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| A Journey of Nocturne 
It's not the first night I stayed outside; but it's the first night I kept walking all night, in the city.
The planning was done within 10 minutes, one night before the actual journey. I guessed this kind of journey has been planned for a long time, only a matter of chance to trigger it.
10:50PM
Have everything checked – city map, rain proof gear, water, camera; Now I'm arriving the starting point – also the end point of my trip, Shai Kei Wan, one end of tram terminal. It was nothing special, to those who lived there, only a circle of tram track, all trams going in east direction will be terminated here, take a turn, changed the sign and ready to move west.
"Ding, Ding", time to get boarding. That sound for boarding also called as alias for tram.
12:00AM
Nothing impressed me any more on the way.
I hopped off at Sheung Wan, and have some exercises going to the western tram terminal.
01:00AM
West tram terminal much peaceful then CBD, something couldn't be observed in daytime was the strong wings blew papers away, more clear about the sound from traffic lights for disables.
Stood by the sea and felt the humid winds like tiny rain, there's someone fishing by the sea. People one the street are mostly working on night shift for those shops operating 24 hours, polices.
There's still 5 hours to the destination, so I slowed down.
01:30AM
The unexpected phone call
A young man getting emotional while talking in the mobile phone, his friend, a lady with cigarette in hand, who was in 7-11 working suit walked beside him slowly. Suddenly, young man dropped the mobile with anger; the mobile was broken into parts in front of me; young man screamed – "I didn't do that!" I walked by in constant speed to minimize the chance of any dramatic effect of interacting with him.
I pretended to take a rest on the other side of the road, of course keep seeing the young man's show in a safe distance.
The magical mobile was still alive when that lady assembled it. Seems the young man was still stimulated and in 'destructive' mode; he kept repeating 'I didn't do that!' with a series of offensive words that making his statement more strong. He then started to drop the phone again, & kick the rubbish bin like a football – the bin fell down and separated into parts, rubbish spread away.
Then both went away, into the dark street.
Take 2, Break up
Near by the place I watched the show, there were another 4 young people taking video.
Their gear looked amateur, maybe rent from school. A young lady in long, brown hair seems liked their director. Their 'movie clip' was so short – probability just a scene shot – lasted for less than a minutes. But I've been seeing them taking the same shot from Take 2, 3, till 10, and I guess they still want to have the best cut after I left there in 20 minutes.
Portraits
"Hey man, what are you taking photos?"
"Landscape." I replied
"How about you?" I asked them who got the similar photo gears
"LANDSCAPE? OF COURSE, we are doing portrait. " The well made up model was their evident.
.... to be continued
With dogs
"Wow wow wow" dogs barked at me when I entered their territory.
I stopped, and move forwarded.
.... to be continues
02:20AM
Where the Taxis aggregate
Personally, I don't like women getting drunk, pretend or real drunk, as I could tell.
A long Taxi queue told me there might be something interested ahead. So I walked away from the tram track and obviously, those Taxis brought me to Lan Kwai Fung.
Tsui Wah restaurant at Central was open 24 hours, from the brands of vehicles packed outside it, I could predict which class they came from. I sat down, had some water, and toasted to the Taxi driver in the Taxi with 'For Hire' light one, who was giving me eye contact for a few seconds. He was parked outside that restaurant and waiting for those exits the restaurant.
From observation, a certainly drunk woman was sticking to a man in formal suit, they came from the street of bars and pubs – Lan Kwai Fung. I couldn't recall that moment the woman getting on the Taxi back seat, there's no different between drunk and drug overdose.
Took a turn, Lan Kwai Fung was in front, it's a back hoe of night time.
What're there? Music of rock and roll, smoking, talking, alcohol, peanuts, Taxis.
