On the way back to my hotel (in Tsim Shat Tsui), I walked through Kowloon Park. It’s very nice, like a small version of Central Park in N.Y.C., surrounded by tall buildings and busy streets, but large enough to filter out traffic noise. I stopped to watch people swimming in the large indoor pool (although its been shirtsleeve weather, the outdoor pool (also very large) was closed and being repaired). The Park is really very nicely landscaped with quite a number and variety of large trees and multi-level terrain. It’s quite a nice resource for Kowloon citizens.

Friday evening, November 20:

It’s come to my last night in Hong Kong. I have enjoyed it more each day, and so it is that I am sorry to be leaving.

This morning I set out on the #6 bus from Exchange Square in Central to Stanley (on the far side (south side) of Hong Kong Island). I could not have imagined a more scenic trip. I better appreciate H.K. Island now as being essentially rocky/mountainous with settlements in shoreline areas, along with some buildings on the hillsides commanding sweeping views (often of water).

The bus was a new air-conditioned double-decker with comfortable seating and big, clean windows, the better to see the scenery. Still in the city (H.K.), we were climbing to higher and higher elevations amidst buildings perched on hillsides, admiring their views and imagining what it’d be like living there. These buildings looked of quality, unlike some of the lowrises, grungy and festooned with drying laundry, we’d seen before leaving H.K.’s downtown coastal area. Perhaps these better quality buildings were of the class referred to in the classifieds where a 1000+ square foot unit might rent for $30,000 H.K. per month ($4000 per month U.S.). [Aside: Yes, real estate is still very expensive here, notwithstanding the recent 50 percent downturn in the market. Now may be the time to buy, what with residential units in a new building going for maybe $4000 per square foot (putting a 1000 square foot unit at about $500,000 U.S.). (I’m beginning to see the sense (or necessity) of living in a place with only a couple hundred square feet and hanging laundry out the window).]

Then we left the city behind, traveling on the narrow, twisting, hillside (mountainside?) highway amidst mountain greenery, seemingly untamed, in some places trees and in others (higher altitudes, rockier soil?) more like brush, but all of it quite green and fairly thick or dense. Basically I’d say of H.K. Island that man has built were he could and nature has kept the rest green. There’s nothing in the way of “urban sprawl” because building comes dear as soon as one gets off the narrow coastal plain. Btw, I believe a fair portion of the coastal land may actually be land reclaimed from the sea through dredging and filling of the bay.

A bit further on we came to the town of Repulse Bay, an absolutely beautiful place to live. It looks like a resort area, high-rises overlooking the bay and a small beach. It’s a small community, cupped around the Bay inlet with a backdrop of mountains ringing the Bay. (I’m never sure whether to call them mountains or hills; in any case they rise, perhaps a thousand feet above sea level.) If I lived in Hong Kong, I wouldn’t mind living in Repulse Bay!

After Repulse Bay, we continued on to Stanley, a rather non-descript town, in my view, with a central market/bazaar. Being new to the bus system, I found it took some effort to know which bus to take (here I went by my guidebook) and where to pick it up (here I’d ask bus drivers, etc., who usually could speak enough English to answer the question). From Stanley I took the #14 bus to Sai Wan Ho in the northeast coast of the island. The terrain on this trip, too, was scenic, although without much in the way of development. Sai Wan Ho is a gritty, working class town, nothing fancy about it. There are many affordable Hong Kong hotels around this area. Lots of highrises with laundry out the windows, even on 25 story towers. From Sai Wan Ho, I took the metro (subway) back to Tsim Sha Tsui.

As I was walking on the waterfront promenade, just before 6pm this evening, on my way to try to find the free cultural performance at the New World Center, a handsome, short, Filipino, young man with angular features came up and began talking to me in a very upbeat, positive, and seemingly sincere way. He spoke in somewhat broken English, asking me a little about myself and where I was from. When I said I lived in Washington, D.C., he gushed that this was really quite a coincidence, that his sister was a student at the university in Seattle, Washington. He said his sister had been an honors student at the university in Cebu and was going to be working in the U.S. at a job representing the government of her country.

