Travels through TST

Sunday is the one day a week I know I will make the trek into the busier part of the city, a good 45 minutes away on the bus. Whenever I go in, I make sure during the preceding week to keep a mental list of things to do or buy while I am in, things I can't do or get as easily in the more Chinese area in which I live. Tonight, I needed to copy some house keys and buy a little baking dish to use in my very little oven. My friend Laura and I set off on the 962 bus to Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island at 4 pm, arriving there just before 5, a full hour before we needed to be at church only 2 MTR stops away.

We wandered the streets in Wan Chai, trying to find the key place a friend had referred us to. We threaded our way through the many people outside the Jockey Club placing bets, wound around taxis paused on corners, and dodged between the many people filling the streets. The key place was found, but alas, was closed. We decided to head to TST, where the church is, and try to find a key place there. As we came out of the MTR in TST, there was a key place! It was cheap, and very quick, and I now have a spare so I won't lock myself out anymore! Yay!

We then headed to the Japan Home Centre which is a small shop located in the basement of a building on Hankow Road. I found my little baking dish for a very low price, and left the shop quite happy I'd been able to accomplish my two errands while out. It can really be hit or miss around here, so this was a big success!

We made our way through the crowded streets and into church. The music was powerful, the message deep, and the time valuable. We left, in search of food and, not wanting Chinese, headed to The Spaghetti House, a chain Italian place that, while meeting our need for non-Chinese food, left a bit to be desired quality-wise.

Then we felt like looking for cheap DVDs, and Hong Kong is nothing if not a source of cheap, knock off products. We headed to Temple Street, to the tourist heavy night market. We were accosted by very enthusiastic, boisterous marketers for the Jordan Curry House nearby. We threaded through outdoor restaurants where seafood still moved on plates (not even kidding), noodles were drowned in sauces and indeterminate meat, and people and dogs occupied every chair and stool available. Scents of cooking and frying meat and noodles filled the air, slices of raw meat hung from hooks, and there was a general feel of perfectly balanced chaos.

We powered through the shoppers purveying the fake Gucci bags, sparkly Hello Kitty keychains, 'authentic' Chinese paintings, and embroidered pillowcases and clothing, and arrived at the DVD shop. We were shown to two small crates of DVD TV box sets, where the English in the show descriptions were sometimes just gibberish or the picture on the front had nothing to do with the show (all the markings of a quality, non-pirated product .. haha). We even were shown the movie section, which in fact included a copy of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" which only came out in theaters here a few weeks ago. Laura and I exchanged a look and a laugh as we put this obviously pirated DVD back in its box.

After Laura made her purchase, we pushed back through the crowds, were once again accosted by the curry restaurant guys, and found our way to the red minibus. We boarded, and Laura tried in vain to tell the man we were going to the Gold Coast. He finally gave up trying to understand English, shrugged, and took our money. We found seats in the back of the 16-seater bus and waited for the other 14 seats to fill so we could go. We were soon off, barreling through the streets and onto the highway. We hit some gridlock traffic, but then were free on the road, the speedometer up front beeping as the driver exceeded the 80 kmh limit. As we neared our stop, Laura used her minimal Cantonese to call out "basi jam, mgoi!" and the driver let us off.

It is nights like these, filled with so much of the Hong Kong I love, that makes me hurt to know I will soon be leaving. But, I know that when coming to HK in the first place, I questioned His leading, unable to fathom how this would be better than the life I was happily living in the States. But, here I am, a year later, and it turns out my Father was right, and this is incredible and I don't for a minute regret coming here. So, I'm sure I could stay here and have a good, meaningful time, but I know that to move onward, and follow His lead, I will have an extraordinary time ... and 'extraordinary' is better than just 'good.'

TST at night

Temple Street