Decor & Lifestyle

Sunday July 1, 2007

Go(ld) figure!

By KEE HUA CHEE

Only in Hong Kong, where modesty seems a sin, can you find a working carriage crafted of solid gold and the World's Most Expensive Gold Toilet.

NATHAN Road in Kowloon stretches seemingly forever but it is hard to miss the 3D-Gold store where the Golden Carriage is exhibited. More confusing, there are two 3-D Gold shops within a few minutes' walk. If you approach from The Peninsula hotel side, ignore the first shop which is much smaller. Walk for a few minutes till you reach Po On Commercial Building. The famous Golden Carriage was once located in full view of passers-by but is now located in the rear of the building.

"To discourage too many people coming in just to see," explains sales assistant Carrie Hong. "The carriage is open to the public but we prefer people who are genuinely interested and come all the way to view it rather than passers-by who happen to see it and decide to drop in for a closer look." Fair enough. This being Hong Kong, its full name is Fantastic Flying Gold and Diamond Carriage though the aviation part is beyond me.

Says Hong soothingly, "Oh, it looks so beautiful, like a dream where it can fly through the night sky and the stars sparkle like the diamonds on the carriage."

I ask if it refers to Pegasus the flying horse but she seems baffled. As my Cantonese is non-existent, I decide to spend time examining the carriage. It is an open carriage so the whole world can see you reposing on the red velvet seat. The diamonds on the carriage and saddles are artfully sewn onto the fabrics so they can be easily and quickly removed if need arises. The diamond-studded saddle and driver's seat look hard but the thought of sitting on millions of ringgit worth of stones overcomes any discomfort it may cause.

Fancy sitting on 280kg of solid gold?

Of course it is possible to sit on the carriage and get your photograph taken. Provided you make a purchase of over HK$1,000 (RM445).

Since the Fantastic Flying Gold and Diamond Carriage is fit for a queen and China does not have an empress, 3-D Gold chose the next best candidate to launch the vehicle in 2004 – Hong Kong's superstar Kelly Chen who was carried to her Lost in Paradise 2004 concert!

It took three months, 80 goldsmiths working with 280kg of 24K gold and over a million diamonds and gems to craft the carriage by hand. Built when gold was still wallowing at its low levels of US$280 (RM975), the carriage is now worth HK$80mil (RM35.6mil) based on gold's present prices of over US$600 (RM2,000) per ounce!

With its pantheon of western gods, goddesses and cherubs, this set of wheels is inspired by the royal carriages of Europe. Of course it looks ludicrously out of place in a Chinese gold shop. More so when the backdrop features golden pigs (in honour of the current Year of the Pig) in various startling poses, from sleeping to pirouetting as a very fat ballerina! The entrance also boasts a pair of life-sized golden angels as if to compensate for the deficit of blue-eyed blonde sales staff.

From here, it is a 10-minute taxi ride to the Expo Global Tourist Exhibition Hall, whose pride and joy is the "World's Most Expensive Gold and Jewellery Sparkling Environmental Friendly Washroom cum World's Most Expensive Gold Toilet" as listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

These two records are actually for one venue at Kaiser Estate Building featuring the planet's flashiest, most eye-blinding loo. The entire set-up is controlled by Lam Sai-Wing of Hong Kong listed Hang Fung Gold Technology Group which also sells the La Milky Way and 3-D brands.

Golden dolphin taps prance above the sinks.

The grandiosely named Expo Global Tourist Exhibition Hall is open to the public since it also sells gold and precious jewellery direct from its factories in Hong Kong and China.

Before you can relieve yourself, you must walk past the obligatory exhibition featuring China's first astronaut, Ronaldo's solid gold football and the world's most exclusive sculpture – a miniature bust of your own face!

"The price depends on how big your bust is but the starting price is HK$40,000 (RM17,800)," says Stella Lai, Global Expo's spokeswoman. "A three-dimensional image is taken of you and our computers recreate your face in solid or hollow gold."

You then enter the vast showroom filled with everything imaginable in gold and precious stones. This is where tourists are supposed to offload some cash before offloading at the golden toilet bowl.

Would a golden bowl ease those morning movements?

"A visit to the golden washroom is free," beams Lai. "Some think they have to pay but this is not so."

Lest I scratch the floor, I have to wear a clear plastic wrap over my scruffy shoes. I make a beeline for the holy of holies, only to discover there are two solid gold toilets side by side!

King Midas would have felt right at home here. Too bad the floor is not of gold but inlaid with 150 million-year-old fossils. Points out Lai, "But the edges of these fossils and tree trunks are edged with gold. There are also gems imbedded on the floor and together with the gold they possess eternal, long life and immortal energies."

The entire washroom is completely styled after some fantastical ancient Roman bath. There is no trace of any oriental influence with nary a coiling dragon, flying phoenix or guardian fu dog in sight.

In lieu of ferocious Chinese temple guardians, the entrance is flanked by two panels depicting spear-wielding Roman centurions.

A magnificent chandelier casts more golden glow inside. The three wash basins have taps shaped as dolphins with panels depicting young men leaping above bulls as seen in the fabled Minoan palace of Crete.

On one wall is a golden image of Venus, goddess of love, emerging from the waves. There is a working telephone, too, in solid gold so you can call home to boast your good fortune. The two stools are petrified tree trunks which somehow seem rather irrelevant as money does not grow on trees.

Naturally, I have to seize the golden opportunity of relieving myself. To my amazement, right at the bottom of the bowl are diamonds!

"Yes, the diamonds continue to shine and sparkle under all conditions," explains Lai cautiously, too polite to mention the "s" word.

I sit to do my business and check my environs. I am sitting on a solid gold "throne" with the toilet paper dangling from a solid gold dispenser. The waste bin, dustbin and air-con cabinet are of solid gold. I wonder if I can scrape some gold from my toilet seat as the toilet dispenser is too big to squeeze into my bag. Gouging out the diamonds from inside the toilet bowl appears tempting. Only the thought of a hidden camera prevents my nefarious scheme.

"The entire washroom required 380kg of pure gold and 6,200 gemstones. In 2001, it cost HK$38mil (RM16.9mil) and is now worth HK$80mil." says Lai, bursting with pride. "This is truly one of the wonders of the modern world."

This fabulous chandelier lights up the world's ‘Most Expensive Gold Toilet'.

But why would anyone go about building a golden loo?

"He was inspired by a quotation from Lenin who said he dreamed of celebrating the communist revolution by building toilets of gold. At that time, all gold was the property of the Chinese government and Lam Sai-Wing (who was in 1955 in Guangdong) had only seen gold once, a ring his mother had kept hidden," says Lai.

Everyone was singing and writing about the triumph of communism compared to the decadent West. The young Lam reasoned if that was so, where were the toilets of gold? Why were individuals banned from even seeing this metal?

In 1977 he migrated to Hong Kong and was stunned to see so many gold shops selling the metal openly. He was determined to see his dream come true. He was 21 when he started his own tiny business. It took him 23 years but today he is certainly sitting pretty, on his boardroom chair or one of his two golden loos.