Taking off...

[fancycwabs]

Tomorrow I depart for the wilds of Hong Kong for a few days of meetings, spending 50 hours in airports and on planes for 24 hours worth of getting yelled at over three days. We're staying at the Meridian Cyberport, which sounds like something out of a William Gibson novel.

The last trip I had an hour of time for getting photographs and such, but I am reminded of a few tidbits that I forgot to share:

1. The trains from Hong Kong to China proper are run and secured by the Chinese Army, I think. With all the military types standing around on the train platform, it makes you feel as if you've stepped into a WWII-era movie, or perhaps Children of Men, except the uniforms are more WWII than contemporary high-tech.

2. On the train, fairly young ladies in matronly dresses and aprons will go up and down the aisles offering corn on the cob and soup and probably a bucket of steamed squid to snack on. The only time I've seen a Chinese person eat corn on the cob was at Leonard's barbecue several months ago, and he picked up the cob with his fork on one end and his knife on the other as if they were a pair of chopsticks. Nobody on the train got corn, or anything else, as I recall.

3. In the Hong Kong train station (prior to crossing through the communist portal where things visibly changed), I bought a Sprite that had menthol or something in it so that when you drank it if created a cooling sensation in your mouth. This probably only works when you're forced to drink Sprite served at 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

4. I also got a couple of bags of crispy mint M&M's in various shades of green. Mint M&M's are fantastic to begin with, but only offered around here at Christmas time, which is probably a good thing. It was also Christmas in Hong Kong when I got 'em, but the packaging looked as if you could get them any time you really wanted.

I figured out how to fiddle with the shutter speed on the camera as to take okay pictures with the available light shortly after leaving Hong Kong, so I'll probably be able to take some worth sharing this time around.

I'll post and comment as I can while I'm there, but I'm leaving the normal cell phone at home, so if anyone needs to reach me they should drop me an email.

Comments

[mschilepepper.livejournal.com]

Have a good trip! And hey, if you happen to see any cool paper-type thingies that might be liked by a certain person in Seattle whom you know via a certain message board, well, then you could maybe bring 'em home, hm?

Things with pretty colors and patterns and pictures and such. Tickets, playbills, posters, stuff like that. If you think about it, and it's not a trouble. :D

/presumption

[bigbrownhound.livejournal.com]

Um, WHA....? You're going back to Hong Kong? I love my dragony robe thing (Kimono? Or is Kimono Japanese--I promise that I'm not stupid), it's very lovely. Thanks very much. And we've already watched a few episodes of Firefly. We both like it alot. We were wondering where we were when it was on air...I guess watching Nickolodeon and Animal Planet. Oh well, at least we cna watch it now.

Thanks for everything else, too. I am still wondering why I didn't know that you were going to Hong Kong. Did I miss something?