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  • Walter's Blog.
  • Home
  • Introduction
  • About Walter
    • 1980 Joining Up - Grafton Street >
      • Arrival and First Impressions
      • First Week
      • Training
      • Passing Out
    • Yaumati Cowboy >
      • Getting on the Streets
      • Tempo of the City
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • Into a Minefield.
    • Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon? >
      • Baptism By Fire
      • Kai Tak with Mrs Thatcher.
      • Home; The Boy Returns
  • 1984 - 1986
    • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
    • Having a go: SDU
    • Starting a Chernobyl family
    • EOD - Don't touch anything
    • Semen Stains and the rules
  • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go?
    • Blue Lights, Sirens & Grenades
    • Drugs, Broken Kids & A Plane Crash
    • 600 Happy Meals Please!
    • Hong Kong's Best Insurance
    • Riding the Iron Horse
  • Crime in Hong Kong
    • Falling Crime Rates - Why?
    • Triads
  • History of Hong Kong Policing
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • Three Wise Men from the West
    • The Blue Berets.
    • The African Korps and other tribes.
    • Getting About - Transport.
    • A Pub in every station
    • Bullshit Bingo & Meetings
    • Godber - The one who nearly got away.
    • Uncle Ho
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
  • The Long Read
    • How The Walls Come Down
    • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
    • The Hidden Leader
    • The Big Game
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Walter's Blog

"But how can you live and have no story to tell?" Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Reflections on recent events, plus the occasional fact free rant unfiltered by rational argument. 

"If you want to read a blog to get a sense of what is going on in Hong Kong these days or a blog that would tell you wh at life was like living in colonial Hong Kong, this blog, WALTER'S BLOG, fits the bill."  Hong Kong Blog Review

19/3/2018 1 Comment

A Busy Corner

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Mongkok (旺角) - literally ‘busy corner’. A crowd puller, a ‘Blade Runner’ set, dystopian with a retro-fitted future, old tenements and neon. Foreboding, with a slight air of menace, as Triad-types hang about. It’s too early in the day for them to exert their influence. Darkness is their cover.
​

You half expect Deckard to sprint out of an alleyway, chasing down a replicant through the surging crowd. Standing on Sai Yeung Choi Street, the buildings press-in, forming a concrete canyon. In the distance is a faint twitter, bird-like. Heading south, the chirping intensifies as Mongkok Road approaches. Then all gets revealed. Thousands of ladies gathered on the Mongkok Road footbridge, engaged in acute relaxation. It’s Sunday, and the maids are at play.

Crammed into every corner, every stairwell and doorway, its a scene of joy, almost carnival. Defying the surly looks of passersby, these ladies are getting on with enjoying themselves. They chat, barter, sell and buy food. They impose self-regulated apartheid of sorts. This footbridge is for Indonesian ladies. 

The Filipina ladies locate themselves elsewhere. On Hong Kong Island, the Indonesians claim Victoria Park on a Sunday; the Filipino ladies have Central, Tamar Park and space under the HSBC Tower.

The Indonesian ladies appear intent on escaping their cultural norms. While a good number are wearing the veil and headdress, others are smoking and drinking. What is striking, is no men. 

Each group has its pitch. A plastic sheet marks the ground. Shoes lined up on the edge. Windbreaks are covering railings, while food is laid out in plastic containers. It's all neat and tidy. Litter gathered ready for disposal. And the authorities are nowhere. No cleaners, cops or hawker squad. For today its maid territory. Their little bit of Indonesia suspended above Mongkok Road on a footbridge. 

It’s a sight to behold. A carefree day-off with friends, ignoring the passing scene with its encroaching urban environment. 

Moving on, you enter a different vibe and realm. South of Mongkok Road, Sai Yeung Choi Street gets annexed by an eclectic mix. Wannabe musicians, old-rockers, street performers and the odd nutter. The God-botherers are here, plus a few kids are trying their luck as jugglers. 

Drum kits, speakers and amplifiers. All powered by car batteries. Each group keeps a respectful distance from the next, as the passing punters go about their business. It’s all unselfconscious. The singing wouldn’t win any prizes, yet the setting adds to its attraction. 

The faces of the singers tell a story. Many nights in the clubs, when they could afford it; a bit too much of the ‘white-powder’ or booze. A botched plastic nose-job, pinched-tight skin. Old ladies with taut figures that turn to reveal age-etched on their faces.  A dapper chap in his sharp suit, all elegance.

Then as Dundas Street approaches, it's over as Sai Yeung Choi Street is no more. Ending the journey south. The traffic noise is back, as some half-drunk singer belts out another tune. 

Sai Yeung Choi Street
Concrete Canyon
Every nook and cranny
Little Indonesia
1 Comment
Imperial Mamma.
20/3/2018 08:53:37 pm

We always referred to Mongkok as bandit country.So interesting to see the different nationalitles off ladies doing each other's make up or a manicure on Sunday's I think this was in statue square.

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    Walter De Havilland was one of the last of the colonial coppers. He served 35 years in the Royal Hong Kong Police and Hong Kong Police Force. He's long retired. 

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