I congratulated her success and briefly tried to explain that I lived in the city of Washington, not the state. He told me his grandmother was living here in Hong Kong and had been here 25 years. I marveled that that was a long time. He asked me about my trip, whether I had a nice hotel room and how much it cost. I said it had a great view, $860HK per night. He asked me what type of work I did (attorney) and he said something about my maybe meeting his sister. He said his grandmother worried about her, as this would be his sister’s first time in the U.S., and asked whether I might be willing to help them out by providing some guidance. When I said I’d be leaving the next day for Thailand, where I’d be staying primarily in Chiang Mai, he said this was another coincidence, that he had an aunt living in Chiang Mai.

I said that I should get going because I wanted to make a 6pm show. He then asked me if I would like to meet his sister the next day at 9am at my hotel. I was a bit taken aback (although I don’t think I showed it). Sensing my hesitation (which I’m sure was not very difficult to do) he asked again if I’d meet her for the sake of his worrying grandmother. [Aside: I know that there are many Filopinas (women) who’d like to find (a suitable) American for marriage to live in the U.S. I didn’t raise this topic, although I figured that was what was happening there.] I regretfully said I really better not, that I had to get going, despite his (still) sounding sincere and a touch pleading.

So exit I did, but it was not without a little genuine regret, wondering what she would have been like. He didn’t know how good a candidate I am, in that I am single, sometimes feeling too much alone. I dated a Filopina in D.C. steadily some years ago and know a little about the country and the culture, to all of which I’m rather favorably disposed. But I knew my decision (not to meet her) was the right one, that I’m very poorly disposed to the prospect of marriage and commitment, that there’d be no practical purpose in meeting and it would prove awkward, at the least. I felt I’d handled the situation very well, and felt no resentment whatsoever toward the young man (notwithstanding the woman probably was not even his sister ). Btw, it turned out there was no cultural performance at the New World Center.

Finding no performance, I stopped by Swindon Books on Lock Road, with about 20 minutes before closing to find a book I might read on my flight the next day. Upon exiting, I noticed the Palm Restaurant across the street and carefully perusing the posted menu. Actually there were two menus, one American cuisine (prime rib, steak, chicken, grilled salmon, etc.) and the other Portuguese. The food sounded good and the price looked right, all things considered (basically $138 to $160HK for the American food and less than $100 for the Portuguese), so I went in. The restaurant was almost empty, there being only one other couple dining when I entered.

I asked if there was a non-smoking section and the matre’d said “no,” and would have me be seated at a table next to the bar, away from the other couple. I didn’t much like the location, though, and asked if I could sit at the table in the corner on the back wall. He acceded (perhaps a bit reluctantly) and I thanked him. I later realized he may have hesitated in that I was dressed casually in blue jeans and a knit shirt.

I was asked whether I preferred American or Portuguese, said I wasn’t sure, was brought the American menu, which I looked over, then asking if I could also look at the Portuguese. They brought it, and I decided on the braised chicken casserole type dish after the waiter told me it would be served with rice.

While nibbling on a roll, which was good, I noticed a placard on the table touting this year’s recently released Beaujolais Nouveau. I decided to give it a go (remembering “A” saying at my going away that he’d not want to miss it). I found it quite good and a very nice complement to my dinner.

It was becoming apparent to me that this was one of those high class, service oriented restaurants at which I almost never eat (this may have been a first, certainly it was my first time alone, except maybe for that time in Paris). The staff were not quite hovering, but just a few steps away, waiting to be of service. This was all the more manifest by the fact I was one of the few patrons.

