...when it was time to leave, I left my laptop behind. After all, why lug it to the room, and then back just a few hours later?
That left me walking free, and when I hit the (relatively) cool night air, I thought I'd get the kinks out and cover some Kowloon ground.
I headed through the familiar ground around my neighborhood, taking in the change in scene. It's not that everything is closed. Nope, not here in Hong Kong. Nearing midnight it's more of a transition. Some shops (like the 7/11 and the Circle K) are open 24 hours. Most are daytime places that close between seven and nine. Others are night places that don't open until dark. And still others have some bizarre schedule that escapes me.
Even though I hadn't eaten for many hours, I just wasn't hungry. Nope, I stood by the fountain and did a little rotating.
This way?
That way?
I decided to head toward the Bay. I hadn't approached it from this particular overpass as yet (here there are lots of pedestrian overpasses... some going for blocks... that allow people to walk over some of the highest traffic roads) and it looked like a good walk.
Along the way a China girl smiled at me.
Slim, cute, short hair, long legs, dressed all in black, but not very nice. Adorable, really. She said hello, I said hello, and I just kept walking.
A bit farther along I realized that she was following.
Even keeping up (long legs, as I said).
I slowed, turned.
Adorable, just like my first impression.
She was asking me something, but I couldn't figure it out. The accents are strong, the words are blurred (at lunch it had been explained to me that Cantonese speakers tend to keep their tongues straight, which makes pronouncing English a nightmare). Finally she touched my arm and I figured it out.
"Massage."
Ah, yeah.
I smiled, refused. Probably saw a bit of relief in her face (I'm what, three times her weight?).
Anyway, I kept walking.
Took the fifteen-minute walk from my end of town over to the Star Ferry (fifteen minutes, but only if I walk fast). Along the way I got to see the midnight time change...
Y'see, there's this huge building across the way (I think it was the tallest in Hong Kong, but there's another one under construction, said to be #3 in the world, that will be taller) that has a spire with these rings of light. The combination of the color of rings tells the time, right to the quarter hour. When it turns midnight, all three rings flash red. Cool!
And I kept walking.
After midnight there are still plenty of people out and about. Aimlessly walking. Strolling with a purpose. Couples necking, or just holding each other. Guys fishing. A quartet of blonde Russian women talking loudly. Clusters of school kids. A guy singing something loudly in Cantonese. Occasionally, a person or a pair sleeping on cardboard. More black people than you'd expect, speaking odd languages, and occasionally American. Four swarthy guys looking like they were walking down the streets of New Delhi. A gorgeous woman, shabbily dressed, squatting down low, manipulating a pair of needle-nosed pliers over something attached to a fishing pole. Three Portuguese. Scattered professional photographers. A guy selling beer out of a hand cart. People just sitting. People just standing.. People...
I really haven't described even the smallest part of it.
Eventually I hit Star Ferry. End of the walkable shore. Time to head inland.
I'd passed Nathan road, the big north south street that cuts Kowloon east and west. So I went looking.
Along the way were innumerable taxis and buses, plenty more people. The first digital bus stop I've seen. Another 7/11, but also another 24-hour convenience store of unknown affiliation. More people.
I dead-ended into a subway.
No, not a subway in the sense of a New York train.
No, subways here are just underground passages for pedestrians. A way to walk under the killer traffic (by the way, in case you didn't know, the cars here have the steering wheel on the British side, and it's all too easy to forget to look the 'right' way when you step out in traffic).
Coming out of the subway, following the Nathan Road sign, there was a European couple. Italian, maybe.
I walked past, went another block, past the YMCA shop (yes, the Y has a store here...), and realized that I'd gone the wrong way.
Back up and then back around the corner.
The couple, who I thought were about to go their separate way, were together. Very close together.
Stiff-legged. Tense.
As I walked toward them, they had their first kiss.
It was a sweet thing. I'm glad I shared it. I don't know where their relation has been, or where it's going, but I know, I absolutely know, that was their first kiss, their first intimacy.
A beautiful thing.
I kept walking.
Past more shops, more people, more oddball activity.
Hmmm... This wasn't Nathan Road. I overshot. I was somewhere on the west. Near Canton Road?
Yep, as it turned out, I was exploring a completely strange street. Bars, lots of westerners, menus all in English. More bars.
