I’m Just a Wanderin’

We had a four-day weekend, but we decided to stay pretty close to home and make a few day trips. Because Elise needed a day to recover from her three-day school retreat earlier in the week, we started out our long weekend by doing a whole bunch of nothing on Thursday. The girls were pretty content to hang around the apartment doing whatever it is they do on the computer (just how many crazy cat videos can you watch on YouTube?)

By about 11:30 I was going a little stir crazy, so I told Julie I was going for a walk. I was so antsy, I forgot to grab my camera on the way out.

Really, I only meant to be gone for half an hour.

In the two months that we’ve been here, it was the first time I’ve gone for a walk of any length on my own. So I just started wandering. Any old which way. No agenda. No time frame. Just a little bit of urban exploring.

I ducked into the floating seafood restaurant to peek at a menu. Not as expensive as I had thought.

I was able to inquire about renting the tennis courts that are five minutes from our house. They also have indoor squash courts. US$5.00 for an hour.

I found a great park ten minutes from our house that has a mini-peak in the middle of it that we can hike.

I lingered too long in front of little cluster of three-story houses and a gentleman came out and asked me if he could help me. We had a great fifteen minute conversation. He’s retired now, but he lived in Great Britain for twenty years. He explained to me that this whole neighborhood was relocated (or, as he kept saying: re-cited) to its current location several years ago by the Hong Kong government.

I found a little neighborhood with a bunch of ma-and-pop shops lining the streets. The stores had their wares spilling out onto the sidewalk. The restaurants had tables set up outside. I had about US$4 on me which I figured should be just about enough for a snack and a drink.

I perused my restaurant options. I think that I have a little bit of my Uncle Merle in me. I love a good dive. My philosophy is that the dumpier the restaurant, the better the food. How else could they stay in business, right? In deference to my wife and two adolescent daughters, we have eaten at a fair number of mall food courts since we arrived. If mall and hotel restaurants are on one end of the food spectrum, I was looking for a place as far on the other end of the spectrum as possible.

I picked a narrow little restaurant that sat maybe twenty people. Being a national holiday, the place was hopping. I had some deep-fried bean curd, the complimentary hot tea, and a Sprite all for US$2. People watching was free.

Afterwards, I finally managed to wander back home . . . two-and-a-half hours after I’d left.

The girls were still on their computer.

I’m not even sure they knew I’d been gone.

I love wandering.

-Jack

Picture: bamboo steamers for cooking a variety of foods. This restaurant, like many others had a kitchen in the back, but they also did some of the cooking on the front sidewalk, thus the bamboo steamers out front.