August 2, 2005 Archives
The highlight of the second cruise (July 22-25) was the ship we were on, the M/S Eugenie, named after Empress Eugenie of the French (and one of my favourite female names - b/c 19th Century aristocratic names are all sort of in again, right?). It was decorated in this really-19th Century English Nile cruise boat, complete with its hard-wood lounge, and tea time at 5PM every day.
The ship navigated Lake Nasser, between the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt, where the Monte Carlo left us, from the pier behind the high dam, all the way to the Abu-Simbel archeological site. Abu-Simbel itself is not at its original location, but moved uphill following the construction of the high dam, which flooded essentially all inhabitable lands upstream of Aswan, to create Lake Nasser (in honour of Egypt's first modern time ruler).
More tight security, even if the prospect of a terrorist attack there are sort of dim. (We were just given news about the Sharm-el-Sheikh attacks in the afternoon only, being right in the middle of nowhere sans communication means)
Upper deck of the M/S Eugenie (and my aunt Ellen talking with some strangers).
Me and the right side of Abu-Simbel (whose front consists of four statues of Pharaoh Ramses II, probably one of the biggest egos mankind ever knew (he fathered 164!!)).
Ok. Just as I thought. If I'm not getting a phone call from my parents, or an e-mail in my Inbox from my agent, that means I am not going home today. In different circumstances, I would've liked staying here, but now it's a different story. For instance, I would've liked finding a job here, but it's difficult for someone like me, who doesn't have a qualification a local doesn't already have, and who doesn't speak the local language good enough for the working world. That's how I see it. And we're not even mentionning the warnings family and friends give me about cut-throat-society HK, but I guess I already understand a bit of it.
In the meanwhile, Laurent is improvising a trip from his Tianjin, where he has been learning Chinese for the past year, to Hong Kong (and then Yunnan - I might join or not, depending on budget and time). Actually, he told me on Sunday, and I am supposed to meet him up later at the Causeway Bay MTR (we didn't say where, or what time exactly, so I guess it takes all the meaning of improvisation!).
Also, in the meanwhile, I stop pondering, and just want to let out all that I've absorbed from Hong Kong, good or bad. I don't know. But is Western Civilization on the verge of collapse? Or at least, about to be passed in front by Asia? So many questions. In a sense, Hong Kong has rejected me, but it's possibly because I have not tried hard enough. Or that we're not made for each other. Or something like that. Sometimes, you just can't force things to happen: they just happen. Some relationships are like that. Or actually most my human relations are like that anyways.
I've become quite good at talking. I talk to the blog. It wouldn't be very different if I had someone in front of me to talk with. So, for what I lacked in self-expression during childhood, I now catch up with it in young-adult age.
Anyways, I must be one of those foreigners/tourists with the most familiarity with HK. It hits me that now I need to take a big breath out, or I'm going to choke pretty soon.
That will be for an undetermined date however. Off for more adventures in the Fragranced Port! Whee.