Checking in from Hong Kong

The city doesn't sleep. No sooner had the white-collared folks and kids gone home from a busy day of work and school than night crawlers wake up to partying and clubbing to the wee hours. Hong Kong is somewhat too fast-paced for that peace-loving, solitude-craving poet in me! I have got tired of elbowing jostling subway, crowded streets and busy restaurants--so I have taken refuge in the hidden countryside--negotiating some difficult terrains of meandering trails that are foreign even to locals. Stay tuned for the pictures, most of which capture beautiful sceneries of beaches and myself.

Today I woke up at the crack of dawn, to the chirping of birds and the tintinnabulating of bicyles delivering fresh poultry, had a quick over-nurturing breakfast(three eggs and milk) and taken up a 10-km hike spanning over three hills (so the cross section of which would be like a camel's humps). The cardio would compensate my recent indulgence on food! The views from the trail was spectacular although the hike was arduous, with steeped elevation change. I encountered only a few morning joggers who probably covered the easier segments of the trail before I was left alone with only wind's company. I made the final descend onto the popular village of Stanley 3 hours later and treated myself a cup of fresh-squeezed orange juice.

I plan to check out an upscale gay bar in town--Rice Bar--a subdued, low-key, jazz bar that is tugged away in the financial district on Jervois Street.

I have not been deprived of reading. The suspenseful prose of Heinrich von Kleist has never failed to intrigue me on the road. I finished The Earthquake in Chile shortly after I arrived in the city and that only made me want more. Not only did the earthquake destroy the just and the outlaw, it also brings out the best of human nature--heroic courage and self-sacrifice, mutual help and compassion, and the worst--the frenzied search for scapegoat and the religious zeal that serves as a pretext for sickening cruelty.

The Marquise of O- reads like a psychological mystery in which the heorine fell into the hands of some ruffian enemy troops who attempted to assualt her. What intrigued me the most is a deluge of prose depicting the upheaval which the troops had caused in the citedel and the scene in which they tried to rape her. Served to mitgate the quick action is one crucial sentence on which the outcome of the story hinges. It also justifies the marquise's courage to call forward the mystrious man who had impregnated her--her bearing a staimina of social disgrace and derision.

So much about reading...I do have acquired a few volumes while scouring the bookshops here in Hong Kong: Labyrinths by Borges and some short story collection by Chekov.

Stay tuned for all the pictures, which for sure will be better than a thousand words. A lot of them would be candid (amlost trivial) shots of daily life--food stalls on the street making egg sandwich, old man pushing a hand-cart full of crumpled-up papers, swimming session (that, could be a little scary, with me in my swim trunks...) and the rush hour crowd dashing on both sides of subway platform.

Looking forward to going to Japan on Oct 30. Until then, hope all is well with everyone. Thanks to Matt and Tony for their messages. Hope you'll enjoy this special report from the Pearl of the Orient. I'll upload the pictures soon.