Dragon boat races in Peng Chau on Tuen Ng!

Dragon boats (and their rowers) getting ready to race!

 

In the thick of the battle (and paddling)!

 

The nearest I got to any dragon boat yesterday ;)

 

The day before this year's Tuen Ng festival, a Danish visitor to Hong Kong asked me if I was going to go look at the Chinese ships due in Hong Kong the next day.  After I figured out that she actually was referring to the dragon boats, I told her yes -- but that this actually was the first year that I'd be doing so!

 

Dragon boat racing is a big deal in Hong Kong, where the sport -- or, at least, the modern version of it -- originated in 1976.  Over the years, it's spread to a number of other territories and I remember going and watching dragon boat racing as a kid in Penang.  So I guess one reason why I've not been super inclined to check it out in Hong Kong is partly because it's not all that exotic an event for me. 

 

Another reason is that it's quite the thing for tourists and expats as well as certain local Hong Kongers to go watch the dragon boat races.  So I tend to associate these events with super large crowds (of which I really am not a fan), particularly the international dragon boat championships held in Stanley which a Japanese friend of mine regularly takes part in but I still can't bring myself to attend!

 

But when a friend living on Peng Chau told me about the dragon boat races being held there and assured me that they are very much a local affair, I was intrigued.  And what really convinced me was that, because the races would be taking place at the bay which her place looks out to, we would be able to watch it from her apartment balcony -- far away from the madding crowd (if such actually were to appear that day)!

 

As it turned out, she was absolutely right that Peng Chau's dragon boat carnival being quite the local and -- by dragon boat festival standards -- and low-key affair.  Indeed, I couldn't find any information about it on the usual websites with information about dragon boat races taking place at various Hong Kong locations, including ones as far flung as Tai O and Tai Po (such as the Hong Kong Tourism Board's); with seemingly the only publicity about the Peng Chau event having been disseminated on Peng Chau itself!

 

Leisurely watching the dragon boat racing in the company of friends while drinking alcoholic libations and a spot of lunch, I got to thinking of past experiences I've had of leisurely watching cricket in the company of friends in England and, also, Tanzania, and watching baseball in the company of a friend in the USA and Japan too.  (I guess it's because these are all sports with frequent pauses in between actual action that gives one ample opportunity to chat and relax!)  I also got to associating dragon boat racing in Hong Kong with boat races in England -- and thinking that if we were to do this again in Peng Chau next year, I'll ensure that there'll be Pimms to drink (along with the G&Ts and beer on offer this year)! ;b

Memories of riding (pillion) on a motorbike in Malaysia, Zanzibar, and Beloit

Car and motorbike show in Central this past Sunday

Biker types hanging out near their dream machines

My choice for the most beautiful vehicle at the show ;b

After having my second dim sum lunch in two days last Sunday, I decided to go for a stroll that took me from Sheung Wan (where the eatery I had been at with my friend is located) to Central and beyond.  Near the IFC (International Finance Centre), I came across a car and motorbike show featuring some pretty eye-catching vehicles, including a number of big bikes along with sports cars and antique automobiles. 

I get the feeling that most of the people present were particularly impressed by certain of the cars (including Lotuses, Ferraris, Maseratis, Porsches and such) on show.  By my reckoning though, the most aesthetically pleasing machines on display were the large motorbikes -- all of them Harley Davidsons that were so shiny and well looked-after that I have to admit to wondering if they spend much time being ridden on actual roads!

Although I am a big advocate of public transportation (and have voluntarily gone through all but two years of my life -- when I lived in Kuala Lumpur, whose public transportation system leaves a lot to be desired -- without owning any motorized vehicles), it's also true enough that I have fond memories of riding (pillion) on a motorbike.  Of these, the earliest involved going on joy rides on the backseat of a bike belonging to a then 20-something-year-old aunt who regularly rode around town on a machine that may seem pedestrian in type and light on power but still seemed cooler to my preteen mind than those of her siblings who drove about in cars instead!

Then, when I lived in Zanzibar, I had a motorcycle-riding Italian doctor friend known to all and sundry as Dr Mario with whom I shared a common love for the beers produced by Malawi's Carlsberg brewery.  Whenever he managed to get a few bottles of their brew, he'd send word to me to drop by his clinic after work and after his own work day ended, I'd get on the back of his motorbike and he'd take me back to his place to enjoy a few beers and a feast that invariably included items -- such as salami and other preserved meats -- from care packages that his mother would send him from Italy along with fresh bread from a local bakery! 

