"Culture Crawl" blog by Holden

Dim Sum, and other amazing  meals in Hong Kong

The morning started out with tasty Dim Sum. Lunch was a fantastic Vietnamese spicy beef stew and dinner was amazing Indian food, found in a hidden walkup in TST. All was amazing and all was very affordable. I like this town already.

Kowloon Cultural District – “Our Life in West Kowloon II” exhibit

Went to an exhibit that was closing this weekend. The building was evicted and is being redeveloped, so organizers filled each floor with photographs and installations that highlighted how the living conditions are for poorer residents. One room housed twenty people, all strangers. And another room had one of the infamous cage homes (basically a cage a large as a simple twin-sized bed). It could be called home and locked up when not around. Hong Kong has been getting rid of the Bed cages, but from what I was told they do still exist.The organizers where chronicling the way people live in Kowloon, not the disappearing building. “The spirit of Sham Shui Po exists in the people and their lifestyles, not the buildings..”

Our Lives in West Kowloon II — Society for Community Organisation’s exhibit in a building set for redevelopment this month on 55 Kweilin Street.



Another item that is disappearing from the Hong Kong streetscapes are the individualistic letter boxes.

Hungry Ghost Festival, Temple

The burning of paper figures are helpful to warding off the hungry spirits. I like this temple shot of 14 day incense coils and the paper maché horse in front of the temple.

Sham Shui Po street scenes

Lots for sale on teh streets here: clothes, electronics, funky re-furbished CB radios, “new” mobile phones, and cheap tasty food – like pudding-on-a-stick and tea.

Chungking Mansions (“Chungking Express”)

Late night at Chungking near TST.. Wong Kar Wei where are you? What room are you in? Hello? Hello?

A long appreciative day, Zzz Zzz