… to be continued
06:00AM
Take the first train home
… to be continued
| | |
| <REVIEW>
Wild ChildEnya
Ever close your eyes
Ever stop and listen
Ever feel alive
And you've nothing missing
You don't need a reason
Let the day go on and on
Let the rain fall down
Everywhere around you
Give into it now
Let the day surround you
You don't need a reason
Let the rain go on and on
What a day, what a day to take to
What a way, what a way to make it through
What a day, what a day to take to a wild child
Only take the time
From the helter skelter
Every day you find
Everything's in kilter
You don't need a reason
Let the day go on and on
Every summer sun
Every winter evening
Every spring to come
Every autumn leaving
You don't need a reason
Let it all go on and on
What a day, what a day to take to
What a way, what a way to make it through
What a day, what a day to take to a wild child
What a day, what a day to take to
What a way, what a way to make it through
What a day, what a day to take to a wild child
Da-da da da da da, da da da da da da
da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da
What a day, what a day to take to
What a way, what a way to make it through
What a day, what a day to take to
Da-da-da
Da-da-da-da-da-da
What a way, what a way to make it through
What a day, what a day to take to
What a day, what a day to take to a wild child
What a day, what a day to take to
What a day, what a day to take to a wild child
It'd been 3 years since I heard this song. It was played during a video presentation of a project call "Raleigh", a lucky young man was picked to join some volunteering work in developing countries, on the screen, it was that young man sitting at the back of the a truck, looking at the track and dusts the truck just went through – music started, it was from Enya, singer of Only Time which fell into the same category. I was so touched, by that melody, wanted to be him, be that lucky, wild child. I was with a strong will to join that project, wished to be enrolled, wished to collect enough fund to be shortlisted, wished to be that lucky one, on the TV or not, that not important. I've even got a naive idea learn swimming to fulfill the requirement for enrollment.
Finally, my application was rejected but this song remained fresh in my ears.
The wild described in this song was not the violent type of wild, nor the revenge one; I would say it's closer to the raw type – abandon predefined rules by authority, by religions, just act like a new born baby, suddenly became a child.
It's more sentimental, rather than making real actions to prove to be a wild child; it's to show the spotless mindset of wild – "Let the rain fall down, around you, and Give into it", sort of dancing in the rain. There's not much interaction or other people, it's not telling a story of wild children, nor stories of wild child and other 'regular' child. It's just a story of a child with innocent mind, just doing something 'without a reason' in a sudden rain.
Raining, it was only an excuse; or for a wild child's mind – don't even want to think about that, it was only native reactions of getting into the rain. Indeed, every single piece of change in nature could bring the message from nature to the sensitive mind of a wild child. Every summer sun, or autumn leaving. A wild child, being able to spot the changes of season, the changes of non-artificial – there's not always air-conditioned, there's not always a road, there's not always a dress code.
I was once a wild child, wants to hunt animals, looking for exploring other countries, even Antarctica; want to say out of family for so many years; want to leave all the memories home and started a new one. I was once being sentimental, being ideal and got wild ideas just for challenging. Years after facing the real world, the portion of wild was limited to a barely acceptable boundary while the part of 'child' still remains. The more I discover the nature, the more I want to explore, but in a more practical way – rather than seeking for something big like real bloody hunting or a survival test; I would prefer 'easy' ones like seeing fireflies – of course not in TV or in a glass bottle; learn how to dance, like those leaves in the breeze; have a snow fight or even sleep outside without a roof.
Year after years, I was that grown up child - no other child called me big brother any more; but it's never for the heart of child; indeed, I don't need a reason.
| | |
| <PHILOSOPHY>
Festival
Mid-autumn is coming.
Oh, without the flood of advertisements for moon-cakes; indeed, without that, I would not notice that at all.
This year, I was told to remember mid-autumn festival is coming - which date is not important - could be any one in the lunar calendar, at the time this festival was created. Its meaning was reunion - a reunion of people with shared memories.
Indeed, overloaded work was an excuse for me to squeeze all festivals away from my life. However, it never works for memories. It's just like a soul, always there alone without a contact, hidden deep in a fresh body.
