This is a new world.
“And in this world?”
“The mall has an awesome food court. It’s got many fish and noodle places. Not at all like the food courts at home.”
This place-time is very different than the last dozen times, now that I travel alone, it feels different.
Hawaii is about half way to East Asia. It is actually West relative to me. I live in the Western USA and I travel West to get to Hawaii and then keep going West.
Lots of Asians visit Hawaii, and lots live here too. I see them now. I must have seen them before but I don’t remember.
“They might be Twinkies.”
Locals. I think of them as Hawaiians.
I don’t want a Twinkie. I know that much. I want authentic even though I don’t know what that means.
I’m going to find out.
“The good special.”
Between work and running the dogs I’ve been busy on the Internet! This is how to meet people now. You can meet anyone you want to.
I’m not having a typical experience. I’ll realize that much later. I’m looking for a real Asian woman and I’m going to see her.
“Not a twinkie. Guranteed.”
We’ve been video chatting for months. I’m just so enchanted with her.
I am writing with the Japanese woman and do translations with google and I try to learn some Japanese phrases.
Before I arrived here, HK Ling and I made video calls on Skype. We talked a lot and she seemed normal, like any professional, doing corporate taxes. I worry she won’t be exciting enough but she is unique! I never expected an English voice. It doesn’t match what I’m seeing. I expect Chinese or at least a Chinese accent. Definitely not the English accent.
I like that I can’t expect anything from her. There are no sterotypes that I know and there is no comparison between her and the memory of my normie wife other than the corporate job.
HK Ling stands alone like nobody ever has before, to me. My only expectation is she will show me her life and I hope I can learn her mind. What is custom and what is preference? I don’t know either yet.
I’m going to Japan first.
“Me too!”
This is just one corner of the counters that are all through the station. There’s a menu also, but it is nice to see the presentation. That’s part of it. Meals just look appealing.
I’m meeting someone here in Tokyo. There’s a language barrier but we still can chat a bit and enjoy some of the local food.
It’s a bar/grill but it is very narrow. It’s not like anyplace I’ve been to before. We sit at the bar and the chef prepares food in front of us and on the grill. He servers it to us fresh that way the whole time we are there. It’s a new way for me to eat. And it is delicious!
I really enjoy our time together, even though it is just for the day. This feels like what a first date might be.
“I’ve never had one!”
I really enjoy being with someone here, even though we share tight spaces.
I only have a day here, but I wish it were more.
I’m missing some pictures from this place-time but I believe this is about right.
“Something like this.”
“Or was it this?”
It’s time to take another airplane.
We are going to Hong Kong to see Iris. I don’t know her Chinese name. She did tell me her father called her Ling Ling, like a bell, ding ding. That’s what she said.
“Maybe her Chinese name is Ling?”
I never saw her passport.
“You’ll never know her real name or age.”
Doesn’t matter. I know her.
Happiness is right there waiting for us. The first place we go is Hui Lau Shan. It’s my favorite place here.
“Already?”
Once you find what you like you don’t have to keep looking for something better. If, it is this good.
She sent me a picture from her balcony overlooking Hong Kong. You can see a little bit of the Kowloon Bay or Victoria Harbor. All of the buildings on this side are Hong Kong. On the other side of the harbor is Shenzhen, one of the fastest growing cities anywhere. Looking at it on Google Earth it is mostly dirt, but I can see skyscrapers there now.
I don’t make the connection HK was colony, even though I know it will change government soon, I’m just not expecting that accent. It’s mesmerizing and I hear her voice and can’t match it to the face in front of me. She’s small too. I like that she can jump into my arms and I can hold here there. She weighs 90 lbs. It’s new to me to has so much affection. I love it. I’m not sure if I love her though. In HK I’m very interested in being out and doing things. Maybe more than being with her? In Las Vegas, we seem to be acting like an old married couple the way we go through the days and nights. We don’t go out at all here. She’s a homebody. How old is she anyway? I never asked her. I can’t tell. Is she 30-40-50?
“You don’t need to know.”
“How do you know what normal is?”
I see lots of English. No problem translating.
We don’t have to go far to see interesting things. We have lots of days together doing whatever comes to mind.
règǒu
“hot dog”
It is sooo good! I try to eat two of them but can only manage one and a half. The bread is sweet and fluffy, the sauce is tangy sweet like barbeque sauce, and the shredded fish flakes give it the taste of bacon.
It’s true. Somebody else’s hot dog can be amazing!
“Ever try a Costco dog?”
No thank you.
Nobody on the bike trail today but us.
“I like the bike trail is separate from the walking and running trail.”
We ride a double bicycle along the waterfront.
So many high density buildings.
There is a car service that runs up and down the hill all day long for the building tenents. There isn’t anything in the building.
“Convenience store in the lobby would have been nice.”
You have to go down the hill for everything.
“She can’t be in a relationship with anybody.”
Not right now anyway. I hope she didn’t put too many hopes into something she can’t even talk about.
She will leave on her own and she seemed more sad to lose the dogs company than mine. I’ve dissapointed her by not being who she wanted me to be.
I’m sad for it. I keep this picture and the bear she gave me. She thinks the hat makes it look like me.
