Hong Kong Harbour. November 2013. A tour of the junk ships that litter what a lot of Chinese call the "fragrant harbor".
Don't get me wrong- I enjoyed my trip to Hong Kong. Cheeseball bus tours aside, Hong Kong actually offers travelers who have a taste for going "off the beaten path" quite a lot to work with. Walk around the city and up to the streets leading up to the peak and, well, you get an interesting mix of the ultra chic, and, the Hong Kong of Peter Chan, the Hong Kong of "Comrades: Almost a Love Story". I love that movie. Valentine's Day, as a "special day", honestly, should take a back seat in my book.
I have rarely been swept up by the usual sights, sounds, and devilishly cliche and corny parlance that lovers spitball at each other during February 14ths. There is often too much work to do, and too much pride to become one with the hordes of people who think pink means love. To me, pink means raw meat. Pink means a Michelin Star chef perfectly "rare-ing" an already perfect cut of meat.
And so it goes. Hong Kong. Valentine's. Hong Kong. Valentine's.
Hong Kong, in so many ways, is my kind of town. It's no Singapore in terms of cleanliness, in terms of efficiency, and in terms, perhaps, of ease of movement, but, it does have a great deal of charm- old world charm. It's stuck smack dab in the middle of fast changing trends, and the slow precision of a Chinese Lantern floating gently on a steady stream in honor of one's dearly departing. Yes, I can get dramatic like that. But not Valentine's Day dramatic.
I have always thought about how it might be like to take someone I love on a date in Tsim Tsa Tsui, or at Victoria Peak, or maybe at the hectic but ultra yummy Tim Ho Wan in Central Hong Kong. There's a certain bit of drama that used to be attached to Hong Kong and lovers, one not without the other. Those days, in a way, have come and gone. So Migi, you're a big boy now, and big kids don't cry.
Big kids don't run around being all too sappy either. Big kids are like this, but big kids never lose their sense of wit, or charm, or creative savoir fare.
I am a big kid. I still think Hong Kong is cool. I miss Tim Ho Wan, my friends who live in the country, the hawker centers, the Star Ferry, and the crazy night markets.
I'd rather book a seat for one going to Hong Kong this time, though, at least, in my Peter Chan colored world. From "Comrades", to, "Comrade". I can live with that.
Smile alone, I say. Alone isn't all that bad. It can actually mean that you get the chance to appreciate things a wee bit more than if you were with someone during a long journey.
"Is this seat taken?", she asks.
"Yup, it is very much taken."
*Yawn*
You figure it out.
MC
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