won’t find a Filipino or Filipinos is a Chinese (Cantonese) restaurant. The chances are higher that they’d be at McDonald’s or KFC (which was where I had my morning congee, as improbable as that might sound). Because my traveling companions went to Hong Kong with the objective of dining in a restaurant with roast goose on its menu, it was a given that we’d be doing as the Hong Kongers do: eating with chopsticks, from a menu of fowl and seafood rather than, say, steak or lamb chops, noodles rather than pasta with tomato sauce.
Hong Kong was in almost-winter mode, 20C in the daytime, what I’d describe as sweater weather, the temperature dropping slightly as the night wore on. There was no rain, not even a shower, ‘twas pleasant all around. If a strong breeze blew now and then, I would’ve been indoors, probably. Even the ride on the Star Ferry was smooth, nice and steady, evoking memories of the first time I went to HK when I was a kid, traveling with my mother and her sisters on a pleasure cruise (where I watched them play mahjongg on the boat).
Hong Kong, literally translated to “fragrant harbor,” has stayed true to its name all these years. Nothing has changed about the short ride or getting there and returning to shore without drama or trauma. For Hong Kongers, Star Ferry is a way of life; for tourists it’s an almost-adventure.
What I didn’t have time to do this time (with two children and two grandchildren in tow) was taking tea at the lobby of Peninsula Hotel on the Kowloon side to watch the world move in dainty steps, in time without haste, but gracefully.