4 September 2011
Tsuen Wan
The airport express train was as efficient as ever, transfering me to a bus that takes me straight to my hotel, at 9am. This is of course an issue, there wont be a room ready until 12. Thats a bonus as check in time is 2, but they seemed to all remember me from my last visit, the reception girl knew my name before I handed over my passport.
So I need to kill some time, head into the subway and decided to stay on a line until the last station, which is Tsuen Wan.
A fellow sat down next to me and started talking, he was very concerned I had got on the train going the wrong way, all the stations this way have Chinese names, where as central, admiralty and causeway bay are in the other direction.
He was thrilled and fascinated to learn I was going to Tsuen Wan for no particular reason, and that I had just landed from Australia. He is from Nepal (looked Chinese to me), hates his job, but he only has a month or so of shifts left and he will own his house in Nepal and return home and be the richest person in his village and family.
Normally the end of this story would be I would get off the train and find my wallet missing, but that wasnt the case, I guess I could wake up later in an ice bath missing my kidneys.
Its Sunday, so all the parks are full of muslim slave women. You might think I am being culturally insensitive, but it really is the day off for all the live in maids and they all sit and have full day picnics and line up to send remittances home.
Unless of course I have that completely wrong.
I have no idea what this was for, but its impressively large and impressively red.
There are many many wet markets in Tsuen Wan, this one is large, smelly and multi storey. The Australian government has issued a travel advisory for H1N1 bird flu in all of asia, warning people not to visit wet markets specifically. So where am I within 2 hours of arriving?
There were big concrete cubicles with drains where I presume they used to butcher live pigs, but there was no butchering going on that I could see.
This entire building is encased in a bamboo and shadecloth exo skeleton. I am thinking of getting one for myself, the many gentlemen offering to make me a suit can surely fashion me a bamboo man suit?
Typical street scene in Tsuen Wan, busy for 9am I thought.
Hong Kong has nothing on Japan as far as vending machines go, but this umbrella one was quite impressive.