Just when I thought I was beginning to lose it, two events last Sunday made me realized na may asim pa pala ako. First was on the plane to Hong Kong. It was such a tiring day. I didn't have a lot of sleep the previous night and had to haul my ass to the airport for an 8:00 am flight. The line wasn't that bad and by 7am, I was already checked in. Then an announcement over the PA said something like Philippine Airlines was looking for volunteers on the 8am flight to be bumped off to a later flight in the afternoon. In return, volunteers will get a free round trip ticket to Hong Kong and three thousand pesos. Not bad, di ba? So I volunteered. After waiting for about about an hour, I got my free ticket, my three thousand pesos, and a lunch voucher. Yey!
The flight I was getting into was going to leave at 2pm and it was only about 9am. I don't mind waiting at airports provided I had a place to smoke and I can buy wireless internet access cards, both of which was available in NAIA 2. But you can only amuse yourself so much. So finally, when we boarded the plane, I had barely laid my back on the seat when POOF, I was out. I woke up only when we were up in the air and the flight attendants were handing out lunch trays.
Here's the game part... I was seated on an exit row, aisle seat. I looked to my left...
She's a half Hong Kong, half Pinay who just spent a week in Boracay, with the last couple of days holed up in the island because of the storm. We struck a conversation and I can tell, she was eager to get back home. I managed to get her phone number and her email address. She's on my friendster now. Let's see if I can get her to Lan Kwai Fong.
We landed finally in HKG and by this time I was dying for a smoke. My heart sank as I dug deep in my pockets. I'm missing my cigs and lighter. I must have left them in the coffeeshop in the airport. Good thing is that I always have a whole ream tucked inside my checked in luggage. The bad news? I use a plastic harness as a baggage lock (don't ask why) and I use my lighter to break it open. Luckily, there's this sweet looking lady who was glad to help. She lent me her lighter and when that didn't work in melting away the harness, handed me her lighted cigarette to burn the thing open.
She's born and raised in the US and her parents are from Laos. She was on a one month tour of Asia. Prior to getting into Hong Kong, she has visited China, Thailand, and Laos. The poor girl, she only had a single entry visa to China. From Laos, she planned on going back to China, spend a couple of more days there, then head back home to the States. When she flew in on a Saturday in Hong Kong, she found out that she had to wait until Monday to get her visa since the China visa issuing office was closed for the weekend. In other words, she had already spent one day and one night in the airport, and she had already surrendered to the fact that she's going to be there that night as well.
Not if I can help it. So I dropped the classic pick up line and a few minutes after, we were seated next to each other on the MTR on the way to my hotel. It was her first time in Hong Kong and since I was such a gracious host, I took her around town. We watched the Light Show on the island from Kowloon, took a Star Ferry to Central, went up and down the Victoria Peak in the tram, rode on the top deck of a double decker bus, had dinner in Lan Kwai Fong, and a couple of drinks in a reggae bar. We even shared an absinthe. God, that thing really burns your throat, huh. All the alcohol that night must've put us in a dancing mood because I totally forgot about the start of the working weekday the following morning and ended up dancing until the bar closed shop at 2am.
We went back to the hotel, and all I can say is she looks good on my bed. What can I say... Your lolo still got plenty of game.
