Sun/Mon 24-25 Oct: Long day, bad night

Breakfast and then checkout at the W hotel. I leave my bags with the front desk, and put my passports and a stack of cash in the hotel safe. (This is cool, I’ve never done this before — secret back room and deposit box key — dude, I’m Jason Bourne!)

I cross under the harbor on the MTR, and am strolling over to the ferry when a girl approaches me handing out Big Bus Tour brochures. I’ve been thinking of doing this anyway, so I sign up for the red tour and ride around in the hot moist smog seeing sights. Nice. Sitting up top in the back row with the how wind blowing — pretty good, except for the heavy toxic fumes from every direction…

Under one of the road bridges crossing Hennessy Road in Wan Chai, you can pay to have old ladies put curses on your enemies. The price varies, depending on the nature and duration of the curse, but involves the lady making a paper effigy of the cursee and smacking it with a shoe.

After the tour, I catch the Star Ferry over to Tsim Sha Tsui, and head to the Peninsula Hotel for their excellent Dim Sum, but arrive too late — they stop at 2:30. But I’m in luck: the doorman gives me directions to a really cool Dim Sum and seafood restaurant off of Nathan Road. Delicious food, no English except for some menu footnotes, a little hard to find but the doorman has written the destination in Chinese, so some people are very helpful showing me the way.
Following lunch, I walk through Kowloon park. This is a wonderful place, with ornamental gardens, a recreation center with pools, and various public areas where people gather to perform different ethnic functions — perhaps prayer in some cases, here and there music and dance… In many parts of the park I see large numbers of women, many with head scarves, gathered in groups on rows of rugs having lunch. All very atmospheric and charming.

From the park, I wander up Nathan Road all the way to Mong Kok, the most densely populated place on earth. Over 340,000 people per square mile, I have read. I pass through the Ladies’ Market, and make my way to the Mong Kok station. Walking here in the pedestrianized zones reminds me of walking around in a big rock concert, but it goes on for blocks around in every direction.

Three stops, change of trains, and at Kowloon Station I go up to fetch my bags and Jason Bourne items… Farewell W hotel! And back into the station for in-town checkin and train to the airport.

This time the flight leaves on time and is pretty uneventful, but sadly I don’t get much sleep.

I like this airbus model — the bathrooms are downstairs in a waiting area that is also good for stretching and shaking out the wrinkles without getting in anyone’s way. I set me watch to Munich time, and after a while notice that it is no longer going. How can you break a good watch just by setting it? Have I put it into some mechanically crashed mode? I’ll have to find a watch shop later and figure it out.
In Munich, the Lviv flight is delayed. Ugh. Already this was going to be a 3+ hour layover, but eventually after two gate changes and more delays, we go out onto the tarmac. We get on the little Lufthansa regional jet and are in Lviv in an hour or two.

Oleg drives me to the hotel, I have a shower, put in a few hours at the office, and then back to dinner, a quick stroll, and early to bed. Sound asleep in seconds.