In my final days in China I visit a vast tea market to purchase some fine quality goods. Apart from that, most of the final days before Hong Kong are mostly idle waiting, though I manage to find some appropriate gifts.
In Hong Kong I meet friends again, starting with a welcome lunch and being shown around town a little. I managed to shake the typhoon off my trail back in Japan, but it found me again in Hong Kong. Unimpressed by heavy rain and fallen trees, we drop my still cumbersome luggage at my friend's apartment and head to a market to purchase ingredients for the night's dinner. My friends remember my kitchen skills from when they visited my home and I gladly offer to prepare dinner in exchange for lodging.
Despite the weather I go out with one of my friends the next day to see three Avenue of Stars and pose for a picture next to the statue of Bruce Lee. We also visit a marketplace where we strike a bargain for a Bruce Lee T-shirt shirt, which is nice. On the evening I cook again, this time a speciality of mine that turns out to be a modified version of Shanghai dumplings. My friend's mother plays lottery, using my birthyear as one of her lucky numbers.
In the morning my friend's family treats me to a massive breakfast, courtesy of the mother, who won a sum of money from the lottery. I write down dishes that I like in Asia to my journal and ask my friend to also mark down the Chinese names, in proper characters and phonetically, of the Chinese and Hong Kong ones.
After sending my second parcel home, I spend the day in Mong Kok eyeing the shopping district but refraining from buying anything. I check into a guesthouse after slightly haggling the price down. This area would be simply great for practising that particular skill. In the evening I eat some delicious food from street stalls before tucking in for the night.
Come morning, I dig out my deck of cards and work half a Karl Gotch Bible to wake myself up. I meet my friend one more time for lunch and make my way to there airport to catch my flight, only to find out it has been canceled due to weather conditions. I wonder if the sun catches the pilots' eyes in such a terrible way, as the skies are clear in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. After queuing for quite a while, I am transferred to another airline and make it to a new land only an hour later than expected. There I meet friends again, and we drive to a teahouse on a mountain near Taipei to have fine tea under a starry sky. There is nothing more I could ask for.
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