I eventually found the tea house and was seated at a booth for one. The idea of traveling alone is very foreign to Chinese culture. Some individuals do it, but culturally it is the not the norm. I get a lot of weird looks and surprised voices when I tell people I’m alone. Going into restaurants or booking train tickets in particular get the most outrageous expressions. In one of my books, it even talked about how Chinese people feel very bad for people traveling alone. Generally if you ask for help, they will help you because they would never want to be in your situation themselves.
The whole set up of this tea house was kind of neat. Your waiter was also your chef. The menu had a little English to it, but not much. There was enough that I was able to know that the meat in the dish I ordered was pork. The dish itself was quite good. It was fried chunks of pork with pieces of pineapple and spicy green peppers. It came with steamed rice—of course!—and I ordered a pot of tea, which was really hot and really strong. It all tasted so good though, and I would have eaten more if the serving had been bigger.
As I left the restaurant I debated going back to the hostel for an early night or going to check out the night market. I was kind of getting the hang of getting around town so I decided to go check out the market. This turned out to be a good call too! The Temple Street Market has vendors that sell everything from Chinese looking jewelry to sex toys and lingerie. There were misprinted America t-shirts, all kinds of Buddha statues, and every piece of Frozen memorabilia you can imagine. And the market was huge…it kept going block after block.
I attempted to haggle with one lady for a Buddha statue. I think I offended her when I gave up and walked away, but she didn’t chase me. John told me that it isn’t really PC to haggle unless you are intent on making the purchase. I was intent on making the purchase, but only for about ¼ of what she wanted for it. She wasn’t going to come down and I wasn’t going to go up. The English term for this situation is “No deal!”
I decided to invest my money in an experience instead of a souvenir. There was a man at one booth with a sign that read “English fortune teller.” He wanted $280HKD for a reading. I asked if he’d do it for $100 and he said he would.
“May I know what year you were born in?” he asked.
I told him. He told me which sign I was in the Chinese Zodiac.
“May I know which country you are originally from?” he asked.
“The US,” I said.
“Ah, United States,” he said. “I have done interviews on CNN.” He pointed to a picture of himself on one of the morning shows.
“May I see your left palm,” he asked. I put it out. “Left side of the body controls 30 perfect of your destiny. The right side controls 70. Understand?” I said I did. “For special price, I will read your left palm.”
He began explaining to me the four things you can learn about the future from reading a palm. There are lines that indicate your lifespan, emotions, relationships, and career.
“Your life line is strong, but not so long,” he said. “This means you will do many things in your life, but it may not be so long. You will probably live to be about 40,” he said.
Well that’s a little alarming! I thought.
“But you are young,” he said. “If you play lots of sports and eat good food, you can change this and live longer.”
Nice to know that destiny isn’t written in the fortune telling business.
“Your emotional line is also strong but tails off at the end,” he said. “This tells me that you have very strong emotions, but you keep them to yourself. You know how to hide how you feel very effectively. The way it curves here at the end tells me that you can deal with a lot of stress, but you have a point where that coping mechanism falls away. You have a moment where you cannot cope anymore and emotions come out.”
“Your relationship line is divided into three parts. One part for your siblings, one for your friends, and one for your marriage. Your relationship with your siblings is very good. You will always be there to take care of each other.”
Including hacking into each other’s bank accounts I thought.
“Your friendship line is thin, but deep. This means that you have few friends that you like to keep very close. Close is more important to you than many. But be careful. Sometimes people you think are friends are enemies in disguise.
“For your marriage, your wife will probably be either 5 years older or 5 years younger than you, I cannot tell exactly. You should wait to get married until you are at least 29, understand? If you do before, it will be a very unhealthy relationship.
“Do you have any questions?” He asked.
I couldn’t think of any. I found the whole thing both entertaining, creepy, and odd. I thanked him for his time, paid him, and continued down the market.
About 9:30, I decided to head back to the hostel. I now had two roommates—one from China and one from India—we talked briefly before I went to take a shower in the bathroom at the end of the hall. There wasn’t any wifi in the room so I hung out in the lobby area downstairs, where I met several more people. As we all swapped stories of Hong Kong, everyone’s Hong Kong adventure appeared to be very similar, and fairly chaotic and dysfunctional.
When I got back to the room, I spent sometime mapping out possible itineraries for tomorrow. I decided that if it rains, I will go to Macau. If it’s it nice, I will stay in Hong Kong and try to hit some of the sites I missed today. It was frustrating not getting anywhere I wanted to go, but at the same time, I absolutely loved what I saw. I feel like I know my way around now and that I’ll be able to see some cool stuff in the time I have left.
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