Festival, in financial world, could be a great business opportunity - of course it would be valuable to put most of its resources for such well known & popular ones - like new year, Christmas. In order to convince consumers for this seasonal - festival shopping. As you can expect, there's a check list for each person or family - Christmas tree, moon-cakes, wedding-rings - if wedding was counted as one too.
For customers, it could be a good news too, seasonal sales might associate with those festivals too. Sometimes, it's not always business related, some organizations would give out free goods for promoting their religion or believe, or purely for charity. Thought business of festival creates opportunities for design, manufacturing, transportation, retails or marketing; after all, it's all profit driven, every product or service specific for festivals might turns out to be a routine procedures of executing business model.
Actively response to festivals and turning into business value, there's business initiative; no matter being a consumer of those products or not, some will react passively, or treat it as an execuse to do something, or reminding themselves it's time to do something, like a recall to events - birthdays, anniversaries. Indeed, festival could be a good and unrejectable reason for people recording memory of someone, something or some stories on those 'festivals'. For those who are busy or pretending to be busy, festival could be an excuse to insert into these endless loops of single side - self contained & seeing only one side of the world - if there two. the power of this break introduced by 'festival' might not be able to lead someone to the other side of the world, at least there's a chance to move a little bit from its precious track of life, at least being able to spot the edge of the other side of the world. To be more generous, going to a bar on Friday night, going to church on Sunday worship, a trip, could be an excuse of having a 'festival', to be or not to be their lives.
You keep memories because they are important; it's important because it's meaningful; it's meaningful might because it's special; it's special might because it's on a special day - festival.
It's not necessary unique in the entire life - like different people putting wedding rings on your finger and saying - I do.
In my understanding, memories those associated with festivals, not necessary to be real, to be reachable. It's already transformed into a concept. Start turning into public festivals into a personal ones - being selective and creative, not just blinding following. It's not necessary to stick to festivals of a region, a culture - like Easters, National days, or even funnels - if it's counted as one. If you put an equal sign between memory and festival, it's not fair, there might be too much memory to be ignored. Such as one day, I went for an appointment too earlier, after I realized that, there's nothing pity or disappointed - time was not wasted - I had an unexpected chance to sit quietely on a roadside, trains, buses, passengers, I enjoyed that quality time of doing nothing but thinking and finished some writing.
What's my favourite festival - anyone unplanned.
| | |
| <STORY>
A tour by local guide
This is a story when I was traveling in Bangkok, Thailand. It’s also a game in a sand-box I’m not familiar again, and again, I played it with caution.
It’s the 5th day of my Thailand trip, the sun was trying to burn up everything on the earth without a mercy. I was learn that bringing a telephoto lens was useless for photos in Bangkok city, so, only camera with basic standard zoom lens on my neck, and nothing else even a water bottle.
I’d been enjoying this kind of travel, though couldn’t speak any single word except the greeting ‘sawadi-cup’; I tried to keep a low profile to blend into their local life – eat as local, dress as local and pretend to be part of them.
It’s 3PM, after leaving Wat Arun – the only temple you can climb up, I’d like to find somewhere I haven’t visited here – shopping mall is definitely not my cup of tea, Wat (temple) was everywhere but not in my list as I was full of them already in the first few days. So, it’s time to pick a spot sounds interested but not necessary famous. In addition, the traffic jam in peak hours from 5 PM would definitely an obstacle to me from going anywhere on the ground, no vehicle was able to move faster than walking on the road in that situation. So, I made a decision – going to a near by BTS station, had some visit then going back to hotel right after that. However, I went on a wrong tuk-tuk (taxi without meter) and a tour by local guide starts.
“Olympic station. How much?” I asked a tuk-tuk driver while pointing the location on a map to him – it’s proven the best way to communicate with local is to be visualized.
“Oh, Olympic, I know”, he raise his voice, nodded to acknowledge – “200 bath”
“60” there’s always a price set in my mind before asking, with virtual metering on the map.
“150, it’s far away.” He’s hopping me to accept his generous offer, like other tourist.
“It’s not far, I could take a taxi” I pointed at taxi-meter on the road.