“That hat.”
I’m right back in Hong Kong just a few months after Iris leaves Las Vegas. This time I fly directly here because I only have a week. This is the view from Shenzhen. It’s all HK to me but it isn’t. Hong Kong is ‘special’ and the people that live there think they are ‘special’ too. They are. But they are still Chinese citizens.
“So this is Manhattan and the other side of the harbor is the Bronx?”
Lets just say ‘different’. Once time my passport is stamped with a Hong Kong stamp and the next it is a Chinese visa sticker. Transitional in this place-time.
When I get to China I’m meeting what I think is a typical Chinese young woman in her late 20’s.
“Maybe 30’s. You don’t know. And you aren’t going to know unless you see her ID.”
She doesn’t meet me when I arrive at the hotel in HK. I’m disappointed about that. I’m in a very nice hotel on Kowloon Bay. The view is fantastic and I wished she were with me to see it. I call her but she says she has to wait till the morning when I ride the underground train across the bay to Shenzhen to see her. Much later I realize she isn’t free to cross from Shenzhen into Hong Kong. There are travel restrictions for her she didn’t tell me about.
I’ll enjoy HK by myself tonight.
“You’re never by yourself in Hong Kong.”
The next day I’ll take that short trip across the bay.
Her apartment is one of the non-descript buildings that cover the urban areas in the cities I visit.
There is no immediate attraction between us that I can sense. We sit on her couch and talk a while. She had a life in Canada and it seems her goal is to get out of China again. She told me a couple stories. One to explain the Chinese (her version anyway); if there is a sign on beach that says no fishing, they burn the sign as firewood for warmth. Another is to always take the best first, don’t save it for later because it will be gone. Somebody else will take it. That sounds like a statement on living with a billion people. At first I thought it was about choice or a statement about saving. I think it’s more about survival and competition. That much I think I understand, it’s harder to standout in a crowd. Asian stereotype is they study harder, and are better, etc…It could just be a result of such a high level of competition. If you don’t give maximum effort somebody else will.
Another story she talked about a guy that was trying to impress her girlfriends by giving a couple ipads away. I thought that wasn’t much. I could do that too but I don’t say it. In the story she tells she doesn’t like that kind of thing and I don’t want to seem like I’m bragging. It really doesn’t mean much for me and most Americans. We buy that crap all the time.
I don’t want her to think I’m offering to buy her one either.
Doesn’t she realize all that stuff made in China is headed to the USA?
Finances are different there for her and I’m not thinking about that. They don’t make much compared to USA. Why was that a topic? I didn’t ask. She is materialistic by measurement of this or that. Could be cultural or it could be her specifically. I could tell her a Yuan equivalent of my salary but there’s no reference of what things cost so am I rich or poor? I feel like she’s asking me but I can’t say to her what my status is and I don’t like that it matters to her at this moment. I came around the world for her and that’s not enough to think about right now?
I’m sent on an errand. She told me to ‘take my time’ but bring back some food from coffee place while she takes a nap. I took a couple hours and she is upset I’m gone so long. What does ‘take my time’ mean? I’ve disappointed her already.
There is no chemistry between us. It feels like a an interview for a job I don’t want. Nothing is going to happen. I’m not going to pursue. I wonder if she was expecting me to. Is that what she is used to? Is she in demand here?
“Sounds like entitlement. That’s not special. That’s a plain hot dog, I’ve seen them all over the world. Not special.”
When I leave she says ok I’ll give you a hug. I laugh inside about it. She must have thought I was waiting for something. She was shopping for another Canada type deal and it felt weird. I really felt like she was evaluating me right from the start. We never really connect when we talk. It just seems like random stories of her past. I guess I put it all together into a representative view of what choices she makes in named situations. That’s the manner in which I will know her. It’s mechanical. She’s predictable and a relationship with her is likely going to feel like a deal and hopefully not a constant re-negotion of your value to her. The whole meet is over in a day.
I’m not the hot dog she’s looking for.
“She seems like the kind of hot dog we are trying to avoid.”
I’m a tourist now, I know what to do. I’m happy to be here. So many things to see. She is memorable, but not in a way you might expect if I said I dated someone and that’s what I thought about it. She lives in my head because I remember her.
“What was the date?”
We went to the movies and saw Kung Fu Panda.
It was her pick.
There are lots of tourist things to do. I enjoy looking as much as doing.
“Is it just HK or the whole country?”
Hmmm good question.
“How fast can monkeys run?”
“Bad idea to pull out a sandwich.”
I wouldn’t even carry one!
“I wonder who is in the costume…”
他们在私下碰我
“panda” is 熊猫 (xióngmāo)
熊 (xióng) means bear
猫 (māo) means cat
It literally translates to bear cat
With so many people this isn’t such a bad thing. If everyone had a house there would be no jungle left. It would be giant concrete mountains.
“To a different place-time.”
I’m already excited for I know not what.
We stop in the usual place for a day or two just to avoid the shock of returning to the desert.
“It’s a desert in so many ways.”
It is very random that we should call Las Vegas home.
“It’s part of the cosmic unconsciousness.”