3 Dollars

This has been the best day so far (hopefully I can say that a lot). Went running through the city and scoped out some places to eat for tonight in a little place called Kowloon City. It’s basically another grid of restaurants and markets, except this one has a significant number of dessert shops including bread type pastries! AH! There’s a series of soccer fields and basketball courts and tennis courts right next to my dorms, not to mention a public track and a really nice (restricted) soccer field in the middle.
I ran out of money so I rode down to Nathan Street, a consumers dream. I imagine this is the Ginza or 5th Ave. of Hong Kong. Skyscrapers line the road which makes it look more of a tunnel with midsized buses flying through. I found the bank after walking like several miles (my legs are going to fall off) and then took a side road just to get lost in the city. I hit the Temple street grid of markets (which offered some illegal “intimate” services as well, sketch) which were busy with restaurants (Indian, Chinese, Thai, etc, etc) and little stores that I don’t know how stay in business. Up to this point I hadn’t eaten anything, and the aroma of fresh noodles and pastries forced me to stop in a small shop that I knew didn’t speak English.

I sat at a booth by myself and fortunately they gave me an English menu (though they didn’t understand it or me). I got something vegetable and soup, I wasn’t feeling up to the roasted pig intestines, raw sea urchin, or tongue offered. Also, “lemon water” is not water with lemon but the greatest combo of sugar and lemon to form a noncarbonated Sprite (or it was just flat Sprite, who knows). Halfway through my meal the restaurant was full, and another man walked in. The hostess looked around and then seated him at my booth opposite of me. It was no big deal, just another small thing that lets you know that I’m not in Kansas anymore…good thing too (source cited: David’s playing cards).

I saw the sun for the first time today and it was a glorious thing, hopefully it happens more frequently. I’ve had a day to myself, so now it’s time to go visit some friends for dinner, I want dumplings.