Later in the evening (yes, after he and I had imbibed quite a bit of alcohol), he'd take me back into town.  I think in part because traffic tended to be on the light side and in part because I had got quite a bit of Dutch courage, I never feared that we'd come a cropper on those late night motorbike rides.  Instead, I thoroughly enjoyed the rides back into town as much as the rides to his place, the brewskis, the food, and viewing one of the only two video tapes he owned: the more frequently watched of  which was The Beatles' Yellow Submarine; the other of which was a documentary about giant whales!    

Probably my best memories involving riding on (the back of) a motorcycle though are those involving a beloved college professor and his beloved motorbike.  Although Dan Shea was born, went to school, taught and lived pretty much all his life in the state where the Harley-Davidson Motor Company was founded, his choice of vehicle was a British Norton bike that, after we had become friends, he'd take me on joy rides along beautifully long and lonely Wisconsin roads that went through farm land on which cows roamed or wheat grew in abundance.

I remember once telling Dan he should take prospective students on these bike roads as I figured it'd get them deciding they'd want to attend Beloit for sure, whereupon he laughed and pointed out that if he had an accident while doing so, he'd have the pants sued off him!  Since I wasn't thinking at all like a college administrator, I replied that I figured that it'd be worth the risk -- because, in all honesty, I think the experience showed how, at Beloit, professors and students didn't just interact in classrooms and actually could become friends who could have fun times (as well as seriously educational ones) together!

On June 19th, 2012, Dan Shea died of accidental causes while in Chile conducting archaeology field school.  A friend who's a fellow Beloit alum and friend plus fan of Dan broke the news to me a few days later.  I think I was so shocked by it and in denial that he was no longer of this Earth for so long that I couldn't write about his passing until now.  At the same time as I still feel sadness about his passing, I have got to realizing how many good and fond memories I have of the man that remain unsullied by his death and also still very strong, and how such as the sight of a beautiful motorbike parked in a central part of Hong Kong can get me thinking of him.         

Five observations about Penang that probably can apply to Malaysia too ;)

View of the Kek Lok Si Temple's famous pagoda

from within the temple grounds

A modest (but good!) durian stall in Balik Pulau

A sight that's evidence of how multi-cultural and -lingual Malaysia is

One month after spending a fortnight in Spain, I returned to Penang to visit the parents and eat more durians.  While back home, I also made a day trip to Ipoh (which I last visited last year with my mother and my German friend) and Teluk Intan (which I had never previously been to).  In addition, for parts of this visit, I was joined by a friend each from Hong Kong and South Africa, both of whom had never previously set foot in my home state.

Like my South African friend must have felt when I went back with him to his home country late last year, it is really interesting to see one's own native land in the company of foreign visitors and hear them sharing their impressions of it.  Certain things about it that a person growing up in Malaysia can take for granted/doesn't think is all that worthy of comment can be quite novel and/or a big deal if one is not familiar with them.  At the same time, it's also noteworthy when certain of your own thoughts and feelings about a place, its people, etc. also end up being shared by people encountering them for the first time.

The following -- in no particular order -- are five observations my friends made about Penang which I think can be stretched to include (much) of the country, and reckon may make for interesting reading on Malaysia's 61st Merdeka (Independence) Day:-

1) There sure are a lot of schools in Penang.   

To be honest, I'm not sure that there are more schools in Penang -- and/or Malaysia at large -- than in most other parts of the world.  Upon returning to Hong Kong though, I've got to realizing that there do seem to be more schools located on main roads in Penang than in the likes of Hong Kong, Philadelphia or London.  I'm not quite sure why this is -- but it does make them more easy to spot and can end up giving the impression that education is something that Malaysians prioritize by putting front, right, left, and center! 

2) There sure are a lot of religious buildings about too, and quite the variety of them to boot!

Despite not being especially religious, I will readily acknowledge that quite a number of Malaysians would identify themselves as being members of a religious community.  In addition, there indeed are a variety of religions practiced in Malaysia.  So I guess it's true enough that Malaysia may have more religious buildings than many other countries -- and it's also a source of pride and joy to Malaysians that places of worship used by people practicing different religions can be located close to one another, like along Penang's Street of Harmony.

3) There also are so many eateries around the place!!

