More Last Tastes of Hong Kong

July 31st, the apartment

Last tastes of civilization. Resting now, I've been in the apartment, rewriting my addresses into a tiny little book. I'm sending the old ones home as backup.

The night before we'd gone to a potluck of officemates, held in a posh apartment up the side of Victoria Peak that dominates Hong Kong Island. The party was a younger woman's about my age, but the apartment was here parents', British civil servants, done well out in the Orient. There was lots of fine art, fancy decoration and expensive furniture.

The food was good: spicy pasta, a Malaysian chicken curry, salad, French bread, wine and beer. The people were interesting enough, naturally lots of Brits with posh accents to match the apartment, an Australian in the Royal Navy, the wife of his captain, a cricketer, a Malaysian and various others.

Today we'd gone to the Hard Rock with some of the same people. the Hard Rock was... well the Hard Rock. I was distracted by soccer highlights played across the 3 or 4 televisions that pointed into the room.

My friend came with me out into Kowloon (the peninsula across from Hong Kong Island, considered part of "Hong Kong" the colony) to look for a hiking shop to buy a few odds and ends, water purifiers, bug spray and a medical kit. We stopped for some video games-something involving a lot of death, and then went with another guy to see Johnny Mneumonic, a Keanu Reeves movie based on a William Gibson movie. Okay, but nothing special, sill came out thinking Reeves is a lousy actor.

We ate dinner at the apartment and I watched a Star Trek rerun and am now watching "Hang 'em High" as I write.

I still don't believe I'm leaving. Only one full day left.

Strange, strange this life I lead.