Chung King Mansions
In my 1 month+ here I've managed to do very little interms of exploring the more local spots of HK.. A college friend of mine was visiting her family for Christmas and we met up in Tsim Sha Tsui. As soon as we got out of the MTR (subway) station we were right at the entrance of the infamous Chung King Mansions. This place has some history... its a place where you will find all sorts of life, definately different from the sterile towers of Central in Hong Kong island.
At first I was a little intimidated entering the place.... filled with Indians and Nigerians it did not seem to fit into this predominantly Chinese city. There were groups of people forcing their flyers onto anyone coming through... I immeditately held onto my wallet in my pocket because with so many people crowding around I didn't know what to expect. My friend, being Chinese mentioned that she had never been in the place before but since I was Indian and since I looked like I fit in she wanted to check it out since she felt safer. The place to me had a very seedy feeling.. we didn't leave the ground floor but there was enough activity around that I didn't feel the need to check out the various floors. It was surprising to see Indian grocery stores about but there were a number of people just loitering around that looked suspicious enogh for me not to spend too much time mulling around. We ate at an indian resturant - the first time I've eaten at an Indian establishment since I've been here, it must be some sort of record... All in all it showed a different side of HK that I've not seen before and was excellent. I'd like to head back there one of these days to explore it a bit more and see where it gets its history from.
In other news the hysteria surrounding the tragic tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean seems to be dying down a little bit. I still find the whole thing a little bit surreal... definately something that seems that it should have taken place in a movie and not real life.
At first I was a little intimidated entering the place.... filled with Indians and Nigerians it did not seem to fit into this predominantly Chinese city. There were groups of people forcing their flyers onto anyone coming through... I immeditately held onto my wallet in my pocket because with so many people crowding around I didn't know what to expect. My friend, being Chinese mentioned that she had never been in the place before but since I was Indian and since I looked like I fit in she wanted to check it out since she felt safer. The place to me had a very seedy feeling.. we didn't leave the ground floor but there was enough activity around that I didn't feel the need to check out the various floors. It was surprising to see Indian grocery stores about but there were a number of people just loitering around that looked suspicious enogh for me not to spend too much time mulling around. We ate at an indian resturant - the first time I've eaten at an Indian establishment since I've been here, it must be some sort of record... All in all it showed a different side of HK that I've not seen before and was excellent. I'd like to head back there one of these days to explore it a bit more and see where it gets its history from.
In other news the hysteria surrounding the tragic tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean seems to be dying down a little bit. I still find the whole thing a little bit surreal... definately something that seems that it should have taken place in a movie and not real life.
posted by Krishnan @ 01:34
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