Take clothes to laundry, etc. I am trying to arrange my travel to Manila. Per the help of my friend N, I may be staying in a vacant apartment owned by her sister E. I am trying to talk with E to confirm the details. I eventually talk to her daughter and relay my info, and it looks like everything is all arranged. Great! I then call around to some of the travel agents, and do some checking on the web, and it seems that the lowest fare is in the $1400-$1500HK range (in the $180s US). The best deal is offered by a travel agent in Central, so I will go there later this afternoon.
At 4:00 PM I go to Times Square Mall where I meet H, the sister of A, my very good friend in Miami. We meet at Shooters 52, a restaurant and bar on the 13th floor. We have been trading messages and phone calls since October, and we are very happy to finally get together. We are soon joined by her husband. W works for an actuarial consulting company, and her husband owns some small manufacturing plants in China. They are very nice people. We have lunch and we talk: about my travels; their insight and suggestions about some of the places I will go; HK property values; languages (did you know that Cantonese has 9 tones, while Mandarin has "only" 4 tones?); etc. Time slips by and I must soon get over to the travel agent in Central, so we say goodbye. They give me very nice gift--a beautiful photo frame from a local shop called "Shanghai Tang". I am again the victim of Asian graciousness!
I quickly take the MTR to Central and buy my ticket to Manila. I decide to pay a little more, $1490 HK, to take the flight that leaves HK at 1:05 PM. This is the most convenient time to fly. It will arrive in Manila at about 3:05, and so I will have plenty of time to get to the apartment and get settled before dinner time. I then go back home where I work on this journal. Later perhaps I will go out. Maybe. Maybe not.
Well, I do decide to go out later. A few days earlier I had walked by a restaurant in Wan Chai named "Cinta J". It features Indonesian, Filipino, and Thai food, and it has a live band. Actually a cery pleasant environment, not as smoky or as loud as the discos and regular bars. I arrive there at about 8:00 PM and have dinner--Pancit Canton--a Filipino dish of noodles, seafood, and veggies, very tasty. As I finish my meal the band starts to play--s female vocalist and male keyboard player. As I sit there drinking my SMB beer I notice two ladies sitting at a table near the band. They see me and wave me over, and I am soon helping them celebrate the birthday of one of them. They are sisters from the Philippines that live here in HK. One is married to a Brit, and the other is a domestic worker (it is her birthday). Soon we are joined by one of their friends. I tell the band leader that we have a birthday, and the band soon sings "Happy Birthday" to her. It was fun to celebrate with them. I never did ask, nor was I told, how old the birthday girl is! You can look at the photo and take your own guess!
Jan 1, 2004. Surely I would do something noteworthy, right? Well, no. I had a quiet day. I went over the TST, walked along the bayfront, took the ferry to Wan Chai, walked along the bay front, walked over to Admiralty, had lunch at Pacific Place mall, made my way to Causeway Bay, later had dinner at Times Square Mall, went to a bookstore, and went home about 7:00. Called Mom later in the evening and wished her Happy New Year!
Day 98; Friday; Jan. 2, 2004
Quiet start. Slow breakfast at McD. Work on this journal. I go to Admiralty and have lunch. Later, I take the tram to the western end of the line, Kennedy Town. As the tram heads west out of Central the buildings get older and not so tall. At one point there are dried foods shops for an entire block. After reaching the end I take the tram back to the Western Market. In past years this was a wet market (meat, fish, produce), but now it has been converted to a mini-mall with some restaurants, fabric shops, and at the top floor there was old-style dance music and ballroom dancers! Strange, and interesting. That's about all worth writing about for today!
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