1930 – Again without a map (actually I had one, just didn’t feel like taking it out) I found myself facing a Clock Tower. The Clock Tower actually, it was just beside the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. I spotted a Watsons nearby and decided to buy something, anything to freshen my mouth as it felt moldy; most likely due to the weather. The Listerine film pack cost HKG$13 – how much is it here?

I had no idea where I was going and very wisely decided to go towards the sign that said ‘To Nathan Road’. It was ok, there were many people walking also (duh). Here there here there and I passed by the YMCA Salisbury. Walked a bit more and I saw a mall with shops selling international branded stuff. Only it wasn’t a real mall, but The Peninsula Hong Kong. As I walked past the hotel I was totally blown away by its grandness, fountain, marble and all its poshness. One day, just one day!!

Made a turn at the Peninsula and hey! I was at Nathan Road again! Basically just a heck lot of shops, shops and more shops on both sides of the roads but one thing was for sure – everywhere you go there is bound to be a 7-11, Watsons, Sasa and Mannings (our Guardian). Well for more scenes of Nathan Road, feel free to rent or buy Wong Kar Wai’s 1994 cult classic, Chungking Express.

Something big and red caught my eye and I had to check it out. Half an hour later I emerged with HKG$217 worth of Esprit goods. Heh.

I turned into Peking Road, though I did not know it was Peking Road at that time. Went past a few shops then turned into Lock Road, just walking aimlessly looking at people and shops. I walked past a shop with the sign ‘Internet Cafe’, did a double-take and went inside. The small shop was really a cafe with tables and it was quite full with people having their dinner. The Internet part was around 4 or 5 flat screen iMacs. The Indian shopkeeper was friendly. Of course, charging your customers HKG$15 for 15 mins of Internet usage; there is no room to be unfriendly. I decided to write an e-mail to Ronny telling him the exorbitant charges for the Internet. Come to think of it, using their Internet service to complain about their Internet service – I must have been really bored.

Ten minutes later I paid and left the Internet cafe and walked around some more. I’d read about a couple of Irish pubs along Peking Road but I passed by only one. There was a pub along Lock Road called Red Lion or something, but there were two women standing outside the pub and their clothes decidedly needed more material, so I decided to head back to Peking Road.

Tired, alone, aimless, lonely, I walked into Delaney’s.

I sat at the bar and ordered a pint of Kilkenny for HKG$42. My bartender was a tall Caucasian with a ponytail. I asked him, “Are you a real Irishman working in an Irish pub?”

He grinned, “No, I’m Scottish.”

Minutes later I asked for the menu and proceeded to order something to eat. Fifteen minutes later a HKG$90 lamb’s shanks with mashed potato and vege arrived; I ate all the vege, some of the mashed potato and two bites of the lamb. As the Scot took my plate away I had a sudden yearning for Jaime’s mom’s BBQ lamb.

A Caucasian male had taken his seat at the bar beside me. From his conversations with the bartender I gathered that he had been in Hong Kong many times before. So I asked him if he had been to the Temple Street Night Market and if it was worth a visit. He said he had not been there but he had been to a few street markets in Mongkok, and that was all the street markets he needed to see.

His name was Alan and we began to talk for a bit. He was from Seattle, married with two kids and he works for Microsoft. Apparently Microsoft has factories in China making keyboards and such and Alan is the QC for the designs that material into real stuff. It was really interesting because he had seen and met many people; we talked about the weather, Seattle, Malaysia’s cultures, races, politics and food, America’s recent elections and ‘conspiracies’, the Middle East war and Iran. Really mind-opening because he had friends from Iran and he related to me the status of females in Iran; still really Stone age.

Four Guinness (him) and two whisky coke (me) later, he insisted on paying for my later drinks and then we said goodbye.

I left Delaney’s around 2330 and decided to walk back to my hotel. So I went to the Tsim Tsa Tsui MTR station to return my Octopus card to get back my deposit and any remaining value. At the customer service area there was a man in a suit, from his accent he was obviously from China and boy, he was having a rough time communicating with the younger fella behind the counter.

The whole thing was about the man in the suit asking if one Octopus card could be used for 3 people. The young customer service guy was a bit impatient and after some miscommunication he angered the man. It was interesting to see; the man suddenly stood up very straight and in sing-song Mandarin told the guy, “I want you to explain to me how to get 3 people on the MTR.” The young fella wrote down the price on a piece of paper and the man said stiffly, “I can’t read.”

They stared at each other for a while and then the man asked his questions again. The customer service fella answered and then finally the China man said, “Na bu jiu shing le ma, wei shen me gan chai bu neng jiang qing chu” (isn’t that all it takes? Why couldn’t you explain it clearly earlier?)

The man left and the young fella grumbled unhappily under his breath, when it was my turn another guy took over his place.

After returning the Octopus card, I walked along Nathan Road back to Yau Ma Tei. It was around ]0000 and most of the shops were closing but there were a lot of people walking around. I passed by Park Lane Shoppers’ Boulevard, it was a really pretty sight with little lights all around.

Park Lane Shoppers’ Boulevard along Tsim Sha Tsui

I was at Jordan waiting to cross a street when I decided to take a photo of buildings with neon signboards. Quite a common scene everywhere, actually.

Random photo of random street

It was a nice walk actually. I didn’t feel unsafe because there were people around me everywhere. A little bit before reaching the Tin Hau Temple I turned off into one of the little streets behind Nathan Road. I wanted to see if the Temple Street Night Market was still operating; it wasn’t. There were a lot of eateries still open for business and there were tables and chairs in the open air; apparently the mamak culture in Malaysia takes on a yellow form in Hong Kong.

I wandered into a VCD/DVD shop and just perused the many many many titles in front of me. Hong Kong movies, Hollywood movies, France, Italy, Paris – you get it all in this little shop, some legal and most not-so-legal, especially the whole rack dedicated to x-rated movies. I was looking and looking and suddenly realised that they might want to close for the day, seeing that they were the only shop around the area still open and not selling food. So I asked the shop owner what time he would close the shop. He replied in Cantonese, “Oh 3 a.m., man man tai lah” (feel free to browse). I bought ‘The Truth About Cats and Dogs’ and ‘Love Actually’ then walked back to my hotel.

The walk from Tsim Tsa Tsui to my hotel in Yau Ma Tei took less than half an hour, not including the detour to the VCD/DVD shop.

Back in my hotel room I took a shower and packed my stuff since I had a 0615 coach to the airport. Fell asleep around 0330 and had two hours of sleep on my last night in Hong Kong.

Read more:

Day 1 : To Hong Kong
Day 2.1 : In Search of Tin Hau
Day 2.2 : The Octopus Strikes Back
Day 2.3 : Flower Crazy
Day 2.4 : Central; A Different World
Day 2.5 : Night Time, Light Time
Day 3.1 : The Buddha Beckons
Day 3.2 : To The Peak and Back
Day 3.3 : This Girl Needs a Beer
Day 4 : Leaving Hong Kong
Some thoughts on Hong Kong