The ballet was nice but extremely abstract in dance and kind of a novice production as I saw several dancers fall or almost drop their partners or mess up their synchronized moves. It was still enjoyable enough. Riding the bus was also challenge. I got lost a little trying to head to the Hong Kong National Museum and Art museum and the drivers didn't speak English and my Google maps app didn't quite line up with the bus schedule on the street post. Ultimately, I found these museums to be disappoinint and broad in their general appeal of history and art. It wasn't specific to China but more of a poor knock-off of the national museums in New York that accumulates art and histories from various places around the world. Or so Hong Kong's museums tried, their collections paltry.
I only rode a cab once, since they were pricey the subway being my main transport and the stations were indeed impressive.
I walked the Avenue of the Stars which was by the harbour and saw a handful of prints from the few Asian celebrities I recognized and took some photos.
My favorite part of the trip was taking the infamous Star Ferry at the harbour on a fairly warm night. The price of the night tour was a little bit more but I've always been drawn to the sea and water and the shoreline was lit up with beautiful buildings and lights. I was the first in line to purchase an 8pm ticket. I don't recall how long the trip was but there were a group of Chinese tourists who were having a blast taking non-stop photos. At one point, a woman grabbed a sign that read "Wish You Were Here" and I laughed upon seeing it. They gestured me over and wanted to take a photo with me.
This is not the first time. Often because of the rarity of black tourists, I have found people taking photos of me on the sly or asking to take photos with me if they're a tad braver.
I obliged and the woman thanked me in broken English and I went to the other side snapping photos and messaging friends and family from home.
I did a bit of shopping but not much as I wanted the experience more than anything. I bought a new purse and a new wallet. I went to buy new sneakers but they were pricey. I got some cosmetic stuff for Rose that she swore could only be found in Hong Kong and wanted me to purchase for her and which she would reimburse me for and I bought new glasses because mine were terribly old and scratched and there were many a day I didn't feel like popping in my contacts.
I had interacted with a girl from the first hostel where I only stayed for one day. She was from Taipei, Taiwan and we exchanged wechat usernames. Her name was Yi Yun Lo. She asked me the usual questions while I packed and was friendly in giving me suggestions on where to go for future vacations while I stayed in China.
The hostel at Mongkok was pretty much the same set up but the room I had with the 4 beds was significantly smaller and there was no outside window view at all which made it a bit harder to tell the time of day and get up in the morning at a decent time. The location was still decent although the building was a bit more run down and older and most of the attractions were in Tsim Sha Tsui so I kept having to take a subway 2 stops up to get anywhere. I was the longest staying tenant, most of the girls coming through didn't stay longer than a day or maybe two. A group of girls came in and also befriended me also from Taiwan. They were really into shopping as most of the female Chinese tourists were here. One girl in the group who spoke the clearest English introduced herself as Victoria (many Chinese people give themselves English names to make it easier) and asked me about my travels.
The train stations were about the cleanest things I've seen and the easiest to use. And although there were plenty of English signs, there were little that spoke English testing the Mandarin I'd been learning to its full extent. I find that even in knowing Chinese, many people got seriously nervous and sometimes even agitated when you approached them often waving their hand at you in dismissal and walking away before you could even let them know you spoke Chinese. At the hostel building in Tsim Sha Tsui, I had tried to ask a lady standing near the front desk the correct floor for the hostel (the address sent to me in the confirmation email was right but the floor was wrong). The directions were in both English and Chinese and I went to show her the Chinese directions on my phone and ask in chinese were the building was. She didn't even make eye contact with me nor looked at the phone and the security guard walked back over and said "she doesn't speak english." "That's fine," I said, "the directions are in both." He looked at it and gave me the correct floor but I was still annoyed about people's assumptions.
