Fish Market and Hong Kong Flu

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008. I almost made it nine weeks in Asia without getting the flu, but late yesterday it happened. On the walk to our hotel, I started to feel bad. A combination of nausea and stomach cramps. By the time we made it to our room, I was done for. I spent last night and all day today laying in bed, sick as a dog. Food poisoning was the likely culprit…but who knows for sure. But there’s more to the story…

Late yesterday afternoon, as we were returning to our hotel, our cute little tourist map indicated we would be walking by the “dry fish market.” Without denigrating Asian and Chinese culture, what’s the freakin’ deal with dried, rotting fish? Dried fish husks (or something) were stacked waist high in bin after bin, and local Chinese were shuffling through them like playing cards. It’s like they were looking for a rookie Mickey Mantle card or something. Shark fins, whole fish (big and small), and quite a few items that I couldn’t identify (I saw some kind of dried whole lizard) were either hanging up our laying out right on the street.

What are these things, and why would one want to eat them after they’d been completely dried out?

As if the scene wasn’t bad enough, the quantities of dried and rotting sea life were astounding. Pile after pile, stall after stall, the dried fish market encompassed more than three city blocks.

The smell, of course, was overpowering. Had I not been so nauseous, I might have found it a little funny. Unfortunately, it was all I could do to keep from yacking right on the street.

My bout with Hong Kong flu began soon after, and I wonder if the smell from the fish market had something to do with it.