13 April 2019
Weird stuff happens
Exploring Tsin Sha Tsui in the rain
Its still sort of raining, not that rain really impacts my evening activity which involves walking around gawking at things until I find my dinner, then I walk back to my hotel again.
Tonight I saw a few interesting things. First up, I saw a chef drop his cigarette lighter, it exploded in a fireball and set his pants on fire. I was shocked, but he acted like it had happened before, patted out the flames out on his pants, then went back into the kitchen.
Next up I was crossing the road via an underpass, and a girl slipped down the stairs on her ass, it looked quite bad. Her boyfriend however, pulls out his phone and starts filming her trying to recover her dignity while laughing his head off. Maybe he pushed her?
Thirdly, the usual guys on corners trying to get me to follow them to a tailor or to buy a watch were out in force, when that doesnt work, they go for massage, sexy massage. Still no bites. But then, Hasish? Opium? Quaalude? This guy was trying to sell me every kind of drug referenced in bad old movies. I am pretty sure that even in the recent movie featuring Quaaludes they mentioned that they no longer exist. This was not my last drug story for the evening either.
Last one for the night, I saw all kinds of commotion on a corner. A large tour bus had mounted the corner and was wedged on a steel railing designed to prevent buses from cutting the corner and killing people. As far as I could tell the railing had done its job but the bus was on a bit of a lean like perhaps its wheels on the inside were no longer on the ground. About a thousand cars were now lined up behind this bus with everyone bashing their horns relentlessly.
Also I have pretty much given up on pretending there is no water on the front of my lense. I am not even checking any more. Once it stops raining I will wipe it clean, until then, blurry bits on my photos. Not that anyone actually looks at photos bigger than postage stamp size these days anyway.
I found a place called signal hill garden. Its a hill and a garden. Obviously I marched up the hill in the rain.
Here is the view, of rain. But concerningly, behind me there was a bunch of guys under the pagoda thing smoking dope. They looked like African war lords, complete with gold chains and berets. They were playing dominoes. I left quite quickly as I have seen this movie. It involves me getting arrested, assumed to be part of the group, and then executed in Hong Kong for a crime I did not commit. Also, apparently 'concerningly' is not a real word. I BEG TO DIFFER.
The Peninsula Hotel. It has a fountain and a neon anti suicide net.
I forget what this place is called, I tried to photograph the people taking the photographs so it would look less like I was taking photographs of things everyone photographs. I missed the best chance while I was still getting into position where women all dressed up were suffering an existential crisis, pose for the photo in the rain, or stay under the umbrella. I dont know if that properly defines an existential crisis, but also I dont care.
Here is my dinner. I ate healthy all day, but too much. This is vegetarian and delicious. It is tomato soup, with fusili pasta, every kind of mushroom, and scrambled eggs. It seemed to be a popular Hong Kong fusion dish at the local food court with orange plastic tables. Food tastes better when the tables are orange and plastic, and the chairs are mounted on a metal pole bolted to the floor. Also... $5!
You have heard of food trucks, the new hot thing is mobile mobile phone plan selling trucks. Yes, you can go into a truck and sign a deal for a sim card!
The horror! The horror! Polystyrene boxes. You might remember breaking them up as a child and how they return to their natural state of tiny marbles of bean bag fill? That is what these boxes will turn into shortly, and blow into the ocean. Many countries have banned these boxes for that reason, but not Australia! My apartment has a HUGE PILE of these boxes from the companies like lite n easy who deliver meals to fat people who cant leave their couch.
I then found an arcade full of old camera lenses. One good thing about my camera is that you can fit any lense ever made onto it as long as you can find the right adapter (which you can, for about $10). The Sony focal plain flange length is shorter than any other camera, which is important for some reason. It is all MOOT though, no matter the camera or the lense, my photos all look horrifically bad. The next few shots will prove this point, over and over and over and over and over again.
I think these shops are called Park Avenue, but they are on Nathan Road. These are useless to me as its all designer stuff and I only buy cheap camo shorts from kmart during boxing day sales. However Park Avenue did provide a very nice long roof to avoid the rain, so I took a photo of it.
Now we have entered spicy crab world. I like the lighting here, this area had what appeared to me to be genuine old neon buzzing signs. Maybe they are fake retro.
More spicy crab. It made for good photos but I dont really understand how or why you would want to eat it. So messy.
Cool lighting on this street. The rainy low clouds help.
Last one for tonight on a particularly bright street. Will it be raining tomorrow? Probably. Then what? No idea.