“100” he stilled don’t want to miss the chance at a half of his purposed price.
“No, 60”, I pretend to insist, as my bottom line of 80 was quite close now. I knew he was struggling for at least a few seconds, from his worried eyes.
He then sweep away dust from the back seat of his tuk-tuk and agreed with the deal. Our journey started.
I didn’t looked at him carefully in the beginning, as it’s just another “rent” service and will be forgotten forever when the trip ends The path to the destination was shown a straight line on the map, but how come he needed to take so many turns and finally stopped at a narrow valley.
He stopped the tuk-tuk, turned off engine & pulled out the key. He looked old, with some white beard, thin , dark skin, in a short pant and with a pair of brown dusty slippers. He shown me an entrance of a temple, no guard, no admission and no other visitors. I checked my pocket, the wallet was still with me.
He had a short walk with me & tried to introduce the temple with his limited English; then he leaded me to a mid-aged man in suit –“ He’s a professor, he will show you interested places in Bangkok, please sit down, I will wait outside.”
“Hello, my friend, what’s your name?”
“John” it’s a common name and that could be my role’s name in the game.
“Hello John, I’m professor Ko, where are you come from?”
“Hong Kong” as I told the taxi-driver that I’m from Hong Kong, it’s fine not to spoff everything.
“Well, I just back from Hong Kong few days ago, I was on a conference there.” The professor of could be successfully authenticated by answering a few questions about Hong Kong correctly without any “Memory lookup” or “Answer making up” delay.
Quickly, he began to introduce me some places that I never heard of nor shown in the map – such as big shows, ruby, Thai-silk factory, then he circled one by one on my map, even draw an itinerary passing all those check points. I was keep nodding and trying to leave – the content was not fun or attractive. He noticed that and keep smiling – “The driver will driver you there, with no additional cost, is that OK for you?” How could I possibly reject such a good offer as well as a chance to say goodbye and ending such meaningless conversation to a stranger?
The driver was waiting for me outside, seems his smile looked a little bit nicer than before, as a humble welcome to me as a local tour guide. “Let’s go” I did want to go to the BTS station directly rather than visiting those places not even shown on an official tourist map. “I will take you to the place professor told you now, then I’ll drive you to the station.” “OK” “Am I have a choice” I asked myself.
The taxi was now moving north while my destination was supposed to be on the east.
A good thing of this “Sub-optimized” route was that I was able to find those landmarks on the map and take photos as documentary. He stopped at every spot I asked him to stop, really nice of him.
Taxi finally stopped at the front door of an elegant building looked like a hotel. It was indeed a hotel when I entered. “I will wait for you at the exit” I promised I didn’t know what’s going on – where’s this place and what am I suppose to do here.
Icy cool air-conditioned lobby was a great contract with the street that everything’s melting down. A gentleman in suit opened the giant door for me, a lady walked toward me with 3 glasses of drinks in a tray. “How may I help you sir?” The gentleman asked me in a quite “above average” English, “Someone suggested me to take a look here.” Gentleman suddenly seemed understood something – “Welcome sir, what would you like to drink?” He then presented me the lady with the tray: from left to right – green, orange and colourless “Tea, Orange Juice or Water?” “Water is perfect” – I copied this from a script writer I met at the first class on a flight to Los Angeles – simple and praising. He then introduced me the brief history of ruby and how famous it’s in Thailand and all over the world – Honestly, I couldn’t catch any complete sentence of him. Then he showed me the polishing and mounting factory, and finally – the shop. At the moment he guided me to the shop, he transformed from a guide to a sales – “Do you have anything in your mind, for your wife, girl friend, mother or sister?” I kept silent, just watch those products like skimming a bookshelf of kids’ reading. Obviously, jewelry was not my cup of tea – he then presented a calculator – one of the powerful weapons to break the burden of language as well as to present those magic figures to stimulate your desire of owning. “You are a special guest today, we will offer you 30% off, … this piece of ear-ring cost only 1,540 baht.”
