Collection of pseudo-random thoughts inspired by my current travels

On transportation

Yesterday I thought I was going to die in a taxi cab. This driver was comically hard on the gas and brake, drove so close to the car in front of us that we may as well have been in their back seat, and burned a hole with his stare at any other driver who even thought about changing lanes near his cab. And today the same cab ride with a more courteous and cautious driver was made a few minutes faster, a few HK$ cheaper, and many mmHg lower blood pressure. For this I tipped him well. But I think my next trip to Hong Kong I will attempt to ride the MTR (subway).

On food

The best way to cope with eating "strange" foods is to not ask what it is until after you've had a few bites. Lunch with Dr. Tse yesterday, I was the only foreigner in the restaurant. The barbecue goose, all the seafood dishes, and the mushroom caps were tasty; in fact, I thoroughly enjoyed all the food we ate, but I probably wouldn't have eaten my soup so eagerly if I had known there was kidney in it, nor piled my fried rice so high had I known that the meat in it was duck liver sausage. It's certainly mind-over-matter in cross-cultural dining experiences.

I'll admit, that although I have been pleased with the Chinese food I've had here in HK, it is certainly good to have some "comfort food" occasionally. Which leads me to...

On the USA as a World Power

I ate dinner last night on my own in a bar & grill in the mall attached to the hotel. In big letters at the bottom of the menu was the following notice:

WARNING: We serve AMERICAN portions.

I don't know if that's supposed to be a valid health warning or a joke....but apparently we Americans are truly (perhaps truthfully as well?) perceived as a country with "bigger is better" syndrome.

On "It's A Small World"

At the just-mentioned bar, the gentleman sitting next to me was a fellow American, a New Jerseyan, who was in HK for the business of selling pumps. We chatted a bit, and it made my dinner feel less lonely. And today, of all the people in the area (my hotel alone has 40 floors), I bumped into the same man in the elevator.

On universality

Peoplewatching is independent of language. Sure, it helps to overhear and understand what people are conversing. But the way a mother smiles while helping her young son keep his face clean, the way an old couple walks slowly together, the way teenage kids show their cool to one another: these things transcend culture. And smiles seem to be the most universal form of communication of all.