HK - Day 2 (part 2)

4:00pm: Lunch at Po Lin Monestary. Touristy. Vegetarian. 5 dishes. Filling. I walked in alone to eat by myself and was hoping an asian Jonah Hill would be my host, Forgetting Sarah Marshall. "Do you want a magazine or something?"

Black bean and corn soup, bak choi and mushrooms, spring rolls and tofu with veggies, with infinite tea and rice. Most happy I've ever been eating veg, if every veg meal was this good, I could definitely see myself going vegetarian for at least one or two meals.

4:30pm: Ngong Ping 360 back to mainland. 25 minutes in a cable car in the air. Accompanied by a spanish couple and five HK'ers. One energetic elderly tan dude talking a mile a minute to his other old friend (who barely has the energy to stand or keep his eyes open, let alone talk). He doesn't stop talking for the last 15 minutes of the trip down. I'm starting to hate Cantonese.

They do Disneyland-type photos for this gondola. None of the Spanish or Cantonese noticed.

5:20pm: MTR (Subway) back to Central. Hoping to make a 6pm soccer game. Not looking good. Start a conversation with a big dude from Boston, went to Northeastern whose going to grad school for chemistry at Penn State for seven years. Ouch. Pretty awkward.

6:05pm: Arrive in Happy Valley (after asking two police officers, a sales lady and desk worker and walking through 1.5 miles of underground walkways), part of town where Hong Kong Football club. Lady tells me it is "to the left." Easy enough. I come out expecting to see it, only to find cars and freeways and taxis. No idea where to go.

Ask random HK kid, Peter (HK native and architecture student who went to U of O, who talks about how his football program is in shambles. I'm impressed). He's going there, too He has a secret subway shortcut and knows where he's going. But we still get lost and end up in the HK Jockey club. 20 minutes and a lot of sweating later, we make it.

6:30pm: Hong Kong Soccer Sevens. Old people tournament with 40-something year olds from UK, France, HK, Thailand, etc). One famous dude, Andy Cole, who used to play for Man U. Peter has three jerseys for him to sign, and he's definitely one of the less intense fans there.

Peter doin' work with Andy Cole, Football Superstar.

Pretty uneventful soccer (some of these dudes were old and/or tubby), most entertainment comes from the dozen or so HK soccer fans battling it out for autographs, pictures, memories, etc. Cole gets asked at least 50 times, signs 7000 things. Reminds me of beginning of Life Aquatic (old guy has about 15 albums for Bill Murray to sign -- "e questo") but no one will get those references, so moving on. "How many of these do you have?" And "Just forge the rest yourself." Love that movie.

Soccer in the city is cool though.

8:30pm: Supposed to meet Jed's buddy from LA Conor for a drink somewhere, but plans fall through. I'm on my own. Decide to wander around Happy Valley/Wan Chai area.

9:30pm: I'm lost.

10:00pm: Still lost. Decide to make most of it, get some street food --- 3 meatballs on stick and a couple of jumbo Tshingtao beers. 4 dollars American in all, good value.

10:30pm: Finally make it to the Ferry station in Wan Chai. Only took me 2 hours for what was probably a 30 minute walk, after I literally walked in a circle twice. Starting to doubt my sense of direction, but HK is all lights and buildings and not very walker friendly, so I won't write myself off yet.

11:30pm: Make it back to hostel tired. Talk to Ruben for a bit before packing in. Crash. Day 2 in the books.

DAY 3 and 4: Walking Tour of HK

The best way I know to get to know a city is by just showing up and getting lost. It's also a surefire way to lose your mind. Which brings me to my final two days in Hong Kong. Hopefully, I'll put that up later tonight or tomorrow.

And a quick current time update, it's dinner time here in Macau -- I'm headed to this Portugese place Caravela for food and then here for another night and then ship out for Boracay (White Beach in the Philippines) tomorrow evening...with a five-hour layover in Manila from 12am to 5am. Already hit the Wynn last night and checking out the Venetian tonight.

Double Update: Now it's 2am, I'm spend from sleeping like .5 hours after last nights session at the Wynn (a small loser), hardly anyone speaks English in the Venetian food court (or on like 99 percent of Macau, for that matter), I saw more late-night show type things and seen more enthralled Chinese than ever before in my life, I made friends from like my sixth new country and I don't know why I'm still typing right now. PS in case you were wondering, there IS a Fatburger in the Venetian Macau. I'm still confused how I didn't get a fat kingburger tonight.

Finally, pictures on the way --- something wrong with the site right now, but they'll be up asap.