Whenever friends in Hong Kong ask me where is the best place to eat Malaysian food, I tell them that they need to go to Malaysia.  Yes, there are Malaysian restaurants in Hong Kong but the fact that they all invariably have a variety of dishes on their menu makes them suspect to me because the very best food in Malaysia is produced by cooks that specialize in just a few dishes or sometimes even just one particular dish.  And with such specialization as the norm, this makes for there being quite the number of small but very good eateries sometimes seemingly everywhere in Malaysia!

4) Eating is a super popular Malaysian past time

There's no two ways about it: Malaysians love to eat.  And as I've shared on this blog, I honestly didn't realize that there were people in this world who eat to live as opposed to live to eat until I spent time living in Tanzania.  On a related note: I found in Tanzania that what people ate frequently had a lot to do with what they could afford and what they considered prestigious.  In contrast, Malaysians just are happy to eat whatever they consider delicious -- which can be quite the range of things since Malaysian food draws upon a variety of culinary traditions: not just Malay, Chinese and Indian but, actually, Sumatran, Kelantanese, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Nyonya Baba (aka Peranakan Cina), South Indian (particularly Tamil), North Indian, "Mamak" (or Indian Muslim), etc., etc., etc.! 

5) Malaysians have quite the sense of humor!

After a Japanese friend in Hong Kong asked me about whether Malaysians are allowed to be polygamous, I told her (and the other friends we were with) about my favorite Malaysian cartoonist and his cartoons addressing that matter that segued into my favorite Lat cartoons.  And when my South African friend visited my family home, I took the opportunity to bring out my collection of Lat books and share them with him.

Something else that got him laughing out loud was my mother and I regaling him with our memories of school rivalry that resulted on our saddling rival schools with some not so nice, and sometimes pretty sassy, nicknames based on their initials.  So, while, say, the boys of St Xavier's Institution liked to think of themselves as "Smart X Intelligent", pupils at other schools preferred to label them "Stupid X Idiot", and how the pupils of Convent Pulau Tikus and Penang Chinese Girls High School hated people telling them that they attended the Centre for Prostitute Training or were Prostitutes and Call Girls for High Society respectively! ;D

Taking in a flamenco experience at Sevilla's Casa de la Memoria

A place where memories get made...

 

 ...in particular those involving flamenco performances :)

 

I spent two years of the last decade of the previous century in Tanzania conducting research on what's known in Kiswahili (the country's official language) as makumbusho.  While those institutions are known as "museums" in English, the word makumbusho actually literally translates into English as "memories".  So, for Tanzanians, a museum would be a house of memories (and vice versa).

 

In Sevilla, however, the House of Memories I visited was less a museum in the conventional sesnse than a cultural center dedicated to the Spanish performing art of flamenco.  And it was at that particular Casa de la Memoria that my German friend and I added a flamenco show to our list of cultural events that we've attended together (which already includes a traditional dance performance at Yogyakarta's Kraton, a Christmas Eve concert at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, an organ recital at Speyer's cathedral and a number of classical music concerts in Hong Kong, including one featuring multi-Grammy award-winning double bassist Edgar Meyer).

 

To the surprise of those (including my German friend) who thought that flamenco was all about the dance, the evening performance began with musical numbers courtesy of a guitarist and raspy-voiced singer and it wasn't until around the 15 minute mark of the 1 hour show that any dancers appeared on stage.  Once they did so though, they really did come across as the soul of the show -- with the musicians looking to take their cues from the dancers rather than the other way around.  

 

Sometimes, the two featured dancers performed as a pair.  More often than not, however, each dancer performed solo -- and in so doing, were able to show the audience how different and distinct from each other the moves accorded to the male and female dancers are; with the former involving moves that emphasized his physical strength and footwork that produced loud rat-a-tat sounds, and the latter coming across as impassioned and incorporating movements so wildly dramatic that, by the end of one dance, all the flowers that had previously been lodged in the female artiste's hair were strewn on the floor!

 

If truth be told, dance is probably my least favorite of the performing arts and it took a while for me to enjoy the flamenco show.  Slowly but surely, however, I felt myself drawn into the emotion-infused artistic experience; thanks largely to the dancers who at times hypnotized and other times appeared to be in a trance-like state themselves (this particularly so in the case of the female dancer who had her eyes closed for much of her performance)!  And while I'm not about to make a beeline for any flamenco performances I see scheduled in Hong Kong, I'm glad that I did take in one in a city famous for its flamenco scene and which is said to have this distinctive art form in its soul.   

My efforts to get dietary diversity in South Africa, where meat is king!

Probably the most balanced single dish I ate in South Africa!

