Tea in Sai Kung - a different side of Hong Kong

Too often as expats, we are trapped in the bubble that is Central/Soho/LKF and maybe sometimes Wanchai and TST. A tall tale sign of being too insulated is the fact that after 9 months in Hong Kong, I can only say my street and stop here in Cantonese to tell the cabs where I need to be dropped off. Last Sat, I was given an unique opportunity to visit a lovely Cantonese family.

Joanna was my landlord up until a few weeks ago, when she sold the apartment to someone else. Luckily, I am still a tenant under the same contract. She always mentioned that she wanted to take me to her house in Sai Kung for lunch or tea one weekend. Last weekend, she came and picked myself and her former tenant in the apartment, Nick, up from my apartment. With just a twenty minute drive, we were out in the fishing villages of East Sai Kung. There, Joanna lived on the third and fourth floor of a small low-rise building. There are villages after villages by the beach, with beautiful weather and clean air. The houses reminded me of townhouses in the United States, except each section of the townhouses have a different design, breeding personality and character into the village.
Her sitting room was the very top floor, with open windows and excellent sunshine. It felt like an open aired room even though it was complete enclosed. There was so much space! Joanna told us that for HK$8,000 a month, we could rent over 1,000 sq. feet. I currently pay double that for less than half the space in Mid-levels! We had tea and dim sum from Tim Ho Wan, the famous Michelin star restaurant. Joanna, picked up the dim sum last evening and heated them up after we arrived. Post dim sum, we went on a long walk around the beaches and different fishing villages. All the little communities are connected by the water. The air quality was unparallel. Even though every family had a car to get around, it is still 100x better than the muggy air that over cast that consumes Hong Kong island.

After our walk, Joanna and her husband hosted us for ice cream and fruits. We had a lovely time understanding what matters to a Cantonese family. Joanna and her husband were very concerned about her children, worrying about their lack of attention span, lack of responsibility, lack of self-displace. As a professor in film, Joanna tells us she often has students that don't complete their work. She worries for her own son in boarding school, worried about his development.
The afternoon couldn't last forever and we didn't want to overstay our welcome. It started at 1PM. After a 45 minute non-stop bus ride back on bus 618, I managed to return to the land of the expats again around 615PM. I couldn't have asked for a more lovely afternoon with a very impressive woman. Thanks Joanna.

Sauna Etiquette

One thing I really like to do after running is to sit in the sauna for 5-10 minutes relax. It's not a big sauna room. Could fit maybe 4 people comfortably lying down on two levels of wooden benches. Usually, no one will be in the room. Never more than 2 people have been in the room while I entered. People are usually in a towel, sitting or lying down and relaxing. Sometimes ppl would have a face mask on. Some would be scrubbing themselves with some sort of device that I can't recognize. I've even seen a girl do yoga in a bathing suit. However, what always bothers me are the people who are completely naked, without any towel on. It's a public gym and a public sauna, shouldn't there be a minimal standards of covering up?

It would be less frustrating though, however, if people who are naked are more properly groomed. I find it extremely uncomfortable when an unshapely woman who is not groomed lay there naked with no regard for the comfortable level of other people. Am I being overly judgmental or is there some basic expectancy of etiquette in a public sauna?

Minibus adventure

I have never ridden the minibus here in Hong Kong. Sometimes, I would take the regular buses to work. But that's standard. You get on, get off at the right stops.

Minibuses are a whole different story.

First, they will not stop if they are full. So waiting at a minibus stop could be an issue given the hours. Usually, it's best to start at the first stop. There's only a capacity for around 20-ish seats so a city as crowded as Hong Kong, that fills up fast. I took Minibus 1 from the Peak down. The roads are steep. Having a minibus circling the steep roads is definitely an adventure. Second, there's really no rules or stops. It seems that people just wave them down, or get off at random. The stops don't really seem to matter much. I didn't realize that there was no designated stops and the minibus drove straight past Cheung Kong Center (where I worked). Basically, all you do is get up, get the attention of the driver, and the bus will stop at any random place....