And then it looked like I was walking into a complete dead-end. No where for cars to go...
...but, as is usually the case here, there was an exit for people. A doorway, a set of steep stairs downward, and suddenly I was back in familiar territory, three blocks from Nathan Road, just across the street from Kowloon Park, around the corner from the Hong Kong Mosque.
Even more people, and more open shops. I counted four different fresh juice places, each bigger than the last, each with an even more elaborate selection of fruit. Then an open music store. Then on to Nathan Road.
I crossed east, then north, kept walking.
What the hell?
A department store. A big department store. With high fashion manikins, cosmetic counters, "Giordano" signs, all glass and neon and mirrored and fluorescent, with well-dressed staff. Looked at the watch. 12:44 a.m. And it's open.
I can't explain that one.
Just kept walking Nathan Road.
Lines of cabs. One has hand-embroidered seat covers.
A couple of guys carrying bundles of magazines from the rattiest van I've ever seen, over to a wide-open newspaper stand, walking quite a distance because there was nowhere to park.
Nightclubs. Restaurants. Spas (don't ask, I have no idea, but there are lots of 'em).
Another story comes in view.
Three guys of indeterminate ethnicity, clustered around a telephone booth, faces in deep concentration, obviously trying to master the art of long-distance calling. Where are they calling? Where are they from?
They're dark, but not as dark as the Hindus. Not Chinese, nor any oriental. Certainly not European. I pass by....
Another couple in the midst of something. This time she's mad at him. He's smiling, she's not buying.
An innocent faced girl dressed slutty. A minute later a slutty-faced one dressed as a schoolgirl. A slim guy in black, sleeveless fringe. A short, stocky guy with a "BLITZ THIS" block-letter t-shirt. Girls in party clothes. An old couple, laughing.
I'm startled. At my feet is a sleeping skeleton. He's alive, but painfully, painfully thin.
I pass through neon. One sign, looking fifty years old, offers "Digital Internet." Others are just incomprehensible. Some in Cantonese. Occasionally in Cyrillic. And at least one in some language I've never seen before.
A huge, dark, sullen overpass. For a few moments there are just a few of us travelers.
A jog to the right. A road intersects, oddly bearing the name of a friend of mine.
I smile, think of him, wonder what ancestors he has who would warrant a street name in Kowloon.
More Nathan Road.
Suddenly I see an open doorway with the "24 hour Internet" sign (along with a massive mound of Chinese).
I walk on.
Stop.
No, I'm too full of stories. Too full of sights.
It's nearly one, but I've got to dump, got to offload my experiences.
Here.
Enjoy...
Hong Kong is incredibly safe. About the only real danger is from pick-pockets, and they stick to the huge crowds (an advantage of my midnight walk, lots of people, but no shoving crowds).
Partly it's because of the general character of the people. Incredibly law-abiding and respectful. Partly it's because the Triads are real and powerful, and they don't like the idea of themselves or their relatives being bothered (they're violent, but they stick to killing each other in secluded places with hatchets and high-powered submachineguns).
Mostly, I guess, it's just because that's the way it is.
I had a conversation yesterday with a Hong Kong woman about the Washington D.C. sniper. She couldn't figure it out. And when I pointed out to her that it was likely that the maniac had no family... that was baffling. People here live with their parents, or some relative, until they start a family of their own. The idea of someone being without family is horrific...
Anyway, I was too tired to walk back, so I grabbed a cab. From my meager description...
"Near the Hotel Nikko..."
"Nik...Ko?"
"Um... Austin Road" (and a vague pointing)
"Hmph." (head nod)
We turned and twisted like a snake with its head chopped off (a metaphor somewhat more vivid, here in a city with thriving snake butchers). Blazing down one road, a sharp left, down a dead-end with a really nice turn-around, all the better to build up speed, then rocketing right, left, sharp right. So help me, we went in every direction.
Then, suddenly, there we were, skating by the university on Austin Road, heading toward home. A minute later he pulled right up in front of my building, right into my service drive.
Obviously the guy was psychic. I've never been placed on my doorstep so accurately in Hong Kong.
The meter was 17.9, so I gave him two $10 coins and my profuse thanks. Got a great smile in return.
It was a good night...