 

Strange as it may seem to (most) South Africans,

I actually generally prefer salads to burgers!!

 

Stranger still to them is the notion that this seaweed is 

actually edible, and can be deliciously so at that! ;D

 

Years ago when I was living in Tanzania, I attended a talk at the National Museum of Dar es Salaam given by a marine biologist friend, during which he told the audience that there was "free protein" on the area beaches, only to see them react with absolute horror upon their realizing that he was suggesting that people pick and eat the cockles found in the sand.  And further shocks ensued when the speaker pointed out that I had eaten cockles and I not only backed his claim but also told the people present that I enjoyed eating boiled cockles dipped in chili sauce.

 

Fast forward to my recent South African sojourn and my suggesting on more than one occasion to various local folks that the seaweed that was floating about in the ocean and washing ashore onto their beaches was not only edible but, actually, pretty delicious.  As with the Tanzanians and their reaction to the idea of cockles being an enjoyable delicacy, the South Africans I told about kombu were pretty skeptical about its being edible.  What's more, as my South African friend had warned me in advance, his countrymen and -women aren't big fans of seafood.  Hence my ending up having only one seafood meal in my more than one week there; and this despite the likes of oysters, abalone and yellowtail being found in the waters of South Africa!  

 

Similarly, despite the locally grown vegetables I tasted there being of generally high quality (with the onions and carrots being sweeter than those from pretty much every country I know bar for Japan), many a South African just don't eat as many vegetables as you'd think they would (and should)!  Instead, the culinary focus is very much on meat, particularly beef -- though I also did have the opportunity to try springbok meat at lunch one day and lamb chops were on offer along with (beef) steaks and boerewors at a couple of braai!

 

Although I do like eating meat,  I also do like eating vegetables a lot -- and make a point to consume at least four different types of vegetables and/or fruits daily as I think it helps make my diet more balanced.  Normally, this hasn't been much of a problem.  But it actually was turning out to be so in South Africa, particularly since for dietary purposes, I consider potatoes as carbs rather than vegetables of the kind that I think I should make sure I eat daily.  

 

So desperate was I to make sure that I had sufficient vegetable intake (and worried that I wasn't having a balanced diet) while there that I started ordering vegetarian dishes as mains at various meals near the end of my South Africa trip!  Thus it was that I found myself ordering a large garden salad while every other member of my party ordered burgers and chips at lunch one day, ordering a dish consisting of flatbread topped with cheese, tomatoes, onions and coriander on another occasion while my South African friend opted once more for a burger and chips, and -- well, I trust you get the picture.  

The heights of hilarious ludicruousness was reached one evening when I made a point to get a large onion to be grilled at a braai along with a large and diverse amount of meats.  Apparently, this was the first time the assembled South Africans -- all of them fully mature adults -- had ever witnessed something that was not meat being grilled at a braai!  While I expected to consume the entire grilled onion by myself, curiosity got the better of a few of the South Africans.  Even more unexpected was their actually liking the taste -- so much so that a couple of them have now taken to including onions among their braai essentials and even sent me photographic proof of this being so some days after my return to Hong Kong! :D

Back to Africa again after all these years... :)

Panoramic photo taken on my first morning in South Africa :)

The kind of amazing vistas I was privy to on a road trip

on day six of my recent South Africa visit :b

Lest there be any doubt, of course Puppet Ponyo

was there for the ride and experience ;b

 

Back in the summer of 1986, I went to Africa -- specifically Kenya, the home country of a boarding school friend -- for the first time.  In the decade after, I'd go on to re-visit that East African country, and also spend two years in Tanzania as well as set foot in Zimbabwe and Zambia.  Since 1996, however, I had not been back on the African continent: that is, until a week and a half ago.

 

As with my first visit to Africa, I had the good fortune to be invited to accompany a friend on a visit back home.  After many years of hard work, my regular drinking buddy here in Hong Kong had finished his Masters degree studies and was headed back to South Africa to receive his degree and spend time with various members of his family.  And at Sake Bar Ginn one evening a couple of months ago, he asked if I'd like to go with him on this trip.  

 

Before he had the time to change his mind, I quickly said "Yes, please!"  The truth of the matter is that South Africa is one of those countries I've long wanted to visit -- not least because Nelson Mandela was/is one of my greatest heroes -- and my South African friend's home city of Cape Town just happens to be the number one part of the country that I wanted to spend time in.

