Hong Kong: Mr Fat, the Hungarians and Kurt

Anwar leaves early to go take care of his work visa. This place is too gross to attempt a shower; I would just feel dirtier. I grab my bags and go to the 7th floor to a place the Lonely Planet said was clean and friendly, The Welcome Guesthouse. Mr. Fat immediately tells me to sit down, then he gets up and pours me some tea. He gives me a white jade Buddha necklace, for luck, and I am never taking it off! He has no rooms available but makes a phone call and tells me to go up to the Park Guesthouse on the 15th floor. I almost don’t because I’m so disgusted with the building, but I’m also tired and since Mr. Fat is kind and decent, that gives hope for his friend.

I get a spotlessly clean room, with a view, for 130 HKD (around $17). The shower is down the hall but I don’t care, because it is clean too.

I wander around and really savor the quiet moments alone. For the first time, I’m starting to really appreciate this. No company is certainly better than bad company, but I’m really fully realizing that now.

1 May 2007 : The Hungarians and Kurt

I get up early, cross the river, and run to the Golden Bauhinia to see the flag raising ceremony. It’s further than I thought, and I make it there for the last 45 seconds.

I wander around Hong Kong, going up the world’s longest covered escalator, which is a succession of about 15 escalators, really awesome. I explore Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, see the jaguar and the birds, take a double decker tram through Central, and try in vain to buy some sandals that actually fit. I’m glad to be tall, but my big feet are quite problematic in Asia… size 40, which I normally wear, is as big as it gets in most shops, but somehow I need a size 41 here!

I go to Temple St market. Like every other market in Asia, they are selling just about everything you can think of (except big-size ladies shoes!). I’m wandering along, minding my own business, about to go back to my room for the night (having given up on the shoes)… when I acquire a creepy admirer. He’s shady, he looks like one of those guys on Canal Street in New York with all the illegal merchandise spread out on a black mat, ready to roll up and run if they get the signal that police are coming. He says I need a companion, I tell him, No I do not… But he persists, and follows me as I walk quickly, weaving through the crowd at the busy market. Not tons of Westerners, though, so I’m pretty easy to find! Out of desperation, I approach the first very obviously Western person I saw… and say "Hey, there you are! You’re early!" And he plays along. And that is how I meet Kurt and the Hungarians.

My shady stalker vanishes and I have a beer with Kurt, Csaba and Csaba. Which turns into dinner, and Kurt, who is Chinese, is very intent on making sure I have the best experience of China, and is writing down all these places I need to go. Also he tells me to call him when I arrive in Guangzhou, as he lives there. He’ll pick me up at the train station and I can stay in his home. The Hungarians then insist that I must come with them (and Kurt) to Hong Kong’s famed Lan Kwai Fong, the nightclub area, since I haven’t seen it yet. And I am afraid that if I say no, and go to bed as planned, that I will regret it. Maybe I won’t regret it… but past experience has taught me that I can always sleep later, but the moment to live in, is NOW… and sleep cannot compete with great memories with cool people.

We go to Cave, where a South African band is playing live music. The singer is a girl who shakes her booty like I have never, ever seen done before, not even in a Kid & Play movie! They’re actually really good, and I’m falling asleep standing up when I find out it is three o’clock! And now, for certain, I am done! I get a taxi across to river, back to my scary building, and crawl into my cozy bed high up above the crazy street jungle of Kowloon’s Nathan Street.