November 29, 2004. Sony Cyber-Shot DSC W1.
In 2004, I had a chance to attend a conference in Hong Kong, so I brought along my newly bought Sony DSC W1 to test its full manual mode on Hong Kong night views...
Since I took an afternoon flight, it was already evening by the time I arrived in Hong Kong. Luckily, Hong Kong is not that big, and public transportation is convenient. I took the Airport Express, transferred to the MTR at Admiralty, and reached the hotel in under an hour...
The conference was held at the JW Marriott on Hong Kong Island. Not bad at all... If I had come on my own, I probably would not have stayed in such a nice hotel. One night was HKD2,500 $.$
A Harbour-View Room Worth HKD2,500
When I checked in, the hotel upgraded me to a harbour-view room. The room had windows on two sides, and as soon as I walked in, the view outside pulled me straight toward the windows...
From this window, I could see Victoria Harbour...
From the other side, I could also see the pool at the hotel across the way /O.O\
After turning on the lights, the whole room really did feel worth HKD2,500 ^.^
After taking a few photos in the room and resting for a bit, it was time to go take care of the real business...
First, I needed to go to an herbal medicine shop to buy hasma. Second, I wanted to go to the Star Ferry Pier to test my new camera...
Mission One: Buying Hasma In Sheung Wan
Speaking of hasma, when I was little, there were often packets of Chinese medicinal ingredients in our refrigerator. One of them was hasma, and in summer my mom would often cook rock-sugar hasma for us.
It was chilled, sweet, and silky. I would drink a whole big bowl every time.
After growing up, I spent less time at home, so I had not tasted it for a long while.
I remember once seeing that dessert at Ku Cha House on Chongqing South Road. It brought back happy childhood memories, so I immediately ordered a bowl...
The result: a NT$50 bowl of rock-sugar stewed hasma had fewer than ten tiny bits in the whole thing. The rest was all ice and sugar water...
That was when I realized how expensive hasma was. The big bowls I used to gulp down as a kid would probably sell for more than NT$500 there...sigh...I really did not know better when I was little...
Chinese medicine shops in Taiwan also sell it, but my mom always complained that the dried goods were expensive and the color was not good. If I remember right, one tael was around NT$1,500...
As for bottled gift sets on the market, those were even worse...too expensive to drink without wincing...
Since I had a rare business trip to Hong Kong, where supply was plentiful (all from mainland China anyway...) and prices were cheaper than Taiwan, I had to stock up and bring some back to honor my mom~~
If you want to buy Chinese medicinal ingredients in Hong Kong, of course you go to the herbal medicine street in Sheung Wan. As soon as I came out of the MTR station, both sides of the whole street were lined with herbal medicine shops...
But by the time I arrived, it was already past eight, and only a few shops were still open. Since I had already made the trip, I figured a larger shop should be more or less fine...
Once inside, I asked how much one tael of hasma cost: "What? One hundred fifty?...then one catty is 16 taels...150 x 16 = 2,400...that cheap?? Boss lady, please weigh me one catty..."
The boss lady immediately smiled from ear to ear and took a packet out of the refrigerator: "This is one catty. No need to weigh it~~"
After swiping my card, I suddenly woke up...wait a second, 2,400 was Hong Kong dollars. Converted to Taiwan dollars, that was nearly ten thousand @.@'" I had thought I would use my business-trip allowance to bring something home for my mom, but now this was a huge loss >.<
I asked very quietly, "Uh...it seems like I bought too much. Could I just buy half a catty instead..."
"What? Half a catty? No, that will not do...the card has already been swiped, so it cannot be refunded~~" Huh...the boss lady's face changed immediately...
At first I was only feeling a little pain and thought I would ask, not that I absolutely could not buy ten thousand dollars' worth...
But...that attitude was way too much. What did she mean the card could not be refunded? How could that make sense...
At this point, I got angry too: "Why can it not be refunded? I have not even signed my name yet..."
Boss lady: "...uh...well...I do not know how to do it..."
Luckily, I was quick: "Is that so? Here, let me see...charge card -> refund -> authorization code -> amount...tap...tap...tap...see? There it is..."
The boss lady froze on the spot... "Then...did you not say you wanted to buy half a catty?"
I was annoyed by her attitude, but thinking that a person should keep their word, and also that I had made her happy for nothing in the first place, I was not completely in the right either...
So I still bought half a catty from her. This time I split it into two packets: one for my mom, one for my mother-in-law. Everyone was happy~~
Mission Two: Testing The New Camera At Star Ferry Pier
The first mission was finally over, though it had cost me quite a bit of time...
I rushed to the pier, took the ferry to the Star Ferry Pier, and as I saw the beautiful night scenery, my mood slowly got better...
This was not exactly a vacation, but Victoria Harbour at night was perfect for testing a new camera. With a compact digital camera in full manual mode and a bit of exposure practice, the whole pier became a free training ground.
I shot here and there, and before I knew it, it was already late.
There was a full day of meetings tomorrow, so it was time to go back to the hotel and rest~~
The Next Morning's Window Views
The next morning...here are a few daytime window views~~
Compare the night view and the daytime view.
The conference had a dinner on the second night, and after the meal it was too late to rush over to Victoria Peak...a bit of a pity...
But later I realized that with this kind of hazy weather, even if I had gone up to Victoria Peak, the photos probably would not have looked very good...
Fortunately, in 2005 I had another chance to visit Hong Kong. That time I did not need to buy hasma...and the weather was good too...ha~~
So, for the Victoria Peak night view, please come back later~~
Afterword: What Hasma Actually Is
Do you know what the hasma mentioned in this post actually is?
Since we were little, my mom always told us it was a kind of bug that grew on rocks in snowy places...something like caterpillar fungus, I guess...
And we (my brother and sister included) believed it completely. We even extended the imagination ourselves and thought maybe it was some kind of "snow lotus of the Heavenly Mountains" tonic...hehe...
While writing this blog post today, I thought: if I am going to write something, I should have at least some basis for it, not just "I heard"...
So, thanks to the magical Google, today I finally learned...all these years...the dessert I loved so much...the thing I kept eating...and ate so much of..."hasma"...was actually...unbelievably...it was...
The oviducts of the Chinese forest frog~~~ gross~~~
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Chinese forest frog (scientific name Rana chensinensis), also known as the red-bellied frog, is called hasma or hashima in Manchu. It is an amphibian of the order Anura, family Ranidae, genus Rana.
Its meat can be eaten, but its main economic value lies in the oviducts of the female. After drying, they are called hashima oil or hasma, translated in English as Oviductus Ranae. The related Heilongjiang forest frog (R. amurensis) can also be used to make hashima oil. One kilogram of hashima oil requires about 300 female frogs, which is why it is expensive.
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