I'm in Hong Kong, at a hole-in-the-wall Internet Cafe across the street from my hotel. The typhoon, of course, followed me here (I thought my luggage was a bit heavier than it should have been). So the weather is not, shall we say, at its best. I still can't believe that I'm going through the same typhoon twice.

My hotel, the Hong Kong Hyatt Regency, is nice, but the idiots at the travel agency for some reason told them to not give us any phone service, which they later denied. These are the same idiots who 'forgot' to give us the correct forms to fill out before we went through customs. Now I can't even make a local call because of those parsimonious bastards. Not just that, but I couldn't locate the hotel bus to my hotel because there isn't a single person at the Hong Kong airport who knows where the hotel buses are located. I asked several people and nobody knew. Incredible. I ended up taking the airport train, and then finding my way out of a particularly maze-like apartment complex, then walking over to Tsim Sha Tsui, soaking myself with sweat in the process. At least there was an ice cream stand in Kowloon park on the way.

Last night I met up with the Big White Guy himself, over in his traditional stomping grounds in Causeway Bay. When I called him, his voice didn't match my original expectations. From his appearance, I expected something more, I dunno, dangerous sounding. He's actually a really nice guy, fun to talk with. I hope we can get together again before I have to leave. We had some drinks at a teahouse/restaurant place, took pictures of each other for our websites and then walked around the area, the bwg pointing out various places where he had cleverly affixed "Goatee Style" stickers. Later on we even beheld the famous Steps of Pain.

I just had a great lunch of Cantonese cuisine, including Chang fen, which is basically big noodles with meat inside. I also had a nice massage which included baby oil and being nekkid. That's all the details you're going to get from me, so don't bother asking.

I called a couple of other friends this afternoon, guys I knew from when I worked at the newspaper, and we'll probably meet up later on. I don't know what we'll do, other than get wet from the pouring rain. It's great to be back in Hong Kong, although I know that I'd have to make a lot more than I make now if I wanted to live here. It's quite expensive, and seems like a much more intense living experience than I'm used to in Taipei. That might be just because I am used to Taipei, though. If I were accustomed to living in Hong Kong, I might feel the same way about it. One thing I am reasonably sure of, though, is that after walking around this hilly terrain for a few months, I'd have great-looking calves. Hong Kong people tend to have really nice calves.
etched by at 5:29 PM

I'll keep this short and sweet since the electricity keeps shutting off. The travel agency wasn't answering the phone this morning. No one was at my office either, but according to the Cathay Pacific Web site, my flight to Hong Kong tomorrow morning still hasn't been cancelled, so I guess I will just get up at 6:30 am tomorrow morning, find a bus to the airport and hope that the tour is still on. The agency is on the 6th floor, so at least they won't be able to claim flood damage. I have to admit I'm a little nervous about getting on an airplane after the attacks in the US, but statistically speaking, flying hasn't become more dangerous.

We actually saw blue sky and a bit of sunlight today for the first time in a while. It's still raining, though, and some foreigner laid his bike down on the wet street below my window just now. I spent the day online and editing my book, which was actually kind of enjoyable. I think it will be a good read. Consequently, however, I don't have much to write about today. I also don't know whether I will be able to find web access during the four days I will be in Hong Kong. One thing I do know, is that typhoons are like smoke at a campfire. No matter where I sit, it always blows my way.

Well, in any case, Hong Kong should be fun. I really need to get away for a bit, and even if it rains I'll enjoy it.
etched by at 10:31 PM

I learned today from my friend Bill, who works in Washington DC for the Voice of America, where he is the bureau chief or something, that my college professor passed away on August 31st. Bill has been rather busy ever since the terrorist attacks, obviously, so he only had time to tell me today. My professor was with friends. There was no funeral. He didn't get my letter.

I hope he knew what he meant to me and all of his other students.

Work tomorrow has been cancelled as well, due to the typhoon, which is still actually in Taiwan, such is the slowness of its pace. The wind outside is still howling, and the lightening is fierce. Hopefully the electricity will hold up.
etched by at 7:08 PM

Dean called last night and asked if I was coming over to watch Star Trek at the 70's Airport Love Palace. Typhoons don't usually have that big an effect in Taipei, so I thought why not? A glance outside showed nothing but rain, so I said ok. Dean and Kay drove over and picked me up, since they were going out for videos anyway.

It was around 8 p.m. by the time we had picked a couple of VCDs out and returned. First we watched Family Man, with Nicholas Cage, and learned why success is bad for you. Then we watched Star Trek and began watching Cast Away, with Tom Hanks. By this time the weather outside was getting a bit violent. The wind rose to a howl and lightning began to flash, giving a surreal feel to the storm scene in the movie, as if it were some sort of hopped-up surround sound system.

We were about a third of the way through the movie when Eoghain, who lives on the top floor of the apartment, came in and said, in his typically British understated way: "We may be having a bit of a problem with the water coming in again." We left Dean's room and found several waterfalls streaming out of the light fixtures. Upstairs, Eoghain's room had filled with water, and the balcony, where Eoghain keeps his pet alligator, was overflowing. We took turns bailing water out of Eoghain's room with plastic drawers and had just about finished when the power went out, leaving us in darkness. The evacuated airport still had emergency lighting, of course, but the rest of the city was pitch black. The cat chose that moment to get in touch with its fear by vomiting on the floor.

The weather was such that I didn't feel like returning home, so I spent the night. When I woke up this morning it was still raining heavily, but the wind had died down a bit, so I decided to walk back home, as public transportation didn't seem to be working. The street below was flooded, and people were trying to push their cars to higher ground. The people on the radio said that high tide would exacerbate the flooding.