As I ate, more people arrived, yet not so many that the staff became inattentive. I’d have to say the service was as good as it could possibly have been. They were there immediately whenever I wanted anything (more rolls, wine, more rice), yet never intruded on my privacy. Once I finished my meal and they’d removed the plate, they did not approach me for either dessert or with my check, as I sat there satisfied in a semi-trance with the last bit of my wine. Actually, I’m not sure if this would generally be considered to be good service, but I liked being left to my space. When I realized the check was not coming, I easily got the waiter’s attention, and he brought me the check in very short order.

I’d been wondering since eating out the night before (at the spaghetti place) about the 10 percent service charge routinely included as part of the check. Was this generally to be in lieu of a tip (like in the U.S., when one has a large party and a 15 percent gratuity is added to the bill) or was this a routine charge, totally apart from any tip. I tried to ask the waiter, but he didn’t understand the English very well, and I said nevermind, having already decided I’d tip something extra, notwithstanding. My only question was “how much.” The bill came to $125HK, just as expected with the 10 percent service charge. I decided to pay $140, the difference being a tip, and was quite satisfied with my decision. I couldn’t go wrong–if the 10 percent service charge functioned as a tip, I was being generous, as the good service deserved, and, if not, I hadn’t committed any faux pas.

It’s 4:20am. I’m up late in my hotel room, not sleepy, perhaps because of my 2 2-hour naps, one just over about 3am. I’m very pleased with my journal entries this evening. Today, my last day in H.K., was, perhaps, the most eventful. In any case, I’d say it was my most daring in dealing with new experiences.

Miscellaneous observations:</span

() Hong Kong being an island of hills, and some rocks, one sees, not uncommonly, a rock outcropping in the midst of the city that is built upon and about, such that there will be a structure on its top towering, over the street 20, 50 or 100 feet, as if it were a fortress built on the top of a bluff or a steep-sided hill. I’ve even seen a cemetery built on what appeared to be such an outcropping, terraced and steep at a 70 degree angle, each row of the terrace bearing a line of crosses, giving each “plot,” if indeed people were buried there, an commanding view of the city below. Often the steep sides of such an outcropping or hill will be concreted over, perhaps to prevent erosion, the concrete poured around the trunks of growing trees with just a few inches of leeway allowed for growth. Invariably these steep outcroppings will carry a sign with the name of the city department responsible for its maintenance.

() The city’s metro (subway) system is well done. Trains are fast, smooth, quiet, with station announcements in both English and Chinese. Unlike any others I’ve seen, the cars have no partitions between them–that is, the entire train is one long tube open to passengers, such that one could walk the entire length of the train from beginning to end without taking any particular note of where one car ends and the next begins. It’s rather novel to be standing in such a car and be able to look off into the vanishing distance down the interior length of the train. This arrangement seems an advantage in that it permits a crowded area within the train to dissipate. While the train is running, there is a refreshing breeze blowing down its length, really rather noticeably, as this breeze will be blowing at probably 1 or 2 miles per hour. As with the tube in London, one hears at some stations the recorded refrain, “Please mind the gap.”

() Scaffolding, even on high-rise buildings, is made of bamboo.

() When walking in Chinese neighborhoods like Yau Ma Tei or Mongkok, you’d best know exactly where you’re going or have a good map, as there are few people around who speak English well enough (or at all) to be helpful.

() You know it never gets very cold here, when you see palm trees growing at even the higher elevations.

() There is a lot of activity in the harbor (ships, boats, dredgers, ferries); H.K. is truly a seaport; cranes and container shipping are prominent in the port.

Sunday, December 6, 1:40am (last leg of trip, on way back home)

I’m back in Hong Kong for one night. . . time to say good-bye . . . I’ve just been over to the waterfront to say my farewells.

Hong Kong (from the Kowloon side) may be the world’s most beautiful city at night! I love the myriad of lights and, just as much, the way the light reflects off the water . . . the colored light from the big signs–red, white, blue in broad swaths, coming toward me, cut by small chops, black water . . . a ship passes, and then, another. Architectural wonders against the darker backdrop of the hills (peaks?), all with light twinkling.