 

Before the trip, my friend and I had a number of conversations as to what I wanted to do there, what he wanted to show me as well as were "must do"s as far as he was concerned, and what to expect while there -- bad and good.  Post visit, I will say that I actually didn't get to see or do everything on my list but I also got to see and do a lot more than I had thought would be the case.  

 

Put another way: I ended up going to some famous places but also a number of gems that are beloved by locals but (for some unknown reason or other) haven't been covered much -- if at all -- in tourist guides.  And, as those of you who deign to check out the blog posts I'll be offering up in the next few weeks should soon realize, I really do consider my South African trip to be one of those trips of a lifetime that's chock-filled with the sort of sights and experiences that will stay long in my memory. :)       

Bits of offal that I find delicious!

A delicious bowl of beef offal and rice noodle soup ;b

A yummy plate of egg noodles topped with 

pig's liver, kidneys, and two kinds of vegetables :b

"Try it first, then I'll tell you what it is."  That's what I remember my mother telling me quite a bit when I was a child.  In retrospect, I realize that it wasn't so much that she was tricking me into eating such as various kinds of offal or exotic foods such as sea cucumber, harsmar and the item euphemestically known as bird's nest as she was teaching me that, when you approach such things without prejudice, you might find that they can actually taste good!   

Growing up in Penang, I actually came to consider pig's kidneys (particularly those served up at my favorite noodle and congee shop over in Perak Lane) and chicken giblets (despite my actually having no idea what part of the animal they actually were) as special treats the way that some other children might think of Gummy bears and Creme Eggs.  And I think I can safely say that over the course of my Malaysian childhood, I was introduced to far more different kinds of food (and edible animal parts) than many other kids living in other parts of the world.  

At the same time, it took living in Tanzania to give me an appreciation for liver, which Tanzanians consider to be a more prestigious food item than regular meat (though less so than nundu (cow hump that seems to be pure fat and thus even worse for you than bacon!)).  In all honesty, I found liver just about edible -- but no great shakes in the taste category -- before my two year stint in that East African country but got my opinion changed so much after being served it so often there that these days, I actually go out of my way to order and eat it, including at one of my favorite eateries in Sham Shui Po and also whenever I go for yakitori, be it in Hong Kong or Japan. 

As I think it can be easily imagined, the Land of the Rising Sun (and shirako, fugu and sushi) is a country where I've not only tried a whole bunch of foods for the first time but also have grown to passionately love quite a number of previously unfamiliar delicacies.  Among these is chicken "tail" (or, less euphemistically, butt), which I never fail to order if I find it on a yakitori-ya's menu.

Disappointingly, this isn't often in yakitori-ya in Hong Kong (even ones that supposedly specialize in nose-to-tail cooking like Yardbird).  On the other hand, yakitori-ya in Japan sometimes don't only serve chicken ass but distinguish between -- and offer up both -- the male butt (bonjiri) and female (misaki), with the owner of the internationally-renowned Toritama chain (who I've had the good fortune to dine together and chat with twice; once at Sake Bar Ginn and another time at Uehara!) telling me that he considered misaki to bonjiri!

Meanwhile, if I had to name a food item that I've come to appreciate far more after moving to Hong Kong: cow's stomach would probably be it.  And like the Japanese do with chicken butt, Hong Kongers distinguish between different cow's stomachs: with the omasum being considered more of a treat than the other sections, which can be found making up part of offal snacks sold at casual outlets as well as are usually included in a general bowl of offal and noodles in soup at various beef noodle specialists around town! ;b

Hope against the odds?

Mural with a message in a Sai Ying Pun alley

 Out of Africa comes hope?

The shenanigans involving the selection of Hong Kong's next Chief Executive yesterday have overshadowed the events, including this year's edition of Art Basel -- Hong Kong, that made this past week Hong Kong's busiest fine art week of the year.  And the political furor is continuing, with leading members of 2014's Occupy/Umbrella Movement being told today -- the day after Chief Executive-designate Carrie Lam vowed to heal societal divisions -- that they face prosecution and, potentially, up to 21 years imprisonment.  

This repressive government/police action strikes many people as vindictive, and smacking of an attempt at political cleansing rather than a genuine upholding of justice, particularly since the crimes the pro-democracy activists are now possibly being prosecuted occured some two and half years ago and it's not like they -- who include university professors, lawmakers and a clergyman -- have got a criminal reputation.  And it might make those who already feel despair at the selection of 777 feel even more hopeless.