My days consisted mostly of walking around downtown and enjoying scenery, particularly at the harbour or browsing through the shops in the mall. I took a day to do the two museums and I ate at pretty westernized places and 1 Japanese restaurant. I was by myself, but I didn't feel lonely. I enjoyed walking along the streets and people watching, headphones on blare from the music on my iPhone and feeling for once, not so much like a foreigner, since there were many around. At night in particular it seemed like the streets were even busier than during the day and seemed more alive teeming with people still hanging around shops or talking photos of the harbour.
My last night, I went to Kebab once more where the staff there wished me safe travels but afterwards, I wanted to go to a bar and just have a decent drink or two. I went to an area known for various kinds restaurants called Ashley Road which was really a very wide one-way alley. I went into a restaurant at the end of the road that looked nice and secluded and sat at a bar. The interior seemed like a scene from a movie. The bar area was in the front of the restaurant with windows looking out onto the street. The ambiance inside dimly lit, soft yellow lights with brown and red furniture. In the center there was a long, huge, dark, wooden mahogany counter and shelves behind it that dimly lit up the names of liquor bottles. The bartender was wiping glasses in a black buttoned vest wearing a white collared button up shirt underneath. I was the only person seated in the bar area. He handed me a menu and I ordered a couple of white Russians.
After several minutes, the bartender started small talk as it was pretty dead. He asked me the usual where I was from, what I was doing in Hong Kong. He was a middle aged Chinese man, I would say in his 40's with his dark hair slightly gelled up and swept to the side which was a common style usually for more youthful local guys. He asked me if I spoke Cantonese and offered to teach me a few words, then he offered me a small bag of potato chips. Things got a little weird then. I asked for a long island which he made extremely strong. And then told me he was getting off of work soon and if I would like to join him in getting a drink later. I kindly declined informing him I had a train to catch the next day and I quickly paid the bill and left leaving the drink unfinished. I don't believe it was drugged as I visibly saw him make it but there was a disproportionate amount of liquor in it. Whether it was out of kindness (some bartenders just like to make your drink strong if you seem cool) or hopeful of creating another kind of effect, I didn't know. I made it back to the hostel safely enough and drank tons of water then set my alarm for the next morning. My train would leave in the late afternoon and I would arrive home by morning.
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My train was to leave in the evening around 8pm and get there around 8am so it was a shorter trip. This time the train was newer. Newer bunks, never carpet, cleaner bathroom and each bunk hahd a small television set. It was also better heated and they provided fruits and snack cakes free of charge. I had only wished I had this train for the ride in.
Going through customs had been intense upon leaving. I ended up in a huge argument (or something of that sort) with the lady at the customs counter. I presented my passport at the counter and she waved me over to a counter where I had to fill out a small piece of paper I remembered filling in upon leaving HK. I tried to ask her if I still needed to do it even as a legal resident but she knew no English as this was a station heading back into mainland China, where the luxury of people at least knowing a few words of english was rare. She was abrupt, curt and rude. I went over to the counter and not seeing a pen went back to ask for one making the gesture of signing. She shoved a pen at me. I filled it out already annoyed and afterwards, I assumed I could present the paper and she would check my passport and be done.
Something went terribly awry from there.
As I headed back toward the counter which was essentially 2 feet from where the small table was that I had filled out the paper, she stood up and proceeded to rant very loudly in Chinese waving her hand towards the line screaming for a good 10-15 seconds. I stood where I was shocked trying to process what had happened. Was she telling me to go to the back of the line? Now I went from mildly annoyed to embarassed which then made me incensed. I ignored her and threw the passport through the hole. She snatched it and yelled at me to take my sunglasses off. My face was heated. I took off my glasses and if looks could have done as I had wished that second I would have burned a flaming path through her face. I stared intensely at her, holding my tongue at the very least to prevent further issue. I did not break my gaze. I did not blink. I continued my heated stare so much so that within those short few seconds of checking my passport she looked at the picture and looked at my forehead rather than my face. She made a sound when she got to my resident permit that sounded something like a soft "oh." She never made eye contact while gently handing me back my passport which I snatched from her hand still staring at her face then placing my sunglasses back on, I took my wheeled luggage and walked through the station.
And that was the last leg of my return home. Welcome to China.
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