Sai Kung to Sha Tin - Day 2

We all woke pretty early again today, and I felt like a million Hong Kong dollars after a much better night’s sleep (even if it wasn’t quite long enough). Pollo, Alberto, and Amaurys went to ride in the country park (Pak Tam Chung), and I decided to ride to Sai Kung to look around again and eat breakfast there. I waited for Wilson, and we were finally about to set off when Eugene woke up and decided to join us. (Apparently Eugene, hard hit by jet lag, was up again at 3:30 in the morning. He took his computer outside, threading the ethernet cable through the window, to work on his blog, which seemed to succeed in making him sleepy enough to return to bed.)

We rode the 5K or so to Sai Kung, and as I pedaled I relished a nice feeling of familiarity with the road and the sights. It was my third trip to town, so I recognized a view of bay and islands here; an unusual gate there. This time I wasn’t in any rush to get anywhere, so I stopped for every single photo I saw framed in my mind’s eye as I wheeled by.

One thing that’s surprised me (although I don’t know why it should) is how clean it is. I’ve hardly seen a speck of litter anywhere. There are phalanxes of workers – all seemingly women, and many older, sweeping the streets and roadside parks and picnic areas. They have a uniform of a fluorescent green vest, and some type of sun-protecting hat. These hats – some the typical straw type (that one sees in photos of rice paddy workers) and some with a fringe of fabric like a large parasol – make them rather picturesque.

Wilson had fielded a phone call (on the cell phone graciously loaned to us by Louis) from Louis himself, asking us to meet him for breakfast in Sai Kung. It turns out that Louis lives near the town (in the hills above it). So as soon as we rolled into town, we went to the main square (Hai Pong Square). Wilson and Eugene were a bit ahead of me (due to my picture-taking propensity), and when I found them at a café on the square, they were sitting at a table with not only Louis, but also Pollo, Alberto, and Amaurys. I don’t know exactly how those three found Louis, but Sai Kung is a small and intimate enough town that they probably literally ran into each other.

Louis treated us to a good breakfast from the Western-style menu (“Eat up – it may be your last Western breakfast!” said he). As we were finishing, a group of schoolchildren about 8 years old approached our table, gently pushed forward by their young teacher. Two or three children gravitated to each one of us and haltingly, in a quiet but perfectly understandable English, one began speaking while the other(s) were poised to take notes. “We are studying tourism in Hong Kong. May we ask you some questions?” When they had asked us a few things and diligently transcribed our responses, they presented us with a hand-lettered pamphlet called “Welcome to H.K.,” with some recommendations on 5 places to go while in Hong Kong. The pamphlet revealed that the kids were from Chi Lin Buddhist Primary School.

I took my leave of Sai Kung with regret, as I really was getting fond of the little fishing village; the sense of discovery combined with a feeling that I was getting to know my way around was a very pleasant combination. We rode back to Po Leung Kuk, our camp, and quickly dragged our stuff out of the rooms to load into the Champion System truck that was awaiting us. We were driven to Sha Tin, about 20 minutes away. The drive was an eye-opener in that we completely left the park-like atmosphere of Sai Kung and Po Leung Kuk behind. Giant high-rise buildings, most of them appearing to be apartment complexes, rose up alongside the highways. We were impressed and amused most by two things: the prevalence of laundry hanging to dry out of nearly every window (even thirtieth-story ones), and the use of bamboo as scaffolding on even the most enormous edifices.

We arrived at the race hotel and waited a while for the rooms to be ready. The hotel – the Riverside Regal – is quite fancy, and the lobby sports a huge Christmas tree (real fir!). We passed the time until we could claim the rooms by watching a seemingly endless procession of small children and their parents coming down the escalator from the mezzanine. All the little ones were wearing uniforms of brightly-colored jump suits, which has struck me as very common here; from toddlers on up, all the children seem to be part of one uniformed group or another. These ones seemed to be coming from a Christmas party, and gleefully turned on and off their whirling fiber-optic toys, which they’d apparently received as favors.

After checking in, we met Louis and some of the other guys involved with Champion Systems for lunch just down the street. It was a humble local restaurant, and we ate seated outside on stools around wobbly formica tables. We mostly let our Chinese guides order for us, and thereby ended up with some fascinating appetizers such as jellyfish and breaded & fried chicken gristle. Wilson’s suspicious grimace and Amaurys’ wide-eyed look of shock made me joke that this trip was turning into a sort of GS Mengoni “Fear Factor.” I must say that I think I would kick the guys’ butts in this competition. The jellyfish was delicious, with a crunchy-soft texture that defies description, and a taste probably due more to the spicy sauce than to any intrinsic jellyfish flavor. I found the cartilage scrumptious in its garlicky coating.

Our guides wanted the Mengoni boys to see Sunday’s race course, so we loaded into the minivan and, following the huge Champion System truck, drove to the circuit start. We were near a huge (shipping?) facility with 40-foot containers stacked high; the ground was strewn with garbage and the air was thick with particulates. Eugene and Alberto had elected to ride the 8K circuit (which will be repeated 7 times in the race), along with 4 or 5 local Champ-Sys riders. So we followed them in the minivan, with hazard lights on, as they spun along the freeway-type road with big trucks thundering past. It is amazing to think this major road will be closed to traffic on Sunday. Louis had mentioned before that the sponsorship of HSBC had a major impact on making it possible to conduct the race in Hong Kong. (Eugene said the pollution was awful, which of course highlights the big question about the 2008 Olympic venue in Beijing – how will athletes handle the air quality in a highly industrial city of 15 million with infamous smog?)

After returning from the drive, I was so sleepy I felt I had to take a nap. I was in bed for 2 hours, and probably dozed for an hour and a half, before waking at 7 for a brief team meeting then dinner. The dinner buffet (accessible with a dinner ticket from the race organization) was plentiful and quite good. However, the dining room was equipped with enormous speakers on both sides, with an appalling montage of Christmas music issuing from them. This mindless mush of synthesizer-driven crud was really offending Eugene’s sensibilities, and he muttered darkly about yanking the plug of the nearest speakers. As bad as it was, I had to laugh when the medley segued from “Frosty, the Snowman” to “Auld Lang Syne” via a short clip from K.C. and the Sunshine Band. “That’s the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it, uh huh uh huh…” If it had only been trashy Xmas songs featuring Frosty and Rudolph I might have been less horrified, but I joined Eugene in groaning when I heard the synthesizer gang butchering “Silent Night,” “Little Drummer Boy,” and other genuine classics. Yuck!

There was some talk of going to the Night Market (which sounded to me like a compact Canal Street, with every brand-name knock-off for sale that one could imagine). However, there was a distinct lack of energy amongst us (especially for navigating an unfamiliar subway and contending with eager sellers at the market), and so we decided to just get a good night’s sleep. After writing a little about the day’s sights, that’s what I tried to do. I was dead to the world until sometime in what seemed to be the middle of the night, when the phone rang and a woman from the race organization, apologizing for calling so late, asked me to supply some biographical information on the team members. For goodness’ sakes! I was half-asleep, so I don’t really know what I told her. We’ll see tomorrow during the press conference and team presentation, I suppose.