Well, it’s 1:20 in the morning and I’ve not been to bed yet–I made it nearly to 6 o’clock last morning too. Progress. Unfortunately I can’t sleep in tomorrow since I should be getting my roommate in the morning. I’ve been told that many exchange roommates have ulterior motives: those who volunteer to room with exchange students get (as do the exchange students) their air conditioning charges paid for.
Didn’t blog about yesterday, but there wasn’t that much to mention. I took the Light Rail into Tuen Mun Town Centre and looked around the interconnected shopping malls, park, government offices, library, post office, etc. The library thinks I’m too much of a risk until my HKID is issued. The post office, however, was happy to sell me aerogrammes at a ridiculously low HK$2.3 each.
At Fu Tai I bought a bowl (genuine non-knockoff made-in-the-USA Corelle, the better to not melt into my food), fork, spoon, and some ramen, which I’ve been burning through pretty quickly. Ramen is pretty easy to make as the local source of filtered water (meant for tea, I suppose?) is set to about 98 degrees Celsius. Drinking-temperature water is a little harder to make… right now I’m using a Rubbermaid pitcher as a relatively uninsulated but heat-resistant container. Takes a while.
This morning a big group was going to see the Big Buddha on Lantau Island, but I found out that Sunday carries a 50% surcharge on Lantau transportation, so I postponed my trek to see him. I was feeling better today, so (idiot that I am) I made it worse by spending the day in Kowloon and Central. Yes, this means I did make it out to Central. I don’t think they are allowed to build anything under ten stories tall on Hong Kong island—you should look up pictures of the skyline as mine [available at the normal place] don’t do it justice.
On my way out I bought a pair of egg tarts (the Portuguese must have left a few here) in the Mei Foo West Rail/MTR station, and stepped outside to eat them. I was pleasantly surprised to find a small oasis. Hong Kong has done a very good job of stashing little parks in unlikely, soulless New Town development places.
I’m glad I’m not rich and gullible about fashion: those of you who are slaves to designer labels should get a kick from the directory of Pacific Place at Admiralty, into which I stumbled today.
The views from NWF Bus 15 to (and from) Victoria Peak were phenomenal but impossible to capture on camera. Breathtakingly breathtaking, and even better (as I’d been told) after darkness fell. I managed to be on a Star Ferry in the middle of the harbour during the 8 p.m. nightly light show, which was a neat perspective that also went uncaptured.
I probably re-aggravated my stress fracture for six months with my walking today: I got off the MTR at Mong Kok on the way in and walked all the way down Nathan Rd. to the Star pier at the end of Tsim Sha Tsui, and did the reverse on the way back. Instead of getting on the MTR there I hailed a 67X bus, which was just about as fast in the low traffic of a Sunday evening. Unfortunately, I missed out on the reprise of the Lantau Link bridge view (featured in my trip from the airport) because I was nodding off. Maybe that’s why I’m still awake now. I wasn’t back yet by the time I usually fall asleep.
I’ve just spent a bit cleaning up the nest of paper I’d started to accumulate, since the roommate is impending, and some more bits deleting lots of failed pictures, uploading the rest, and writing this. Remember that if you’re reading, it’s nice to comment once in a while so I don’t feel like I’m talking to myself (even though I am, really). IMs, e-mails, using the “comment” function itself, sending snail mail, calling my Skype or mobile… it can all be tremendously helpful. And if you aren’t reading, you’re a horrible person and I can say anything I want about you on here, because you’ll never know.
To the Nyquil again to try to free things up and get me to bed. With any luck the next blog post will not end with Nyquil, as nice as it is.
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