I did something fun and different today. I worked at the information desk at the fleet arcade; the place where the servicemen and women on the US Navy ships enter Hong Kong . Most of the questions were things like, “where do we take our laundry?” “Where is the closest ATM?” but we also got questions like “where do we go to buy electronics?” “Where’s the best Chinese food?” “Where is the Hard Rock Café?” and all sorts of questions about having fun in Hong Kong .
I just enjoyed talking to them all. There were young kids, of course, younger than Daniel, but more mature in some ways. There were lots of guys that looked older – 30’s and 40’s – must have been officers. There were even some families – wives and kids that had flown out to meet their husbands in HK.
Here’s the strangest thing. After my shift was over, I needed to go to the Post Office. The way the walkways in that area were constructed though, somehow I ended up going in the opposite directions, toward Wan Chai. Within 10 minutes, on my way to the MTR I ended up on a street I had never seen before, me and a bunch of the servicemen. The street was full of Asian girls in short skirts, heavily made up, with their “madams” close by, encouraging the soldiers (a nice way to put it) to step into their bar. I realized that I was on the girlie street in Wan Chai! Wan Chai is the place where each street seems to have its own function – the pipe street, the bathroom fixtures street, the light fixtures street, etc. Well it seems that Wan Chai has a girl street too, and all roads from the Fleet Arcade lead right to it!
It kind of bothered me; that and the Indian guys standing right outside the Arcade saying “welcome to Hong Kong ”. Yeah, right. Beware!
We were telling them that HK was a safe and friendly place. Hopefully they had been advised by their officers that like anywhere in the world there are people that would love to take advantage of them if they could.
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