“No, thanks, I don’t think I need anything here. Anyway, thanks for your introduction.” I found the exit was quite close to me, even in the worst case scenario; I could simply rush out and escape if he’s reacting unexpected. He was standing there, watching me walking outside, without a word or movement like being frozen.
It’s hot outside, as usual.
Taxi driver was there waiting for me, as promised, only for 5 minutes since he dropped me off.
He looked at me with a surprised and worried face.
“You are leaving too quick!” seems’ he’s complaining.
“Why? I don’t like ruby, so I just leave.” I answered him honestly.
He was hurt, truly, hurt by my words.
“We are taxi drivers controlled by the government, we can get free gasoline from government, but you need to stay longer.” He was so sad, helpless, almost tearing. He showed me his family photo, it was a black and white photo: he looked 10 years younger in the photo, between him and his wife, there were their too daughters aged 5 or 6. “I need to buy gasoline and drive taxi for my family,” he flapped his wallet to a page with a stamp, texts below it was in Thailand that I couldn’t read. He then explained “Free gasoline, if you can stay longer inside, I can get free gasoline from government, just stay, no shopping.” “No shopping?” I asked for confirmation. “Yes, no shopping, just stay, 10 minutes.” He then showed the number ten using both hands. I suddenly understood something and immediately decided something – for him and his free gasoline.
“If I stay there for 10 minutes, no shopping, and you can get free gasoline, right ?” There’s hope, there’s happiness came up to his face. “Yes, please, thank you.”
“It’s easy for me, 10 minutes, don’t worry, I will stay there for 10 minutes, I promise” To even convince him I’d keep my promise, I put my hand on his shoulder like a old friend “ No problem, I can do it.” I reiterate my determination. “Thank you, thank you very much.”
Gasoline, that could be a greatest portion of his cost of driving; 10 minutes, only a small and unexpected exciting game for me. In this zero-sum game of 10 minutes, there must be two players losing – the government providing free gasoline and whoever served me in the next stop, for 10 minutes.
“Is this the big swing?” “Yes, photo, photo.” His answer was with joy now.
He stopped me at several landmarks on the way to the next shop. I was now in a team, with a local guide, for the game at next stop.
I needed to make sure – I ‘d never exit before 10 minutes accidentally, therefore, I adjusted the shortcut at my camera to show the current time on the way to somewhere a game was waiting for us.
He stopped me at an elegant shop – as I expected. “10 minutes” I repeated this to him for the last time to show my determination of winning free gasoline for him.
Doors open, a gentleman with short, dark beard greeted me “How may I help you sir?”
“I’m looking for a good suit.” I answered with a smile, plus a little bit of uncovered evil, with a kind heart I guess. “4:10PM, let's get started.”
| | |
| <OTHERS>
Sugar Free Journey
It has been a long time, not putting anything with sugar in his backpack.
He's now didn't even bring a backpack, a map or a camera, whenever go hiking, a journey.
When looking back his journeys, there are always unexpected stories, like different tastes. However, the tastes of sweetness from sugar always dominated those.
He's now going quietly, without an intention, without a purpose, only with the moment of passion, going for a new journey, without sugar.
He likes sugar, sometimes a little bit is enough, like that little bit of them to neutralize the bitterness of dark chocolate;
He likes sugar, sometimes as strong like wildness, like rewarding his body from drinking icy Cola or lemon tea, at the end of a long journey;
He likes sugar, sometimes as primitive as taking from flowers, but with an intention of making the journey special.
Sugar, once in the entire journey, became something he used to be addicted to.
The taste of the sweetness from sugar is fading; finally, they will become texts, photos and untold stories that never fading for him, and become eternal of joy.
In the recent journeys without sugar, not even a substituted one, he became more sentimental, more sensitive to every mementos on the way; moments, segments and stories of others getting dominating his journey and he started to taste something being ignored before from sweetness.
He's now backing to the basic type of journey, a journey without intention, without sugar; a type of journey he'd never lost, as it's never be found before.
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