But even while I'm saddened by recent political events, I refuse to give up on Hong Kong just yet.  For one thing, I learnt a long time ago that life is a marathon, not a sprint and also that we need to think long term rather than just knee jerk react to events related to causes that we hold dear.  And in this particular case, I really hope that people don't decide that the race is over before the finish line is in sight.

And as far fetched as it may initially seem, I think people could do worse than look at the fight to save elephants from extinction in our world.  Human actions caused these noble pachyderms' numbers to fall dramatically in the 19th and 20th century, and there were fears at certain periods in some quarters that these large mammals -- who have existed on this planet for millions of years -- might not exist in the 21st century. 

But while these pachyderms are still being killed for their tusks and their habitat shrinking, elephants continue to roam across much of Africa (including Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia -- all countries I've personally seen these creatures wandering about in the wild) and various parts of Asia (including Malaysia, where elephants can be spotted in national parks and elephant crossing signs by the side of at least one highway).  And there actually have been elephant conservation successes to celebrate in recent years.  

Among the biggest of these was the decision by China late last year to ban domestic ivory trade by the end of this year.  Not too long ago, that action on the part of the Mainland Chinese government would have been unimaginable.  But thanks to the effort of conservationists, some of whom -- like Tanzania-based primatologist Jane Goodall, pictured on one of the murals I came across in Sai Ying Pun last week -- have been at it for much of their life, they have actually become not only possible but reality.     

Returning to the subject of Hong Kong: Rather than despair about its future, one should keep hoping, and also acting -- like the conservationists have been doing.  At the risk of sounding over-dramatic, I'd like to urge those who love Hong Kong to stay angry and active, and keep your eyes on the prize. 

Or, in the words of Jane Goodall: "Without patience, I could not have succeeded"; "It is these undeniable qualities of human love and compassion and self-sacrifice that give me hope for the future.  We are, indeed, often cruel and evil.  Nobody can deny this.  We gang up on each one another, we torture each other, with words as well as deeds, we fight, we kill.  But we are also capable of the most noble, generous and heroic behavior"; and "What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you make".  

Ballaké Sissoko's music and my African connections

The concert program for the Hong Kong 

Arts Festival's World Music Weekend

 

A little more than a month ago, I attended the opening concert of this year's Hong Kong Arts Festival one day before the 2017 edition of the fest officially got going if the listed dates are to be believed.  So it seemed appropriate enough that I'd attend one of the three concerts collectively billed as making up the World Music Weekend taking place today despite the final day of the annual mega performing arts feast officially having been yesterday!

 

Kora player Ballaké Sissoko is by no means the first Malian musician I've heard performing.  Some two decades ago now, a friend from Mali introduced me to the music of his country by playing me cassette tapes of performances by such talents as songstress Oumou Sangaré.  And, in fact, Sissoko's not even the first Malian musician I've seen and heard live; what with my having been there when Tuareg band Tinariwen wowed the audience at the Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2012!

 

While listening to Sissoko playing on his 21-string harp-like instrument (whose sounds I personally associate more with that made by the guitar), I couldn't help but get to thinking about my friend, his countryman.  The rippling sounds that flowed from Sissoko's kora also brought to mind the lyrical music I heard in Timbuktu, Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako's affecting portrayal of Mali under the rule of foreign jihadists whose list of haram activities included music-making, however innocent and beautiful -- and made me feel ever so glad that the West African country is once more largely rid of those overly-puritanical religious extremists.  

 

In addition, even though it's over on the other side of the African continent, one of Sissoko's sets got me thinking back to my time in Zanzibar all those years ago.  In particular, his music triggered memories of many an evening spent hanging out with friends on that Tanzanian island; not so much because it was like the music that got played on those occasions when we decided to just listen in silence rather than -- as we were more often to do -- lay back, gossip and laugh a lot but, actually, because it actually got me thinking of night-time in Africa itself.

 

Here's the thing: even when one lived in an urban area in that part of the world, one still would be able to see lots of stars twinkling in the black sky and have the air filled more with the sounds of people talking, sometimes singing, and going about mundane activities than hear such as vehicles moving around or other machines being operated.  And somehow, that African night scene was what Ballaké Sissoko's music conjured up in my mind -- to the extent that even when my eyes were physically wide open, it at times seemed like I was seeing something else other than the interior of the auditorium I was seated, and he was performing, in this afternoon!

 

All in all, it was quite the hypnotic experience; one which I'd love to hear if it was shared by others at this afternoon's concert.  This much I do know though: after the performance's conclusion, there was much clamoring by audience members for CDs of Sissoko's evocative music.  And, in light of my experience at the concert, it made sense to find that among those for sale was one with the title Musique de Nuit! 

