One Night in Hong Kong

I often complain to myself abot living a rather pedestrian life. Then, I'll look back at events that occured maybe a month previously and wonder why I never wrote about it when it happened.

August 27 2011

I had a lunchtime trans-pacific flight the next day, meaning I had to get up early the next morning. I had to make a decision: go to bed early and get up early, well-rested for an entire day of travel, or, party all night in Hong Kong, stumble drunkenly onto the plane, and pass out for my 12.5 hour flight. Being a Hong Kong addict, I went with the latter.

I was meeting a friend at a club in the Lan Kwai Fong area, but was having serious difficulty finding this club. I wandered around, refusing to ask for directions, as it is a bitch move. As I got more and more lost, it became apparent to anyone watching me that I was, in fact, lost.

I walked past a park, and saw an Indian man sitting on bench, looking about as shady as a lonely minority sitting in an empty park near the bar district of metropolitan city can look. Nonetheless, our eyes met. As I approached him to ask where this bar was, there was a certain acknoledgement in our eye contact that indicated to both of us that we had one thing in common: an appreciation for recreational drugs.

"What are you looking for?"
"Well, a bar, but how much for _______?"

After a few seconds, it was apparent that there would be no transaction. I wasn't surprised, I was broke and prices in Hong Kong are ridiculous. What I didn't expect was for him to offer to smoke me out and show me to the bar.

As a walked down an empty, roach infested alley, I started to what wonder if my better judgement was being applied here. There are some lesson I've been taught all my life that were flashing through my mind. Don't talk to strangers. Don't do drugs. Don't walk down dark alleyways. Don't walk down dark alleyways with strangers to do drugs

I overreacted, as we proceeded to get into much better moods. Apparently hustlin' on the park bench had left my friend Baba stressed, and in need of a brown friend to smoke a joint with. Once we were done, we went back into the crowd, looking for a club where my friend had been waiting for about hour. I asked the bouncer of one of the many bars there for directions, and when I turn around to find Baba, he's gone.

The word in my head at the moment was gratitude.
Thank you God for giving me the chance to party in the amazing city that is Hong Kong
Thank you for letting me be Andre, and not an immigrant drug dealer
Thank you for sending me weed bearing angels as I have needed them throughout my travels.