Scenes in Wan Chai-Hong Kong- July 2009

The weather in Hong Kong in July is hot, humid, with unpredictable bursts of rain. We are wise to always have an umbrella handy to keep from getting too wet. It is also a time for different types of food at the fresh market. Some of the fruits come from Thailand and Malaysia.

The large fruit on the left is dragon fruit. It peals quite easily and the fruit looks like 101 Dalmations with black dots throughout. It is mildly flavorful. The round fruit in a bunch are leeche nuts. They also peel easily and have a delicious juicy fruit inside. In fact, we were introduced to it by another missionary who peeled away half of the skin and then had us open our mouth as they popped the fruit out of the skin into our mouths. There is a small stone seed in the middle. The hairy fruit also peels and has a white fruit. I haven't found its name. The fruit is not as juicy as the leeche nuts and it has a larger "pit". The front left fruit is a mangosteen. It has a tart taste like a lemon and comes out in sections. The lower right fruit eats like a green pear. We didn't peel it, but ate it like it was. It was the least favorite for us, though you could say it has the prettiest exterior. I guess the moral is, don't always pay attention to the exterior. It's what is inside that counts. (Referring to our bodies).

The hairy outside fruit exposed as a tasty white fruit.

We have mentioned in prior blogs how many streets that we walk each day have continual repair work going on. Barriers will be put up, bricks taken out or concrete removed, holes dug that expose pipe and electrical conduits underground, work performed, holes covered up and bricks put back in place. As soon as one section is done. another one is started. Here is a pile of sidewalk bricks removed earlier so underground work could be done.

This is a stretch of ground that has now been covered and prepared for the bricks to be replaced. Note the brick pattern of the sidewalk on the right. The bricks are not mortared in, but are placed in alternating vertical and horizontal patterns. They provide a very smooth sidewalk unlike the cobbled streets of some of the Eastern US cities we visited.

The laying was in process on this late Saturday afternoon. Note the pattern of the bricks.

This is the sand used to prepare the ground. They make the ground perfectly flat to produce a smooth sidewalk.

The finished product early Sunday morning. I don't know when they did it, but they must have moved fast. There was only a few daylight hours between the two pictures.

Another constant sight in Hong Kong are the buildings with bamboo structures placed on the outside, often with a fabric covering. This can mean a building is being constructed, demolished, or renovated. Putting up the bamboo and lashing them together is a work for monkeys. These pictures show a structure being covered in bamboo that juts out into the street. The two men who are installing the bamboo hang over the street as they bring up a pole at a time, position it, and lash it in place. The bus comes pretty close to them as it passes underneath.

They do wear safety harnesses, but they are just hooked to other bamboo poles.

A view North from our apartment window. The buildings in the background are across the Victoria Bay in Kowloon, one of the three major sections of Hong Kong. Beyond Kowloon lies the New Territories of Hong Kong and then Mainland China. This was a clear day. The mountains behind the buildings were clearly visible. The buildings in the foreground are all apartment buildings. Behind the white building in the center is a building being demolished. A month ago it was twice as high and blocked the view of the harbor and Kowloon. In another month it will be down and a new building will takes its place.

This is the front of our Harmony House Mansion home. We are on the 13th floor and have a corner apartment. That gives us six sets of windows. We keep our drapes pulled shut when we are away. On the following pictures you can tell our apartment. There are 18 floors, so on the second one you can count down and find the apartment with curtain drawn. On the first one, our apartment is top full row. Note the window air conditioners. Two of our windows are behind the covered facade; the bathroom and the kitchen. The front door is under the "orange" part of the sign. It is only wide enough for two swinging doors. The foyer has two sets of elevators, one set on the left going to floors 1-9 and the second set going to floors 10-18. It seems to be a slow elevator