Back to Beijing

I fly out today. My flight isn’t until 7 pm, so I left my bags with the hotel after checking out at 12 and have some more time to see the city.

I’m not gonna lie, my plan was to wake up early, leave my bags, and check off some of the attractions I researched before my flight. In fact, I made a two-page spread of museums, botanical gardens, restaurants and other hot spots to check out in Hong Kong. In the past four days, I’ve hardly done any of them, and I’m still sitting in a coffee shop typing this up instead.

It’s not that I don’t yield to Lonely Planet’s brilliance. When they suggested I take a tram up to the Peak and get lunch, I fully intended to do that. They made suggestions for a one, two, and three day trip. “Lucky me,” I thought, “I can do it all and more!”
Suffice to say, that hasn’t happened.

I did want to see this city and explore, but honestly, after three weeks I’m tourist-ed out.

Kelly and I did manage to take the subway and go to an art store, walking around a different area called Wan Chai. (I’m amazed at how every subway I go to is a piece of cake compared to NYC, even without English.) The art store was buried on the 11th floor in what looked like an office building, with working men moving large carpets and insulation in and out of the elevator. Using my frame of reference, I was pretty sure that this was not actually a store, seeing as there were no visible signs from the outside, and stores usually like to advertise. As we’ve learned from my time on this side of the world, my frame of reference means squat, and the elevators opened up right into the unmarked store.

Other than eating good food, going to nice NY-style bars, shopping on hilly city streets, and catching up on the News in our hotel room (always an out-of-Beijing-treat), I didn’t do much tourism while I was here.

That being said, I have no regrets.

Concern for Getting Back to Beijing: readjusting to non-British Roads

Both Hong Kong and Malaysia were owned by Britain, so they drive on the left side of the road. At first I was just looking both ways on every turn, unsure of where the cars would be coming from. Now, three weeks later, the traffic flow feels normal to me. I can just see myself getting back to Bejing and being immediately flattened by a giant cart piled high with Styrofoam because I’m looking the wrong way.

Mental note: look both ways.