Calisthenics (General) 2:00 [3]
Kowloon, China. My initial impression upon arriving here was that it's the NJ of Hong Kong. That's not an entirely fair comparison but it is just across the water from the more famed island. Kowloon is actually part of the same Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China--2 systems, 1 country. Mainlanders cannot easily come here and I had to go through Customs coming from Xian.
My negative impression of Kowloon was built upon the whole family being tired, sick, and fussy, and the hotel that we ended up in. My sister had arranged good hotels elsewhere but difficulties communicating with the travel agent and my dad independently telling the agent to keep the cost from being too high got us stuck in what I'd say is close to a dive. I took an orientation walk outside of maybe half a mile. It was interesting but my western suburban nose was offended. The walk was during the evening rush hour and it was really slow to move about. The place was just so busy wiith people walking. There are 7 million in the SAR. Remarkably, the traffic worked better than in most of the other places we'd been to so far. That's probably due to the British rule influence. Pedestrian barriers keep people from crossing at corners, and bicycles are not allowed on the roads too. The blocks all look similar (shop signs hanging from buildings at all different heights and sticking out way over the road) and with the odd angles it would be easy to get lost. I went through an outdoor shopping area where just about everything one might get at a KMart was being sold. The sunshine probably didn't hit the ground much here or in other nearby areas and the areas reminded me of the imagery in Blade Runner.
Our agent hadn't setup any organized touring for any of our Hong Kong stay. The area certainly didn't look like a place we could move my dad around in. As we debated options our trip hit a low point.
I ordered a western-like meal of beef steak on a french roll, hoping in might be like a hamburger. It was instead much like it was described, but also salty and chewy. That and my French fries are sometimes considered as a sort of sin for travelers by the locals here, but my stomach felt better immediately.
For fun I watched a Jackie Chan flick that wasn't dubbed into bad English, then did 45 sit-ups.