Housing eccentricities and downright madness!

The Yick Fat Building has appeared in many movies but 

it's a real life place rather than a made-for-movies set! :O

 

Perhaps more amazingly is that there are buildings

similar to it located in the vicinity!

 

Often times, when I tell people that I spent two years of my life in East Africa, they have visions of me living in a mud hut in the middle of nowhere and are kind of disappointed when I tell them that, actually, I lived in homes located in an urban space.  At the same time though, I consider some of them to be among the most "exotic" in which I have spent time in.  

 

We're talking, after all, of such as a place in Zanzibar Stone Town whose directions for visitors to find it ran along the lines of "Go to the Anglican Cathedral and stand near the baobab tree nearby.  Look for the bicycle mechanic shop.  The house I'm living in is located behind it!".  Oh, and there was the fact that another of my Zanzibar Stone Town residences was located in the grounds of a graveyard and had bush babies living on the roof!

 

In addition, as far as physical amenities were concerned, all of the places where I lived in Zanzibar (I bounced around for a bit there and stayed in four different places over the course of nine months or so) didn't have hot water to bathe with, and three of them weren't equipped with fridges (which necessitated my having to go to the market pretty much daily, like most Zanzibaris!).  Still, living conditions weren't half as spartan as when I attended archaeological field school in the Four Corners region of the US my sophomore summer and spent the bulk of my nights sleeping in a tent!

Such experiences along with that of having been a graduate student, I reckon, have made me more able to tolerate poor housing conditions than many other folks.  Yet it also is the case that there are tons of places here in Hong Kong that I simply would never ever want to have to call home.  And I'm not just talking here about the cage homes and tiny subdivided flats that I consider myself immensely fortunate to only have been in courtesy of the Society for Community Organization (SOCO)'s Life in West Kowloon exhibition in a Sham Shui Po tong lau but also the actually pretty high priced microflats that Hong Kong developers seem more and more intent on building.

 

A few years back, Queen's Cube was criticized for having flats with listed gross floor space of 400 square feet that actually had only 275 square feet of "saleable" (or "usable") space -- and went on to inspire the production of a clever "King's Cube" parody video.  But its flats seem palatial now in comparison to those in Henderson Land's One Prestige (the smallest of which are just 163 square feet).  And the madness has continued with an announcement today that Swire -- which is widely considered to be the best housing developer in Hong Kong -- will be making available studio apartments that are just 142 square feet in size later this year!

 

Again, bear in mind that I am someone who has lived in housing that a fair few people would not feel comfortable in.  (In addition to the Zanzibari and Four Corners examples, I've also done such as lived in a group house with four other people in Philadelphia, and attended boarding school in England back in the days where the bulk of the money went to education rather than accomodation!)  And yet, I think that 163 and 142 square feet flats are a bridge too far; especially at their price -- which in the case of One Prestige was close to HK$4 million (~US$515,670) to purchase and in the case of Swire's Star Studios, is looking to cost HK$12,780 (~US$1,648) a month to rent! :O

Cooling mango desserts that are ideal to consume during the hot summer months

Doesn't this Taiwanese shaved ice dessert look awesome? ;b

 

And trust me when I say that this other icy 

mango flavored dessert is pretty awesome too! ;b 

 

Decades ago when I lived in Tanzania, I became acquainted with a season of the year in that East African country known as the Mango Rains.  Usually running from around late October to late December, this (relatively) short rainy season was so-called because, as local lore would have it, "the mangos need it" (i.e., the precipitation helps the fruit to ripen).  

The way I remember it, this was a time of the year when the pre-monsoon precipitation that came down from the skies would help cool things, including mangos that we'd leave outdoors to be rained upon and consequently naturally chilled to an ideal temperature to consume!  This was something that was very much welcomed; since not every abode that I lived it in Tanzania had a fridge in it, and even those that did were subject to regular electricity rationing (due to electricity being considered a luxury rather than a 'given' in what was then a far poorer country than it is now -- which is still not all that very rich!).

Perhaps because I've come to associate mangos with cool times, I find that I tend to crave them when it gets really hot in Hong Kong.  More specifically, I reckon that my icy mango drinks and desserts intake substantially increases in the summer.  So it's a good measure of how high the temperature has risen in recent days that I've gone and had mango desserts twice in the past three days!

