Hong Kong Day 11 (HK Haircut & Home Bound!)

Proof that our son is growing- For the first time in his life, Ryan didn't qualify for free travel on public transportation. While this was a bummer for us, he was ecstatic to finally, after years of waiting...get his own subway card. Luckily for him, kids were half price, so I didn't have to dock his allowance or sell his favorite toys. (Just kidding. I did take all his allowance.)

On our last night in the city we wanted to have some good ol' fashioned Chinese noodles, so we set out to find some and do some last minute shopping. Because it was already the end of the day and Ryan was tired, I ended up carrying him. We call him the 'opihi' (a type of limpet/sea snail that clings to rocks with a death grip) whenever he does this. At the start of the trip I really suffered since I hadn't carried him in 4-5 months (and I was sick). But by the end of the trip? I was ready to enter the Mr. Universe contest. That kid may have zero body fat and can rock 24-month old shorts (true story), but he's still 41.5 lbs. of skin and bones, which is still heavy as heck to lug around.

Later that night, we found our noodle shop! Super cheap- $17 HK per bowl and delicious! It was a lot like a Japanese tachiguisoba stand. Order, pay, slurp quickly, leave. In and out, baby. Move along now.

We spent our last night celebrating the end of our trip with a toast of (get this)....MANGO FLAVORED drumstick cones. Apparently, Nestle is holding out on us, America. They offer this option in Hong Kong, and yet not here in Hawaii, where mango reigns supreme. That reminds me- I was also able to get dragon fruit there for a fourth of the price here. Here I pay $6 per fruit...there? $1.50 from the supermarket, baby (in fairness, they are mostly grown in Southeast Asia so they should be cheaper...the ones I buy here are grown fresh in Kona and taste wonderful). I would have bought more there, but the one I got was flavorless...like most of the out of season fruit (kiwi, strawberry, grapes, apples, bananas) we bought for breakfast each day.

On our last day in Hong Kong our flight didn't leave until nearly 4pm, so in the mid-morning I walked Ryan about a quarter mile down the road from our apartment for a haircut. he was long overdue, so we thought it'd be cool to get one in China and see what the experience was like. 

The Before Picture..hair sticking up in random directions.

He practically had a faux hawk.

Again, the process was like buying a bowl of noodles from a ramen stand in Japan...buy a ticket for the service you want from a machine, get a ticket/receipt issued and present to the stylist. We had the option of paying with cash, credit card or subway (Octopus) card.

Next, sit in the spot allotted to you in the order you enter the shop. They make it pretty difficult to screw up the process since each seated is numbered for you. Still, I think it'd be fun to stumble in there one day when the seats are filled and try to squeeze in somewhere. If you tried this in Japan you just might get away with it (if you're white), but in China? Heh heh...well, at least they have affordable health care.

Individual TVs, individually sanitized combs, scissors, neck bands, capes...not bad!

Unfortunately, we had a very grouchy stylist. He clearly felt he received the short end of the stick in having to open up early and deal with the goofy Americans. I responded to his overall sulkiness with annoying American optimism and huge grins, but he retaliated by ignoring my repeated request to cut Ryan's hair shorter on top...and instead, did this weird chopping technique that made his hair look jagged and spiky on top. So thanks to Ms. Grouchy Pants, I had to come home and fix it myself. 

The only real surprise, but which was nice? They have little vacuum suspended above the chairs to immediately suck up any hair stuck on your neck/head. Pretty cool.

All that, for $50 HK (or $7 US)! It's the equivalent of a Supercuts.

The After Shot. Not much shorter in the front than we started thanks to Mr. Grouchy.

After the haircut we hopped in a cab to the airport, and had Ryan push all our luggage around so we would be well rested for our three flights home...which were 3.5 hours, 9 hours and 40 minutes, respectively. However, we had lengthy layovers that added over half that time to our journey. It took over 26 hours to get home from the moment we stepped into the cab.

Rich took Ryan to a playground in the airport (it was one of the junkier ones), while I hit up a bookstore, snapped titles of books on my phone that looked intriguing, but that I wasn't quite willing to pay $25 for. A few minutes later at the gate, I accessed a free wifi computer and was able to request all 5-6 of them from our local library. 

And would you believe, the day after we returned home...these two books were already waiting for me? I've already finished the first...and it's about ten times more horrifying than an expose about Wal Mart. If I had to summarize it in a short paragraph- much of the massive amount of exports (& economic growth) from China has been on the backs of young, working girls who (il)legally migrate from the countryside to work in untenable working conditions at shockingly low wages. The girls often work 6-6.5 days a week for 14 hours a day, sleep in tiny dorms, eat watered down meals, and can have their wages docked/withheld for every infraction imaginable? It makes you never, ever want to buy anything stamped "Made in China" again. Or visit the Southern China (north of Hong Kong) where most of the factories are located. Needless to say, it's tainted my visit. Though we know the answer- why isn't the government doing more to protect its own citizens? Devastating read. The book definitely tainted our visit and reminded me the importance of not judging a country by visiting a tiny speck of it.

I'm in the middle of this one...which is very well written, but turning out to be equally depressing, albeit from a slightly different perspective (written from the perspective of an American male businessman who speaks Mandarin living in China).

I also got to read one 'fun' book. I had no idea SNL's 'Pat' was such a talented essayist. This book was an enjoyable, quick read that was hard to put down. It revolved largely around her family (she adopted a daughter from China and has an incredible story of how she met her husband). If you have a chance...I highly recommend it.

This concludes the end of the Beijing-Hong Kong Diaries. Hope you enjoyed it. Xie xie.