The King of Kong

So it happened that I had my visa cancelled and was illegal here in the Oh so everything legal country of Taiwan (that was a joke for those who are unfamiliar with my sarcasm). Apparently 3 weeks or so had lapsed since the cancellation and a big fine could have been the result. My wonderful Taiwanese friend Thomas took me right down to the police station with my travel itinerary to Honk Kong. Not only did the people let me off the hook they were actually quite pleasant. I hopped on the Air China jet ready to partake from what I understood as a boring/amazing/historic/too busy/too polluted three day trip. I find it very interesting that there are so many different opinions from so many different types of people. Granted when I have an opinion I am the first to tell whether or not something suites me. I am starting to realize the power of positive thinking and the "think and be rich" idiom. It has been a part of my life for a few years now and now that I have tasted the greatness of the power of thought becoming reality I plead yea to all those who are unlucky or experiencing sadness due to environmental occurrences. Write me and I will recapitulate fleeting thoughts of depth to the suppleness of this logic! I had one phone number arriving and this proved to be the start of something great there. This Hilda, a person that my friend Alex has never met and only been with her son in an English training camp in Canada. Well I told her that I was planning on staying at a place (that the Lonely Planet guide book devoted a whole page of warning) called Chungking mansion. She abruptly told me that that was absurd and that she would make a few calls for me. I gave here my ridiculous $30 CDN budget (that I almost wasn't really will to do) and said goodbye. In reality I thought that the beach sounded more appealing than anything else at the time. So after napping in a city park and being woken up by an aging female security guard (wow she secured that park well), I called her back. To my freakiness she booked me into a top notch place and told me a price that my memory has chose to forget. I pleaded that I did not even bring that much money and after some major deliberation and calls to try and cancel the deal she managed to convince to me to go check into the Hotel. Well it was called The Empire Hotel and at $300CND/night I am sure location was a bit of that cost. Located in the heart of the living city...Hong Kong. I some how was able to subside the fear I had of paying for this place and not even knowing the person that had put me there. I took a jot out on the street had some talks with people and it was decided that (in my own little trivial consciousness) I would take a trip to Kowloon to visit a couple of the highly rated markets. No sooner was I staring at my subway map trying to sort out the transfer I was too take when Good Fortune struck...yes it hit me very hard. This nice women looked at me with the map in my hands and must have read my lost puppy dog look cause she came to my rescue and perchance that was almost the same place where she was heading. Her name was Wendy. In her mid to late 30's her smile was all about kindness. She turned out to be a very successful insurance rep. that had her own team of sales people. She pulls in about $80,000usd a year and had her own little house #2 over the Hong Kong border into China. Well if kindness never ceased we got chatting and she was so kind she ended up inviting me to a KTV birthday party of one of her sellers. So I hung the night away me and my OJ and a bunch of pissed KTV singers. She was however on the somewhat sober side and told me that for the next two days she was going to be my tour guide and I was going to be like her little brother...she would take care of me and all I had to do was speak English to her. This lady was amazing and not enough can be said about her kindness. We ate out went to markets and she even bought me an imitation Swiss Army watch. Thanks a ton! One high light how ever was this dance club that we went to one of the nights. The music was good but the laser show in the dance floor was worth the ticket just to get in. This place was paced with people and there were lots of rooms. The other side of this phenomenal laser show was live music being played while sipping our water. Apparently in Hong Kong there are 5 big families that control most of what goes on in that city. Their pull in politics and in power is of the major influences. One pissed chap even mentioned that when China took over Hong Kong from the British in 1997 Mao Zedong sat down with these families and said "now how can we make this work for us?" This club was owned by one of the big 5 (sound like accounting don't it!). Another fun time was in my last few hours before my plane left Wendy took me with some of her friends into the mountains for a Barbeque. It was the perfect portrait of the tons of Chinese people crowded into a small area in this beautiful scenic mountain with tons of Fire pits cookin lots-o-funky Chinese meat stuffs. I guess from experience that Chinese and Taiwanese people alike love to be around each other. The more the better. It was great company with a nice family along with Wendy and me. So the time cam to say goodbye and I gave her a hug, thanked her and she gave me enough money to get from the taxi to the express train to the airport. Well this lady was just what the doctor ordered and I will always be grateful for the "Good Fortune" that brought us together. During the second day there I was just relaxin in my cozy little hotel room waiting for Hilda (who got me the room in the first place) and her family to come pick me up for a day in Hong Kong. So this sweet little Chinese family that spoke decent English took me to a few cool places. This Restaurant on a peninsula jetting out to the ocean was quite the treat. I just picked out the live swimming seafood I wanted, and they caught it in their big tanks and cooked it up. In all the time I have been in this part of the world I have come to really enjoy seafood. The more eat it the better acquainted I am with the exquisiteness of it all. We then went to a beach and another joyful scenic spot. Their hospitality was unique. I often feel kinship to many of those whom I meet on my travels. An almost instantaneous friendship emerges and I am stuck feeling drawn closer to God through my contact of others. When they finally dropped me off at the hotel, Hilda told me not to worry about the hotel even through my insisting I pay her some money. So my thoughts on Hong Kong are very interesting indeed. This place gave me a slight feeling of London with all the amenities and cars even on the wrong side of the road. The English spoken usually had an English accent and the city was always lively and bustling with people. There were yet many garden and park areas that tickled my fancy. Through all this European fanfare there came with this place a feeling of mystery. Lurking deep in many alleys and small streets I peered through barley see through able windows to only catch glimpses of the exotic China I thought of as a boy. The mix of cultures and races came of every walk of life The rich and poor were abundant posing their defiant and undesirable look as they passed my on the walkways. I shall once again imagine the cities lights hitting the ocean as the sun just disappeared. The sparkles glint off my tiresome eyes. A lone boat from an era long past raises it's picturesque sail as the plot of the night wind claims it's decent. This is the ancient and the modern weaving their destiny into one accord. Much lays still undiscovered and only time permits the result. Hong Kong will always hold that lust and appeal until at one finally not to distant day I live there and mix my life with the life of that city, thus becoming part of the dream. Love McKay