March 6 - Devil Beaters, Stanley, Korean - again

Mar 6 – Tuesday

Today I was given two tasks by John, to take David to Stanley and to find a place to get some of our photos framed or a place to buy ready made frames. Since Sarah & I had already planned to go out to Stanley together today, the first one was no problem. Sarah had already told me about a woman that she’d used for framing in Stanley, so the 2 tasks worked perfectly together. Sophia had told me about some framing stores in the Wan Chai area, where the old office was. I decided to head out early & get prices on framing from several places, so I’d know what was a fair price.

There is a photo & frame shop just a few blocks from our apartment, so I started there. We had asked this guy before & I remember he’d seemed fairly expensive. My memory was correct, but I took his card & wrote down his price range. I caught the bus to Wan Chai & gave Sophia a call to find out where the places were she had seen. She told me where to look, but also told me that if I had time I needed to head down towards Causeway Bay (the area that Time Square is in) because today was a special day in the continuing Chinese New Years celebration. Today is Devil Beaters day. Sophia said I needed to go to the area under the Canal Road Bridge to see this most interesting Chinese tradition. She said that old women sit on low stools & people pay them to beat the evil spirits out of their lives. She said you tell them someone you want out of your life and they chant & light incense & then put a paper with images on it, onto a brick and then bang the image with the heel of an old shoe. She said there are always one or 2 of these women in this location, but today there would be dozens of them. If you want someone out of your life, this is the day to take care of it. Well, you know I couldn’t miss this.

I knew it would take me about 10 or 15 minutes to walk down there & I had a good 1 ½ hours before I had to meet David & Sarah was going to head out to Stanley on her own & we’d meet here out there. I stopped at a few more frame places on the way to the bridge & got prices. I knew I was near the bridge when I started hearing this constant banging noise, like the sound wooden heals make when walking across tile or brick. There was a crowd of people under the bridge. The old women had set up small temples in the area with candles burning & incense smoking. Each woman had her own little temple. All were decorated with some sort of tiger, either a statue or stuffed animal. Each animal had what looked like a slab of fat or lard laid across it’s back. There were also paper tigers that each person enlisting the services of the Devil Beater got to take away with them. So far I haven’t found anyone who can explain the significance of the tigers or the fat. They just say, “yeah, you get a paper tiger when you’re done, I have not idea why”. I’ll find out eventually.

It was really fun to watch the ceremony and ritual that each Devil Beater went through. Each had a long line of people waiting their turn. I was tempted to give it a try, but I was pretty sure none of them would speak English & there isn’t really anyone I’d want beaten with the heel of a shoe. Guess living on the other side of the planet and not working tends to make for very few enemies in ones life. I noticed one person paying & it looked like she gave the woman $180HK ($25US). I also didn’t feel like spending that amount of money on something I was likely not to understand. I took a video of the whole thing because I wanted John to be able to hear it. The sound was the most impressive thing, just constant banging. It was cool. I was definitely the only Westerner there & got lots of smiles from the Devil Beaters as I took photos. They seemed pleased that I found it so fascinating. My photo site says that I can post videos, so I’m going to try to post this one. It will probably take a day to upload, but I’ll send an email if it works.

I made it back in plenty of time to meet David. We headed out on the bus to Stanley. It is a great ride out there, winding roads, beautiful ocean views. We met Sarah & she having lived in Stanley the first 9 months in HK, knew her way around. She took us to a Tin Hau Temple. Tin Hau temples are temples to the goddess of the sea or fishermen, so almost every fishing village will have one. There is a story that goes with it, but it’s kind of long. There is also an area that has been restored to look like the old fishing village. It is nicely done. Stanley is known for it’s restaurants, but most for Stanley market. You know HK, they love to shop here. Stanley market must have well over 100 stalls with everything you could want, jewelry, bags, clothing, linens, souvenirs, art, the list goes on & on. The prices are OK & you can bargain some. It is a little cleaner & less manic than the night market in Mong Kok that is also famous in HK. Sarah did a great job of showing us the places were she’d found special items or knew were quality products. She also knew what was a fair price to pay for items. As enjoyable as David was to take around, he is not a shopper. In 2 hours of taking him from shop to shop, he bought a little Buddha as a joke for a friend, silk boxer shorts for his 9 year old son, a plain white cashmere scarf for his wife, and a small Chinese painted name sheet for wife & son. He was supposed to be getting gifts for Alan as well, but didn’t seem to like anything we suggested. He was supposed to get Alan an oil painting of HK like the one John & I had purchased at the Peak, but for some reason none of the ones we saw appealed to him. I have to admit that each store had the same paintings, which makes me realize we probably got a line of crap from the woman at the Peak, unless her husband works on the assembly line that does all of these oils. So the trip was pretty much a bust for David, I doubt his son will be thrilled with getting silk boxer shorts from HK. The white scarf was nothing special or typical of HK. Oh well, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. I was glad that Sarah & I had already planned to make this trip.

David & I had to get back to town for a Cadmus staff dinner with the HK director of the Company that has purchased John’s company. Don’t know if I mentioned this change with Cadmus in an earlier entry. We don’t know if or how this might effect our stay here, we’ll just have to wait & see. For now they say no changes, so we’ll keep enjoying it while it lasts.

We were going out for Korean BBQ, seems to be a favorite of this group. This time it was at a different restaurant in Kowloon. It was fun to see everyone & this time I tried Korean beer. I stayed away from the sake & plum wine, had enough last time. The guy from the new company was really nice & very relaxed & casual. He is married to a Chinese (mainland) woman, so he knows some Mandarin. The group had fun talking with him in Mandarin. It was a fairly uneventful meal, except on the way up the escalator in the building we passed a jewelry store that was called Cadmus. This of course required some photos to be taken. We had to show the others on the way down.

When John & I had told Alan & David about the vodka bar we visited with Keith, they had expressed an interest in seeing it. Before we left for dinner I checked the card I’d taken & found out they had a 2nd bar in the same block as the building we’d be having dinner in. After dinner I told them about this & they decided if we were this close we needed to check it out. So we found the place, put on the coats, had a shot (I declined since it had made me feel so sick last week), & took the obligator photo. They enjoyed it & we didn’t stay long. All in all a good day!