Dean and I walked south, but soon we were wading. Cars were mostly submerged in the almost waist-high water, which smelled of gasoline and other chemicals. Minchuan East Road was flooded as well, and I snapped some more pictures of Dean as he pointed out this man on a bicycle. Then Dean went back to the 70's Airport Love Palace, while I continued south through what looked like a Taiwanese version of Venice. Garbage was floating in the submerged alleyways, and stairways down to lower levels in office buildings had become waterfalls. Changchun Road was covered in about 3-4 feet of water, and shoeboxes floated out of one shop. The water was waist-deep by now, and I tiptoed along, holding my shorts up with one hand to keep my wallet and digital camera out of the water as I held my umbrella in front of me in the muddy brown torrent to seek out any obstacles or sewer openings that might trip me up. The metal doors leading to underground parking garages were bent inwards by the force of the flood, which had reached the top step of the Sunrise department store on Fuhsing N. Road.

I kept sloshing my way through the water, down Fuhsing to Chunghsiao, which was also under water. I had to jump over the wakes that passing military trucks left as they drove down the street. The wakes crashed like surf up against the shop fronts. Pedestrians gawked from curbsides that had become more akin to warfs at a port. The entrance to the Sogo Department store parking garage had become a torrential affair, watched by some people in the flooded Friday's just opposite. Ronald McDonald didn't seem to notice the catastrophe, however. All along the river that was Chunghsiao East Road, people stared out of upper story windows. I decided to go check on my old landlord, and found the alley where I used to live pretty much submerged. If I were still living there, my motorcycle would have been ruined by the water. I called up to some people sitting in one of the windows in my old apartment, but they said no one by my landlord's name lived there anymore.

Inexplicably humming "Surfin' USA" by the Beach Boys, I walked down Dunhua South Road, where some rather large trees had been blown down, and then down Ren-ai to Ta-an Park. There I found a site that made me laugh it was so ludicrous. Some idiot was so worried about his precious SUV, which he presumably bought for its supposed ability to operate in tough situations just such as this, that he actually drove it into the middle of the park and parked it on a small hill where it would be safe from the floods.

Businesses are still closed, of course, and the weather still looks nasty outside, with heavy wind and a barrage of rain, but at least we don't get so much flooding in this particular area. Although the streetlights downstairs don't seem to be working, our electricity is still on. Hopefully we'll get tomorrow off as well, since the city seemed to have taken a real beating. Flooding is three stories high in some areas. I'm also a bit worried that the typhoon will regroup and make a pass at Hong Kong next, which would be bad as I am planning on flying there the day after tomorrow.
etched by at 5:26 PM

Yesterday I was eating a delicious brunch at Grandma Nitti's when Fish walked up. I hadn't seen Fish, who is Canadian (it seems my life is full of Canadians lately), in a while, so after we finished eating, we decided to walk up to the Taipei Guest House, which is open to the public this weekend, and have a look around.

For those of you who don't live in Taipei, the Taipei Guest House, built in 1901, is an imposing, slightly dilapidated grey edifice near the East Gate on Zhongshan S. Road. Foreigners call it the Addam's Family House. We tried to walk into one gate but were turned away by a couple of gruff young men in suits who looked like they used words like "cut" in interesting and varied ways. We went to the proper entrance and walked in to find an overgrown front lawn with a fountain and a line of people spilling out from under the portico. We got in the line, which slowly moved inside the house...

...and right back out again. We were ushered through the main hall, glimpsed a couple of side rooms and then we were out the back door, standing on the portico overlooking a sizable lake and more overgrown grounds. Pictures of the Guest House were stuck on a couple of boards, but otherwise, that was it. We were rushed out by more gruff young men who seemed perturbed by the gall of whomever had allowed entrance to all of these pesky tourists.

I also made a start on editing the rough draft of my book yesterday. This is going to take quite a while, I think, since it needs a lot of editing, as well as background and other research. Still, it's just a matter of plodding through it and getting it done. Today is perfect for such goings on, since the Typhoon That Wouldn't Leave is still hanging around our northern coast. At noon today I went out to buy some groceries and have some lunch at the vegetarian place on Heping E. Road that has really good fried rice. Besides heavy rain, the occasional gust of wind and heavy, fast-moving clouds rushing across the sky, one couldn't tell that there was a typhoon here, yet the eye is supposedly supposed to pass over Taipei later today. I hope we get at least one day of vacation for this. I also hope that this doesn't affect my trip to Hong Kong on Wednesday.

Have I mentioned that? Our company, in an attempt to keep employees around in spite of the fact that we don't get paid well, sponsors an annual company trip, and we could choose from excursions to Germany, Egypt, Japan, Bali, Hong Kong and Kenting. The company pays NT$10,000 of the trip cost, so while this would be just a small portion of the trip to Germany or Egypt, it is the majority of the Hong Kong trip and all of the Kenting trip. Since I can get to Kenting on my own very cheaply, I decided to take the Hong Kong option and pay a few thousand NT for round-trip airfare and four days in Hong Kong, with my own room at the Hyatt in TST for three nights. This is, of course, if neither the typhoon nor the Cathay Pacific pilots strike manage to fuck it up. When I'm there, hopefully, I'll be able to see some of my old co-workers from the paper as well as some other old friends. If I'm extremely lucky, I'll be able to catch a glimpse of the fabled BWG.
etched by at 2:50 PM

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