A "Break" in Hong Kong

I was just arrived from Hong Kong last night. Not a planned journey but rather a journey of “doing without thinking”. My sister asked whether I want to accompany her to Hong Kong two days before the departure. So, I said OK and took my return flight ticket at KL Sentral. To be frank I was a bit afraid to tell my father about the trip because I promised him to go back home and I will miss few classes ( I never ponteng classlah). A day before I went to Hong Kong I called my father but surprisingly he said “enjoy your journey and don’t forget to buy me a t shirt”. Ha3X. It is a break for me since I will only have my term break during this coming Hari Raya.

When I arrived in Hong Kong my first expression was the city is just like a “big brother” to Singapore but Hong Kong is more densely populated city. The tall gigantic buildings, people walking and rushing everywhere are the normal scene in Hong Kong. Sometimes I think the people here live in tense and their objective of life is only to get money, money and money. However, it is not so surprising since the price of the real assets here are very high and that is one of the reason why the Honkers are working hard to earn money. I met with a couple of Malaysian student who rent two bedrooms apartment that cost them RM3000. They told me that only rich people will drive a car in Hong Kong because the price of petrol is RM20 per liter. (I felt like org kaya in Hong Kong because I drive and own a car).

I stayed in the Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hotel in front of Victoria Harbour located in the shopping, business and entertainment districts of Tsim Sha Tsui East, in Kowloon. A really nice hotel and a walking distance from Nathan Road which is famous for gaudy stores and the biggest mosque in Hong Kong, Kowloon Mosque. When I went out from my hotel, and walked in the street I saw endless hi-rise office and apartment buildings. The interesting thing here is that most places we could get from building to building using the pedestrian bridges. So much of the time, the view of traffic can been seen from overhead and the traffic are always busy and noisy.

The best part of visiting Hong Kong was observing the survival of the Muslim community here. Alhamdulillah, I found two out five mosques in Hong Kong. Four mosques are in Hong Kong Island and another one in Kowloon. The first mosque I found was the Masjid and Islamic Centre at Oi Kwan Road in Wan Chai in Hong Kong island on the second day of my arrival. It was opened in September 1981. The majority in Wan Chai are Hui people (Chinese Muslim) and Indonesian. The Hui people cook very delicious and variety with big portion of fried rice (penat nak habiskan 1 pinggan). On that night, we took MTR back to Kowloon and we were lost but it was a bless in disguise since I found the second mosque. It was the Kowloon Mosque that beautifully located in the middle of shopping lots and the hustle and bustle of Nathan Road. I was surprised and impressed with the mosque and location. The Kowloon Masjid and Islamic Centre opened in 1984. The Muslims here are mainly from Pakistan, India, Indonesia, the middle eastern and African countries. The Pakistanian halal food can be found easily here. So, the halal food was not a problem for us when we were in Hong Kong.

It was an enjoyable trip with a few lessons I learnt. One of the lessons is that I should be grateful with what I have now and what I have gone through in my life. I was brought up with seven siblings in a house with five bedrooms, we have a big compound that enough for us to play rounder, badminton or riding bicycles. Contrarily, since only the millionares own a house and from the economic wise most of the Honkers only have a small unit of family living in small highly rented apartments. They don’t have the big family, big compound or car garage like me. Shouldn’t I be grateful for that?