Flip flop, flip flop, thwap thwap thwap thwap

Dudes, I'm only mid-way through my day and I'm beat!!! Although I guess it feels long because I've been awake so long. Time for more caffeine!

With the daylight came a better view of the city. Places I'd walked in the dark the night before now made sense. And I quickly became a local as far as navigating sidewalk politics, and queuing up for the subway. I fed myself some eggs and cheese, two cups of earl grey, and I was off.

I set out this morning at about 830 (I'd been up since 3am). I headed downhill to the MTK (subway) station. It was pouring, and I so appreciated the online advice about relying on flip flops as your main footwear choice. It was pouring again, which I don't mind as it means no sunscreen. Heat is much better without having to lather cream on to your skin too. It rained a lot, hard.

Those leaves are floating above my feet.

My goal for this part of the day is to manage the subway system and get to my Faculty gal's hotel to deliver her clothes. (Air Canada lost her luggage so I brought her a re-supply in mine). That was it, small, simple goals is a surefire route to success. Step one.

So I left my place and headed downhill.

Then more downhill . .

I'm staying on HK Island, which is a relatively small, circular island with a giant mountain in the middle. The city starts at the harbour and moves up the hill util it can't go any higher. I'm near the top of that area. Thankfully, there is a eries of escalators to help folks get up, up, up to their destination. And lots . . of . . stairs . . to . . get  . . back. . down.

HK is a really tricky city to navigate. I pride myself on having a great sense of direction. I generally know where I am in a city/area and can picture where I need to go and thus how to get there. This is SO not working in HK! I think the issue is the buildings. Every city block is crowded with multiple skyrises, and they make it impossible to sense where you are. I think 'ok great so I need to head away from the ocean about 3 blocks' and then when my landmarks don't appear and I use some data to check google maps, I've gone towards the ocean 6 blocks, or something equally ridiculous.

Can you tell which way the ocean is here? Yeah, me neither bro. And these are the short buildings!

This is not to say I didn't find her hotel. I did, and I dropped off her clothes, yay first success of the day. So then I think I'll take in the Comic Walk that is one of the many little city routes I found online. You start at the waterfront where there's an installation of Chinese anime statues. It should have been like 2 blocks MAX from her hotel. And yet I wandered around for 30 minutes and couldn't find it. Imagine you're at the empress and need to get to the Legislature building, no problem right? They're right next to each other for pete's sake! But now fill both those city blocks with highrises. You can't see where you need to go, but you know you're oh-so-close. So I gave up on the Anime thing and found a Starbucks. Before coming to HK I was excited to check out all the indie coffee shops and cocktail lunges. But after a taste of pricing yesterday I figured that'd need a re-think. And after my fruitless wandering I felt like I needed a familiar experience to help me get it together for the next part of my day. (Even though I loathe Starbucks and never go there at home).

Mochiko and I grab a Frappa, and do a little journalling. It was heavenly, considering the circumstances.

After getting grounded, caffeinated, and planning to go check out another part of town, I leave Starbucks, walk a block, and am standing in the Anime display. Jebus!

I don't know who any of these folks are, but they are obviously very popular.

I like this last one. To me it's called "Mom hiding in the tub to surf the net, but the kids find her anyway". One of my favorite books from when the kids were younger was called "5 Minutes" about a mom who just wanted 5 minutes alone in the tub.

I wandered up the street to find the local Comic shop. Another success! Although admittedly I also found this by accident.

Then I just walked the main street in Wan Chai, soaking in the utter absurdity of it all.

Were you interested in barbequed pig face? They've got that. Not mocking, just stating.

Open-air meat market. No refrigeration, no gloves. 

I love this place. It openly lets me know, from across the street, that there's nothing here I can eat. And it does so with a 'star wars' font. Wicked.

I told you, whole roasted goose. It's a thing, ass and all.

I wish I spoke Cantonese. Ads come on between some of the youtube videos I play for music, and they seem so absurd. I think understanding the words would help make sense. For example, one ad has an attractive guy pushing a Parisian-style bike cart full of stuffed bunnies. A sweet-looking young woman comes up to him, and picks up a soft toy, rubbing it on her face. She buys it from him. Then he's in the park, and she comes and buys another bunny. Then she goes into a shop, and comes back out and passes him her change (from her purchase? She doesn't have a bag in her hand). Then she walks away, and he goes on his way with his cart. And the logo for Kotex pads/tampons fills the screen. WTF? Is her soft white bunny relevant somehow? Is it the boyfriends job to buy his lady's menses needs? If I could just switch the Star Trek switch so I could understand this language I'm surrounded by, well,  that'd be awesome.

I have more pics from this morning, but it took hours just to load these ones, and that's time I need to be exploring. I've had a tasty lunch (Udi's GF lasagna, with cocktails (more on that later), and I'm headed for Quarry Bay and the Japanese shops. More later.

xoxo

C