Hong Kong

Well, it's been two weeks since I've updated, so I figured I would get the old fingers moving and crank another one out. And crank I will; no careful editing or frilly prose on this one. No sir. Speed is key here - after two weeks without posting anything, I'm sure a number of you are simply panting for an update. Such is my literary appeal. I see I'm up to three 'followers' now, and I would like to thank the two of you who must have become followers more recently. You are the wind beneath my wings, or at least the ones stoking the blazing furnace that is my ego. Ahem.

I arrived in Hong Kong about a week ago on a through train from Beijing. It was a 24 hour trip to get here - one of the faster and more comfy trains I've been on. Leaving from Beijing meant that I backtracked a little bit - I took a D train out of Qufu to Beijing, which is a sort of bullet train. It got up to around 250km/h at some points (that's 155mph), so it was much shorter than the overnight train I took before. I managed to read Around the World in 80 Days from start to finish on the trip - it was weird because they kept talking about places I'm going to and places I've been already as if they were overwhelmingly exotic.

The through train to Hong Kong, like I said, was pretty schnazzy. Lured into a false sense of confidence, then, I ventured to the restaurant car (I just involuntarily shuddered) for dinner that evening. The menu was in Chinese, so I ordered by pictures. Apparently I selected the Unwanted Pork Pieces with Celery in Terrible Sauce, which distinguishes itself in my memory as the only Chinese dish (calling it Chinese is a stretch) that I didn't like, and in fact abhorred. It was one of those nightmare meals that leaves a worse impression afterwards than the actual event of eating it. The ok-tasting parts I picked out went down fine, though, and I slept ok, and roused myself the next morning for my arrival in Hong Kong. I'm staying with a wonderful family here, which is a very fortunate thing; that evening I began to feel strange; I later began to feel downright awful; I spent the next day creating a sort of beaten path on the marble floor between my room and the bathroom. I felt a little better the following day, and proceeded out of doors with Willie, the patriarch of the aforementioned family, to acquaint myself with Hong Kong. I did acquaint myself with the city, and I also had opportunity (and compulsion) to acquaint myself with Hong Kong's fine public restroom facilities. I am happy to report that they are pleasantly well-maintained.

Another day and a finished course of antibiotics later I was feeling much better, and still am. I'm surprised I didn't get sick sooner.

Hong Kong wasn't really a planned stop, and I certainly wasn't intending to spend two weeks here, but that's what ended up happening. My plans to return to mainland China sort of fell through, and I ended up without enough time to really make it where I wanted to go and back in time to catch my flight to India, which is on the 29th. Hong Kong is a crazy place, though. It might be the most developed city I've ever seen. Of course, anywhere outside of the U.S. where you can actually buy Dr. Pepper is a distinguished location, so that should give you some idea of what I'm dealing with here. I had a bit of culture shock as I stood in an enormous shopping mall and looked around at all the stores. I've been sort of away from places like that for quite a while.

Hong Kong is also a very interesting blend of culture and history. It was actually a British colony until 1997, and was and still is a huge center for international trade. Everything is in English, so it's easy to get around, and it's certainly a departure from mainland China in terms of feel. I also had a chance to visit the neighboring island of Macau this afternoon, which was a Portuguese colony for about as long as Hong Kong has been British. Macau was, among other things, the rallying point for Christianity in the Far East: Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries were trained in Macau before being sent to China, and around 8% of the territory is still Catholic. It was interesting to see some standing Christian history in (what is now) China. So, despite these places being off my planned route, I'm still getting a chance to see something I'm interested in.