Early on, I tended to make straight for mango dessert specialist Hui Lau Shan when it's gotten so hot that some days, I can't bear to eat anything hot for lunch or dinner, never mind at tea-time!  But in recent years, I've become more adventurous and discovered that many other local dessert places in Hong Kong have their own great mango(-flavored) concoctions!

For example, mango-flavored Taiwanese shaved ice dishes that look beautiful as well as really are refreshingly delicious can be found at Tin Hau Desserts and Yuen Long's iconic Kai Kee Dessert.  Then there was the cold dish consisting of mango ice cream, chunks of the fruit and lots of sago that I had at Noble Dessert Shop which effectively was the second course of a wonderful dinner I had in Cheung Sha Wan that had also included a wonderful bowl of uni tsukemen at the nearby Ebina Tsukemen!

When I think some more of those mango desserts, I get to reckoning that mangos are my favorite fruit for desserts to be made from -- if not my favorite fruits, period.  So it's really quite the pleasure to be in a part of the world once more where these nutritious "superfruits" are pretty readily available -- rather than be something exotic that aren't always to be found in your local supermarket, never mind dessert shop! ;b    

Durian -- the seasonal fruit that got me flying thousands of miles to feast on!

Yes, there really is such a thing as durian tourism!

The very first durian I had on my recent trip back to Penang

A rural corner of Penang that's rich in durian!

In what can now seem like another lifetime, I lived for a time in Dar es Salaam with a Tanzanian family, the majority of whose members were born and raised on the Tanzanian mainland -- and consequently had little love for the fruit known in Kiswahili as duriani and Bahasa Malaysia as durian, unlike this Malaysian and the sole member of the family who hailed from Zanzibar (where durian grow wild).

Naturally, when durian season came along, the Zanzibari-born member of the family and I decided that we had to have ourselves some durian.  Equally expectedly, the durian-hating family patriarch ordained that no durian could be brought into the house, never mind be opened and eat there -- and there any one who wished to partake of the admittedly strong-smelling fruit would only be allowed to do so away from the house, at the far end of the garden!

Undeterred, the one lover of that fruit in that family and I went on to do precisely that.  And if truth be told, I actually do think that durian are best eaten out in the open air -- or, at the very least, some place where their unique aroma can waft freely and spread out rather than be trapped and thicken in air-conditioned surroundings!

Put another way: I love the taste of durian and am okay with its natural smell -- but feel that its aroma gets unnaturally as well as overly intense in such places as Hong Kong's air-conditioned supermarkets!  Indeed, I've been known to literally hold my nose when I smell durian in air-conditioned supermarkets, and even feel like gagging on some occasions.  Yet, against the odds, the very regular sight of the fruit that's the source of those intense odors in recent months caused me to yearn to feast on them so much that I ended up booking a trip to a part of the world where some of the best durian are to be found!

As it so happens, Penang also is where I was born and my parents still live.  And it was in the company of my mother and two friends that I drove all the way to Balik Pulau (whose name translates into English as "the back of the island") a couple of days after I arrived back to my home state for some durian in the front yard of a farm whose offerings include fresh eggs along with fruit such as -- when in season -- the much sought-after durian!

My mother had called ahead to reserve five durian -- and a good thing she did too, as it turned out that every durian at the farm that day had been spoken for!  So even though we actually would have liked to have eaten more durian, we had to content ourselves with the five that had been pre-ordered (and content ourselves with heading over to Kim Seng Kopi Tiam afterwards for some assam laksa for "afters")!

Still, although the quantity was less than we would have liked, we really couldn't complain about the quality of the durian we were allocated -- and also the diversity, since the farm owner made sure that we had five different varieties of the fruit: which ranged in flavor from sugary sweet to creamy rich (my favorite) to bitter sweet (the preference of one of our party); whose texture ran the gamut from soft and sticky to thick and firm; and whose pulp's color ranged from lightish yellow to bright yellow to reddish yellow (as can be seen by certain durian being known as ang heh (red prawn), ang sim (red heart) or ang jin (red egg yolk)).

And although Malaysian durian are known to be stronger smelling than, say, Thai durian, I wasn't bothered at all by the aroma of the durian I ate that day in Balik Pulau.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I could hardly smell the durian around me at all!  I think one reason for this was because our feasting took place in the open air but it's also highly probable that the durian didn't appear to smell all that much because I was so focused on devouring my share, and all of us ate ever so quickly -- because, well, the king of fruits lived up to its billing in terms of its tasting so very good! ;b