Day 12

This weekend I didn't do a lot. Three things I did do, however, were 1) see the light show, 2) decide on my favorite Indian restaurant, and 3) hang out with friends I made in the Navy. First, the HK light show was pretty cool. But maybe a little overrated. It wasn't that great but I'm glad I went.

At Chungking Mansions, where I used to live, there's a large population of African and Indian immigrants like I said before. These immigrants work in the markets around where they live; namely the bottom few floors of almost every building on Nathan Road. In Chungking Mansions, also, there are a lot of Indian 'restaurants'. It's not a restaurant, it's a 'restaurant' because the only seating at one of these places is a table with linoleum floor covering on top. But the food is great: Chicken tikka, egg roll, chicken curry, Biryani, etc. A meal there costs about $40 ($5 US). For Hong Kong, that's really cheap.

The Navy was here. They left yesterday, and have been here since Wednesday. They wouldn't say where they were going next, but they were about to finish a tour in the Gulf. Meeting other Americans who are also new in town is exciting. Exciting because, besides the people I meet (like Navy servicemen) I don't have any friends here. Being alone here is only fun for so long, which leads me to what I did on Sunday.

...

And today, Monday, I'm back at work. Nothing interesting or special has happened since then.

On the politics in HK: The whole region is very autonomous. There are protesters and dissidents just like in big American cities like New York. The police are like campus police; they aren't there to impose the will of any regime, just to make sure that people are safe and not on drugs. So the people who have complaints about the government, about Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao or Falun Gong, can do what they want and no one pays them any attention. Actually, no one really does. People in Hong Kong don't have a lot of power to put events in motion for change, because they aren't truly part of the constituencies that are governed by Beijing, and even if they were, it's only one city; and if they were, they wouldn't be able to loudly organize against their government.

Next time I write will probably be the end of this week; until then.